Trajectories of local development and public opinion
Environmental policy in Umbria
This thesis marked the end of my two-year journey as a master student of Politics and Social Policy at the University of Bologna. It represents the result of approximately a year of work between a healthy amount of desk research, data collection, data analysis, and finally writing it all down. Initially an excuse to get accustomed to computational methods for social sciences and Natural Language Processing (NLP), it quickly turned into an opportunity to rekindle my personal connection with my home town.
If you want to have a chat or are curious about the rest of the social sciency stuff I do, check out my website.
Acknowledgements
My heartfelt thanks go first and foremost to my family. Thanks for listening, for caring, and for making sure I didn’t completely lose it during these five years at university.
Many thanks to my supervisors, too, for their patience while teaching a newbie how to actually write something.
To all my friends in Terni—thanks for keeping me grounded and cheering me on, even from far away. Growing up together has been such a privilege and a gift.
To my friends in Bologna, thank you for sharing your experiences and thoughts with me. I would not be half the person I am today if it wasn’t for the conversations we had between classes.
To my friends in Ippogogo, thanks for conjuring a theatre out of thin air and allowing me to take part in the lovely task of telling stories.
To my friends in Ferrara, thanks for welcoming a stranger so late in the game. Our chats made me rethink the very way in which I understand the space around me, and almost made the weather bearable.
Finally, to all my friends around the world, whether you’re at home or off on some big adventure, thanks for sharing a bit of yourselves with me.