Concetta Giusto

• 2020 – BA in History, Politics and International Relations, University of Catania.
• 2023 – MA in Sociology and Social Research, University of Pisa.
• 2023 – Present – PhD Student in Political Science (PNRR Scholarship), University of Pisa — ongoing
• September 2025 – March 2026 Research stay at the Sozialforschungsstelle (SFS), Technical University of Dortmund, under the supervision of Dr. Karina Maldonado-Mariscal.
• Since 2023 – Member of the research laboratory Culture, Individuals, Education (CULT-IN-EDU).

PhD Project – Social Innovation in Public Administration (PNRR)

The research investigates how Public Administrations act as drivers of social change through the implementation of social innovation practices in the field of education. The core of the project is a comparative case study that examines:

• the Progetti Educativi Zonali (PEZ) of the Tuscany Region, a long-standing system of collaborative educational governance;
• and three Community Pacts (Patti di Comunità) implemented in other Italian regions.

The comparative design aims to understand similarities and differences in how these collaborative educational policies:

• structure inter-institutional networks;
• implement participatory and practice-based innovation;
• generate social value and reshape governance models.

Methodology includes integrated qualitative techniques: document analysis, semi-structured interviews, direct observation, and shadowing within regional and local administrations.

CULT-IN-EDU – Research on Gen Z (2023–2024)

• Design of a theory-based questionnaire on identity construction (SurveyMonkey).
• Data analysis (280 responses).
• Conduction of 23 in-depth interviews and definition of the interview guide.

Labs4Change – TU Dortmund (2025–ongoing)

Participation in an international working group on social innovation practices and collaborative models in higher education contexts.

• Giusto, C. (2025). Costruendo unicità. Riflessioni fra singolarità e neoliberismo nelle comunità scolastiche, in Bernardini, J., Castellani, C., Cerutti, T. & Kerma, D. (eds.), Orizzonti democratici. Crisi della rappresentanza e nuove forme di partecipazione, Rome: Carocci Editore, September 2025. [https://www.carocci.it/prodotto/orizzonti-democratici?srsltid=AfmBOopyr7T_H9ASB0IHFm_sk5Q8e61dDCbV9_xLBCGov5io7s1TjBMe]
• Cervia, S., Giusto, C. & Lai, A. M. (2025). La socializzazione scolastica alla prova. Individuo, educazione e società, Rome: Carocci Editore, December 2025. [https://www.carocci.it/prodotto/la-socializzazione-scolastica-alla-prova?srsltid=AfmBOoqm3co76cRMUryHMgRU0mF76K9U43gFTYQFJ9uy2FmCwgWKtfAi]
• Giusto, C. (2025). Sulla costruzione del problema sociale “IVG” in Italia e Stati Uniti, Varini, M., Pagliuca, C., Poli, S., Noia, E., Costalunga, N., Cornaggia, C., Brescia, P., Acconcia, A., Ferrari, C., Facchetti, A., Truscello, G., Nupieri, T., Pezzolo, M., Visioli, M. (eds.), Nexus complexus. Sguardi sulla complessità Vol. 2, IPS Edizioni, Siena 2025: 365 [https://ipsedizioni.com/prodotto/nexus-complexus-sguardi-sulla-complessita-vol-2/]

• Third International Conference of the Journal Scuola Democratica (2024), University of Cagliari – Presentation title: Too much singularity? School communities and the neoliberal standard.
• National PhD Seminar, METAMORFOSI (2024) Department of Political Sciences, University of Pisa – Presentation title: Costruendo unicità. Riflessioni fra singolarità e neoliberismo nelle comunità scolastiche
• Ninth National Conference of PhD Students in Social Sciences NEXUS COMPLEXUS (Cremona, 2024), University Cattolica del Sacro Cuore – Presentation title: Sulla costruzione del problema sociale “IVG”.
• Tenth National Conference of PhD Students in Social Sciences INTERNEXUS, intrecci e interscambi nelle Scienze sociali (Cremona, 2025), University Cattolica del Sacro Cuore – Presentation title: Pratiche di innovazione sociale nei contesti educativi: una riflessione sociologica.
• Presentation of PhD research project at the Sozialforschungsstelle (TU Dortmund, 11 november 2025) – Presentation title: Social innovation as a
  transformation of practices: the PEZ case in Tuscany Region

Course: Sociology of Social Innovation

• Lesson: “I PEZ di Regione Toscana: politiche per l’educazione e l’istruzione in un caso studio” (Case-study lecture on collaborative educational governance and social innovation).

Course: Sociology of Education

• Lesson: Max Weber: From Charismatic Education to Specialist Education
• Lesson: Pierre Bourdieu: Habitus and Educational Reproduction

Course: Sociology and Ethnography of Cultural Processes

• Lesson: Serge Moscovici and Social Representations
• Lesson: Moral Panic (Stanley Cohen): A Case Study on Abortion

Moderator in Focus Group activity at the roundtable “PhD students and trainees” for the University of Pisa Gender Violence Survey (2024).

AIS – Italian Sociological Association (2023–2026)

• English for Research Publication and Presentation Purposes.
• Courses on methodology, epistemology, comparative politics, history of institutions, complexity studies

Qualitative research, interview design and conduction, shadowing, case study design, document analysis, theory-based tools, SurveyMonkey, qualitative coding with NVIVO.

Social innovation, educational policies, cultural and social processes, citizen participation, institutional practices