The second edition of the itinerant course “Sostenibilità in cammino”, held by professor Nicola Lugaresi of the Faculty of Law, will start on 9 September.
The programme deals with the themes of sustainability from a very unusual perspective, that is, while on the walk. In this way the students experience first-hand the problems and opportunities of the territories and communities they meet on the road.
A group of 12 students with professor Lugaresi will cover the distance that separates Bologna from Florence on the 130-km long “Via degli dei” (the Way of the Gods), through the Apennine mountains.
“The concept of sustainability is dangerously vague. Thirty years after it was theoretically defined, the word has become so ubiquitous that it has almost lost its meaning”, affirmed professor Lugaresi. “Walking can help us rediscover the value of sustainability, perceive its contradictions, understand the role it can have in society today. This walk stimulates the students’ curiosity, team spirit and empathy, qualities that they will need as jurists and citizens”.
Here are some of the subjects that will be discussed: environment and landscape protection, water resources, mining operations, protected areas, sustainable tourism.
The results of the first edition of the course and the WESE method (Walk, Experience, Share and Enjoy) were presented in July, in Glasgow, at the annual workshop of the Teaching and Capacity Building Committee of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law, whose purpose is to circulate experimental teaching techniques and activities in the area of environmental law and to disseminate best practices. Professor Lugaresi and three of his students (Laura Barbasetti di Prun, Gaia Lentini and Emanuele Sartori), who participated in the first edition of the course, gave a speech on “The Way of the Gods: a different walking”. The project was positively received and in the future it might lead to an international student exchange or a series of itinerant lectures.