Cultural Centres as Infrastructures for Ecological Transition

Research project

How can independent cultural centres contribute to ecological transition as civic and relational infrastructures? In her PhD, Gloria Maria Cavalieri examines how cultural, artistic and organisational practices connect communities, institutions and territories, making ecological transition more socially just, culturally grounded and locally meaningful.

Ecological transition is often framed through technological, environmental or policy-driven solutions. This research starts from a different premise: transition also depends on cultural practices, shared spaces, local knowledge, social relations and forms of collective organisation. Independent cultural centres, especially those rooted in marginal, peripheral or transforming territories, often mediate between communities, artists, institutions, researchers, public authorities and ecological agendas.

Rather than treating these centres simply as venues for artistic or social activity, the PhD analyses them as infrastructures that make collaboration possible. They host visible practices such as events, workshops, exhibitions, reuse projects, circular experiments and community programmes, but they also rely on less visible forms of work: care, maintenance, mediation, trust-building, conflict management, grant writing, translation between actors and long-term relational labour. The research asks how these practices contribute to ecological transition, but also where their limits, tensions and power asymmetries lie.

How can independent cultural centres act as civic and relational infrastructures for ecological transition, and under what conditions do their cultural, artistic, governance and commoning practices contribute to socially just and territorially grounded transformation?

Subquestions

How do cultural centres mediate between grassroots practices, public institutions, artistic communities and ecological transition agendas?
What forms of governance, commoning, care and invisible labour sustain their role as civic infrastructures?
How do artistic and design practices contribute to sensing, narrating, testing and negotiating ecological transition in specific places?
How do power relations, funding structures, institutional expectations and policy frameworks enable or limit the autonomy and transformative potential of cultural centres?
How can the contribution of cultural centres to ecological transition be made visible without reducing it to narrow impact metrics?

The research aims:

to develop a critical and comparative understanding of cultural centres as infrastructures of ecological transition;
to study how their practices operate in concrete situations, including tensions between autonomy and institutionalisation, participation and control, visibility and extraction, local care and policy translation;
to connect cultural and artistic practices with broader debates on climate adaptation, Sustainable Development Goals, New European Bauhaus values and multi-level governance. It pays particular attention to how culture supports ecological transition not only through representation or awareness, but through everyday practices of organising, maintaining, reusing, hosting, connecting and imagining shared futures.

The research contributes to current debates on climate adaptation, social cohesion, cultural sustainability and democratic governance. It shows how cultural centres can translate abstract ecological goals into place-based practices, while also revealing the fragility and labour that often sustain these processes.

Within Hanze, it supports the development of research environments where students, artists, designers, researchers, municipalities and community partners work together on real ecological and social challenges.

Next to this, the project contributes to policy and professional practice by helping cultural organisations and public institutions understand the role of cultural centres in ecological transition.

The PhD is expected to produce:

Academic publications on cultural centres as civic, relational and commoning infrastructures for ecological transition;
A comparative framework for analysing governance, power, care, artistic practice and ecological transition in cultural centres;
Practice-oriented tools for mapping cultural networks, invisible labour, stakeholder relations and ecological practices;
Policy briefs for municipalities, cultural organisations and sustainability actors working with place-based transition processes such as governance templates, participatory toolkits, and policy-oriented recommendations that professionals can directly apply in cultural, urban and environmental projects;
Toolkits tailored to artists and designers, focusing on how they can embed their practices within cultural centres, navigate institutional frameworks, and amplify the ecological and social impact of their work as part of broader transition processes;
Contributions to Hanze research and education through Climate Quilts, IWP Climate Adaptation, OffCourse and Creative Routes;
Workshops or participatory formats with cultural practitioners, artists, students, policymakers and community actors.

Professionals and communities will be involved throughout the research process through interviews, workshops, fieldwork, participatory mapping and moments of shared reflection. The project is designed to generate knowledge that is useful for cultural practitioners, artists, designers, urban planners, researchers, civil servants and community organisers.

The research will support the recognition of cultural centres as important actors in ecological transition, while remaining critical of the risks of overburdening, romanticising or institutionalising them. Its valorisation strategy therefore focuses not only on producing tools and recommendations, but also on creating careful forms of translation between academic knowledge, artistic practice, public policy and grassroots experience.

Partners

This is a PhD research project by Gloria Maria Cavalieri. The project is supervised by Daniele Ronsivalle (University of Palermo) connected to the PhD-programme Ecological Transition, and by Wendy Gers connected to the Professorship Art & Sustainability (Research Centre Art & Society, Hanze University of Applied Sciences).

The project relates to ongoing research and education environments such as Climate Quilts, the Innovation WorkPlace Climate Adaptation, Minerva Art Academy through the OffCourse and Creative Routes.

The research will also involve cultural centres, practitioners, artists and local stakeholders.

Gloria Maria Cavalieri, MRes

Lecturer/researcher/PhD candidate at Professorship Art & Sustainability
- [email protected]
- Gloria Maria Cavalieri
- Praediniussingel 59, 9711 AG Groningen
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