Italian Academia Research Articles

Teaching how to improve activities and participation of elderly subjects: the carelessness of the Italian Academia shown by the national qualification for physiotherapists

Teaching how to improve activities and participation of elderly subjects: the carelessness of the Italian Academia shown by the national qualification for physiotherapists

Procedures vs. Incentives: The Case of the University Promotion System in Italy

A common observation is that individuals strive to neutralize the effect of procedural rules designed to drive choices away from their private optimum. An example of this phenomenon is offered by the reaction of Italian academia to two reforms that modified the procedures of recruitment and promotion, by introducing random selection of the examiners not appointed by the recruiting school and reducing from two to one the number of candidates to be qualified. We model the negotiation occurring within evaluation committees and test the decision rule implied by the theoretical model on the sample composed of all selections to associate and full professorship initiated by the Italian schools of economics between 2004 and 2011. Particularly, we investigate whether these reforms decreased the relative weight of the examiner appointed by the recruiting school on committee's decision. Empirical results suggest that both reforms had little if no effect on examiners' weights.

What’s Love Got to Do with it? Precarious Academic Labour Forces and the Role of Passion in Italian Universities

This article examines the role of passion among precarious labour force in the Italian academia. By relying on C. Wright Mill’s distinction between “passion as a reason” of action and “passion as a motive” to represent and discuss one’s employment condition, the article concludes that the symbolic strength of passion is correlated to its applicability both as a tool to govern recruitment in neo-liberal academia and as a strategy to fit recruitment criteria and “become employable”. The article is based on more than four-year long documentation and participant observation in political initiatives and campaigns organised by precarious, non-tenured research staff in Italian universities.

Gender Discrimination and Evaluators’ Gender: Evidence from Italian Academia

Relying on a natural experiment consisting in 130 competitions for promotion to associate and full professor in Italian universities, we analyse whether gender discrimination is affected by the gender of evaluators. We examine the probability of success of each candidate in relation to the committee gender composition, exploiting the random assignment of evaluators and controlling for candidates’ scientific productivity and a number of individual characteristics. We find that female candidates are less likely to be promoted when the committee is composed exclusively of males, while the gender gap disappears when the candidates are evaluated by a mixed‐sex committee.

And the Winners Are...An Axiomatic Approach To Selection from a Set

We study here the problem of evaluating whether the selection from a set is close to the ranking determined by a measurable criterion. We propose a number of natural axioms and show that an index exists that satisfies all these axioms. The paper ends with an application of the index to Italian academia.

Publish or Perish? Incentives and Careers in Italian Academia

We derive a theoretical model of effort in the presence of career concern based on the multi-unit all-pay auction, and closely inspired by the Italian academic market. In this model, the number of applicants, the number of new posts, and the relative importance of the determinants of promotion determine academics' effort. Because of the specific characteristics of Italian universities, where incentives operate only through promotion, and where all appointment panels are drawn from strictly separated and relatively narrow scientific sectors, the model fits well Italian academia, and we test it in a newly constructed dataset which collects the journal publications of all Italian academics working in universities. We find that individual researchers respond to incentives in the manner predicted by the theoretical model: more capable researchers respond to increases in the importance of the measurable determinants of promotion and in the competitiveness of the scientific sector by exerting more effort; less able researchers do the opposite.

Publish or Perish? Incentives and Careers in Italian Academia

We derive a theoretical model of effort in the presence of career concern based on the multi-unit all-pay auction, and closely inspired by the Italian academic market. In this model, the number of applicants, the number of new posts, and the relative importance of the determinants of promotion determine academics' effort. Because of the specific characteristics of Italian universities, where incentives operate only through promotion, and where all appointment panels are drawn from strictly separated and relatively narrow scientific sectors, the model fits well Italian academia, and we test it in a newly constructed dataset which collects the journal publications of all Italian academics working in universities. We find that individual researchers respond to incentives in the manner predicted by the theoretical model: more capable researchers respond to increases in the importance of the measurable determinants of promotion and in the competitiveness of the scientific sector by exerting more effort; less able researchers do the opposite.

And the Winners are... An Axiomatic Approach to Selection from a Set

We study here the problem of evaluating whether the selection from a set is close to the ranking determined by a measurable criterion. We propose a number of natural axioms and show that an index exists that satisfies all these axioms. The paper ends with an application of the index to Italian academia.

Special Forum on "Social and Environmental Accounting and Accountability"

The purpose of this editorial is twofold. First, to present the reasons as to why we asked Financial Reporting to host a Special Forum on Social and Environmental Accounting and Accountability (SEAA) research. Second, to summarize the contributions that are published therein and provide Financial Reporting readers with insights on the hot topic of SEAA research today. The idea of this Special Forum was conceived during a period in which Italian Academia was (and still is) undergoing many changes, including both an active involvement but also, and unfortunately, passive reforms – especially when these changes are brought into the system with a pronounced top-down approach. Undoubtedly, internationalization in Italy has become one of the major challenges and a sensitive topic in academic debates, particularly after the new national procedures on the accreditation to become Associate or Full Professor were put in place. Too often, internationalization is interpreted as the necessity to merely publish in international journals but we believe this outcome is “only” the result of a much more complex process. In fact, internationalization requires being open to new and different methodological approaches, being ready to identify relevant research questions with wide implications and, above all, the ability to work and study in an international environment and collaborate within an international network.

The Renaissance of Geopolitics in Post-1989 Italy

The revival of geopolitics in post-1989 Italy is at once a rather straightforward and perplexing matter. On the one hand, the renewed appeal that geopolitical thinking has enjoyed in International Relations (IR) circles has been well documented and could hardly be downplayed. On the other hand, however, the recourse to geopolitics has often boiled down to an undifferentiated and often convoluted use of its terms, approaches and theories. In this article we argue that the rationale of such a revival has been less to import geopolitical knowledge into IR and more to confer legitimacy and respectability to the analyses put forward by scholars and practitioners. It is no chance, in fact, that the geopolitics-inspired academic discourse has been progressively recognised as a way, if not the way, to discuss international affairs in post-1989 Italy. The central puzzle to be investigated behind the revival of geopolitics in Italy is thus how such a discourse has managed to gain and retain a powerful status in Italian IR academia and, most importantly, why.

Managerial Studies: An Italian Perspective

Managerial Studies: An Italian Perspective

Around the World

In science news around the world this week, nepotism is rampant in Italian academia, CERN has formed a five-member Cultural Board for the Arts, U.K. health and research institutions were urged to "stop muddling" on gene patent laws, and a new drug became the first scorpion venom treatment to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Measuring Nepotism through Shared Last Names: The Case of Italian Academia

Nepotistic practices are detrimental for academia. Here I show how disciplines with a high likelihood of nepotism can be detected using standard statistical techniques based on shared last names among professors. As an example, I analyze the set of all 61,340 Italian academics. I find that nepotism is prominent in Italy, with particular disciplinary sectors being detected as especially problematic. Out of 28 disciplines, 9 – accounting for more than half of Italian professors – display a significant paucity of last names. Moreover, in most disciplines a clear north-south trend emerges, with likelihood of nepotism increasing with latitude. Even accounting for the geographic clustering of last names, I find that for many disciplines the probability of name-sharing is boosted when professors work in the same institution or sub-discipline. Using these techniques policy makers can target cuts and funding in order to promote fair practices.

Notes on Italian Philosophy, Peer-Reviews and “la corruttela”

The paper offers a critical review of Roberto Farneti’s paper “a minor philosophy. The state of the art of philosophical scholarship in Italy”, recently published in Philosophia. It is argued that overall the status and interest of philosophy as practiced nowadays in Italy is less disappointing than Farneti makes out. It is also maintained that submitting papers to peer-refereed international journals can help cure the moral and sociological disease that besets the Italian academia, but that, as such, it is less likely to improve the scientific quality of contributions in philosophy than Farneti claims. In passing, a few recommendations both to the philosophical community at large and to the Italian Government are put forward.

L’ecologia forestale nel riordino degli ordinamenti didattici

L’ecologia forestale nel riordino degli ordinamenti didattici

La triste conclusione della vicenda delle nuove regole per il reclutamento dei ricercatori universitari

In Italy, universities are regulated by law. In December 2007 new rules for hiring young researchers in Italian Universities, based on international peer review, were approved by the Italian Parliament. The Court that controls the compatibility of new laws with existing legislation found the new rules in violation of this principle and annulated them. In most countries international peer review is a common evaluation procedure in good Universities. The sad conclusion is the contrast of Italian law with internationally adopted procedures: a condition that cries out for change in Italian Academia.

La triste conclusione della vicenda delle nuove regole per il reclutamento dei ricercatori universitari

Abstract: In Italy, universities are regulated by law. In December 2007 new rules for hiring young researchers in Italian Universities, based on international peer review, were approved by the Italian Parliament. The Court that controls the compatibility of new laws with existing legislation found the new rules in violation of this principle and annulated them. In most countries international peer review is a common evaluation procedure in good Universities. The sad conclusion is the contrast of Italian law with internationally adopted procedures: a condition that cries out for change in Italian Academia.

In difesa della sociologia come scienza

The paper presents the recent Italian edition of John Goldthorpe’s On Sociology from the point of view of the current discussion on the epistemological status of the social sciences. The topic is particularly relevant in Italy, where a strong tradition of scientific sociology never truly developed. Goldthorpe’s position is described, and it is argued it is likely to have a strong impact on the Italian debate, given the relatively weak support scientific sociology traditionally receives in Italian academia. The majority of Italian sociologists are not familiar with quantitative methods and rigorous reasoning: Goldthorpe’s influence could push at least a part of them towards a more scientific approach. Then Goldthorpe’s theoretical foundations are discussed, with particular reference to rational action theory. It is argued that Goldhtorpe support for rational action theory and methodological individualism has at least three roots: a negative one, an analytical one, and a substantive one. The latter is the one that may prove weaker, from both a substantive and a sociology of science point of view.

Entering Italian academia in political science: can the ‘sacred fire’ keep burning?

The purpose of the article is to assess the risks and opportunities of entry into the political science profession in Italy. Part one contains some brief reflections on the discipline and its institutionalisation. Part two offers an overview of the main features of the recruitment process and its national peculiarities. Part three looks into the current problems facing young Italian scholars who wish to become academics. Part four concludes with some suggestions to young political scientists who have much hope but also many doubts about how to cope with permanent uncertainty regarding their career development.

On Luigi Pareyson

Philosophical thinking is in a full sense, since it is at the same time interpretation of experience and interpretation of the truth, and it cannot be the one without the other: it is ontological and revelatory as well as historical and personal, together, indissolubly. Luigi Pareyson, Pensiero ermeneutico e pensiero tragico1 The vicissitudes of hermeneutics, broadly understood as philosophy of interpretation, are long and complex. Although has become almost synonymous with the philosophies of twentieth century thinkers such as Heidegger, Gadamer, and Ricoeur, certainly hermeneutics is not a historical trend that can be limited to the twentieth century, as Schleiermacher's interest in interpretation testifies. Nor is a specific philosophical label under which to classify in an exclusive manner this or that philosopher, this or that movement. Rather, names a theme, that of interpretation in its problems and difficulties, which is taken as the privileged filter and perhaps interlocutor for one's more specific philosophical interests. Thus, we have different variations of hermeneutics in relation to the broader, but also more idiosyncratic context in which such a theme is inserted. To stay within the Italian scene, we have the hermeneutics of Enrico Castelli, Alberto Caracciolo, and Italo Mancini, where hermeneutics intersects with philosophy of religion; the hermeneutics of Carlo Sini, in which hermeneutics and semiotics, mainly Peirce, are interwoven, and the hermeneutics of Umberto Eco, in which it is hermeneutics and semiology that interact; the hermeneutics of Gianni Vattimo, in which hermeneutics unfolds in conversation with metaphysics or foundational thinking, and the hermeneutics of a thinker whose thought has been more appreciated abroad than in Italy, Emilio Betti, in which the notion of interpretation develops in relation to the concept of right, or objectivity. The philosopher I have not mentioned in this list is the one I consider to be the most important and original case of Italian hermeneutics-Luigi Pareyson. The reason for the exclusion is that for Pareyson hermeneutics is not simply a theme within a broader context of approach. For him, hermeneutics is the constant element that underscores his entire philosophical career. For him, philosophy is hermeneutic in a full sense. Who is Luigi Pareyson? In a way, he is one of the venerable grandfathers of contemporary Italian philosophy, as demonstrated by the list of his students, now well established professors in the Italian academia and renowned scholars in the international philosophical panorama.2 The relevance of his philosophical stature within the Italian philosophical context is readily acknowledged through essays, quotations, and references even by philosophers who did not grow up at his or within the Turin school within which he operated after World War II with other remarkable thinkers of various philosophical orientations (most notably Augusto Guzzo, Nicola Abbagnano, Norberto Bobbio, Pietro Chiodi, Augusto Del Noce). The number of dissertations written on him in philosophy departments of very different lineages all over Italy counts as additional evidence for his recognition and popularity.3 Oddly enough, however, his name and thought are largely, if not completely unknown to the American philosophical audience,4 whereas other names of Italian philosophers, although certainly less respected and influential at least within Italy, enjoy a more widespread renown.5 It is partly to make for this lamentable absence, to remedy this shameful negligence that I consider the subject matter of this (necessarily sketchy, expository, and mainly informative) essay as an unavoidable philosophical obligation. Moreover, and more fundamentally, however, this essay is due to the serious and deep conviction, which I hope to divulge, of the philosophical importance and timeliness of Pareyson's thinking or, as Vattimo puts it in an article on the Italian daily newspaper La Stampa, of his anticipatory, if not definitely prophetic relevance6 for philosophy-in general and in the United States today. …