Giusy Pappalardo responds to her commentators of the Interface "Learning from practice: environmental and community mapping as participatory action research in planning" (Volume 18, 2017, Issue 1)

In this brief article, I answer to the Commentators of the Planning Theory and Practice Interface “Learning from practice: environmental and community mapping as participatory action research in planning” (2017, Volume 18, Issue 1). The Interface draws on the interview that Daniela De Leo and John Forester conducted with me about an ongoing participatory action research process in the Simeto Valley. The process has been developed in the context of a long-lasting university–community partnership that started in 2008 between the Ecological Environmental Design Lab (LabPEAT) and a network of local nongovernmental organizations in eastern Sicily, Italy. The Interface draws upon one stage in the process, a community mapping initiative. Based on my experiences it provides an account of our practices, reflecting on several key themes including participatory techniques, creativity and conflicts in planning processes, approaches for co-production of knowledge, skills acquired by planners in the field, and new challenges for planning curricula.