Italian Debate Research Articles

Eccentric, unintelligible, gregarious and undomesticated: Southern Italian female characters in three films by Leonardo Pieraccioni

Prominent scholarship on the Italian South has reflected on the otherized, inferiorized and racialized positionality of the region’s territories, cultures and populations within the national Italian debate, with the North functioning as an allegedly virtuous norm that the South constantly fails to conform to. The gendered imagery that inscribes this type of ethnic and territorial subordination permits, in this context, the visualization of anomalous, recalcitrant and undomesticated Southern women that function as a metaphor of the irredeemable otherness of the South. In this article, I use as a starting point three films starring and directed by Leonardo Pieraccioni, namely I laureati (The Graduates) (1995), Il ciclone (The Cyclone) (1996) and Il paradiso all’improvviso (Suddenly Paradise) (2003). I consider these films in order to analyse the screen personas of Tosca D’Aquino and Anna Maria Barbera, both of whom embody, in different ways, the encounter between Southern identity, eccentricity and non-normative corporalities.

Perché la «sociologia pubblica» resta controversa

The public sociology promoted by Burawoy has met with consensus and skeptical voices over time. The debate has focused mainly on the model of disciplinary division of labour and on the interactions between the different types of sociology. In the scientific community, however, the implications connected to the concrete implementation of public sociology have been discussed in a fragmented way. Starting from the contributions on the topic found in the Italian debate, this article proposes a reflection on the problematic aspects connected to the construction of the sociologist’s relationship with the public. The critical comments concern both traditional and organic public sociology. The article also raises objections regarding some epistemological assumptions of the public sociology conceived by Burawoy, highlighting the possible misunderstandings that derive from them. In the conclusions, attention is drawn to the potentially fruitful contributions that can come from some developments in public social research.

Italian debates on variability and concentration in the 1910s and 1930s: structure of a methodological controversy

Italian debates on variability and concentration in the 1910s and 1930s: structure of a methodological controversy

Unpacking LGBT+ hate crimes discourse in Italy: between symbolic recognition and claims for sexual citizenship

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to provide a critical account of the hate crime (HC) paradigm by exploring its historical legal definition and the limitations in addressing the multiple and structural discriminations faced by minority groups. Specifically, the article focuses on the case of Italy, where in recent years a fierce debate over a proposed law on HC against LGBT+ and disabled people ended in its rejection due to neoconservative and Catholic opposition.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on critical socio-criminological literature on HC, the paper analyses the Italian debates and socio-legal context over the past two decades regarding discrimination against LGBT+ groups and its (lack of) criminalization. It also provides a secondary analysis of recent data on violence and discrimination against LGBT+ people, collected by the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA).FindingsThe analysis of the debate and the data collected shows that the criminal definition of HC is insufficient to capture the wider range of social and cultural violence and discrimination against LGBT+ people. Indeed, data analysis shows the effect of the low level of recognition of rights on the propensity of people to denounce and of social practitioners to recognize, discrimination and violence against LGBT+ people. It is therefore argued that the discussion on HC should move beyond the criminalization of individual violence to be entrenched in a broader reflection over the lack of recognition of sexual citizenship rights which perpetuates the vulnerability of LGBT+ people.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the international socio-criminological debate on HC. It argues for a comprehensive framework that recognizes the structural nature of discrimination and violence against vulnerable groups by framing discrimination and violence against LGBT+ people as a citizenship right rather than a criminal justice issue.

The nursing assistant: the main issues in the Italian debate

. The nursing assistant: the main issues in the Italian debate. The recent approval by the State-Regions Conference of the figure of the nurse assistant has sparked a heated debate in the professional community and beyond. Numerous objections have been raised. In this contribution, which has considered what has been published in the press and on the web in the last two months, we attempt to the analyse the pros, the cons, and the main critical issues. Certainly, the nurse assistant should not be considered as a measure to counter the nursing shortage but only as one piece of a set of measures urgently needed to be planned and communicated. However, if implemented carefully with new models of care delivery, and under strict monitorization and assessment of the outcomes on patients and on the organization, nurses may be supported by a dedicated aid, as already happens in other countries.

Mining in Sicily: Slavery, Humanitarian Rhetoric and Global Network

ABSTRACT This article discusses how, at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of twentieth centuries, the labour conditions of the sulphur miners in Sicily were recurrently understood and described through a problematic adoption of a humanitarian language that often employed a miner – slave analogy. By identifying some lines of convergence between diverse narrations the article will explore the extent to which an intersection between global concerns about slavery and attitudes to labour in Southern Italy entered public discourse. It suggests that varied narrations mystified the ways in which complex systems of exploitation functioned together amidst significant global transformations in labour relations and capital. As a consequence, foreign and Italian debates contributed placing Sicilian labour, directly or indirectly, in a pre-modern world and to distancing the miners from the global network and modernity to which (paradoxically) they already belonged.

The Italian debate on the digital COVID certificate: co-producing epistemic and normative rationalities

ABSTRACT Italy's digital Covid certificate, known nationally as the ‘Green Pass,’ was enforced through unusual restrictions for a liberal democracy, as part of the government's effort to bolster the Covid-19 vaccination campaign. Since July 2021, the Green Pass provided the main authorizing tool for the public to access a wide spectrum of social spaces and activities, from leisure to public transport and from education to workplaces. The Green Pass therefore served as a normative technology, and triggered intense political controversy and heated debates in the Italian public discourse. In constructing claims about the Green Pass, advocates and critics alike co-produced normative arguments with understandings of scientific evidence. Notably, they articulated competing framings around: conceptions of freedom during a pandemic; what should be considered as ‘evidence that matters’ regarding the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines; value-laden projections of vaccination as either a solidaristic practice or an act of self-protection; the proper relationship between the state and its citizens; and the most appropriate modes of public health intervention. Accordingly, Italy's Green Pass offers a revealing case study for probing the implications of a normative technology with respect to public health effectiveness and the safeguarding of individual and social rights. It also provides an opportunity for scrutinizing the (re-)structuring of scientific and public health governance in a major Western democracy during a public health crisis.

BEFORE BRAIN DRAIN: ITALIAN ECONOMISTS ON THE CALCULUS OF THE VALUE OF MEN

This study deals with the debate that took place among Italian economists and statisticians at the turn of the twentieth century on the economic effects of mass emigration. In particular, it is focused on a controversy between Vilfredo Pareto and Alberto Beneduce on the one side, and Francesco Coletti on the other. It analyzes the way these scholars struggled with: (i) the problem of properly elaborating a specific cost-benefit analysis regarding emigration; and (ii), as a consequence, the problem of recognizing a clear set of economic policies designed to manage the complex economic and social processes connected to emigration. The paper demonstrates the enduring character of the problems encountered in the early Italian debates by showing that these questions are similar to those debated in the vast literature developed from the 1950s on the subject of brain drain, and suggests an explanation for the lack of conclusive results in this literature. We think that it is possible to understand this impasse by highlighting that in the analyzed literature, a problem of “fallacy of composition” emerges between the microeconomics and macroeconomics of emigration.

The Urban Management of Secondary Raw Materials in the Light of Commons Theory

This paper intends to verify to what extent the theory of the commons and, in particular, the theory of shared administration can give useful suggestions in dealing with the problems of managing secondary raw materials, in a perspective compatible to the paradigm of circular economy. To this end, the discussion will be divided into three parts. First, the evolution of the regulatory framework for by-products will be analyzed in order to identify whether there is room for bottom-up mechanisms of by-product care. Second, we will examine to what extent by-products can be configured as commons, and what implications this has in the light of the Italian debate on commons. Third, the theoretical and practical scope of the theory of shared administration in the management of secondary raw materials will be analyzed. The analysis conveys the importance of embracing the commons theory and practice in order to concretely implement the circular economy paradigm with regard to the use of byproducts.

Italia di mezzo

The Italian debate concerning the relationship between cities and inner areas polarized around a few dichotomous - and somehow simplifying - positions. On the one hand exists the rhetoric addressing the ``villages'', intended as remote places to re-inhabit, escaping from the pandemic. On the other hand is the narrative of the metropolis, envisioned as a place-fulcrum from which to start again -- following the already-known patterns of growth and concentration -- despite the fragilities made explicit by Covid. In order to overcome these juxtaposed approaches, our work wants to shed light on the importance of ``intermediate territories'' intended as priority places to rethink within a new geography of marginality. In Italy, such intermediate territories, named \emph{Italia di mezzo}, occupy half of the national surface and host more than half of the population. Moreover, they embody extremely articulated geography: they include portions of twentieth-century urbanization (such as coastal settlements, industrial districts, various traits of ``città diffusa''), medium-sized cities with different administrative and functional centrality levels, sectors of metropolitan belts and a substantial share of rural areas in plains and hills. Faced with the radical risks and uncertainties that characterize the contemporary condition, it is essential to take care of these territories not only because they urgently need investments aimed at solving forgotten critical issues (from the necessary reconversion of production chains to the impact of climate change). These territories can also play a strategic positive role in the face of crisis phenomena thanks to their characteristics of elasticity and plasticity. If we look at them from a relational point of view - and not only from a topological one - these intermediate territories can play the role of two-sided ``intermediaries'' and ``hinges.'' On the one hand, they can be prepared to provide assistance and support to the inner and less densely populated areas; on the other hand, by taking advantage of their infrastructural and social capital, they can offer decongesting opportunities for most polluted metropolitan areas and more accessible living and working conditions.

Anthropology, financial expansion and its relationalities from “marginal sites”

In this introduction we map the tradition of thoughts and state of the art on the study of finance and financialization in relation to the anthropological Italian debate. We suggest a particular attention towards ethnographic approaches “from the margins” of finance that can help build a non unilinear and west-centric agenda for studying financial expansion also in the Italian context. Then we discuss conceptual trends on financial expansion that emerged in the international anthropological debate after the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), underlining a shift from the “double movement” analysis to the rediscovery and the reframing of relational approach. Thinking of financialization beyond the dualistic interpretative prism that sets finance against society, movement against counter movement, center against periphery we invite to conceptualize financial expansion as the result of a variety of independent but related processes which must be apprehended holistically. We consider ethnography as an opportunity to unravel the multiple spatial and temporal axes and kinds of processes that constitute financial expansion. When analyzed ethnographically, financialization seems to proceed by simultaneous movements and countermovement resulting from the confrontation among increasingly financialized subjects. This interactive practice produces attempts that, despite the power asymmetries, might result in unplanned transformative outcomes.

The Early Invention of the so-called Laffer Curve and the Mathematics of the Progressive Tax in the Italian Tradition

The theories of progressive income taxation developed in the Italian debate of the last century have been discussed in depth in a review article by Domenican-tonio Fausto (2008). Italian economists have taken an active part in the debate on the progressive taxation of income and wealth. In general, despite a few oppo-nents, the idea of progressive taxation is agreed upon for political and social rea-sons. In this broad debate on progressivity developed in Italy, there is also an ana-lytical path that Fausto's article does not consider. The first mathematical contri-bution on this topic was put forward by Tullio Martello in his polemic book against the progressive tax, La progressività in teoria e in pratica (1895). The debate was concluded in the 1950s by a mathematical economist and follower of Pareto, Raf-faele D'Addario. D'Addario is worth considering because he explicitly introduced the revenue curve. The decreasing part is well known today as the Laffer curve.

Deciding the Criteria Is Not Enough: Moral Issues to Consider for a Fair Allocation of Scarce ICU Resources

During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, practitioners had to make tragic decisions regarding the allocation of scarce resources in the ICU. The Italian debate has paid a lot of attention to identifying the specific regulatory criteria for the allocation of resources in the ICU; in this paper, however, we argue that deciding such criteria is not enough for the implementation of fair and transparent allocative decisions. In this respect, we discuss three ethical issues: (a) in the Italian context, the treating physician, rather than a separate committee, was generally the one responsible for the allocation decision; (b) although many allocative guidelines have supported moral equivalence between withholding and withdrawing treatments, some health professionals have continued to consider it a morally problematic aspect; and (c) the health workers who have had to make the aforementioned decisions or even only worked in ICU during the pandemic often experienced moral distress. We conclude by arguing that, even if these problems are not directly related to the above-mentioned issues of distributive justice, they can nevertheless directly affect the quality and ethics of the implementation of allocative criteria, regardless of those chosen.

Internet Access as a Fundamental Right: an Overview of the Italian Debate

The right of access to the Internet is closely linked to the concept of digital citizenship and to the controversial issue of the constitutionalization of the right. The paper describes the issue and national and international initiatives. The connotation of the right of access to the Internet remains, for the moment, in the hands of the individual States, and the case of Italy is indicative of the obstacles and barriers still to be removed for free access to the Internet.

Maps are plans: re-evaluating territorial hermeneutics through Manuel de Solà-Morales’ project of description

During the late 1970s, Catalan architect Manuel de Solà-Morales focuses his research on understanding territory as an architectural construct. Influenced by post-war French urban geography and, especially, by the Italian debates about the città-territorio and Henri Lefebvre’s notion of total urbanization, Solà-Morales seeks to define methods of territorial analysis and description with the purpose of understanding how architecture can contribute to articulate an urbanized territory. The crucial piece of this intellectual quest is the research ‘La forma d’un país’ (‘The Shape of a Country’), an atlas in which the production of maps is simultaneously understood as an act of territorial description and territorial design. In Solà-Morales’ terminology: maps are already ‘plans’; their conception needs to move from the ‘literal’ to the ‘literary’. The goal of this article is to interrogate this cartographic project, by asking what its value is both within Solà-Morales broader theorization of territorial production, and for a contemporary understanding of the relations between architecture and territory.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine: some readings from Italian newspapers (20 February–5 March 2022)

AbstractOver the last two years, the metaphor of war has often been used in Italy when discussing the fight against the pandemic, to describe the restrictions that have been introduced as a result, from lockdown to the Green Pass. Paradoxically, once the state of emergency ended, just as we were on the cusp of the long-awaited return to normality (to ‘peace’ in a sense), Russia's sudden invasion of Ukraine meant that war truly became part of Italians’ lives through the media. In this context, I have analysed the positions taken by the major Italian periodicals (Avvenire, Corriere della Sera, Il Fatto Quotidiano, Il Foglio, La Repubblica, La Stampa, Il Mattino di Napoli, Il Messaggero and Il Tempo di Roma) between 20 February and 5 March. What becomes clear through examination of the main articles is that the themes that would characterise the subsequent Italian debate – from a strategic, humanitarian, political, and economic point of view – were already present in the two weeks from the end of February to the beginning of March 2022.

Immigration and European policies: debate in Italy during the 1980s

ABSTRACT The article analyses the Italian debate on immigration in the 1980s and relates it to the progressive Europeanisation of the country. In the 1980s, political debate on foreign immigration evolved in Italy, as indeed it did elsewhere. The nature of this debate was influenced by the international affiliations of whomever happened to be addressing the issue. At the same time, supranational (in particular European) levels of political intervention on migration became ever more evident. During the 1980s Italy’s focus on emigration started to be supplanted by immigration. Unlike with emigration, debate and government action in Italy followed an irregular course. Indeed, until 1989, the issue was a low priority on political parties’ agendas and government action; it was left to social movements and trade unions, from the early 1980s onwards, to champion the centrality of a European approach.

A common altar? John Paul II’s European project within Italian Catholic political debate

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the Italian Catholic press’s reactions to John Paul II’s pastoral work concerning Europe’s future. We explore the effects of Wojtyla’s proposal for a continent united by Christianity through an examination of representative publications from major cultural and political currents. The research focuses on the second half of the 1980s and the intertwining of the Pontiff’s public discourse with Gorbachev’s project for a ‘Common European Home’. The goal of this article is to frame the debate within the auspices of Ostpolitik, the European integration process and, more generally, thinking at the time on the political function of religions in a period of post-secularist theories. In particular, we examine the clash on the issue of the continent’s Christian roots, pitting democratic Catholics against Comunione e Liberazione within the framework of the Italian Church’s transformation, leading up to Card. Camillo Ruini becoming President of the Italian Episcopal Conference (I.E.C.).

‘How can you feel guilty for colonialism? it is a folly’: colonial memory in the Italian populist radical right

ABSTRACT This paper draws attention to the role of colonial memory in the Italian populist radical right. Italy’s colonial past has been long confined on the fringes of memory in Italian politics and in the Italian public debate. While recent academic attention has been devoted to the selective colonial memory transpiring from Italian cultural products, scarce attention has been paid to colonial memory in contemporary Italian political parties’ discourse. Therefore, by applying Critical Discourse Analysis to semi-structured interviews with Italian populist radical right representatives from the Lega and Fratelli d’Italia (FdI), this paper aims at investigating which role colonial memory plays in these parties’ discourse. This paper argues that the Lega and FdI reproduce colonial discourse in constructing the image of the contemporary immigrant Other. At the same time, they forge a selective memory of Italy’s colonial past, cleansed from its most controversial aspects.

Legitimacy of Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labels: Controversy Over the Deployment of the Nutri-Score in Italy.

Front-of-pack nutrition labels (FoPLs) aim at increasing transparency and consumers' awareness of the nutritional composition of pre-packed food products in order to improve the nutritional quality of their food choices. Nevertheless, the legitimacy of the Nutri-Score - the FoPL officially adopted in France and several other European countries - is subject to both technical and political controversy, particularly in Italy. In this study, we investigated how and by whom the legitimacy of the Nutri-Score, recognized by several institutional authorities, could be deconstructed within a specific system of norms, values and beliefs among Italian stakeholders. A netnography completed with qualitative interviews with eight Italian and French nutrition and public health experts were carried out to highlight the dimensions (pragmatic, normative and cognitive) in which the Nutri-Score's legitimacy is being challenged among the stakeholders involved in FoPLs' implementation in Italy. The degree of influence and the position of these stakeholders on the debate around the Nutri-Score were assessed through the Stakeholder Theory (SHT), using their respective level of power, legitimacy and urgency. Furthermore, we compared the Italian and the French contexts on the issue. The direct implication of political parties and media outlets in framing the Italian debate around Nutri-Score as well as the high influence of corporate unions, led to a different political outcome than in France. Results also show that the deconstruction of the legitimacy of the Nutri-Score in Italy pertained mainly to its pragmatic dimension according to the Italian public health experts. Nevertheless, its two other dimensions (normative and cognitive) are also questioned by high-influence stakeholders. Due to the limited mobilization of scientific expertise over the issue, the debate in Italy stayed centered around the "attack" of the Nutri-Score to the Italian way of life, mixing up concepts such as Made in Italy products and the Mediterranean diet.