For almost 20 years now, several successful research bids have made it possible for Dr Farini to apply knowledge and skills to empirical investigations. He has been researching professionally through national and international projects in fields of Sociology of Intercultural Communication, Cultural Sociology, Globalization Theories, Social Theory, Communication Studies, Sociology of Education, Youth and Childhood studies, Policy evaluation, and the sociolinguistic analysis of interaction. Other areas of expertise concern Equality and Social Justice in access to education and healthcare, Sociology of Conflict and Peace Studies.
Dr Farini takes pride in the commitment to positive impact on communities that characterises his research and teaching. Since 2003, he has been researching and developing training opportunities within projects supported by European and national Agencies, regional and Local Authorities. Dr Farini’s research concerns the inclusion of migrant children and young people in education, youth subcultures and cultural studies, migrant-friendly services, conflict management, intercultural education, client-centred interpreting in healthcare and education, and the role of digital media in the diffusion of knowledge.
Dr Farini also had an important role in planning and managing the Centre for Educational Research and Scholarship (CERS) at Middlesex University, leading the Special Interest Group Network (SIGN), ‘Childhood and Society’ for two years, optimising resources and expertise while securing the active involvement of academics, professionals, students and stakeholders.
Dr Farini has authored numerous successful research bids (for an estimated amount of £600,000 directly attributable to him), including large scale projects. Some of the most recent projects include: ‘Shared Memories for Dialogues’ (SHARMED, Erasmus+ KA3) to promote the inclusion of migrant-background children in the classroom, linking to both intercultural education and the use of digital technology; ‘Spatial Practices in Art and Architecture for Empathetic Exchange’ (Erasmus+ Marie Skłodowska-Curie) to transform urban space in places of democratic participation through public art with the participation of 27 partners; ‘Children Hybrid Integration: Learning Dialogue as a way of Upgrading Policies of Participation’ (Horizon 2020), to research the social conditions of migrant children’s integration, taking in primary account gender differences, legal status and age groups, with the final aim to propose an innovative approach to understand and transform their social condition.
In 2015 Dr Farini worked with the London Borough of Waltham Forest towards the development of Leyton Jubilee Park as a meeting place for a multicultural community. Earlier in his career, Dr Farini was the principal investigator and advisor within an EU-funded project under the program ‘Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, 2007-2013’. The Project (‘Local Forums for Participatory Democracy’) offered the opportunity to research on the impact of digital media on social participation and in the dissemination of knowledge(s) among children and adolescents. Dr Farini is currently a member of the European Research Network Trust dynamics in the governance of children and youth (Roskilde University, Denmark). In 2014 he was elected as vice-president of the International Sociological Association Research Committee 25, Language in Society and editor of its peer-reviewed journal, ‘Language, Discourse and Society’. Some of his professional memberships include the British Educational Research Association, British Sociological Association, European Sociological Association, International Association of Dialogue Analysis, International Pragmatics Association, Society of Science and Technology Studies.
In 2014 Dr Farini was appointed by the Swiss Government as reviewer of research projects under the COST European Co-operation in the Field of Science and Technology framework. In the last few years he has become reviewer for UNESCO Newton Prize, for the Italian Ministry for Education, University and Scientific Research, for the Programme Rita Levi Montalcini and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships programme. Dr Farini is also a member of the PhD Studies Committee for the School of Human and Social Sciences at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.
