Silvia Mugnano holds a MA in Sociology and Social Research at the University of Essex (UK) and PhD in Social Policy at the University of Bristol (UK). She has always researched on extreme forms of housing exclusion and has collaborated with FEANTSA in Brussels. Since 2000, she is working at the University of Milano Bicocca (IT) where has been part of several EU projects on housing: RESTATE (Restructuring Large housing Estates in European cities) (2002-2005), and ACRE (Accommodating creative Knowledge- competitiveness of European Metropolitan Regions within the Enlarged Union) (2006-2010). She has been visiting researcher at Universidad de Barcelona for 6 months in 2006. Since 2010 Silvia is member, and actually is Vice- director, of the National board of Associazione Italiana di Sociologia- Sezione  del Territorio (AIS). Silvia has been working closely with local policy makers and practitioners implementing projects on collaborative planning in Italy and abroad (especially in decentralized cooperation program in Lebanon and Central America). Since 2015 she is the coordinator of the Scuola di Alta  Formazione of Sociologia del Territorio and in September 2017  she has launched the first edition on Planning Sustainable hosting for refuges in Lampedusa.