Guido Martinotti (1938–2012): One of Italy’s Foremost Sociologists and Public Intellectuals

Abstract

In the early morning hours of November 5th, 2012, Guido Martinotti, the worldrenown sociologist who is also one of the greatest sociologists in the history of Italy, died suddenly in Paris (He is survived by his wife, Eva Cantarella). In Italy, Guido Martinotti was a pioneer in the field of urban studies. His seminal work dealt with the urbanization process, the quality of life in cities, and the definition of metropolitan populations. For several generations of urban sociologists, Martinotti was one of the last to be called “maestro”, as he had opened up new theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of cities. He clearly had a “sociological imagination” which was characterized by a specific “sociological sensitivity”, allowing him to discover and to study sociological phenomena early on, when such studies were in their infancy. He was perspicacious enough to accurately forecast findings and to predict the evolution of the field. Martinotti taught in universities in France, Italy (Naples, Turin, Pavia, Milan, Florence), and the United States (for example, the University of Michigan, New York University, and the University of California at Santa Barbara). Applied Research Quality Life (2013) 8:277–278 DOI 10.1007/s11482-013-9232-z