IN MEMORY OF ANDREINA BASSETTI

Through her profound civic spirit, Andreina Rocca Bassetti gained esteem and affection from all of those who had the pleasure to meet her. The work of the Bassetti Foundation (which she co-founded with her brother Piero Bassetti) is both a reflection and result of her dedication, and we endeavor to follow her example as we move into the new year.

In our Thirtieth Year

2024 marked the thirtieth anniversary for the Bassetti Foundation, something that was celebrated throughout the year, not least with our new website, which among an array of other new developments hosted the Foundation’s first appearance on Spatial. The website narrates a year of speakers who addressed a broad range of topics including datafication and the existence of a ‘creative class’,  conferences on making transformation, the relationship between responsibility and food production, entrepreneurship and neurotechnology. Literature reviews cover debates around political dissent and technology, circular economy and the ‘glocal’ approach pioneered by the journal Glocalism, while our coverage of academic analysis and in particular the Journal of Responsible Innovation carried into its eleventh year.

Piero Bassetti’s Personal Archive

A central moment this year was the presentation of an agreement between the Foundation and the University of Milan that will lead to the public release of President Piero Bassetti’s personal archive. The opening of the archive (which has been built over more than seventy years) will offer access to materials pertaining to the cultural and political life of Milan and the broader Region of Lombardy.

Amongst others, documents that will be made available relate to Bassetti’s time as Councilor and Assessor of the Municipality of Milan (1956 to 1970), President of the Lombardy Region (1970 to 1974), Member of Parliament (1976 to 1982), President of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture of Milan as well as President of the Union of Italian Chambers of Commerce (Unioncamere) and President of the Association of Italian Chambers of Commerce abroad (CCIE).

The release has been accompanied by a series of initiatives that include the award of study grants and the organization of seminars, debates and several literary publications on the topic of the relationship between power and innovation. Three  PhD students are directly involved in valorizing the archive as part of their doctorate work.

A Selection of Topics of Interest: AI, A Society for all ages and the Metaverse

One of the main focuses of investigation throughout the year was on Artificial intelligence. The website offers an overview of how debate unfolded, hosting a series of dialogues with leading thinkers that offers both Italian and International perspectives on the current state-of-the-art of social, political and historical discussion about contemporary developments. Alongside a host of Professors and academic thinkers, dialogues with journalists and authors offer insight into a broad range of issues and positions, all curated by Manuela Mimosa Ravasio.

Further debate and discussion on the topic of responsibility and AI flourished through other forms of dialogue, on occasion posited between philosophy and governance (see interventions from Alberto Romele, Marco Innocenti and Francesco Samore’) and between knowledge and power, not forgetting art and creativity and  bias and participation.

Interested readers might also find the report into the Global Health in the Age of AI symposium an enlightening read, and the perspective taken by Dario Baldini on the relationship between paper journals and AI also offers plenty of food for thought.

Investigation into thinking about demographic change proposed a redrawing of societal analysis and governance approaches through the lens of a society for all ages. Our White Paper of the same title was the launch pad for a host of events and interventions that involved discussion of the situation of ageing societies such as Japan, the publication of a performance lecture methodology paper related to longevity and its application in a broad range of RI teaching experiences at both secondary schools and University level, and problems associated with ageing in the digital age.

Discussion surrounding the impact and development of the Metaverse focused both on one of its fundamental differences to much of the rest of the Internet, having been born with a structure that would not allow users to make real decisions, and its (not immaterial) positioning within the material marketplace.

Projects

Throughout the year the Foundation has continued to offer training in RRI through its involvement in the projects ENLIGHT and REPURPOSE, and citizen engagement practices through GINEVRA. The Foundation is coordinator of REINFORCING which this year launched its Open and Responsible Research and Innovation Platform, an entry point to knowledge, training, mentoring and capacity building for organizations interested in starting or continuing their journey to creating an inclusive R&I ecosystem. The year saw three calls, offering funding for projects of between 20,000 – 60,000 Euros.

2024 also saw the launch of CO-VALUE, one of the European Commission’s pioneering projects whose aims are to promote experimental practices of citizen engagement within knowledge valorization. The Foundation is a project partner offering its expertise on industrial science.

The Foundation is also participating in social research through ARIAMI and IRGIE. ARIAMI aims to raise awareness about the quality of air amongst secondary students in Milan, while The Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV) have involved the Foundation in order to guarantee the integration of social aspects into their technical and scientific research.

All in all a busy and rewarding year. We would like to thank all of those who participated, our partners, collaborators and readers, as we look forward to moving forward into 2025.