Design-led repair & reuse: An approach for an equitable, bottom-up, innovation-driven circular economy

The circular economy is a social, technological and economic paradigm that aims to build a production and consumption model focused on waste reduction and maximization of discarded matter recovery. Discussion of the circular economy often treats it as a technocratic and profit-driven phenomenon that can be developed by capital investment in a particular industrial sector without necessarily taking into account the needs of the surrounding geographic area. The promotion of the circular economy often emphasises recycling and other practices that may not fully use the recovered material but are highly automatable, thus creating only a limited number of jobs. At the same time, there is another model of the circular economy, in which small and medium-sized organizations engage in transformative and low-technology activities such as reuse and repair, benefiting local development and creating job opportunities. This model is often explicitly driven by a social development mandate. Still, it risks falling short of its goals because of a lack of expertise and a less systematic approach. This paper aims to introduce the Design-led Repair & Reuse (DLRR) framework for mitigating the short-comings of this second model, using an approach that is both sustainable and accessible to organizations with limited resources. Inspired by the principles of “Design-driven innovation”, “social & solidarity economy”, and “appropriate technology”, DLRR aims to generate a higher quality of processes and products from circular, low entropy and low capital-intensity production activities, resulting in a more solid, identifiable and conscious positioning in the reuse market. It complements the socially inclusive ethos of these third sector small and medium-sized organizations while contributing to the debate on integrating alternative perspectives into the mainstream circular economy discourse.The first part of this paper discusses the theoretical principles that have inspired the DLRR framework. The second part presents research that tests the consistency of these founding principles based on a case study of a sample of organizations in Italy that are active in circular waste transformation processes

Il manifesto è ancora in bella vista - Tre casi studio per un uso politico del manifesto

Tre casi studio europei per un uso politico del manifesto grafico e una sua contestualizzazione nell'epoca della comunicazione digitale

Una didattica circolare e “appropriata”: ambiente, tecnologia, società

L’economia circolare è oggi considerata un motore di innovazione e un’opportunità per diversi settori, compresi quelli dell’architettura e del design. Un’azienda agricola, un’azienda biomedica e un’azienda di materiali edili, un territorio a elevata valenza paesaggistica, alcuni scarti agro-alimentari da valorizzare costituiscono il contesto con il quale un gruppo interdisciplinare di docenti e di studenti si è misurato, riflettendo su significati, forme e possibilità applicative dell’economia circolare nella progettazione. Il volume raccoglie gli esiti del lavoro svolto nell’A.A. 2019/2020 nel corso “Progettare e sviluppare l’economia circolare”, in cui per la prima volta le lauree magistrali in sostenibilità e in design sistemico del Politecnico di Torino, hanno proposto agli studenti un ambiente di studio che fonde temi di ricerca estremamente attuali ed esperienze didattiche sperimentali

Long-term outcomes of COVID-19 vaccination in patients with rare and complex connective tissue diseases: The ERN-ReCONNET VACCINATE study

Background: Vaccination is one of the most important measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, especially for frail patients. VACCINATE is a multicentre prospective observational study promoted by the European Reference Network on Rare and Complex Connective Tissue and Musculoskeletal Diseases (ERN ReCONNET) aimed at assessing the long-term outcomes of COVID-19 vaccination in patients with rare and complex connective tissue diseases (rcCTDs) in terms of efficacy and safety. Methods: Adult rcCTDs patients were eligible for recruitment. Demographic, clinical and vaccination data were collected at enrolment. Follow-up visits were scheduled 4, 12, 24, 36 and 48 weeks after completion of the first vaccination cycle; data on adverse events, disease exacerbations and the occurrence of new SARS-CoV-2 infections were collected at these time-points. Findings: 365 rcCTDs patients (87 % female, mean age 51.8 ± 14.6 years) were recruited. Overall, 200 patients (54.8 %) experienced at least one adverse event, generally mild and in most cases occurring early after the vaccination. During follow-up, 55 disease exacerbations were recorded in 39 patients (10.7 %), distributed over the entire observation period, although most frequently within 4 weeks after completion of the vaccination cycle. The incidence of new SARS-CoV-2 infections was 8.9 per 1000 person-months, with no cases within 12 weeks from vaccine administration and an increasing trend of infections moving away from the primary vaccination cycle. Only one case of severe COVID-19 was reported during the study period. Interpretation: COVID-19 vaccination seems effective and safe in rcCTDs patients. The rate of new infections was rather low and serious infections were uncommon in our cohort. No increased risk of disease flares was observed compared to previous disease history; however, such exacerbations may be potentially severe, emphasising the need for close monitoring of our patients

Design-led Repair & Reuse: Un approccio per un'Economia Circolare sociale, solidale, locale

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen

La cooperazione sociale come modello per la transizione verso un’economia circolare e civile

L'Economia Circolare (EC) è oggi un paradigma diffuso e orientato ad affrontare la crisi climatica. Tuttavia, la letteratura a riguardo sembra prevalentemente concentrata sullo sviluppo economico e industriale, senza una specifica attenzione alle questioni di inclusione sociale dei cittadini più fragili. In questo contesto, la Cooperazione Sociale di tipo B (CS-B) rappresenta un tipo di organizzazione esplicitamente dedicata alla promozione sociale della popolazione, obiettivo che storicamente ha perseguito anche occupandosi, in modo pionieristico, di processi “circolari” nell’ambito della gestione rifiuti. La ricerca, discussa nel presente documento, offre una prima lettura della relazione tra EC e CS-B integrando un’indagine conoscitiva condotta attraverso interviste a cooperative sociali del territorio piemontese, impegnate in pratiche di economia circolare e un lavoro di ricerca desk sulla letteratura riguardante l’EC. I dati raccolti permettono di elaborare riflessioni sul ruolo del designer nella co-progettazione, insieme alla CS-B, di filiere produttive circolari e socialmente inclusive, orientate a promuovere il valore della materia recuperata e del capitale sociale dei territori

Systemic design and social marginalization – Mapping and assessment of projects for the empowerment of people experiencing social exclusion

The aim of the work is to provide a tool to map and assess projects addressing the issues of social marginalization, while considering them in their inner and exterior complexity. This means analysing both the whole project and the main users (marginalised people), as well as: the project’s impact on the community; the full spectrum of motivations behind its development; the long-term possibilities it generates for users; its capability to gather resources needed on the local territory while creating value on the same territory. Recognizing the complexity of a social issue is the basis of any design process and of this work too: giving simple answers to complex problems, while apparently being effective on the short term, could only increase the complexity and wickedness of the problem itself on the long term