Cambio. Rivista sulle Trasformazioni Sociali

Introduzione. Il paradosso di un’esperienza collettiva solitaria.

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Introduction to the Monographic Section.

La solitudine come tecnica di dominio.

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This work aims to understand solitude and isolation as a domination tool, as it was conceptualized and experimented in early XIX century prison reforms. Focus will be placed on French political thinker Alexis de Tocqueville’s critical reception of the French and Anglophone prison debates as well as on its field study of U.S. penitentiaries. As both a theorist and a political reformer, Tocqueville can be regarded as a key source concerning the philosophical path underlying the invention and early development of penitentiary systems. Tocqueville particularly stressed the importance of adopting convicts isolation as an essential step in order to accomplish a radical renewal of French prisons. His writings can therefore contribute to frame XIX century theorists’ understanding of «solitary confinement» and deprivation of mutual communication, as well as to analyze the different perspectives which distinguished the promoters of the various (and competing) forms of penitentiary solitude. Tocqueville’s writings on prisons, in turn, will be read through the interpretation of political thinker Roger Boesche, who interestingly evoked Tocqueville’s studies on solitude in prisons in order to draw a critique of late XX century consumerism.

Atomizzata o connessa? L’agire politico nella società individualizzata tra de-politicizzazione e ri-politicizzazione

2019-12-19T12:28:34+00:00

The article analyzes the relationship between social change and political change. The basic thesis is that, behind the widespread diagnosis of a political crisis a silencing "re-elaboration of the political" is happening. It’s a qualitative transformation of the places, of the actors, of the meanings of participation and, by this way, of the very definition of what is "political" that is deeply rooted in the "reinvention of the social". Social change profoundly alters the relationship between the individual and the collective sphere and transforms the role and functioning of political institutions. As a result, the forms and aims of participation are profoundly transformed. The "reinvention of the social" is a process of radical redefinition of the modalities of sociability between individuals and of the relationship between the individual and the collective sphere. The re-elaboration of the political, which finds expression in innovative practices of participation, promotes a process of re-politicization, which goes hand in hand with the process of de-politicization. Individualization does not mean atomization. It does not equate with depoliticization and it does not necessarily translate into eclipses of the public dimension and political solitude. The contribution suggests that the re-elaboration of politics is rooted in a “connected individualism”, while political solitude is expression of a “atomized individualism”.

The Solitude of Power. A Reflection on the Political

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In 1954 Carl Schmitt writes a dialogue entitled Dialogue on Power and on Access to the Powerful, in which he notices and examines the solitude of those who hold and exert power. He describes a twine of power, in which on one hand those who have command are in a state of dependence, and on the other hand those who should only represent the intermediate passage between the vertex (individual or assembly) and the basis (the people) are raised to a decision élite. This twine of power reflects, in a sort of variant, the master/servant dialectics of the Hegelian Phenomenology of Spirit, in which, at the end of the dialectics, the two extremes of the relationship overturn. This dialectics actually dissolves domination, that is, the power exerted through the relation of master/servant, every time, differently varied. Instead, Schmitt thinks of power only as domination. Hence, we have to distinguish power from domination. Via this crucial distinction it will be possible to aptly think and practice democracy.

Double loneliness and double belonging.

2019-12-19T12:28:35+00:00

In experiencing migration, some actors may take political action to contrast their own loneliness and to claim the belonging both to the host country and the country of origin. For the foreigners living in Italy, approaching to the social and political struggles of the community of origin can be a way to claim the belonging to a group, or to several groups. The objective of this contribution is to analyse the transnational networks of the political mobilisation at the time of globalization, the migration flows and the increasing use of online social networks.
The Moroccan movement Hirak Rif was born in the region of Rif during October 2016 to advance social, political and economic demands. This work’s aim is to examine the mobilisation of the Moroccans living in Italy, in particular of those from the Riffian region. They use Facebook as a tool of struggle, to fight the loneliness that they consider the end of the Hirak’s strength.
In this contribution, the role of the social networks as means of separation among individuals is questioned, supporting instead their unifying function. The social networks as political tools are essential to the existence of the Moroccan diaspora’s political action. This comes clear both from the observation of the movement’s action and from the interviews with the activists. Therefore, the assumption of the movement’s loneliness and the methods used in order to oppose it, seem to be strategies to fight the loneliness of the activists themselves. This can be seen as a migrant’s double loneliness, echoing the migrant’s double absence of Sayad’s analysis . The activists’ actions put in place to support the Riffian movement would lead, on the one hand, to the strengthening of the links between the individuals and the group of origin; on the other hand, they would lead to the creation or to the consolidation of the group in the immigration country. The political action, made possible and easier thanks to the social networks, is used by the activists to create and legitimate both groups. In this way the double political belonging of the activists is built and strengthened.

Gli smart workers tra solitudine e collaborazione

2019-12-19T12:28:38+00:00

This essay focuses on the risk of solitude of smart workers, i.e. those people who perform mobile, remotely and digitally intensive relations of work. Reduction in face-to-face interactions with organizational members can have negative effects on either their professional identity and sense of community, or their extra-work life. On the other side, a growing number of mobile workers is discovering novel social spaces and collective practices (e.g. Coworking Centers, Fab Labs). On the basis of a review of theoretical and research literature, and the analysis of data from the European Working Condition Survey, we connect the interpretation of smart working and of new digitalized practices of collaborative work.

Is smart working a win win solution for organizations and workers or merely a new form of intensification of work? Do the new practices of collaborative work overcome the risk of isolation posed by the remote work? Or are they perfectly complementary to smart working to reduce labor costs and share human capital? As empirical evidence does not permit to formulate clear answers to these questions, we try to identify trend lines for some future scenarios in terms of risks and opportunities.

Sulla sociogenesi della sociologia

2019-12-19T12:28:53+00:00

Elias propose una prima versione del testo qui presentato al V World Congress of Sociology, nel Settembre 1962. Il titolo originale - La “rottura col tradizionalismo” e le origini della sociologia - riprendeva per l’appunto quello della sessione in cui era presentato: “La rottura col tradizionalismo”. Quasi venti anni dopo, nel 1984, il manoscritto fu rivisitato e pubblicato – col titolo attuale – sull’«Amsterdam Sociologisch Tijdschrift». La versione qui tradotta è quella contenuta in Collected Works, vol. 16, a cura di R. Kilminster e S. Mennell, 2009, pp. 43-69. ©2009 Norbert Elias Foundation, Amsterdam. Desideriamo ringraziare i colleghi del Norbert Elias Stitching per il permesso di tradurre e pubblicare questo scritto.

Ricerca attivismo e trasformazione sociale nel post sisma

2019-12-19T12:28:40+00:00

In December 2016 the research project on the post-earthquake of the Central Apennines and the research group Emidio of Treviri was born. It generated a collective and self-organized research experience, oriented to a militant approach, which for over two years studies and returns the various aspects of the post-earthquake. This experience showed both the potential of this kind of research practice, based on a continuous interaction with the subjects involved in the post-disaster processes, and its implicit limits.

Our proposal starts from empirical research, yet with the aim of providing theoretical evaluations on the emancipatory potential of a critical social science, systematizing its risks and opportunities, as we have faced them during our field experience. The paper focuses in particular on the issues of the internal organization of the group, the organizational balance between efficiency and self-management, the methodologies and research techniques employed in relation to the pursued aims (methodological level); on the relationship with political and academic structures, in terms of opportunities and risks, sustainability and planning of the activity (epistemological level); on the transformative power of field-research, i.e. the ability to influence social processes (political level). The aim of the work is the critical analysis of a public (Buroway, 2007) and collective research process with the ultimate intent of relaunching its innovative scope in the processes of social change and its central role in the production, accumulation and sharing of knowledge.

A Short Story of Visual Anthropology

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The Isaan region, populous and poor area in the North East of Thailand, has thousands of small villages where ways of life and cultural traditions not yet polluted by contact with modernity still live and survive. In one of his long stays in the Isaan, the author of the text is fortunate to be able to participate as a friend and almost as a relative in a traditional funeral ceremony in a village a few dozen kilometers from Udon Thani. The co-author of this work, Manfredo Spillmann, formerly a freelance photographer in Switzerland, is in fact married to the lady's niece whose funeral was celebrated, and therefore fully introduced into the reality of the village. The following story comes out from the encounter of two curiosities, one more professional, the other more visual. Written in first person, it would like to convey to the reader not only the description of an event, but also the emotions that this experience has produced in them. Followed for three days, the funeral has revealed aspects of great interest, especially looking at religious rituals but also to everyday life, and at the interweaving of Buddhism and animism so typical of the most peripheral areas of North East Thailand

Ai posti di comando. Individui, organizzazioni e reti nel capitalismo finanziario italiano, edited by Joselle Dagnes

2019-12-19T12:28:43+00:00

Book review

Ai posti di comando. Individui, organizzazioni e reti nel capitalismo finanziario italiano, edited by Joselle Dagnes

2019-12-19T12:28:42+00:00

Book review

Fiducia Valore Networking di Manola Mazzotta, Gianluca Spatafora

2019-12-19T12:28:48+00:00

Standard book review

Emotions, Media and Politics, by Karin Wahl-Jorgensen

2019-12-19T12:28:46+00:00

Standard book review

Money Talks. Vent’anni di studi sul denaro sulla scia di Viviana Zelizer

2019-12-21T04:40:02+00:00

Una doppia recensione, di Viviana A. Zelizer, The social meaning of money e di Nina Bandeli, Frederick F. Wherry, Viviana A. Zelizer, Money talks. Explaining how money really works

Profiles

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Profiles - Segnalazioni