Training
After graduating with honours in Political Science from the University of Pavia, Andrea obtained a PhD in Sociology from the University of Milan, followed by a postgraduate diploma from the Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori (IUSS), Pavia. He has attended several specialisation courses in Italy and abroad, regarding welfare policies and local development (University of Padua, University of Lille), and research methodology, especially concerning qualitative approaches (University of Essex, University of Florence).
Research and teaching activities
Post-graduation, Andrea has continued to pursue social research and teaching activities in academic and non-academic fields with a strong empirical orientation privileging the research-action approach.
Always interested in themes regarding the sociology of territory and local participation, in recent years he has focused his attention on Alpine and mountain studies. He is now particularly engaged in issues of foreign migration to mountain areas of Italy in relation to local development and social innovation within key territorial contexts.
For many years, he was a contracted researcher at the University of Pavia, before becoming Research Assistant in Sociology at the University of Milan-Bicocca. For over a decade, he has been a contracted Sociology of the Territory professor at the University of Pavia.
He is Senior Researcher at the Regional Development Institute of Eurac Research, Bolzano, and a researcher at the Carlo Alberto College, Turin, where he’s responsible for the InnovAree project and the service, "vado a vivere in montagna”.
In the non-academic sector, he carries out consulting and social planning activities for local authorities and non-profit organisations on themes of social inclusion, local development policies and the promotion of mountain territories. He’s a member of the board of directors at Fondazione Soleterre di Milano and a member of Dislivelli (Association for Research and Communication in the Alps), for whose magazine (www.dislivelli.eu) he edits "Montanari per forza" (Highlanders Perforce) dedicated to the theme of foreign immigration in the Italian mountains.
