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The book illustrates the results of research that emerged within the context of a specific European Union programme. The analysis was carried out by Italian, French and Spanish academics co-ordinated by the Inter-University Centre of Political Sociology of the University of Florence. It aims to reconstruct the educational careers of the new generations within the social and economic context of Southern Europe, paying particular attention to the conditions of university students and to youth unemployment. The issue is examined and discussed also in relation to a broader sociological meditation on the values shaping the future of the political culture in contemporary Europe

The book illustrates the results of research that emerged within the context of a specific European Union programme. The analysis was carried out by Italian, French and Spanish academics co-ordinated by the Inter-University Centre of Political Sociology of the University of Florence. It aims to reconstruct the educational careers of the new generations within the social and economic context of Southern Europe, paying particular attention to the conditions of university students and to youth unemployment. The issue is examined and discussed also in relation to a broader sociological meditation on the values shaping the future of the political culture in contemporary Europe. - Il volume illustra i risultati di una ricerca nata nell'ambito di uno specifico programma dell'Unione Europea. L'analisi condotta da studiosi italiani, francesi e spagnoli, coordinati dal Centro interuniversitario di Sociologia politica dell'Università di Firenze, ricostruisce i percorsi di formazione delle nuove generazioni all'interno del contesto sociale ed economico dell'Europa del Sud, con particolare riguardo alla condizione degli studenti universitari ed alla disoccupazione giovanile. Il tema è esaminato e discusso anche in relazione ad una più ampia riflessione sociologica sui valori che configurano il futuro della cultura politica nell'Europa contemporanea.

The excessive individualisation that characterises our age deprives and deforms social relations, and gives rise to painful loneliness and other forms of malaise. The sociological study of friendship, which is unfortunately still underdeveloped, makes it possible to analyse in depth the complexity of contemporary subjectivity and the problems it faces. This essay revisits the contributions of a classical author, Georg Simmel, and two contemporary authors, Birgitta Nedelmann and Francesco Alberoni. The interweaving of their analyses, based on different methodologies, shows how friendship remains a fundamental and indispensable resource for human existence, even in so-called modernity. The analytical elements described here are intended to stimulate further studies towards a more systematic sociology of friendship.

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The book illustrates the results of research that emerged within the context of a specific European Union programme. The analysis was carried out by Italian, French and Spanish academics co-ordinated by the Inter-University Centre of Political Sociology of the University of Florence. It aims to reconstruct the educational careers of the new generations within the social and economic context of Southern Europe, paying particular attention to the conditions of university students and to youth unemployment. The issue is examined and discussed also in relation to a broader sociological meditation on the values shaping the future of the political culture in contemporary Europe.

El presente trabajo tiene la intención de ofrecer elementos útiles de reflexión para la elaboración de un diagnóstico sobre la ciudad de Florencia. Ulteriormente éste serviría para la redacción de una Carta de la ciudad. En la ciudad de Florencia, presente, pasado y futuro conviven en un marco en el que la unicicidad y la diversidad se enfrentan de una manera pronunciada. La Carta debería reparar en el hecho de que existen varias ciudades (la del arte, la de la cultura, la capital metropolitana, etc.) dentro de Florencia. Distintos sentidos del lugar para los diferentes grupos sociales y relaciones que la conforman. ; This article provides a critical reflexion in order to elaborate a socio-urban diagnosis of the city of Florence. This diagnosis is necessary to draw up a Carta of the City. In the city of Florence the present, past and future cohabitate in a frame in which the unity and the diversity are brought face to face in a very acute way. The Carta has to bear in mind the fact of the existence of several cities (art, culture, political) within Florence.

The Erasmus programme is one of the outstanding Community initiatives, even if it is spoken little of outside the world of the university. This book, one of the first devoted to the subject, analyses the virtuous effects that the programme has had on the university system, the geography of student flows, and the motivations and propositions of those who have taken part in it. The reports of the students indicate the Erasmus as a 'bubble of experience' and the book explores these inner experiences through a sociological approach, illustrating the vast potential in terms of the moulding of a 'homo novus Europaeus'. The data gathered prompt a reflection on the redefinition of the role of the student when he or she directly experiences the comparison with a context different and distant from that of origin, to which he or she is nevertheless destined to return. From this perspective, the Erasmus experience assumes the significance of a sort of temporary upheaval of status open to forms of 'experimentation of identity'.

The Faculty of Political Science of Florence – the oldest school of political and social science in Italy, founded in 1875 by Carlo Alfieri and named after his father Cesare – has a tradition of study that is widely recognised, even abroad, to which the cultural project of this series is related. The first book is dedicated to the research activity carried out by Luciano Cavalli and the profound traces that it has left on Italian and European sociology. Now Professor Emeritus, Luciano Cavalli taught and worked at the "Cesare Alfieri" for many years from 1966 on. Around his commitment as a "pioneer" of sociology in Italy he mustered an array of sociologists, active in different universities, many of whom have opened up new frontiers within the discipline and have successfully cultivated a dialogue with the other social sciences, as the contents of the book clearly illustrate. This extensive collection of essays offers a clear image of the fertile sociological work that burgeoned around the scientific commitment of Luciano Cavalli and was often generated by his own action of cultural stimulus. The three sections into which the book is divided – Portrait of an intellectual, The sociology of political phenomena and Sociological theory and social change – address issues of great relevance to the contemporary sociological debate. The rapport between the democratic construction of the modern State and the role and functions of the leadership, the relations between citizens and leaders, the various forms of the democratic institutional structures and the transformations of political culture are interwoven with the Neo-Weberian interpretation of the charisma theory that Cavalli masterfully proposed. Also particularly significant and topical are the critical reflections made by writers whose scientific itinerary has run parallel to that of Cavalli for decisive stretches, and who were and are bound to his teaching when they tackle arguments such as the changes in urban life, immigration and the problems of economic, political and social development in our times.