The keynote speakers are Franco Bianchini and Katriina Siivonen.
Katriina Siivonen (keynote speech on 18.4.2024)
Katriina Siivonen is University Lecturer in Futures Studies and Adjunct Professor in Cultural Heritage Studies in Turku University. She has worked as Professor of European Ethnology at the University of Helsinki and as a Research Director at Åbo Akademi. Her main research topics lie under the concept of cultural sustainability transformation. She combines futures studies, sustainability studies and cultural heritage studies in her research. Methodologically she is concentrating in participatory, qualitative methods in futures studies and in ethnography.
Franco Bianchini (keynote speech on 19.4.2024)
Dr Franco Bianchini is one of the Associate Directors of the Centre for Cultural Value, based at the University of Leeds, UK, and Senior Researcher at the Fitzcarraldo Foundation, Turin, Italy. He was Professor of Cultural Policy and Planning – and Director of the Culture, Place and Policy Institute (CPPI) – at the University of Hull from 2016-2020. From 2010-2014 he was a member of the team preparing Matera’s successful bid for the European Capital of Culture 2019 title. His research interests range from the role of culture in urban regeneration (with a particular focus on port cities and on European Cities/Capitals of Culture), to cultural diversity and interculturalism as resources for innovation in urban policy, and the development of urban cultural strategies in the context of the current political, economic, health and environmental crises.