Abstract
The greatest sensitivity and attention to the geoenvironmental problematic underline the urgency to face some matters with new awareness and responsibility, like the management of the territory, the exploitation of the georesources, the energy problem, and the defense against natural risks. The civil community asks for ready and exhaustive answers. The technical-scientific competence of the geologist, linked with the shared deontological practice with respect to the normative in force, can give trust back to the citizens, and support to the political decisoris, the safety and the raising of our professionalism. The Italian territory is a great economic, social and cultural resource that must be defended and valued through the contribution of geologists. New strategies, spheres of action, and operational tools are needed. The National Council of Geologists in Italy is working in this direction.
Highlights
Geologists have been credited with a social responsibility aimed at “encouraging critical analysis of natural resources exploitation, promoting the value and the safeguarding of the geosphere, communicating information regarding natural hazards in a fair way, and engaging society with the idea of a shared geological heritage that can contribute to the social construction of knowledge” [Geoethics Manifesto 2011]
The problem of professionals who are found to be in collusion with organized crime has not been addressed; many doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects and geologists who have been put on trial are still chartered members of their respective professional associations; sometimes even if they have been condemned for a criminal offence
Given the lack of regulations and of reforms, which would allow professional associations to take measures against their members without the fear of being, paradoxically, charged for not respecting regulations, the only way forward is civil courage. This departs from the limited view of institutional regulations, and expands upon the meaning of guarantor by giving professional associations a function that the legislator has not clearly established
Summary
Professionals, and lecturers and researchers, have been asked more and more insistently to take up a social role to serve the community. It clearly appears that there is the need to reform the professional associations in Italy, possibly with modern, incisive, coherent and shared law reform According to their current structure, professional associations are based on two fundamental pillars: deontology and the social role of the profession. Even after the Italian Government reforms (called the Bersani reforms), the codes still refer to the noble images of ‘ethics’ and ‘decency’ of the profession as they are intended in the Italian Civil Code, but only in considering their application to professional performance, and not to the conduct of the body’s members In this context, an active role that has yet to be explicitly indicated will be played by actions against the spread of the criminal system. Cultural and anti-racket associations, citizens, and others have started to put pressure on the boards of professional associations, which are not always watchful on these issues, to push for greater attention to be paid to the activities and to the conduct of their members, especially, but , when their members are under investigation
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