Osservatorio

This research area focuses on the long-term interdisciplinary monitoring of phenomena linked to the special status of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano/Bozen, of the Autonomous Province of Trento and of the Autonomous Region Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in the framework of Italian Regionalism.

​A continuous scientific monitoring is particularly important  after the last projects of reform of the Italian Constitution (one completed in 2001; another started in 2014, but rejected by a referendum in 2016), which have strong consequences on the regional system and, in particular, on the special autonomies such as the Autonomous Province of Bolzano/Bozen.

The institute is performing an in-depth-study, analyzing the implementation and the effects of the reform(s) on the Autonomy of South Tyrol. In this light, the aim of the manifold activities within this project (publications, training, teaching, organization of and participation in conferences, consultancy activities) is to make the research results of the Institute available to different target groups, ranging from policy-makers, civil servants and researchers to the general public. The activities are performed in Italian, German and English.

In the last years, one of the main research projects of the institute in this area analysed the implications of the EU-membership of Italy on the allocation of legislative and administrative competences guaranteed to the Province of Bolzano/Bozem through its Autonomy Statute. After two books published in 2015 (one in German and one in Italian) which considered the general framework, but also in detail 10 policy fields, a follow up research has been performed analysing the remaining policy fields still to be considered. The result was a third book published in 2019 (W. Obwexer, E. Happacher, C. Zwilling (Hrsg), EU-Mitgliedschaft und Südtirols Autonomie II, Verlag Österreich, 2019).

Over the past year, the institute organized a series of webinars and, together with Politika (the South Tyrolean Society for Political Science), a scientific conference to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the autonomy statute. Likewise, the institute organized, together with EGCT Euregio and others, a scientific conference on the topic of european cooperation and cross-border cooperation from the special viewpoint of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol.