Caterina Orlandi is a post-doctoral researcher at LIEPP, where she contributes to the EU-funded NetZeroCities JetCities project, under the supervision of Charlotte Halpern. Her research focuses on supporting five European partner cities in the elaboration of economic strategies aimed at greening urban employment, with the objective of achieving carbon neutrality at 2030 and beyond.

She obtained her PhD in Management from the University of East Anglia (UK) in 2024. Her doctoral thesis investigated the lived experiences of the so-called “invisibles” living in deprived neighborhoods in England and France, as well as the organisations (Housing Associations and local employment/enterprise support organisations) working to guide them out of socio-economic exclusion.

Her research bridges public policy, urban sociology, and organisation studies, and has been presented at leading international conferences including EGOS, SASE, RENT, and the Academy of Management Annual Meeting. Firmly interdisciplinary, her work is anchored in a deep interest in how local actors - particularly marginalised and/or non-traditionally mandated - challenge the institutional status quo, with a particular focus on visibility as a socio-technical-political construct. 

Publications:

Conference Papers

• “‘Transfer visibility work’: working around institutional boundaries in deprived neighbourhoods”, with Z Bika, 2024 European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium, Milan, Italy (4-6 July 2024).
• “‘Transfer visibility work’: working around institutional boundaries in deprived neighbourhoods”, with Z Bika, 2023 US Academy of Management Annual Meeting (AoM), Boston, Massachusetts, USA (4-8 August 2023).
• “‘Going round the hamster wheel’”: Spiral visibility work in a deprived context of the Global North”, with Z Bika, 2022 European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium, Vienna, Austria (7-9 July 2022).
• “Theorising ‘best practice’ in supporting those furthest from the market into work or self-employment: Moving beyond getting a job, to fostering social inclusion in France and England”, with Z Bika, C Locke and B Valcke, 2022 Research in Entrepreneurship and Small Business (RENT) Conference, Naples, Italy (17-18 November 2022).
• “‘Aided Visibility Work’ and Social Exclusion in Housing Association Organizations”, with Z Bika, 2021 US Academy of Management Annual Meeting (AOM), held virtually (30 July-3 August 2021).

Media Articles

• Bika, Z; Gaskell, A; Orlandi, CM, “Cost-effective ways to make levelling up happen right now”, LSE Business Review (March 14^th, 2023). 

Project Reports

• Increase VS (Valorisation Sociale) project, Bika, Z; Locke, C; Gaskell, A; Orlandi, CM; Michaelides, G; Valcke, B, “Increase Valorisation Sociale Evaluation Report”, March 2023.
• CREATE project (Congestion Reduction in Europe - Advancing Transport Efficiency), Halpern, C; Persico, S; Orlandi, CM; Vergara, M, “D4.3. WP4 comparative analysis report”, April 2018. 
• European Commission, Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, Ahmed, I, Colnot, L, Ibos, S and Orlandi, CM, “Assessing the spatial dimensions of economic, social and territorial development investments”, Publications Office, 2016. Caterina Orlandi is a post-doctoral researcher at LIEPP, where she contributes to the EU-funded NetZeroCities JetCities project, under the supervision of Charlotte Halpern. Her research focuses on supporting five European partner cities in the elaboration of economic strategies aimed at greening urban employment, with the objective of achieving carbon neutrality at 2030 and beyond.