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THE CITY AND THE WATER

International Workshop on the City and Spatial Justice

Facoltà di Ingegneria e Architettura
Facoltà di Scienze Economiche, Giuridiche e Politiche
Università di Cagliari

9.03.2026 |  16-20.03.2026 | 20.04.2026

BIP – ISMOKA and EDUC – European Digital UniverCity “Space & Place”
University of Cagliari (Italy) | Masaryk University Brno (Czechia) | University of Paris-Nanterre (France)

Docenti responsabili
Maurizio Memoli | Ester Cois | Carlo Perelli

International Workshop on the City and Spatial Justice features a one-week residential program in Cagliari, involving thirty students from the three partner universities — the University of Cagliari (Italy), Masaryk University Brno (Czechia), and the University of Paris Nanterre (France).

The workshop is devoted to the critical study and interpretation of a specific urban context located in the city of Cagliari. Students, divided into mixed and transnational groups, are invited to engage in a collective exercise of reading, interpreting, and representing the selected urban space, that will become their fieldwork, through the lens of spatial and environmental justice. The outcomes will take the form of transmedia productions, combining visual, textual, and performative elements to express the complexity of the observed urban phenomena.

Throughout the week, participants will explore and analyze a range of urban and peri-urban spaces that exemplify key dimensions of the contemporary urban condition, particularly as they manifest in Cagliari and its metropolitan area. The thematic focuses include:

  • The relationship with water spaces, conceived as a resource, a commodity, a chemical substance, but also as a vital and symbolic element. Water often becomes entangled in recursive networks of social processes involving language, everyday practices, economic and social capital, municipal infrastructures, and cultural norms.
  • The relationship with urban nature, both planned and spontaneous. Participants will consider the enhancement and commodification of areas with strong natural features (such as waterfronts, urban beaches, and parks) and will explore the city as a multi-species ecosystem.
  • The relationship with the militarized city: barracks, abandonment, dispersive condition, conflicts with the sea, nature, tourism, and maritime activities. The relationship with water is not only physical but political: the sea, which by definition should be an open and common space, becomes a boundary, a barrier, a forbidden space.
  • Urban accessibility, interpreted not merely as a technical or infrastructural condition but as a political right and a key dimension of participation in community life for all individuals.

By combining fieldwork, theoretical discussion, and creative production, the workshop aims to cultivate a multidisciplinary understanding of how justice (spatial, environmental, and social) is inscribed in the contemporary urban fabric.

The activity allows for the recognition of 4 CFU credits

Teachers: 

Ester Cois, Maurizio Memoli, Carlo Perelli, Martina Loi, Raffaele Cattedra, Giacomo Spanu –  University of Cagliari, Sonia Lehman and David Blanchon – University Paris Nanterre, Jakub Trojan and Ondrej Šery – Masaryk University Brno

Activities:  The planned activities are organized in three phases:

1. Introductory Online Lecture (9 March 2026, 16:00–18:00): This session will introduce the key concepts of spatial justice, as well as methods and tools for spatial analysis. It will also include a presentation of the study area selected in Cagliari, together with essential documentation and recommended readings to support the fieldwork phase.

2. Residential Workshop in Cagliari (16–20 March 2026): The residential phase will bring together approximately 30 students from the three partner universities (University of Cagliari, University of Paris Nanterre, and Masaryk University Brno). The workshop’s core activity consists of collaborative fieldwork within an international and interdisciplinary group, under the supervision of teachers and academic staff. Participants will learn and apply spatial research methodologies through direct immersion in a selected neighbourhood of Cagliari, engaging in observation, documentation, and interpretive analysis.

3. Post-Workshop Online Refinement Phase: Following the residential week, students will take part in a remote collaborative phase (approx. 20 hours of individual and group work), guided by teachers and tutors. During this stage, each group will refine and finalise its transmedia output, to be presented in the final session on 20 April 2026.

Assessment methods: Evaluation of final reports produced by students

Application: https://web.unica.it/unica/page/it/bip_spaceplace__scadenza_02022026_ore_1400

Deadline for applications: 02.02.2026 h.14:00

For further information: memoli@unica.it | ester.cois@unica.it | perelli@unica.it

Bibliography

The bibliography consists of general articles (on water/cities/methods/Cagliari) and detailed articles on the topics covered in the areas of work.

All PDF files for the titles are available in the programme’s Moodle.

  • WATER 7 Gandy, Rethinking urban metabolism water space, 2004WATER 4 Linton, What is water, 2013
  • WATER 8 Oestigaard, Urban Water Systems A Conceptual Framework, 2012
  • MILITARY 2 Perelli, Sistu, Baisser le pavillon, 2016
  • WATER CAGL ITA 3 Cois, Podda, A Cagliari non cè il mare, 2023
  • GURBAN Memoli, Cities Mediterranean Lexicon, 2012
  • WATER 1 Foley-Kistemann, Blue space geography, 2015
  • GCAGL Tanca, Cagliari urban landscape, 2016
  • MILITARY 1 Spanu, Militarism from elsewhere, 2023
  • GURBAN Memoli, Cities Sardegna, Urban areas 2021
  • WATER 2 Gunawardena et alii, Green and bluspaces, 2025
  • WATER ITA 1 De Vita – Corpi d’acqua La svolta idrofemminista 2021
  • WATER CAGL ITA 1 Next 1 Acqua e waterfront con evidenze copia, 2024
  • WATER CAGL ITA 2 Next 2 Casi studio – Cagliari con evidenze copia 2025
  • WATER 5 Illich, H2O and the Waters of Forgetfulness, 1985
  • GCAGL Cattedra, Cagliari. Geografie e Visioni di una città ITA, 2022
  • To facilitate selection, each article has a code in its title:
  • GCAGL: General information on the city of Cagliari
  • GURBAN: General information on urban areas
  • METH: Methodologies and data
  • MILITARY: Militarised spaces
  • WATER: Water geographies
  • WATER CAG: On water and the city of Cagliari