Authors:Antonio Alaminos, Paloma Alaminos-Fernández Pages: 9 - 21 Abstract: One of the methodological conclusions of the prospective studies is that the acceleration of social changes, in association with the greater density of interrelationships in a globalized world, results in a greater frequency of crises. Crises that feed each other increasing their intensity and amplitude of effects. Crises are defined by their causes, as well as by the type, extent, and intensity of the damage they cause, although they all share one element in common: uncertainty. Uncertainty is an emotion that, according to various psychological theories, is the generator of other emotions that are activated secondarily. Emotions such as fear, frustration, or anger. The way in which emotions affect the perception and assessment of the intervention and control exercised by the State over social life is of fundamental interest. Particularly in the potential processes of legitimation of political movements based essentially on emotional mobilization. An empirical investigation is presented here on the emotional effects generated in European societies by the 2020 pandemic crisis. Using data from the survey ZA7738, and after a critical analysis of the measurement of emotions in comparative research, a study of the relational structure of emotions is carried out. Two clusters of emotions are determined: the uncertainty-fear dimension and a second dimension of a polar nature with anger-frustration at one end and hope at the opposite. Both constructs are consistent with the emotional models considered in psychology. Finally, a structural model is specified and adjusted relating the emotional dimensions with the opinions about economy, health, and freedom. The variable that measures having been, planning to be or not expecting to be economically affected by the pandemic crisis shows significant explanatory power for frustration, opposition to the restriction of freedoms for health reasons or that the measures cause greater economic damage than the health benefits. In an opposite sense, uncertainty and fear explain a greater acceptance of the restriction of freedoms for health reasons, the opinion that the health benefit is greater than the economic damage, as well as reinforcing the emotions of anger and frustration. PubDate: 2023-02-16 DOI: 10.36253/smp-14256 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 25 (2023)
Authors:Maria Mirabelli, Vincenzo Fortunato, Antonio Martin Artiles Pages: 23 - 35 Abstract: The paper deals with a topic particularly relevant in the current international sociological debate such as the varieties of capitalisms and their evolutions. In particular, looking at the Italian experience, in a context of increasing uncertainty and inequalities, it focuses attention to the main socio-economic changes and their impact on economy and society, searching for a more equal, sustainable and inclusive model of capitalism. These changes induced the scholars to talk about a new “great transformation” by adopting the famous expression of Karl Polanyi, used to describe the birth of the market economy. Starting from the literature and available data, the paper suggests new possible paths as well as complementary or even alternative practices that keep together economy and society in order to start a new age of a more sustainable, social and inclusive capitalism. The central idea is that self-regulating markets do not perfectly work; their deficiencies, not only in their internal workings, but also in their consequences for less advantaged people, are so great that the state intervention becomes necessary and that the pace of change is of central importance in determining these consequences. We argue that a paradigm shift is urgently needed, but this will certainly take time and a new governance which requires the involvement of several key political, economic and social actors such as international organizations, national governments, economic organizations along with social movements and no-profit organisations embedded at national and local level. PubDate: 2023-02-16 DOI: 10.36253/smp-13856 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 25 (2023)
Authors:Luca Raffini, Federico Zuolo Pages: 37 - 49 Abstract: According to the prevalent reading, we are today witnessing an epistemological conflict that takes the form of a war on science, which is nurtured by disinformation and instrumentalised by populist parties. The aim of this article is to contribute to a more complex reading of the phenomenon, over and above the science vs. anti-science dichotomy. As a result of the entry of science – and scientists – into public debate and public interaction between experts and non-experts we witness the overcoming of the perception of science as a monolith, which is followed by the tendency to overcome a deferential attitude towards scientific expertise. The legitimate exercise of criticism and skepticism towards institutions, however, often ends up conforming to a Manichean vision, which distinguishes good and bad, friend and foe, truth tellers and liars. The unconditional faith in institutions, demanded by technocrats, is overturned by an unconditional mistrust, which does not allow for open claims and compromises. Not denying the centrality of the epistemic dimension of conflict, our hypothesis is that conflicts over science are in fact also – and above all – conflicts of a political nature, that is, conflicts that do not usually have science and technology per se as their object, but rather political decisions on scientific-technical and health-related issues. This suggests, implicitly, that the application of a technology by the market may be more accepted, and thus that the market enjoys greater legitimacy than politics, because the market promises, in the abstract, freedom of choice. The contrast between technocracy and populism, between a policy reduced to conforming to scientific knowledge whose limits and ambiguities are downplayed – or not recognized – and a policy that rejects the role of experts – highlights a generalised distrust of democratic politics. The public sphere, as a place of deliberation and democratic management of complexity and plurality, is thus reduced to the clash between irreconcilable visions. PubDate: 2023-02-16 DOI: 10.36253/smp-13921 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 25 (2023)
Authors:Simona Gozzo, Rosario D'Agata, Giovanni Giuffrida Pages: 51 - 62 Abstract: The massive diffusion of social media has produced disintermediation and it has changed the way in which users inform themselves and participate in public debate. On the other hand, users show a tendency to interact with information that adheres to personal choices and previous opinions. This propensity is “exploited” by algorithms that manage and sort communication on social media, increasingly producing a polarized audience. The essay shows the outcomes of these dynamics by focusing on the communications structure related to the pandemic. In this sense, social media constitute a risk because they convey out-of-control access to unreliable information and because they can result in the absence of correct information, if not in a problem for democracy. On the technical level, at least three complex reticular structures are identified that evolve following different directions, emerged from three sequentially monitored lemmas (no-mask, covid-19, greenpass). Further considerations concern the increasingly dense interweaving between online communication and the genesis of protest movements with evanescent, single-issue structures. PubDate: 2023-02-16 DOI: 10.36253/smp-13729 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 25 (2023)
Authors:Antonella Coco Pages: 63 - 72 Abstract: Over a short period of time, countries around the world have been facing health and economic risks due to the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. In this paper, we use the immune paradigm to interpret the impact and consequences of the pandemic on society, in social relations and especially at the political level, when democratic systems are called to face new challenges. They concern the contrast between protection and security, on the one hand, and securitarian impulses on the other, in order to guarantee fundamental democratic freedoms; the extension of immunity protection as equally as possible, by contrasting the inequalities which in various areas (from health to the economy) have emerged and increased during the pandemic; the capacity to simultaneously guarantee the need for immunization and the drive for solidarity; finally, the propensity for forms of cooperation between States as opposed to forms of national sovereignty in dealing with the risks that arise at a global level. PubDate: 2023-02-16 DOI: 10.36253/smp-13857 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 25 (2023)
Authors:Mariavittoria Catanzariti Pages: 73 - 82 Abstract: The contribution explores how the European model on artificial intelligence addresses the relationship between risk analysis and management of automated systems and its impact on the vulnerability factors that the use of certain deceptive techniques determines or increases. The article draws some reflections on the European model that illustrates how risk assessment and management are logically related to data governance choices. Some data governance choices can lead to mitigation of the risk by combining market needs with an anthropocentric approach. As a result of general considerations on the European approach to artificial intelligence systems, the contribution offers the analysis of a case related to the interoperability of European information systems for purposes of security, migration and European border control, focusing on the impact that these systems have on the real life of third country nationals. PubDate: 2023-02-16 DOI: 10.36253/smp-13804 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 25 (2023)
Authors:Roberto Buizza, Francesco Misiti, Alessandra Sannella Pages: 83 - 95 Abstract: Climate change has been accelerating, and this has been causing an increase of the number of intensity of its impacts on communities, including on their health. This link between climate change and health, a theme that we have named “pathoclima” (a neologism of the authors), an amplification of pathologies due to the increasing impact of climate change on society and the environment, is the subject of this contribution. Firstly, we present an analysis of the state of the climate and its impact on some respiratory, neurodegenerative, and mental health diseases. Then, we discuss some of the main conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, and finally, we suggest that only through a transdisciplinary approach can we achieve the goal of zero net emissions by 2050. Only following a transdisciplinary approach, we could address climate change taking into account also all biological and sociological aspects of the problem. PubDate: 2023-02-16 DOI: 10.36253/smp-13800 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 25 (2023)
Authors:Lucia D'Ambrosi, Valentina Polci, Massimo Sargolini Pages: 97 - 108 Abstract: The article presents the results of a study aimed at investigating the engagement networks activated in the planning process of the territories affected by the 2016 earthquake in the Marche region. The research objective is to reflect on communication strategies implemented by a selection of municipal administrations to promote transparency and information sharing and, at the same time, citizen participation in design and planning processes. The results highlight the emergence of an all-of-society engagement approach, to experiment and co-create with a renewed relationship between institutions, science, and local communities. PubDate: 2023-02-16 DOI: 10.36253/smp-13782 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 25 (2023)
Authors:Mariella Nocenzi, Ombretta Presenti, Claudia Zoani Pages: 109 - 120 Abstract: The radical changes that have been affecting society in recent decades impose on the science in general, and the social sciences in particular, a serious rethinking of concepts and research methods in order to be able to adequately interpret the transition underway. These are, in fact, transformations that do not only concern interpersonal relations and the objectives of social life but start from and are reflected in the crisis of the environmental ecosystem and in the inability of the present generations, and even more so of future generations, to be able to satisfy their needs with the development model followed until now. In the search for a different development paradigm to apply, global adherence to the sustainable paradigm cannot but urge all sciences to rethink their own theoretical and methodological paths, making the sustainable paradigm also their own. This entails a real scientific revolution that certain phenomena, such as the pandemic crisis, have also imprinted, revealing the irreversibility of this ongoing process. The need for an integration of the sciences leads to a transdisciplinary approach to the study of the object of research, which is becoming increasingly complex, to the extent that it is necessary to 1) assume future time perspectives and 2) integrate even non-expert knowledge into increasingly proven models such as that of citizen science. The case study offered by the Pan-European Research Infrastructure for the Promotion of Metrology in Food and Nutrition (METROFOOD-RI) will be a good practice of how sustainability is now a paradigm for integrated sciences and citizen science. PubDate: 2023-02-16 DOI: 10.36253/smp-13792 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 25 (2023)
Authors:Ilaria Delponte, Luca Daconto, Simone Caiello Pages: 121 - 131 Abstract: The general understanding of mobility phenomena has increasingly taken on multiple and broad meanings in the various disciplines that question spatial practices and the relationship with the territory by individuals and social groups. The Italian legal system in the sector of urban mobility has recently evolved, introducing new urban planning tools and expanding the sphere of influence and the tasks of the figure of the Mobility Manager. In the promotion and implementation of mobility policies, the University acts as a privileged actor, bringing together very different generations and heterogeneous populations from a socio-economic and cultural point of view as well as in terms of origin and residential contexts; all these are elements which often imply different needs, skills and practices. Within this framework, the paper intends to explore the theme of inclusiveness and disability with special reference to university institutions as preferential places for the collective re-composition of individual beliefs that promote sustainability policies. After the analysis and comparison between international experiences and Italian case studies, the paper concludes with some considerations regarding the still evident critical issues (regulatory, managerial, financial,…) that hinder the implementation of truly effective policies. PubDate: 2023-02-16 DOI: 10.36253/smp-13783 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 25 (2023)
Authors:Marco Libbi, Anna Reggiardo Pages: 133 - 144 Abstract: The objective of this paper is to investigate the hybridization dynamics of the Third sector at the time of the Covid-19 pandemic. The progressive contamination between the State, market, family and Third sector spheres has long been subject of interest of the scholars. This paper aim at analysing these dynamics through the case study of Fondazione Banco Alimentare (Italian Food Bank Foundation). The case helps in investigating the impact of the pandemic on the role, logics and actors that make up the Third sector (both organizations and people) and its relation with the other subsystems. The empirical analysis shows that the pandemic and its consequences has enhanced the role of Fondazione Banco Alimentare, thanks to its relevance during the food emergency that also increased its visibility in the media. There are more institutional and non-institutional donors, more beneficiaries and help requests that resulted also in an accelerated professionalization and training of volunteers and employers. In conclusion, the Italian Food Bank and its network dealt with processes of digitalization, institutionalization and professionalization. These transformations resulted in a new positioning of the organization in the public sphere and redefined its relationship between local, national and European institutions. PubDate: 2023-02-16 DOI: 10.36253/smp-14257 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 25 (2023)
Authors:Lorenzo Grifone Baglioni Pages: 153 - 160 Abstract: The essay presents the perceptions about risk and trust collected in Italy during the first year of Covid-19 using secondary analysis data. The aim is to show how the fallout of the pandemic goes beyond the sphere of health and extends to those of individual action and social relations. The hypothesis is that the prolonged interruption of the normality of everyday life has temporarily halted the individualisation process. Risk, mistrust, uncertainty of social cohesion and deterioration of public debate, as observed in the survey, have contributed to reducing the space for the achievement of personal autonomy by producing heteronomy. PubDate: 2023-02-16 DOI: 10.36253/smp-14261 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 25 (2023)
Authors:Fabio de Nardis, Anna Simone Pages: 161 - 174 Abstract: This essay represents the first attempt to build the logical and epistemological foundations of Positional Sociology, i.e. a type of sociology that, by placing itself in the tradition of critical and public sociology, seeks to go beyond them by elaborating a new sociological practice that is both transformative and generative. To this end, the authors explain what is meant by positional sociology and then anchor it in the tradition of historical materialism and a Marxism freed from old ideological encrustations. The authors then attempt to combine the macro dimension, which is based on the analysis of historical and structural macro-processes, with the micro dimension and thus on the effects that certain major structural transformations have on the lives of subjects. The fundamental objective is thus to integrate the acquisitions of structuralist literature with post-structuralist sociological literature. PubDate: 2023-02-16 DOI: 10.36253/smp-14262 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 25 (2023)
Authors:Enrico Campo Pages: 175 - 184 Abstract: Considered a crucial resource, to be exploited for profit or to be protected as a common good, attention has attracted the interest of many disciplines. Despite this, sociology has not yet proposed a systematic analysis of it. The goal of this paper is to show the sociological relevance and heuristic utility of the concept of attention. In the first part, an initial definition of ‘attention’, in relation especially to the concepts of selection and limitation of attentional resources, is provided. Then, the most recent and relevant perspectives that have elected attention as an object of sociological investigation are discussed: the school of cognitive sociology that refers to the figure of Eviatar Zerubavel, the perspectives that look at attention as a resource and Dominique Boullier’s idea of ‘regimes of attention’. Overall, it is shown how adopting a particular metaphor for the study of attention tends to implicitly guide the choice of the elements considered relevant to the observed phenomenon. Therefore, the limitations and potentialities of the different perspectives are analyzed, the points of convergence are explored, and, in conclusion, possible future lines of research are mentioned. PubDate: 2023-02-16 DOI: 10.36253/smp-13157 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 25 (2023)
Authors:Edmondo Grassi Pages: 185 - 194 Abstract: In a contemporaneity in progress, the emergence of disruptive phenomena, unexpected and not underlying the rules of control and immediate quantification, induces the subject to a continuous representation and participation in the public debate, driven by the need to regain possession, even if only apparently, of the space of a mixture in which reality and fiction are contaminated in a relationship of continuous exchange until it is impossible to resolve their factuality and their construction. The intent is to theoretically outline the contours and the correlation phenomena between the understanding and manipulation of reality and the elements of communication, identity formation and social implications through the spread of social networks, deep fakes and artificial intelligence in the post-reality period. PubDate: 2023-02-16 DOI: 10.36253/smp-13689 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 25 (2023)
Authors:Dario Lucchesi, Vincenzo Romania Pages: 195 - 211 Abstract: In this article we analyse how the immigration issue is narrated during the Covid-19 outbreak by several Italian political actors. We select Facebook as the main digital arena of political communication in the Italian public sphere. Quantitative analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis have been applied to politicians’ posts aiming at identifying the linguistic strategies that contribute to instrumentalizing the emergency and aim to reinforce the politicization of the issue. Findings suggest that the main discursive strategies used by politicians do not only include migrants as a danger for the spread of the virus, but the migratory narration is systematically organized on negative campaigning blaming political opponents. The contribution helps to reveal how the anti-migration discourse is reproduced during the Covid-19 outbreak and how the politicization of the migration serves as a context for the normalization of migrant’s exclusion. PubDate: 2023-02-16 DOI: 10.36253/smp-13711 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 25 (2023)
Authors:Antonello Canzano Giansante Pages: 213 - 222 Abstract: The article examines the evolution of the Italian right framed in the broader phenomenon of the European right. The theoretical framework of reference comforts us in analysing the ideological configuration of the galaxy of the new right, which presents itself in its substantial homogeneity and in the affirmation of a new policy that, founded on the call to the people, claims the demand for an essential modification of the current socio-economic reality and of the prevailing socio-cultural conformation. The Italian Right contains specific peculiarities outlining a path that has led it to abandon legacies, appeals, echoes of the old ideological baggage. The path has not been linear. At first it accelerated in a moderate direction, then it saw a discontinuity in the direction of the recovery of certain radical traits. Our investigation into the right and the path that today sees Fratelli d’Italia as the main political formation of the Italian right is mainly based on research that sees local administrators and the Party on the Ground in general as the object of analysis, which we will use here to infer the main orientations and relevant confirmations on important ideological aspects. All this formed the basis of a broader research project involving much of the local and national ruling class, the conclusions of which will be offered in a subsequent publication. Here, the initial results and the analysis of official documents have been extremely useful in tracing the path taken by the Italian right. PubDate: 2023-02-16 DOI: 10.36253/smp-13794 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 25 (2023)
Authors:Giulio Moini Pages: 223 - 234 Abstract: The SARS-COV2 pandemic has emerged as a total social fact. It has overflown the public and politico-institutional spheres with doubts about the way society was answering to its needs before the crisis, and it has introduced new problems and needs, together with novel languages and practices to address them. What role has political sociology in this phase of radical change' The article argues that political sociology should not and cannot remain aphasic in this time, and that a reflection should start about the public role of political sociology. The first Section describes political sociology’s “duty” to intervene in public life. The second one offers an analytical key to read the impact of the pandemic on contemporary public policy. The last Section identifies a preliminary theoretical framework for defining the public role of political sociology and understanding its specific positioning in public life. PubDate: 2023-02-16 DOI: 10.36253/smp-14263 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 25 (2023)
Authors:Mariaeugenia Parito, Ricardo Pérez-Calle, Lucia D’Ambrosi Pages: 235 - 246 Abstract: The latest emergencies – economic, refugee, and the pandemic of Covid-19 – has impacted in European collective identity construction, especially in Southern Europe. This article investigates if the pandemic crisis has activated in young Italian and Spanish university students nationalistic or/and European responses. The analysis, based on an online survey, uses the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) statistical method to perform an exploratory analysis of the explanatory theoretical model of European sentiment. The results show that young people attribute several meanings to Europe during the pandemic, which are based mainly on making informed decisions and recognizing a common space of interaction as an opportunity of peace, security and democracy. The findings highlight the role of EU communicative actions in increasing trust in national and European institutions. PubDate: 2023-02-16 DOI: 10.36253/smp-13441 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 25 (2023)
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