Northern Italian City Research Articles

The Effects of the Urban Built Environment on Mental Health: A Cohort Study in a Large Northern Italian City.

Mental health (MH) has a relevant burden on the health of populations. Common MH disorders (anxiety and non-psychotic depression) are well associated to socioeconomic individual and neighborhood characteristics, but little is known about the influence of urban structure. We analyzed among a Turin (Northwest Italy) urban population the association at area level of different urban structure characteristics (density, accessibility by public transport, accessibility to services, green and public spaces) and consumption of antidepressants. Estimates were adjusted by individual socio-demographic variables (education, housing tenure, employment) and contextual social environment (SE) variables (social and physical disorder, crime rates). Data was extracted from the Turin Longitudinal Study (TLS)—a census-based cohort study following up prospectively the mortality and morbidity of the population. As expected, individual characteristics show the strongest association with antidepressant drug consumption, while among built environment (BE) indicators accessibility by public transport and urban density only are associated to MH, being slightly protective factors. Results from this study, in agreement with previous literature, suggest that BE has a stronger effect on MH for people who spend more time in the neighborhood. Therefore, this research suggests that good accessibility to public transport, as well as a dense urban structure (versus sprawl), could contribute to reduced risk of depression, especially for women and elderly, by increasing opportunities to move around and have an active social life.

Touring the Hidden City: Walking Tour Guides in DeindustrializingGenoa

AbstractDrawing on ethnographic research conducted inGenoa, a northernItalian city whose deindustrialization process began in the early 1970s, this paper explores how the city's high levels of intellectual unemployment have given rise to the profession of walking tour guides. These are highly educated women, and more rarely men, who, working independently of the financial and political powers that usually drive urban revitalization processes, utilize their cultural capital and talents to spin itinerant tales of concealment and discovery around the master narrative of Genoa's decline and its tourist potential. Through an analysis of their professional histories and experiences as well as the ways they present the city, I argue that the guides comprise asui generis“creative class” (Florida 2012) that helps transformGenoa into a city worth visiting. In their attempt to boost cultural tourism, tour guides inhabit a liminal space from where they vie for legitimacy, build professional personas that both challenge and reinforce gender norms, and straddle contested lines between high and popular culture, and between amateurism and professionalism. I contend that, compared withRichardFlorida's (2012) upwardly mobile “talents,”Genoa's walking tour guides form a residual creative class that emerges out of necessity and struggles to survive by creatively exploiting the “hiddenness” of a densely layered cityscape.

PM10 in a background urban site: Chemical characteristics and biological effects

PM10 was sampled in a background urban site in Torino, a northern Italian city. PM10 extracts were tested with THP-1 and A-549 cells to evaluate their effects on cell proliferation, LDH activity, TNFα, IL8 and CYP1A1 expression, and genotoxic damage induction (Comet assay). Through Principal Component Analysis (PCA), it was observed that (1) the aqueous extracts induced the inhibition of cell proliferation in the warm season that clustered together to total ions, (2) organic extracts determined a winter cell viability reduction and (3) there was a genotoxic effect associated with PAH and metal concentrations. The analysed low PAH levels were unable to induce significant CYP1A1 expression. The results obtained confirmed that PM composition and seasonality play an important role in particle-induced toxicity. The presence of PM10-induced biological effects at a low polluted site suggested that a reduction of PM10 mass did not seem to be sufficient to reduce its toxicity.

Intolerant Policies and Discourses in Northern Italian Cities

In 2008, several local authorities in Italy implemented policies that aimed at limiting the socioeconomic and civil rights of migrants, especially in those regions administered by the North League party. This article analyzes these local policies and the discourses to support or oppose them. It shows that three main intolerant arguments are used by their supporters, which refer to security, welfare provisions, and national identity. In contrast with these dominant discourses, civil society actors construct a counterdiscourse based on respect for human rights.

Cytotoxic response in human lung epithelial cells and ion characteristics of urban-air particles from Torino, a northern Italian city

Recently, much attention has been devoted to urban air pollution because epidemiological studies have reported health impacts related to particulate matter (PM). PM10 and PM2.5 were collected during different seasons in Torino, a northern Italian city, and were characterised by inorganic chemical species (secondary particulates and bio-available iron). The biological effects of aqueous and organic solvent PM extracts on human epithelial lung A549 were evaluated, and the effects on cell proliferation and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release were assayed. The average PM10 concentration during the sampling period was 47.9 ± 18.0μg/m(3); the secondary particles accounted for 49% ± 9% of the PM10 total mass, and the bio-available iron concentration was 0.067 ± 0.045μg/m(3). The PM2.5/PM10 ratio in Torino ranged from 0.47 to 0.90 and was higher in cold months than in warm months. The PM10 and PM2.5 extracts inhibited cell proliferation and induced LDH release in a dose-dependent manner with a seasonal trend. The PM10 extract had a stronger effect on LDH release, whereas the PM2.5 extract more strongly inhibited cell proliferation. No significant differences were observed in the effects induced by the two extracts, and no significant correlations were found between the biological effects and the PM components evaluated in this study, thus emphasising the importance of the entire mixture in inducing a cytotoxic response.

Food social practices: Theory of practice and the new battlefield of food quality

Given the growing transitional character of food, on its way from farm to fork, a rising number of people and institutions affect what we eat, governing how food is produced, consumed and distributed day-to-day. The sociological response to these transformations lead to a conceptualization of food as a dynamic field, crucial to the understanding of how we negotiate production and consumption as specific and meaningful sets of activities. In this article, I suggest applying the recent conceptualization of practice theory in order to understand the increasing complexity of food issues. I start by illustrating some basic sociological works on consumption of food quality, then I present the main outcome of a qualitative research study about the commercial cooking in a Northern Italian city. The issue of food quality and the effects of its social construction on consumers habits are eventually discussed.

Urban Conflicts and Immigrants’ Engagement. A Comparative Pragmatic Analysis of Two Northern Italian Cities

At the beginning of the 1990s, urban safety entered political and media debates in Italy. Since then, an anti-social behaviour discourse has diverted attention towards newcomers who have repeatedly appeared as the main cause of urban safety conflicts. Italian scholars have often described these actors as the passive target of safety policies. The main aim of this paper is to demonstrate that in fact some residents of immigrant origins have engaged in the game of urban conflicts. A comparative analysis will be carried out to discuss contentious dynamics in two Italian cities, by building on ethnographical data collected between 2009 and 2010. The two cities which are the object of the analysis are Verona and Modena. They are situated in the so-called Third Italy, in the north of the country, and are characterised by diverging political subcultures. A consistent part of studies on immigrants’ collective action has drawn from the structural perspective and has insisted on political opportunities as a crucial explanatory variable. This contribution will show the added value of complementing this interpretation with a pragmatic sensitive one. Residents of immigrant origins will be observed while undertaking their thorny path of engagement characterised by the capacity to adapt, construct more or less lasting agreements with institutional and non-institutional actors and propose alternative solutions to influence a given context. Ultimately, this will also provide an example of how a pragmatic sensitive stance can help study politics in a continuum with policies, a preoccupation which lies at the core of urban theory.

A Case Study of Solar Technologies Adoption: Criteria for BIPV Integration in Sensitive Built Environment

Solar Photovoltaics is one of the core technologies for a paradigm shift of our electric infrastructure towards distributed generation. In 2011 Italy became the first world market; however, Germany has even the primacy of accumulated power. The installed capacity amounted to 10.000 MW according to data of Italian Manager of Energy Services (GSE) against 1.000 MW in 2010 and 3.000 the beginning of 2011. The projections of GSE include the achievement of the 12.000 MW by the end of the year with more than 350.000 running plants. In a nearly mature market, cost related issues and technical difficulties are encountered in particular in the successful integration within a sensitive and consolidated built environment. The research presented aims to investigate the possible results of an effective use of Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV), choosing existing buildings in the city of Bellinzona (Canton Ticino, CH) as case studies. Bellinzona presents similar characteristics to small Northern Italian cities in terms of built environment characteristic and climate conditions. The theoretical framework for the analysis is the one proposed initially for low energy and nearly net zero energy buildings (NZEB). Although this type of analysis has been developed, in particular, for building with high penetration of renewable energy sources generation (up to 100% of the energy consumed), it seems worth investigating the dynamic interaction of building energy demand, on-site generation and grid with similar tools, because of the necessity of achieving low energy demand also in retrofitted existing buildings in a near future.

Phone centres and the struggle for public space in Italy: between revanchist policies and practices of resistance

This paper proposes to contribute to debates on revanchist urbanism. By drawing from empirical data collected in two northern Italian cities, Verona and Modena, it provides an exemplification of relevant policies: phone centres normative framework. After discussing to what extent the original thesis by Neil Smith can be transported to the cases under analysis, the paper points to a vacuum in the relevant literature: a lack of attention to dynamics of politics. Hence, it demonstrates that while scholars risk promoting a narrative of domination, the target of revanchist policies can resist the potential annihilation of public spaces operated by revanchist interventions.

The relationship between ambient particulate matter and respiratory mortality: a multi-city study in Italy

The association of air pollutants with natural and respiratory mortality has been consistently reported. However, several aspects of the relationship between particulate matter with a 50% cut-off aerodynamic diameter of 10 μm (PM(10)) and respiratory mortality require further investigation. The aim of the present study was to assess the PM(10)-respiratory mortality association in Italy and examine potentially susceptible groups. All deaths from natural (n=276,205) and respiratory (n=19,629) causes among subjects aged ≥ 35 yrs in 10 northern, central and southern Italian cities in 2001-2005 were included in the study. Pollution data for PM(10), nitrogen dioxide and ozone were also obtained. A time-stratified case-crossover analysis was carried out. Different cumulative lags were selected to analyse immediate, delayed, prolonged and best-time effects of air pollution. The shape of the exposure-response curve was analysed. Age, sex, chronic conditions and death site were investigated as potential effect modifiers. We found a 2.29% (95% CI 1.03-3.58%) increase in respiratory mortality at 0-3 days lag. The increase in respiratory mortality was higher in summer (7.57%). The exposure-response curve had a linear shape without any threshold. Sex and chronic diseases modified the relationship between particular matter (PM) and respiratory mortality. The effect of PM on respiratory mortality was stronger and more persistent than that on natural mortality. Females and chronic disease sufferers were more likely to die of a respiratory disease caused by air pollution than males and healthy people.

Meritocrazia e capitale sociale individuale

Most of the main theories about individual social capital – intended as the ensemble of resources that are embedded in someone’s network that can be mobilized for purposive instrumental action – developed in the last years are based upon researches set in United States of America. Even if it is logical to presume the existence of deep cultural and institutional differences between different countries, very often the hypotheses founded on American researches and data are accepted “as they are” even relating to very different social contexts. In this paper, I will consider how the cultural differences between the original setting of an important theory of social capital and another social context with a different dominant social and ethical norms may deeply alter the theory’s contents themselves. More precisely, I expect that the correlation between social status of the actor/ instrumental quality of network resources/ social heterogeneity of contacts (cfr. Campbell et al., 1986 ) may not find confirmation in a country like Italy, where the role of meritocracy in careers’ advancement is not yet considered a decisive factor, and the influence of recommendation and other unmeritocratic approaches is very strong in many different selection processes. A less ethically oriented social and economic culture, in fact, could require different exploitation strategies of social resources from the local actors. I will test this hypothesis using the data gathered by a social survey conducted between Spring and Fall of 2007 in the northern Italian city of Turin. The survey’s sample consisted in around 300 young men and women from a series of post-university formative courses of particular excellence. The main objective of the research project was to investigate and analyze the possible persistence of class privileges in the form of exclusive social capital advantages, and for such purpose was used a combination of the most recent social capital measuring instruments. As was hypothesized, the results of the survey reveal significant divergences from Campbell’s theory in the social resources strategies adopted by Italian citizens for their instrumental actions, especially from the point of view of the relationship between the social status of the actor and the value of diversity and density of his network. In fact, the interviewed subjects from wealthier social background result provided with less heterogeneous and more closed social ties. Homophily mechanisms may only partially explain such situation. I believe that these differences are a direct consequence of the particular Italian socio-cultural profile: the difficulties encountered by trying to achieve professional and social objectives only upon their actual values and merits compel the actors to rely on closer and more trustworthy contacts, like the family related ones.

In the mouths of charlatans. Street performers and the dissemination of pamphlets in Renaissance Italy

This article examines the role of street performers such as ballad singers and charlatans in the publication and sale of cheap printed pamphlets in northern Italian cities during the Renaissance. These mobile and usually socially marginal figures quickly became involved in the printing industry after its initiation in the later fifteenth century, and in this way carried on their established role as crucial cultural mediators, moving texts between different places, different social spheres, and different media. As well as publishing, performing, and selling works such as chivalric ballads, poetic accounts of recent wars, prognostications, and medical remedies, performers also were involved in the dissemination of texts more traditionally considered as ‘high’ literature, belonging to the restricted cultural sphere of the court or salon. In this way, they contributed to the wide dissemination of the works of eminent Renaissance authors, whether those authors approved of it or not. However, growing restrictions on the dissemination of print in the later sixteenth century reduced the freedom of movement of street performers, and diminished the remarkably creative and vibrant literary and performative culture in which they had played a central role.

The Italian linguistic landscape: the cases of Milan and Udine

This article looks at the linguistic landscape in two Northern Italian cities: Milan and Udine. Signs in two streets of a similar length were recorded and classified according to the language or languages they were written in. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence in the linguistic landscape of the different languages making up the linguistic repertory of the two cities chosen. The main focus, however, was on the local regional/minority languages (Milanese and Friulian). The ensuing discussion focuses on the role language planning activities may play in forming the linguistic landscape, and the necessity to conduct sound empirical research in order to justify claims about the vitality/visibility of a given language. After an introduction on the state of research on the linguistic landscape in Italy, the article gives some background information on the cities chosen and the languages forming their repertory. After that, the methodology and the results of the research are discussed – most of the signs recorded are in Italian with a moderate presence of other foreign languages, above all English; the local regional/minority languages appear only in one case in Milan and in four cases in Udine.

Estimation of particle mass concentration in ambient air using a particle counter

Particle count may have advantage over particle mass concentration for assessing the health effects of airborne particulate matter. However, health effects have mainly been investigated with mass-measuring instruments, so it is important to assess relationships between the variability of particle number, as determined by an optical particle counter, and the variability of particle mass as measured by traditional mass-measuring instruments. We used a light scattering particle counter to monitor the concentration of particulate matter in ambient air in a northern Italian city continuously from August 2005 to July 2006. Six channels were calibrated to count particles in the size range 0.3–10 μm and above. Particles under 0.3 μm cannot be detected by the instrument. The particle counter was placed alongside the mass-measuring instruments of the Environmental Protection Agency of the Region of Piemonte (ARPA). Particle numbers were transformed into masses and compared with PM 10 and PM 2.5 data obtained from the ARPA instruments. Daily average values were compared. The correlation between the two methods was good for both PM 10 ( R 2 = 0.734) and PM 2.5 ( R 2 = 0.856); differences between means were significant only for PM 2.5. These findings suggest that a light scattering particle counter might be suitable for assessing particulate matter variability in epidemiological studies on effects of air pollution, though further investigations are necessary.

The Swiss community in Genoa from the Old Regime to the late nineteenth century

Drawing on extensive and original archival research, this article is the first to reconstruct the origins and historical development of the Swiss community of Genoa from the sixteenth to the late nineteenth century. During these four centuries, the Swiss were constant and significant agents of the Genoese economy and society. The Swiss presence in the city dates back to the mid 1500s, when Swiss soldiers were the predominant component of the army of the Republic. In the 1700s the Swiss community broadened its economic scope and varied its social configuration. It consisted of both a well-established Protestant, élite of merchant-bankers and textile entrepreneurs and a lower layer of craftsmen, confectioners, street vendors and servants. By the end of the 1700s the Swiss élite was such a thriving and well-integrated group that in 1799 Genoa was selected to be the seat of the first Swiss consulate of the Italian peninsula, the second in Europe after Bordeaux (1798). From the Restoration (1815) to Italian Unification (1861), the Swiss merchant-bankers and textile industrialists continued to be active promoters of the city's economic and trading system. In the decades after Unification (1861–80s), Swiss capital investments moved into new economic sectors (steam-shipping and maritime insurance) that contributed to the modernization of the Genoese and Italian merchant fleet. During the nineteenth century the Swiss community created its own social spaces and identity within the city – a church, a cemetery, a school, and a charitable foundation. As in many other northern Italian cities, the consolidation of the community's external image did not weaken the Swiss élite's integration with the local Genoese upper class.

La difesa della città. La definizione dell’identità urbana assediata in tempo di guerra e in tempo di pace (Mantova, 1357-1397)

The essay concentrates on the progressive definition of the identity of the “besieged” in Mantua during the wars of the late fourteenth century. the northern Italian Po plane city, capital of the Gonzaghesca Dominion, was assaulted by the Visconti troops of Milan that threatened the small state in three stages between 1357 and 1397. Under the violence of those attacks, both the ruling dynasty and the city understood very clearly that for them the only chance to survive relied on the possibility to potentiate the natural position of the city as a neutral and intermediate member of the system of the Italian states. This growing conscience was the basis of the building of a long-lasting political identity focused on a permanent “under siege” condition, which conditioned the entire history of the city until the very last years of its life as an autonomous state and even further. In particular, the assault brought to Mantua by Bernabo Visconti in 1368 is scrutinised, through sources which greatly differ amongst themselves, to understand the real and perceived significance of the events of the assault.

Chemical characteristics and mutagenic activity of PM10 in Torino, a Northern Italian City

Epidemiological studies of particulate matter (PM) have associated PM mass, as well as certain individual components of PM such as secondary particulate with adverse human health effects. For example genotoxic effects attributed to PM may relate to the content of organic compounds but also to the oxidative DNA damage generated by transition metals like iron. However the exact physiochemical mechanism by which PM produces adverse effects is not clear. The aims of this study were to evaluate (1) concentrations of PM10, (2) amounts of bioavailable iron associated with PM10, (3) amounts of secondary particulate expressed as SO4(=) and NO3(-) and (4) the mutagenic activities of PM10 organic extracts. Sampling was carried out in a meteochemical station located in Torino, a northern Italian city with high levels of PM10. The mean PM10 concentration in the considered period was 46.1+/-28.8 microg/m3, the iron mean concentration was 0.83 microg/m3 (+/-0.65 microg/m3) and the bioavailable Fe was 5.7% (+/-4.4%). The data showed that secondary particulate matter (as sum of sulfates and nitrates) constituted about 47% of PM10 total mass. Both iron and secondary species concentrations were positively associated with PM10 levels. Seasonal variations of PM10 concentration, iron level and secondary species amount were significant. Samples were tested for mutagenicity with Salmonella typhimurium strains TA98 and TA100, with and without metabolic activation and a positive response was observed especially for TA98. There were positive statistical associations between mutagenicity and PM10, bioavailable iron, sulfates and nitrates concentrations. Therefore, these results showed the usefulness of this biological approach for monitoring PM10.

The contribution of long-distance transport to the presence of Ambrosia pollen in central northern Italy

Ragweed is an allergenic weed of public health concern in several European countries. In Italy ragweed occurs prevalently in north-north-eastern regions, where sensitization is increasing. Because of the small diameter of pollen grains, ragweed pollen is often involved in episodes of long-range transport, as already shown in central Italy. The objective of this study was to evaluate the extent of such transport by comparing pollen and meteorological data for two northern Italian cities (Parma and Mantova) with data from Pistoia and Florence in central Italy. In 2002 and 2004 peaks in ragweed pollen levels were detected in these four cities on the same day, and concentrations of the grains were above clinical thresholds. Weather-map analysis and computation of back-trajectories showed that air masses from eastern Europe might carry ragweed pollen to a wide area of central and northern Italy. These findings suggest that episodes of long-range transport of ragweed pollen could be clinically relevant, resulting in sensitization of a large number of people. The results might provide a basis for monitoring and forecasting periods of long-distance transport with the objective of reducing their effects on allergic patients.

Coping Strategies in a Wealthy City of Northern Italy

AbstractThe article focuses on the coping strategies of three categories of people usually considered to be at risk of becoming socially excluded — single mothers with minor children, long‐term unemployed males and foreign immigrants — in the northern Italian city of Milan. The concept of social exclusion, often used as an alternative to the concept of poverty, occasionally as its synonym, is here intended as multidimensional, dynamic and, most of all, relational. The article shows how this concept can be useful in analysing the condition of the three categories of people and how their condition is strongly related to the constraints and resources offered by the local context. Through the empirical material gathered from in‐depth interviews with the three above‐mentioned categories of people, the article first shows how these people profit from the labour market and the social services available in the city. It then analyses the role of social networks and the mechanisms behind the mobilization of people in support of the interviewees. Finally, it deals with the subjective dimension, that is, it examines whether, and to what extent, interviewees express feelings of uselessness. A visualization of the strategies will also be proposed. The empirical material will help to understand whether these people are socially excluded or not, and in which sense.

Are Questions from the Italian National Health Survey Adequate to Measure Prevalence of Smoking Among Teens

Objectives. Studies on the prevalence of smoking among Italian adolescents have generated inconsistent estimates. Notably, the Italian National Health Survey (INHS) generates relatively lower estimates than estimates reported in other studies. The INHS asks adults and adolescents if they are smokers or nonsmokers. Research has shown that adolescent smoking is unstable compared to that of adults, and that adolescents may acquire their identity as smokers only after smoking becomes more established. We hypothesized that the INHS prevalence estimates of adolescent smoking could be improved by adding questions on smoking behavior. Methods. During the school year 1993–1994, 471 participants responded to a brief survey on smoking experiences. We compared the prevalence of smoking behavior with the prevalence of smoking identity of participants (mean age = 16.18) who attended five high schools in two Northern Italian cities, Padova and Bergamo. Results. Measures of smoking behavior generated higher prevalence estimates than did measures of identity, particularly among occasional smokers. Conclusions. The INHS should add behavioral measures of smoking to maximize the accuracy of prevalence estimates.