Carolina Pacchi  

Carolina Pacchi teaches Urban Policy and serves as Vice Rector for Institutional and Community Relations at the Politecnico di Milano. Since 2021, she has coordinated the Master’s programme in Urban Planning and Policy Design. She has been Visiting Researcher at several international institutions, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Technische Universität Berlin. 

Her research activity focuses on the transformation of governance models and the role of civil society, social and spatial inequality models, the effects of cohesion policies, the evolving relationship between space and modes of production, and the link between urban development and educational systems, from primary school through higher levels. She has examined grassroots urban activism and the role of civil society in urban transformations, with particular attention to the digital dimension. 

She has also explored the dynamics and models of evolution in higher education, both in relation to the regions that host universities and more broadly regarding the accessibility and potential of higher education in driving development and reducing inequalities. A specific focus on the role of technical education in Europe was part of her work with the Polimi 2040 working group, as illustrated in the book The Age of Science-Tech Universities: Responsibilities, Challenges and Strategies (Routledge, 2022).