Afterlives Francesca

After writing about personal history, I decided to move to the afterlife as we discussed around this topic during yesterday’s group discussion with Ruth, Alan and Mari, and I found it inspiring.

Aldo Rossi, an Italian architect of the nineties, gives an example of architecture in the Palazzo della Ragione di Padova (https://www.scribd.com/document/628569421/The-Architecture-of-the-City-Aldo-Rossi). After being realised as an architectural piece to host a medieval market hall, town hall and palace of justice building, it has been transforming into new lives thanks to the citizens who reshape it every day and produce meanings when experiencing it.

I see research outputs similarly. After the deadline, submission, publication or printing, our work can be used by other researchers from other fields and perspectives to give new meanings to it. When adopting creative methods, such as drawings, modelling or art installations, local communities are the owners of the fieldwork product, which is often used to give voices to the participants’ ideas. This is even more significant with children and young people, so empower them and share their perspectives with other adults and stakeholders.

Additionally, in my line of work, research often has policymaking implications. When reflecting on the afterlives, how recommendations and insights are used by policymakers is a whole other translation and life. This refers not only to the way policymakers can use (or not use) these findings, but also how communities can benefit (or not be benefited) from them.

All those implications of afterlives are for me lessons learned for the present and the future of my work.