Suchergebnisse

This chapter aims at complexifying the migration debate in Italy by focusing on the conflict between, on one hand, the cities that expressed solidarity during the 2015-18 refugee reception crisis and, on the other hand, the Government in office in 2018-19. Significantly, port cities have particularly distinguished themselves as welcoming spaces, for the involvement of their civil society in reception support, and their political opposition to the Government's anti-migration stance. Our intention is therefore to identify and analyse the specificities of these places, their unique ethnocultural and political identity, which paved the way for local and more inclusive paradigms of reception. ; Peer reviewed

The 2015-18 refugee reception crisis featured strong humanitarian engagement and political mobilization of the European civil society. Organizations and engaged citizens played a key role in integrating the field practices of the state-mandated actors in charge of the reception and accommodation of asylum seekers. In many instances, the civil society represented the sole provider of services oriented towards the sociocultrual integration and the physical and psychological wellbeing of newcomers asylum seekers. Artistic practices were often employed by civil society actors to establish ties and relationships with newcomers. Practitioners, artists and culture professionals, indeed, designed and carried out participatory projects based on performing arts involving asylum seekers. The principles that motivated such activity revolved around the idea that being involved in the arts would help participants to relieve from post-traumatic stress, cope with gruelling wait and uncertainty for their asylum application, and ultimately get back to a normal life. I draw on ethnographic fieldwork contucted during the refugee reception crisis to critically discuss the impact of music-based participatory projects involving the residents of collective reception centres in Belgium. I argue that the principles motivating these projects, as well as the initial and final outcomes intended by practitioners (non-migrants), are often not shared by participants (migrants) who have different priorities, motivations and objectives. Although often positive, the impact of such projects is thus unrelated to the nature of the proposed activities, and springs from random contextual factors. I conclude by providing some recommendations to be adopted in the design and implementation of art-based projects in the specific context of collective reception centres. ; Peer reviewed

Neapolitan neomelodica music is popular among listeners in Southern Italy and abroad. Its contents and aesthetic qualities are depicted as a sign of cultural degradation or as an expression of the criminal culture characterising, as the cliché would have it, Naples' marginalised underclass. The dominant paradigm in journalistic and criminological analyses describes its scene as mostly unprofessional and largely embedded in a mafia-run entertainment circuit through which Camorra members reinforce their popular consensus and economic domination over local communities. The aim of this article is to deconstruct this dominant view by using an ethnographic approach to analyse several case studies of neomelodica music. The pre-existing literature mostly criticises moral and cultural aspects of the phenomenon, while the public debate tends to misinterpretate and underestimate the real dimensions of neomelodica music as a professionally organised and structured cultural business. The unrecognised status of neomelodica music complicates a more articulated view of its political-economic modes of functioning and on the role played by dominant criminal actors in the field. This article concludes that, rather than being a product of an endogenous degenerate local political economy, the informal and illicit aspects of the neomelodica business can be read as the consequence of its marginalisation in the Italian cultural landscape and entertainment industry.The aim of this article is to deconstruct this dominant view by using an ethnographic approach to analyse several case studies of neomelodica music. The pre-existing literature mostly criticises moral and cultural aspects of the phenomenon, while the public debate tends to misinterpretate and underestimate the real dimensions of neomelodica music as a professionally organised and structured cultural business. The unrecognised status of neomelodica music complicates a more articulated view of its political-economic modes of functioning and on the role played by dominant criminal actors in the field. This article concludes that, rather than being a product of an endogenous degenerate local political economy, the informal and illicit aspects of the neomelodica business can be read as the consequence of its marginalisation in the Italian cultural landscape and entertainment industry. ; Peer reviewed

Pipeline damage by dropped objects from crane activities is a significant hazard for offshore platform installations. In this paper a probabilistic methodology is utilized for the estimation of the pipeline impact and rupture frequencies; this information is obtained both for the overall pipeline section exposed to the hazard and for a number of critical locations along the pipeline route. The presented algorithm has been implemented in a computer program that allows the analysis of a large number of possible drop points and pipeline target point locations. This methodology may be used in common risk analysis studies for evaluating the risk for platform personnel from dropped objects; however, the proposed technique may also be useful for other applications where engineering judgment has so far been the main driving criterion. In particular, two sample cases have been analyzed. The first one is the problem of selecting the best approaching route to a platform. By analyzing different route alternatives, a reduction of the impact frequency and therefore of the risk for the platform personnel may be achieved. The second application deals with the selection of the location for a safety valve at the riser base. The analysis may give useful information, such as the highest impact frequency location and the rupture frequencies upstream and downstream of the valve as a function of the valve position; this information, together with the transported medium inventory upstream of the valve, may give the designer a documented and justifiable rationale for selecting the best location for the valve from a safety point of view.

Large scientific attention has been devoted to the role of cultural and artistic practices in the society, the impact they can have on social groups, their function to help, empower, advocate for, transform and change both minority groups and the mainstream. While endeavoring to have such practices recognized as socially impactful, scholars warn against considering everything as being socially engaged. The core of this debate lies in the tension between the concepts of "art for art's sake" and "art for non-artistic outcomes". This tension is evident in different instances that we will highlight and discuss in this paper. It is the case of artistic performances or art pieces that are considered to be socially engaged and meet the criteria of different forms of social action, but were not intended to be such by the artist. Similarly, those practitioners (eg : professional artists, art teachers, facilitators, or trainers) who provide the structural and relational means and conditions for creative processes to take place, are also often identified as socially engaged. The assignation of a social intention is even more common in the case of artists and creators who are members of minority groups or have strong ties with a specific local community and geographic locality. As such, these artists are often assumed to be activists in support of a cause for their group and/or place. In all these instances, cultural and artistic practices are considered as political acts. These categorizations warrant further investigation. In this paper we will explore the utility of the theoretical underpinnings/definitions of what constitutes social action through the arts when it comes to accidental activists. We propose this category to identify art practitioners who did not intend for their work to have a specific social impact and political function. We will employ examples of music artists with a migrant background or from specific urban settings in order to better understand the role of artistic intention in the categorization of socio-political activism. ; Peer reviewed

Sebbene il Belgio non sia più tra le principali destinazioni per i migranti italiani, il numero degli arrivi è considerevole se rapportato alle ridotte dimensioni del paese. Dopo un breve excursus sulla lunga storia dell'immigrazione italiana, questo articolo si concentra sulla situazione delle nuove comunità italiane nel paese. In particolare vengono delineati gli aspetti demografici, l'integrazione nel mercato del lavoro con particolare attenzione al settore imprenditoriale, la mobilitazione sociale e politica, la vita culturale e le relazioni con le comunità italiane storicamente presenti. ; Peer reviewed

The refugee question occupied centre stage at every political debate in Europe since 2015. Starting from the ?long summer of migration?, the polarization of opinions and attitudes towards asylum seekers among citizens of the European Union has grown increasingly. The divergence between hospitality and hostility has become evident in political reactions as well.00The focus of this book is on this polarization, on the positive and negative attitudes, representations and practices, as well as on the interactions, at the local level, between majority populations and asylum seekers in the context of the 2015-18 reception crisis

The refugee question occupied centre stage at every political debate in Europe since 2015. Starting from the "long summer of migration", the polarization of opinions and attitudes towards asylum seekers among citizens of the European Union has grown increasingly. The divergence between hospitality and hostility has become evident in political reactions as well.The focus of this book is on this polarization, on the positive and negative attitudes, representations and practices, as well as on the interactions, at the local level, between majority populations and asylum seekers in the context of the 2015–18 reception crisis.This book has three objectives. First, it intends to examine public opinion towards asylum seekers and refugees through a European cross-national perspective.Second, it explains the public opinion polarization by focusing on pro- and anti-migrant mobilization, and investigating the practices of hospitality and hostility in local communities.The third objective is to understand asylum seekers' and refugees' own perceptions of receiving countries and their asylum systems. These issues are specifically debated in the Belgian case. The other national case studies include Germany, Sweden, Hungary, Greece and Italy, and have been chosen based on preliminary research on the policy system, public opinion, and geopolitical position.This book represents the main output of the research project entitled "Public opinion, mobilizations and policies concerning asylum seekers and refugees in anti-immigrant times (Europe and Belgium)" supported by the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO/BRAIN-be). ; http://shop.pub-ulb.be/product/show/the-refugee-reception-crisis--polarized-opinions-and-mobilizations/2632928 ; info:eu-repo/semantics/published