Antonio Rosmini is considered one of the leading Catholic philosophers in modern age. His reflections on politics, law and society can be very useful in facing the challenges coming from the so-called populist movements. M. Nicoletti suggests, in his last work, to consider Rosmini's conception of human person not only as theLeitmotivof his political philosophy but, broadly speaking, as the real chance to build a society in line with the great tradition of Modernity and Christian values.
Con questo saggio, Mette Rudvin ci porta alle funzioni del primitivismo nelle cronache odierne, esaminando le occorrenze del paradigma "immigrato/ straniero = primitivo" in un piccolo corpus di testi scritti e orali tratti dai media – che comprendono telegiornali, articoli e anche talk show politici italiani che vertono sul fenomeno dell'immigrazione – e mostrando come i miti occidentali del primitivismo vengano rappresentati linguisticamente. Lo studio, saldamente ancorato nelle teorie postcoloniali, rivela come il discorso popolare e giornalistico sull'immigrato si forgi sui più svariati e soventi contradditori miti occidentali del primitivo – da quello del "buon selvaggio" in armonia con la natura, a quello del 'selvaggio bestiale e incivile', fino a quello del 'selvaggio irrazionale e/o sensuale', tutte modalità di rappresentazione dell'altro come subalterno. L'analisi documenta non solo come il 'mito' del primitivismo si concretizzi nelle rappresentazioni dell'immigrazione che emergono sia dai discorsi di carattere apertamente razziale che da quelli presunti 'liberal', ma anche i modi in cui tali rappresentazioni contribuiscono a riproporre e istituzionalizzare i pregiudizi stereotipati di lettori, la cui dieta giornaliera di 'notizie' alimenta timori dell'altro, piuttosto che offrire narrazioni positive di individui appartenenti a civiltà differenti, che potrebbero costituire il potenziale per la creazione di rinnovati e migliori paradigmi culturali da contrapporre ad antichi ed anacronistici miti.
The essay tackles the intertwining of State and capital as powers that dominate modernity, locating on a global scale right from the start. This intertwining intersects inevitably the history of empire, which, rather than just being the precedent of the State, represents a composite form of layered sovereignties and multifaceted juridical spaces. The concept of the State that emerges from the essay moves away from the broadly meant Weberian conception, which is prevailing in contemporary literature. In contrast with the Weberian definition, indeed, the territoriality of the State is unsettled and altered both by the swaying of its borders and by the emergence of new territorial formations inside and across the borders. The global view on the State complicates its relationship with the nation and the idea of the monopoly of the legislative production and legitimate physical strength. The result is a much more fragmented and movable image of the history of modern State.
2011/2012 ; Societies of eastern European countries and among them Albania since more than two decades have overturned the communist regime and have started their path of versatile social, political and economical change. But despite the fact that much time has passed, still many uncertainties remain unanswered regarding the modernization change vector of these societies. In the theoretical framework of classical approaches on modernization, which are embraced by most scholars of transitology, the prospect of these countries was clear, as long as the finality was predetermined – to achieve the Western model of modernity. As result the entire process of change was simply mechanical and consisted only in finding adequate instruments to implement the necessary reforms to achieve this development model. But even if there existed a social compromise in order to passively accept a uni-linear and teleological development philosophy, it dismantle any source of diversity by questioning the modernity per se, it is not only unworthy but above all impossible. Thus starting from this premise, some other researchers oppose this approach by pretending more a plural conceptualization of post-communist modernity than a homogenizing one. Exactly from this critical theoretical coordinate starts my research on post-communist modernity seeking to break free firstly from this paradigm, in order to be able to observe with other lenses Albanian post - communist reality. We're thus looking for a local path to modernization of Albanian society and agents that participate in this social change. Although aware from the starting point, that we cannot find any meaningful features of any local modernity, because the homogenizing and uni-linear paradigm of modernization is perpetuated by all local actors as an undisputable modus operandi, reflected in the society vocation of integration into the European Union. More concretely, the main object of theoretical and empirical analyze in this dissertation becomes the state-society relationship, as it manifests in the best mode the typology of social change that Albanian society is experiencing. Indeed, while the whole society is appealed to participate in the installation of "new order", the opposite is observed- political alienation of society, deterioration of horizontal and vertical trust, low participation, inactive civil society that reduces the relationship state - society in a dysfunctional relationship. The state instead of being valued as the castle that we must build altogether is increasingly seen as a foreign body within the social organism. By analyzing at the empirical and theoretical level historical and actual reasons of these phenomena, we will try to explore better the physiognomy of post-communist modernity in Albania (if such exists) and of participatory agents in the social change process. ; XXV Ciclo ; 1980
In his first novel, Ginster, Kracauer constructs a double of himself, a young architect dissatisfied with the commercial aspects of architecture and the serialized form of dwellings it is producing for new urban settlements in Weimar Germany. Shocked by WWI warfare which disrupts social ties and belie bourgeois common sense, Ginster focuses on the surface of artefacts and social phenomena in order to make fresh connections between art, craft and society, and thus show his contemporaries how to face an increasing complex reality. The contribution shows how both Ginster and Kracauer's feuillettons call for a reform of spaces which should bring about new forms of an organic lifestyle in which solidarity inspired by a common pursuit should be paramount. ; Il primo romanzo di Kracauer, Ginster, che l'autore definisce un'autobiografia anonima, mette in scena un giovane architetto, un alter ego di Kracauer stesso, disgustato dalle implicazioni commerciali dell'architettura e dalle cellule abitative seriali che l'architettura produce per la pianificazione urbanistica della Germania di Weimar. Traumatizzato dagli effetti devastanti della guerra sul fronte interno, Ginster non crede alla costellazione dell'interiorità residuo dell'idealismo e cerca invece negli artefatti e nelle superfici degli oggetti uno stimolo verso una sintesi di estetica e progettualità politica. Nella sua ricerca di una solidarietà organica ma non naturale e la diffidenza verso lo Stato di Weimar si possono individuare interessanti analogie con il pensiero e la prassi della biopolitica postfoucaultiana.
Il presente lavoro riflette in prospettiva sociologica,sulla riscoperta degli aspetti etici del consumo. I cosiddetti consumi critici, sostenibili e responsabili, che presuppongono un agire sociale dotato di senso, rappresentano una pratica di acquisto tesa al ben-vivere. Il consumo da vicario della produzione -qual' è stato per un lungo periodo- è diventato uno dei principali, se non il principale, punto di snodo della società in cui ci muoviamo. I consum-attori postmoderni, tecnicamente più preparati e in grado di esprimere richieste al mondo della produzione e della distribuzione, sono consapevoli che l'atto di acquisto è diventato uno strumento per esprimere impegno e responsabilità nella sfera pubblica. Tale pratica contribuisce all'affermazione e alla determinazione di nuovi modi di essere e di agire dove confluiscono nuovi valori simbolici legati all'emergere di nuove abitudini di spesa. Partendo da tale ipotesi, la parte empirica del lavoro affronta un'analisi qualitativa prendendo in esame lo sviluppo del farmer's market, il mercato degli agricoltori, forma ed espressione della filiera corta. Si osserva un caso di studio nella Regione Molise allo scopo di comprendere cosa si cela dietro l'atto di acquisto e perché si predilige un atteggiamento alternativo al sistema della grande distribuzione. Il farmer's market è un luogo di convivialità dove è possibile fermarsi, parlare, consumare qualcosa in compagnia. E' un'occasione in cui vengono accorciate le distanze fisiche, economiche e soprattutto sociali, in cui diventa sempre più lontana l'idea della spesa intesa come atto funzionale ed alienante tipico dell'homo consumericus. Concezioni, abitudini e atteggiamenti che propongono il passaggio da un modello di consumi in cui l'elemento fondante è rappresentato dal benessere soggettivo -componente primario della felicità personale anche dal punto di vista identitario ed espressivo - ad un modello in cui i consumi restano fondamentali, ma come ingredienti di una migliore qualità del vivere. La prima parte del lavoro a valenza introduttiva, ripercorre con un excursus sulla letteratura, le teorie dei classici e dei contemporanei del pensiero sociologico, tentando di fornire una definizione di consumatore postmoderno. A questa, seguono i temi della sostenibilità ambientale e responsabilità sociale che mirano ad opporsi alle logiche proprie dello spreco-consumo, radici della crisi ambientale, del degrado e del rischio globale. La questione ecologica diventa, economica e politica, e ancor più una questione sociale, frutto di una nuova logica organizzativa in materia di consumo. La seconda parte affronta la ricerca sul campo riportando tra gli altri, i dati sulle motivazioni alla base di tale pratica di consumo e successivamente esplorando il ruolo del produttore/venditore attraverso l'attribuzione di credibilità che gli viene conferita. Il concetto di comunità, ambito tutt'oggi aperto nel dibattito sociologico, conclude il percorso di ricerca ponendo attenzione alla riscoperta del localismo. ; This thesis focuses on the rediscovery of the ethical aspects of consumption. Principal consumption that is both sustainable and responsible presupposes what Weber termed a rational social action and represents an aspiration to live well. Vicarious consumption - which has existed for a long time – has become one of the principal if not the principal turning point in the society in which we live. Post-modern consumers, technically more prepared and able to express their wishes to the world of production and distribution, are aware that shopping has become an instrument with which to express commitment and responsibility in the public domain. Shopping has contributed to the affirmation and the determination of new ways of being and behaving, which converge with the new symbolic values tied to the emergence of new shopping habits. Using this hypothesis as a starting point, the empirical part of this thesis engages with a qualitative analysis of the development of the farmers' market, the embodiment of a short distribution chain. It examines a case study in the region of Molise, with the aim of understanding what is concealed behind the act of shopping and why there is now a preference for an alternative way of thinking that goes against the model of mass production. The farmers' market is a place of conviviality, where it is possible to stop, talk and consume something in company. It is an occasion in which physical, economic and above all social distances are diminished, where the idea of food shopping as merely an essential and alienating act, typical of the homo consumericus, is remote. Conceptions, habits and attitudes now promote a move away from a model of consumption founded on the principle of subjective well-being – a primary component of personal happiness, even when seen from the point of view of identity and expression – to a model in which consumers remain fundamental, but are now the main players in the quest for a better quality of life. The first part of the thesis, as an introduction, reviews the literature and discusses both classic and contemporary sociological theory, with the aim of producing a definition of the post-modern consumer. This is followed by a discussion of environmental sustainability and social responsibility, two concepts that are set in opposition to the logics of wasteful consumption, something that can be seen at the heart of the global environmental crisis. The ecological debate has become not only economic and political but social; the fruit of a new organisational logic in the field of consumption. The second part of the thesis deals with the field work, presenting amongst other things, data concerning the motivation at the heart of this new model of consumption. This is followed by a detailed exploration of the role of the producer/seller by focusing on the attribution of credibility which has been conferred upon them. A discussion of the concept of community, a concept still wide open in sociological debate, with a particular emphasis on the rediscovery of localism, concludes this research. ; Dottorato di ricerca in Sociologia e Ricerca Sociale (XXIV ciclo)
In questo articolo, al tempo di importanti novità introdotte dalle politiche regionali pugliesi per le biblioteche in specie di ente locale, l'autrice propone alcune riflessioni su valore e futuro di patrimoni e funzioni, destinati a essere sempre più ignorati e superati dalle pressioni della società liquida e da indefiniti bisogni comunitari.Alla luce dei nuovi orientamenti dell'avviso regionale community library, le biblioteche sono concepite come contenitori sociali e trasformate in 'scatole aggreganti', mentre per contenere la desertificazione culturale in atto diventa urgente rafforzarne il ruolo di presidio urbano e introdurre nel territorio hub di conoscenza diffuse. A tal proposito nell'ambito dell'esperienza Biblioteche fuori di sé, risultano interessanti le iniziative realizzate presso i centri commerciali, attività definibili di 'ipercultura' che potrebbero essere declinate permanentemente anche in Puglia, non tanto con l'obiettivo di distogliere i clienti dai riti collettivi della celebrazione consumistica, né di convertirli in lettori forti, ma con quello di offrire una opportunità a ciascun individuo disposto a ritrovare se stesso in una rinnovata dimensione civica.Attraverso i risultati dell'osservazione condotta in occasione dell'esportazione della biblioteca comunale "Ugo Granafei" di Mesagne presso la Galleria Auchan, si dimostra come sia imprescindibile il ruolo del bibliotecario nella sua funzione di promotore di cultura locale e di mediatore di saperi globali; in specie oggi, a fronte di una professione misconosciuta e sottovalutata da cittadini e decisori politici, i bibliotecari insieme ad altre forze e con nuove alleanze, possono e devono cercare di arginare il degrado che ci circonda non rinunciando mai al proprio ruolo sociale e culturale, anche se questo comporta solitudine e fatica. ; In this article, at the time of important innovations introduced by Apulian regional policies for libraries and especially for public ones, the author suggests some reflections about the value and the future of collections and functions, doomed to be more and more ignored and outdated by the pressure of the liquid modernity and undefined community needs.In the light of the new guidelines of the regional notification Community Library, the libraries are seen as social containers and they are transformed into meeting boxes, while to contain the current cultural desertification it is necessary to reinforce the role of the urban presidium and to introduce a hub of widespread knowledge in the territory. Regarding this purpose, during the experience entitled Biblioteche fuori di sé, the initiatives definable as 'ipercultura' and organized in the shopping centers result interesting; they could be replicated permanently also in Puglia, neither with the objective to distract clients from the collective rituals of the consumer celebration, nor with the aim to convert them in strong readers, but to offer an opportunity to everyone to find himself in a renewed civic dimension.The results of observation, made during the exportation of the public library "Ugo Granafei" of Mesagne in the Galleria Auchan, demonstrated how important is the role of the librarian as local culture promoter and global knowledge mediator. Especially nowadays, in a context in which this profession is unrecognized and underrated by citizens and policy makers, librarians, with other forces and new alliances, can and must try to contain the degradation that surrounds us, never giving up their social and cultural role, even if this means solitude and effort.
Modernity is a very complex term, which needs great precision in the definition of its meaning. My point is that Hegel plays a major role in the transformation of modernity in post-Enlightment, but he IS also working with very traditional concepts like Stände, Polizei and so on. This represents an objective limit of his science of government, which cannot be intended as a persistent model for the democratic State-building in the 19th and 20th cen-tury. From a philosophical point of view however his idea of sovereignity and representation could be useful for us today in order to imagine a new idea of political obligation. For doing so, we need an extreme effort to elaborate and achieve a new standard of modernity, perhaps no longer based on the liberal items of individualism, representation and formal constitution. We need to discover a new measure for men and women which can coexist with the growing reality of globalization and human interchange. We can of course call it federalism, as a combination of different measures in private and public life, not only as a rule of law but with the sociological implications put forward for instance by Emile Durkheim and Léon Duguit. An answer could possibly come from a reinterpretation of a political structure that also Hegel had known very well: administration, toward an administrative federalism.
In this essay the author maintains that the brelationship with the ideality of being is characterised by the well- promising convergence of truth's revelation with justice's assurance. The being's truth is attested by the stability of good. Being is being comme il faut, as it must be in order to be good, as it must be in order to be fine. From this point of view, post-modern conscience is criticised. The author argues that modern conscience is something different both from the figures of illuministic subjectivity, and from the figures moulded by historical conscience: it is not diachronic in relationship with the projectual, constructive, emancipatory orientation of freedom, but it is not synchronic either, as on the contrary structuralism (functionalism, constructivism, contractualism) wrongly maintain because of its need of coherence. We could define it chronic: linked to symbolic values of temporal flood and distrustful of any stability of being in its different ties (as truth and as justice). Distrustful, because it has separated being from its connections. In this way the contemporary drift of European secularisation has generated a new figure: that of an agnosticism interested in religion and uninterested in faith. The author gives an accurate analysis of this type of agnosticism by treating it as a figure of post-modern secularity.
Massimo Cacciari is one of the sharpest theorists of that cultural crisis from which Postmodernism is originated. Throughout the various forms that the twentieth-century thought has taken he recognises the fundamental idea that reality is composed by antinomies. No dialectical "synthesis" can overcome them. From a moral and political point of view, this means that different subjects can live together only if they maintain their difference and their opposition. Harmony with the others cannot be imposed from above. Harmony lies in the opposition itself and therefore needs difference. Cacciari is certainly right in claiming the value of difference, although this should not imply the reality of contradiction, which is impossible both from a logical and from an ontological point of view.
The author proposes a key of interpretation of the post — modern age not as a mere cultural attitude but as an effective philosophical horizon of our time. Two considerations are needed in order to define it: the proclaimed impossibility of a one-way description of reality, and the conviction of the existence of a plurality of conceptual schemes which can not be absolutely reduced one to the other. Therefore postmodernism severely limits the possibility of analysing notions such as liberty, justice and good, which are laden with universalism. After indicating the different possible solutions, the author presents his personal thesis of reflective authenticity: from the kantian notion of reflective judgement, the author traces in authenticity (intended not in a simple psychological or existential sense) the quality of "being measure for one-selves" or self-congruence typical of arts' masterpieces. By disengaging this notion from its original aesthetic ambit it is possible, in Ferrara's opinion, to refer to a pluralistic or exemplar universalism, applicable to ethics as to law, to the political judgement as to the theoretical one, completely different from that generic universalism which is on the contrary based on trans-contextual principles, typical of the modern age.
