Decolonising the concept of sustainable development

This seminar explores how colonial ways of thinking continue to shape research, sustainability policies, and measurement practices, and introduces a decolonial perspective grounded in co-creation, plural epistemologies, and the move beyond top-down models. Through the experience of the project Gramigna – The Women’s Garden in a small town in Southern Italy, the seminar illustrates how these principles can translate into concrete practices of territorial development, environmental care, and social inclusion, emphasising participatory action research and shared narratives over predefined metrics.

Driver Ferney Ramírez-Henao

University of Cartagena, Colombia  

Driver Ferney Ramírez-Henao is a full professor in the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the University of Cartagena, Colombia. He holds a PhD in Legal, Economic, and Social Sciences from the University of Burgos, Spain. His research explores the roles of accounting and auditing, both as bodies of knowledge and as professional practices, within the political, economic, and cultural spheres surrounding contexts with colonial legacies. His work has been published in academic journals in his country and in international journals such as Critical Perspectives on Accounting.

Alessandra Miccolis

University of Trento, Italy

Alessandra Miccolis holds a PhD in the programme Sustainability: Economics, Environment, Management, and Society (SUSTEEMS) at the University of Trento (Italy), in co-tutela with the PhD program Accounting at the University of Burgos (Spain). Her work particularly emphasises non-profit organisations, with a growing focus on ecofeminism as a lens to explore the intersection of social justice and ecological sustainability. She is an active member of Gramigna - l’Orto delle Donne, an ecofeminist collective based in a small rural village in Southern Italy. The group is dedicated to promoting ecofeminist thought and fostering community empowerment through grassroots activism and collaborative projects.

After the speakers’ talks, there would be space for an inclusive discussion and a Q&A session.

We would like to remind those who wish to have type F credit that it is requested to attend the seminars in person, also out of respect for the speakers who will be physically in the classroom.

For further details on the next seminars, please visit ESIC’s webpage. We would like to inform you that the webinar will be recorded, and participants can independently turn off their cameras. Here you can find the playlist of the past edition. 

For any problems or questions, please contact us at:

susanna.ottaviani@unitn.it
anisa.bica@unitn.it