Workshop on begging with IUAV students

As part of the research activity of the INSigHT Team, Michela Semprebon and Gianfranco Bonesso organised a workshop with a group of about 10 students of IUAV University, enrolled in undergraduate courses on planning and architecture.

Michela and Gianfranco provided the students with basic tools to undertake non-participant observation in urban areas, with particular focus on people begging in the streets. Observations were carried out in Venice, Mestre, Padova, Verona (Veneto Region) and Pordenone (Friuli Venezia Giulia) and they were an opportunity to both explore the situation of beggars in these contexts and to sensitize students on the topic, while also sharing the findings of the INSigHT project.

The workshop was very appreciated by students as an opportunity to include in their future profession visions of the city that go beyond buildings and artefacts, to include the views of people, especially those who are often left without a voice. From their work it emerged that beggars are present in all the explored urban contexts, with differences that can be associated to more or less restrictive urban policies and the spatial characterists of the urban texture (i.e. Venice is characterised by bridges, Padova by many squares, etc.).

Additionally, in each context there are beggars of different origins, including native and immigrant beggars, while beggars of African (in part, Nigerian) origins are present in all contexts.