- E-mailBruna.De-Marchi@uib.no
- Visitor AddressParkveien 9Ida Bloms hus5007 Bergen
- Postal AddressPostboks 78055020 Bergen
Bruna De Marchi is an Italian researcher currently associated with SVT, UiB. She is also affiliated with Egesta Lab, Faculty of Science at UBC in Vancouver, Canada, and with the not-for-profit consultancy Società per l’Epidemiologia e la Prevenzione “Giulio A. Maccacaro”, Milan, Italy.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Bruna studied Political Science and Sociology in Italy and the US. Her early research work was in sociolinguistics and in inter-ethnic relations at the Italian-Austrian-Yugoslavian border, long before the dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. After a devastating earthquake hit her region in 1976, she became interested in the sociology of disasters and helped to establish the Mass Emergencies Programme at the Institute of International Sociology of Gorizia, Italy, which she subsequently headed for some 15 years.
She has been engaged in a number of research, training, consultancy and planning activities, and she gradually expanded her interest for hazards and risks of natural origin to include those of human origin and most notably the interactions between the two. Her expertise in disaster planning, prevention, response and recovery is mainly in organizational, social and cultural aspects, including risk perception, communication and governance. From 1990 to 1994, she was summoned as a seconded national expert at the European Commission Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy. One of her tasks was to envisage strategies and design guidelines for the implementation of the information requirements mandated by the so called “Seveso Directive” on major-accident hazards.
Bruna is used to working in international and multidisciplinary settings, with colleagues from a number of different disciplines and backgrounds, as well as non-academic experts. Her most recent research projects are on health and environmental issues in areas exposed to pollution from industrial installations.
Blog post for ESRC STEPS Centre (Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability), 25.03.2020: Post-normal pandemics: Why COVID-19 requires a new approach to science (with David Waltner-Toews, Annibale Biggeri, Silvio Funtowicz, Mario Giampietro, Martin O’Connor, Jerome R. Ravetz), Andrea Saltelli and Jeroen P. van der Sluijs.)
Bruna also has a vast teaching experience, which includes full academic and training courses, dedicated modules, webinars, etc. Since 2013 she has also held an online course in ‘Media and risk communication’ in a Master in ‘Scientific journalism and science communication’ at the University of Ferrara, Italy.
- (2022). Research is in the air in Valle del Serchio. Futures: The journal of policy, planning and futures studies.
- (2021). Investigating the process of ethical approval in citizen science research: The case of Public Health. JCOM - Journal of Science Communication.
- (2021). Aria di ricerca in Valle del Serchio: scenari e implicazioni. Epidemiologia & Prevenzione. 22-26.
- (2018). Vecchie risposte a nuove sfide. Epidemiologia & Prevenzione. 182-183.
- (2018). Hess opinions: An interdisciplinary research agenda to explore the unintended consequences of structural flood protection. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences. 5629-5637.
- (2017). When the earth shakes … and science with it. The management and communication of uncertainty in the L’Aquila earthquake. Futures: The journal of policy, planning and futures studies. 35-45.
- (2017). Scienza e democrazia in crisi: un viaggio verso il nuovo che ancora non c’è. Epidemiologia & Prevenzione.
- (2015). Studio epidemiologico sullo stato di salute dei residenti nel comune di Manfredonia. L’avvio dello studio raccontato dai ricercatori. Epidemiologia & Prevenzione. 81-84.
- (2015). Studio epidemiologico sullo stato di salute dei residenti nel Comune di Manfredonia. Fase 2. Scenari e implicazioni. Epidemiologia & Prevenzione. 220-223.
- (2014). Scientific advice and the case of the L’Aquila earthquake. Technikfolgenabschatzung - Theorie und Praxis (TATuP). 90-94.
- (2014). Dal caso Boffetta alcune riflessioni generali su cos’è oggi l’attività scientifica”. Rubrica: I rischi della comunicazione. Epidemiologia & Prevenzione. 401-402.
- (2013). Lost in translation’: top-down approaches to public participation. EUR. 46-59.
- (2012). The missing link between flood risk awareness and preparedness: findings from case studies in an Alpine Region. Natural Hazards. 499-520.
- (2012). Public opinions on biological diversity in Norway: Politics, science, or culture? Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift. 290-299.
- (2012). Per costruire un processo integrato di ricerca e prevenzione a Taranto (Building an integrated process of research and prevention in Taranto - Southern Italy). Epidemiologia & Prevenzione. 302-304.
- (2020). Societal Vulnerability and Resilience in the COVID-19 Crisis. Culture e Studi del Sociale - CuSSoc. 163-174.
- (2013). L'Aquila verdict reignites the debate over science and political power. Epidemiologia & Prevenzione. 89-91.
- (2020). Post-normal pandemics: Why COVID-19 requires a new approach to science. Blog of ESRC STEPS (Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability) Centre.
- (2015). Risk Governance and the integration of scientific and local knowledge. 17 pages.
- (2021). Narrative review of citizen science in environmental epidemiology: Setting the stage for co-created research projects in environmental epidemiology. Environment International. 1-13.
- (2016). Studio ecologico sulla mortalita dei residenti a Manfredonia dal 1970 al 2013. Epidemiologia & Prevenzione. 281-289.
- (2019). Tutti dalla parte di Greta? Epidemiologia & Prevenzione. 202-203.
More information in national current research information system (CRIStin)
Journal articles
De Marchi, Bruna. 2020. "Societal Vulnerability and Resilience in the COVID-19 Crisis." Culture e Studi del Sociale, 5(1), Special issue, 163-174.
De Marchi, Bruna; Funtowicz, Silvio. 2019. “Tutti dalla parte di Greta?” (Everybody on Greta’s side?) Epidemiologia e Prevenzione 43(2-3):202-203. doi: 10.19191/EP19.2-3.P202.061.
De Marchi, Bruna; Funtowicz, Silvio. 2018. “Vecchie risposte a nuove sfide” (Obsolete responses are not adequate to new challenges) Epidemiologia e Prevenzione (42(2): 182-183. doi: 10.19191/EP18.2.P182.050.
De Marchi, Bruna; Biggeri, Annibale; Cervino, Marco; Mangia, Cristina; Malavasi, Giulia; Gianicolo, Emilio; Vigotti, Mariangela. 2017. “A participatory project in environmental epidemiology: Lessons from the Manfredonia case study (Italy 2015-2016). WHO Europe Public Health Panorama 3, 2: 321-327. (Published also in Russian Пример из практики, 3, 2: 328-335)
Book chapters
De Marchi, Bruna. 2018a. “Preface” to Manfredonia: storia di una catastrofe continuata (Manfredonia: History of an unfolding catastrophe) by Malavasi, Giulia. Jaca Book, Milano. ISBN 978-88-16-41493-8. Also published in Epidemiologia e Prevenzione 42 (5-6) 2018, pp. 284-285. Doi: 10.19191/EP18.5-6.P283.096.
De Marchi, Bruna. 2018b. “Manfredonia: cronaca di una ricerca partecipata” (“Manfredonia: Chronicle of a Participatory Research”) Pp. 129-136 in L’Astorina, Alba; Di Fiore, Monica (Eds.) Scienziati in affanno? Ricerca e Innovazione Responsabili (RRI) in teoria e nelle pratiche (Scientists in Truble? RRI Theory and Practices) CNR (National Research Council), Roma. ISBN 978 88 8080 250 1 (print). ISBN 978 88 8080 251 8 (online). doi.org/10.26324/2018RRICNRBOOK
De Marchi, Bruna. 2018c. “Comments on the Dialogues”. Pp.146-159 in Guimarães Pereira, Ângela; L’Astorina, Alba; Ghezzi, Alessia; Tomasoni, Irene (Eds) Dialogues on Food - Dialoghi sul cibo. Food Futuring Tours #expo2015. EUR 28213. Luxembourg: European Commission. doi:10.2788/254857 and doi: 10.27.88/684250.
De Marchi, Bruna. 2015. “Risk Governance and the integration of scientific and local knowledge” Ch. 9, pp. 149-165 in Fra.Paleo, U. (Ed.) Risk Governance. The Articulation of Hazard, Politics and Ecology. Berlin: Springer. ISBN 978-94-017-9328-5.
In a current EU funded project, CitieS-Health, local residents are involved as research peers, meaning that their knowledge, life experience, needs and demands are taken into consideration in all phases of the investigation, from the framing of the research questions, to the selection of the methods, the analysis of data and the ensuing recommendations for policy interventions.
