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This conceptual paper is aimed at describing the very nature of meaning, advancing its sociological understanding as both process and artifact, both interaction and norm. Such a theoretical perspective mainly owes its theoretical assumptions to thinkers such as John Locke, Ferdinand De Saussure and Roland Barthes, coming up with an original conception and definition of meaning as a "flexible social artifact". It draws on the analysis and critique of a variety of social theories (from deconstructionism to hermeneutics) but inscribes within the tradition of symbolic interactionism, therefore it describes meaning as intrinsically subjective but constantly objectified and provided with the coercive power that characterizes social institutions, while introducing the ideas of social reliability and responsibility. The study, in fact, is eventually meant to underscore the ethical limits of an absolute subjective interpretation of meaning, hence to advance the hypothesis that emphasis should be posed on the social agreement that subjectivity itself implies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents initial findings from an interdisciplinary study on the significance of food origin for contemporary Italian consumers. Despite the prolonged crisis and over 9 million people experiencing food hardships in 2022, the labeling of food origin remains a paramount concern for Italian consumers, significantly influencing their purchasing decisions. In this era of uncertainty, the food origin label has evolved into a symbolic construct, exacerbating omnivore dilemmas within an increasingly unreliable global landscape and contributing to a renegotiation of trust in expert knowledge, eroded by the prolonged crisis. By examining the cultural narratives underlying geographical indications of food products, their impact on consumer values and meanings, and their integration into daily communication and consumption practices, this study provides insights into the emerging contradictory axiology and social dynamics guiding food-related practices during times of crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to reflect on the socio-legal dynamics affecting the Algerian nomadic society, with particular reference to the period between 1830 and 1960. Algeria, which has been affected at the institutional and formal level by a decisive wave of re-Islamization since the second half of the eighties of the twentieth century, has not completely left behind its rich history of linguistic, cultural, religious and legal pluralism. In addition to the kaleidoscopic complexity of its substrate and heritage, it still carries within itself a significant minority of the population that has not abandoned the condition of nomadism. At a time when migratory flows pose questions such as that of polyethnic and multi-contextual rights to the Europe of jurists, and doctrine questions the operational possibilities of an orderly pluralism (mainly as a result of the partial decline of sovereignty under the lash of the repercussions of the economy), while legal practice is unfolding in new directions, such as that of automation, the law seems to be put to the test by two sets of questions: the erosion and redrawing of geographical boundaries that determine its effectiveness on the one hand, and the unpredictable possibilities freed up by the global non-place of virtual and market negotiations on the other. Speed, movement, wars, and the instability of effective boundaries seem to be the new stumbling blocks brought about by globalization, and the uncertainty of possible solutions is almost frightening; Studying the regulatory dimension of Algerian nomads reveals ancestral solutions whose functional capacity is not undermined by the perennial change of territories, landscapes, alliances - solutions that are not immediately expendable in the contemporary world, but which constitute significant food for thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the growing influence of radical right-wing parties, their main ideas appear more and more freely in the media and institutional circles. By adapting traits from the ideology of the right-wing (often post-fascist) into a globalized context, they put themselves forward as nativists, sovereignists, authoritarians and defenders of traditions. The ideologies of these political formations have also included gender issues within them, and the complex and articulated use of these issues is the subject of this paper. Specifically, we aim to analyze the increasingly prominent role that gender issues play within the ideologies of the Italian radical right wing parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to propose, from the perspective of the sociology of conflict, a critical reflection on the problems of post-democracy and on the legitimacy of the instruments of intervention in international law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to provide a provisional overview of the 2024 US presidential election campaign. The analysis of the communication strategies adopted by Trump and Biden after one year in campaigning will focus on their political advertising. Adapting the methodology of videostyle, the analysis will describe the distinctive features of the two opposing electoral narratives. These include the tendency towards personalisation, the intensity of polarization, the dominant emotional frames adopted, and the ideological-value structures referenced. The objective is to provide insights into the American election campaign of 2024, identifying the communication styles of its two contrasting leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dilthey has no place in sociology because his Verstehen method was accused of psychologism. He fell into the trap of scientism, a positivist ideal of science to which even the German sociological tradition wanted to belong. The paper attempts to extend the sociological canon to the interpretive categories of 'life' and 'thought' theorized by Dilthey, and to demonstrate the valid application of his method, particularly in understanding human suffering and social needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper is intended to be a humble attempt to redeem sociology, a discipline unjustly perceived as a handmaiden among the human sciences, from the secondary role to which it is inappropriately relegated in deference to an evergrowing trend of technicalization and formalization, even algorithmic, of economics and law and even of certain specialized branches of sociology itself. On the contrary, an attempt is made to demonstrate, keeping in the background the great work of Mireilles Delmas-Marti, that it is precisely the most general, historically-anthropologically compromised and culturologically oriented part of this discipline that is the one most capable of accounting for the complexity underlying the local/global dynamics in progress, deciphering the asynchronic and destabilizing forces that corrode the effectiveness of the rules redesigning scenarios and destinies of social actors, and partially motivating the reasons involved. It seems all the more significant and urgent to us to push academic reflection towards a revival of the "great sociology" traditionally understood, in a season of disturbing juridical nihilism and worrying déshistoricisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes the contribution of Vincenzo Cesareo to the theme of war in Ukraine, laid out in his book "The War in the Heart of Europe". Fruit of a multidisciplinary approach, Cesareo's contribution is notable not only for its stylistic clarity, but also for the spirit and passion with which he illustrates the rights of Ukraine and the wrongs of Putin: a genuine "lesson" in times of analyses that are too often partisan and/or ideologically distorted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will attempt to reconstruct and understand the relationship between crisis, social development, legal order, and political decision-making as they have come to be intertwined in modern industrial society. Particular attention will be paid to the theme of "permanent crisis" and the problems of the "motorization of law," legal constructions, technical and scientific power in relation to processes of political legitimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to analyze the different forms that nontextual narrative takes related to the fundamental dimensions that characterize the video game medium, namely interactivity and game design. After providing a general definition of narrative and clarifying how its role is discussed within the scientific debate it will be proposed a semiotic model of analysis for each component and how narrative organizes each of them. Finally, two works will be analyzed where it is evident how the relationship between narrative and game design/interaction, taking into consideration the proposed models for analyzing the medium, defines not only the work itself but also the relationship with the user. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to identify the concrete processes by which the complex machinery of the legal system operates, a focus on the narratives of law in popular culture can be useful. However, studying narrative poses a number of theoretical and methodological pitfalls. The aim of this paper is a return to Vincenzo Tomeo's half-century-old work The Judge on the Screen. The book is an excellent example of a sociologically careful and methodologically insightful use of fictional narrative sources such as films. It can be considered a classic of 'law and culture' studies and a forerunner of the 'law and cinema' movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of study on narratives and social theory is broad and constantly evolving, as well as the relation between narratives and law. From the 70s on, partticularly in the Anglo-Saxon context the movement Law and Literature emerged, both as the analysis of law as literature and literature as law. Jurists, writers and literary critics began to explore the ways in which literature can help understand law and vice versa. The interactions between law and literature continue to challenge the traditional view of law as a technical and formal discipline, thus offering a socio-cultural approach to its understanding. Like any narratives, legal narratives are not transparent and neutral views of reality, as meanings do not pre-exist the process of emplotment. Stories, including legal stories, construct facts. In this paper, after a brief review of the main features of judicial narratives, I aim to investigate the peculiar narrative dimension of narratives produced within trials for human rights violations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is an attempt to assess the potentiality of literary sources for the social sciences. It proposes a connection between the ontological conception of social reality and the methodological possibility to recur to literary narratives for social analysis. The concept of multiple reality (Alfred Schutz) is exemplified by referring chiefly to Schutz' treatment of Miguel Cervantes' novel, Don Quijote. In the concluding remarks, a complex conception of social reality is advocated, able to conceive society both in terms of social facts and social representations. Such ontological attitude may give due relevance to literature as a source of sociological data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Male violence against women is often framed in an episodic way, as an ‘individual’ deviance, thus, as a problem pertaining to the sphere of private relationships. Attention is thus diverted from its structural causes - rooted in the inequality of material and symbolic power between men and women - thus depriving the phenomenon of its public relevance and its political significance. Men’s violence against women, on the other hand, is rooted in the inequalities of power operating in societies and is to be considered the instrument through which men try to preserve, within society, their position of material and symbolic dominance over women. With this paper we propose an analysis of the reflections on gender-based violence, with an emphasis on the discourses that help to frame the issue from a socio-political perspective and that focus on gender-based violence as a tool through which patriarchal society reproduces itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s political leadership is a new phenomenon. The objective of the paper is to understand the genesis of AOC’s political leadership by holding together the different aspects of its success, namely digital nativism, female and intersectional leadership, the functioning of its political machine. At the same time, it aims to connect the AOC case to the specific aspects of the American political system, namely its specific populist/progressive tradition and the functioning of large party-network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper, starting from a broad analysis of the weberian sociological conception, investigates the problem of "meaning" by comparing it with other similar concepts (use, customs, etc.) and arriving at the more general one of the "images of the world" (weltbild) which is less themed but undoubtedly central in his thought. The second part of the paper examines the visions of the world that generated capitalism, modern political imaginaries and contemporary metamorphoses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Refugees condition is for many reason one of the most vulnerable one. The paper describe a field work in which refugees are actively involved in the research process, allowing researchers to reflect on the meaning of the study and on the traces of agapic actions present in daily life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents an empirical analysis of social love, highlighting the meaning and the empirically detectable dimensions of this concept and clarifying some unresolved issues in the theoretical literature on this topic. Thanks to a qualitative meta-analysis conducted on some case studies the paper tries to understand how agape manifests itself in the social dimension and how it differs from other phenomena such as help, altruism and giving to others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we will try to understand the "conceptual" perspective of sociology as one of the possible lines drawn within the cultural horizon of the social sciences. And this can be easily understood if we understand by "sociological culture" a knowledge that is not reducible to a scientific disciplinary sector or to an analytical technicality (an instrumental apparatus) aimed at data collection, but as a conceptual process capable of developing a cognitive orientation aimed at grasping the existential situation of man starting from his historical, concrete and social condition. The aim of this work is therefore, more than anything else, to grasp the process of conceptualisation of social experience starting from the cultural formations within which the relationship between thought and society, or rather, between mental structures and historical-social conditions, develops concretely and reflectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes youth work approaches from the perspective of youth policies with the aim of deepening the links with social and educational policies. At an empirical level, the analysis is conducted through a focus group with national youth workers and two case studies of organizations active in vulnerable contexts. The results highlight the relevance of continuity on synchronic multi-actors network and diachronic relationships, increased by the Covid19 emergency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper begins with a philosophical, literary and historiographical framework to address issues of epistemological interest. After the comparison between the schools of thought that have discussed the theme of memory and identity, the second part of this work deepens the operational and methodological expendability of the concepts analysed, starting from the sociological reading of Paul Ricoeur, considered within the personalist current to which he belongs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1988 with d.p.r. 448, a regulatory device has been introduced in our country which as inspired and regulates the strategies and policies of intervention in relation to juvenile deviance. For different reasons, criminal welfare is implemented in distinct ways between the regional divisions, producing different local emergencies and different approaches in the case of foreign or indigenous minors. Criticalities also emerge from the regulatory provision whose model of inspiration (juvenile probation) manifests limits and the need for revision. The paper presents the results of a research whose quantitavive-qualitative methodological structure reveals the presence of some perverse effects and the underestimated risk of juvenile recidivism rate with the consequent underestimation of the reproduction of serious deviant models that persist and they spread among young people, especially in many southern regions already characterized by mafia-type criminal embeddednes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to interpret the current cultural representations of bodily practices by relating them to the dimension of the sacred, thus showing the ambiguity of the latter. The discussion draws on insights from Max Weber, who identifies three key stages of the body in relation to the sacred within Western culture: the orgiastic, the mystic or other-worldly asceticism, and the inner-worldly asceticism. These stages can be represented on a Cartesian plane based on two dichotomies: 'bodily over-stimulation vs. under-stimulation' on the one axe, and 'action within the world vs. escape from the world' on the other. After critically discussing Weber's perspective, the paper integrates it with other reflections and focuses on the 'missing quadrant' of such theoretical model to interpret the contemporary reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to compare the "sacralization of the individual" as explored by Émile Durkheim and Erving Goffman. The paper outlines theoretical links and differences between Durkheim's thesis on the cult of the individual in modern society on one hand and Goffman's analysis of the face-to-face interaction as a secularized form of religious ritual. The analysis is eventually related to the possible use of the process of "sacralization of the individual" for our understanding of morality and social bonds in contemporary society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After using Bourdieu to clarify why and with what consequence flexploitation has become a widespread work mode, we articulate a specific hypothesis: in critical times of instable and temporary work, a number of initiatives emerge, some of which configure themselves as active responses to the state of precariousness brought about by flexplotiation policies. Practices of physical culture such as argentine tango represent one example of such initiatives aiming at recreating those threatened or impoverished conditions of bodily, temporal and relational life we do not seem willing to give up. Our paper takes into account the outcome of a qualitative research on tango dancers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ten years after the signing of the Istanbul Convention (2011), the Italian legislative framework on violence against women has greatly evolved. The timing of the writing of laws and those of the rewriting of social norms, however, do not always coincide and the legal system, with its language and its practices, is still partly conditioned by socially widespread gender bias. The STEP research project - coordinated by Prof. Flaminia Saccà and the University of Tuscia-analyzed 283 sentences, issued by the Italian criminal courts, to identify stereotypes and prejudices that recur in the legal and social representation of genderbased violence. This paper analyzes how criticalities in the legal representation of violence against women are organized along two main categories of gender bias: role prejudices, that intervene in the representation of the victim and frame prejudices, that condition the modalities of violence representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We must start with the recognition - officially hidden - that the political, traditionally thought of as the domain of power, has been displaced by the economic, specifically financial and monopoly capitalism, i.e., billionaires and multi-millionaires, as the base of power in today's world. Democratic politics, therefore, must be unmasked (and overturned) as plutocracy, as rule by the rich, hard as this task evidently is. While capitalist nihilism - reduction of all values to money - is ideologically defended by neo-liberals, from the "left" it is allegedly radically criticized by the deviations of surrealism, postmodernism, deconstruction, and schizo-politics (Deleuze-Guattari). The present paper challenges the latter claim, exposing these alternatives for their dishonest Epicureanism which not only leaves the status-quo intact but mimics the powerful: George W. Bush fluent in the equivocations of deconstruction, President Trump a perfect instance of Deleuzean delirium. Kant's distinction in "Perpetual Peace" (1795) between the "moral politician," who aims for the common good, and the "political moralist," lying opportunist for the wealthy, is enlisted to support this criticism. Countering the enduring Social Darwinist claim of the wealthy to special expertise in politics, the paper concludes with Aristotle's argument in Politics that the least qualified candidate for political office is the business person - whether Perot, Romney, Berlusconi or Trump - because such a person is consumed by selfishness and greed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study of the work of Jean-Paul Sartre and of its relevance for contemporary sociology. Following the studies of existential sociology, this work wants to use the category of the practical-inert to analyze the construction of reality. Practicoinert is a notion coined by Sartre in the Critique of Dialectical Reason (1960), outlined the unit of practical activities and material structures. This paper uses this perspective to analyze institutional life, bureaucracies, theoretical construction and rationality in the human sciences. Focusing the analysis in a comparison with Max Weber's perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the question of what "form" takes on meaning in our culture through the religious and aesthetic issue of Byzantine Holy Icons. From this point of view we are going to investigate the problem of the "form beyond the form" as a shape beyond his sensitive image. In this regard as specific issue of our discussion we will consider the development of the Icon-form (as mental and conceptual shape) from the Byzantine ages to the religious painting of El Greco. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper details the critical analysis of the emerging English colonialism in Ireland in the 17th century as elaborated by Karl Marx in a series of minor writings, i.e. the ethnological notes written between 1881 and 1882. The purpose is to highlight how in these notes Marx continues the study of Irish society as set out in Book I of Capital (1867), enriching it with a new historical-legal dimension: the study of the Act of Uniformity of 4 July 1605, whereby the British expropriated Irish people from their lands. A measure that marked both the birth of intra-European colonialism and the alliance between social sciences (legal ethnography, political economy) and domination systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper's focus is on how sociology could support current humanism's rethinking contemporarily considering the present high degree of religious as well as cultural pluralism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociology and economics have sought to develop the interconnection between economics and society both theoretically and mathematically-scientifically. The aim of this paper is to analyze the interactions between sociology and economics with examples of research from both economists and sociologists. They tried to implement integration with indicators and variables that include the behavior of social actors and the construction of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays consumption dynamics analysis is carving out a growing important role within the reflection on youth condition. Consumption choices play a basic role within the identity building process, as well within the mechanisms of social interaction, and gain credit as a further medium for relationships and sharing. The paper aims to analyze the meaning of a specific consumption experience, that one of tattoos, more and more widespread among the new generations. In the article, we’ll analyze, in particular, the results of a qualitative research project carried out on a Millennials sample, young people born between 1981 and 1996, in order to pick out the reasons which in most cases drive them to tattooing. The elements we collected by means of some focus groups and semi-structured interviews have stressed a double reading: for one part of the sample, the meaning of tattoo has to be spotted just in the right drawing chosen by the individual, while for another it’s tattooing itself, the experience lived in real terms, to take the prevailing meaning, sometimes even regardless of the figure inked onto the skin. When tattoo reflects the will to expressly convey something, its meaning seems to be traced back to three different purposes: the one bound to one’ identity, the one peculiar to a rite of initiation and the one that points out an emotional bond. In conclusion, for the Millennials choosing tattooing seems to be a way of claiming their own individuality tangibly, changing their body into one of the means thanks to which they can tell the others their own story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intent of this paper is to rethink, through the mythological figure of Pan, the “Goat god”, a possible reading of some dynamics of the modern world, the same highlighted by the studies dedicated by Girard to mimetic conflict. In this sense, particular attention is devoted to the themes of “double”, “undifferentiated” and “monstrous”. Furthermore, an attempt is made to proceed in an interdisciplinary way, taking into consideration also the convergence between empirical research and René Girard’s theory, demonstrating the link between mirror neurons (neurosciences) and mimetic theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses, with a “genealogical” perspective that from Pascal reaches up to Girard, the hidden bond that links violence and law. Behind the law lies the “usurpation” as well as behind the social institutions lies the “sacrificial violence”. It is the task of this work to reconstruct this ambivalent connection that always structures, in its paradoxical removal, the ground of the social ties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores Girard’s ideas on the scapegoat. The aim of this paper is to identify some social and relational processes that transform a community into a place of violence and exclusion. Community studies highlight that community is ambivalent. Some scholars have proposed that the community is a social space of proximity, which responds to people’s need for identity, belonging and trust. Other scholars have observed that the community is a place of conflict, social control and violence. A sound research question is to understand what drives community towards violence. René Girard’s scapegoat theory identifies three fundamental mechanisms or strategies that leads community to violence: mimetic crisis, persecution and the spread of resentment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reconsidering the historical presence of poverty, illegality and informal work in the South added two new diseases caused by Covid 19 pandemic, and the related resumptions of the activity of criminal organizations. This paper shows the possibility to overcome the old stereotype of the South and it tries to reflect about a way that allows to pursue and promote new territorial developmental processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this paper is to discuss, through a critical approach, improvements in democratic participation in European governance. The evolution of the rules of transparency of the European institutions towards interests groups representation and the increasing role of subnational local authorities are analysed in order to evaluate how the multi-level governance system cope with the problems of the international instabilities. The focus of this paper is to discuss, through a critical approach, improvements in democratic participation in European governance. The evolution of the rules of transparency of the European institutions towards interests groups representation and the increasing role of subnational local authorities are analysed in order to evaluate how the multi-level governance system cope with the problems of the international instabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper show how the symbolic interactionism study the poverty phenomena. The Author explain the concepts and the interpretative model of poverty of interactionist approach. It is defined by two dimensions: stigma and social giving. This model permits to interpret poverty in the comparative approach by defines four different types of poverty: crystallized, disadvantaged, tolerate and not relevant. The paper discuss the contributing of different sociologist as Simmel, Goffman, Matza, Waxman e Paugam that are fundamental to define the tradition of study and specific interactionist approach to study of poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to conduct an organic reflection of the methodological perspective of Goffman, considering his reluctance in defining it. The paper explores the relationship between the student and the method analyzing the context of the social studies of the Chicago School and the epistemological keys essential to understand some of the guidelines for qualitative research. The situational and "naturalist" characters of his approach are related with a perspective that highlights the interaction analysis as a special field. The final section examines the distinctive mix of technical and empirical basis that he adopted and the peculiarities of the researcher from the specific case of an observer like Goffman. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sociologia (Gangemi Editore S.p.A.) is the property of Gangemi Editore S.P.A. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Influenced by the new social developments, rediscovering social justice grounded in the core of social work mission has received a newly attention. In this paper we emphasize the role of social justice in social work education for a better development of professionals in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a dialogue with Alain Caillè, founder and animator of the Anti-utilitarian Movement in the Social Sciences on the topic of gift, love and anti-utilitarian actions. The interview is divided in three parts: the first one is about Convivialism, as common denominator of promoting the art of living together; The second part is about the commitment of social sciences; the third part is aimed to clarify the existing links among the concepts of gift, recognition and agape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essay refers to the evolving concept of agape in the sociological debate, placing it in relation to a study by Sennett (2006). More specifically, the paper focuses on paternalism and autonomy as two forms of "authority without love" and possible deviations of agapic action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the problem of public corruption as a "white-collar crime". The term "white-collar crime" was coined in 1939 during a speech given by Edwin Sutherland to the American Sociological Society. Sutherland defined the term as "crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation". Although there has been some debate as to what qualifies as a white-collar crime, the term today generally encompasses a variety of crimes usually committed in commercial situations for financial gain, and it includes also public corruption. This paper indeed aims to focus and frame the problem of public corruption into the "white-collar crimes" category. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sociologia (Gangemi Editore S.p.A.) is the property of Gangemi Editore S.P.A. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Starting from the 'rhetoric style' of the baroque painting, this paper will try to briefly revisit the concept of sacred especially as it was developed in the context of the Counter-reformation. Under the impetus of this religious vision it is in fact right to recognize the new bounds that tie the person who observe the scene of the mystery play with the idea of infinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims to promote a reflection in Sociology by exploring the temporal evolution of topic 'religion' in the articles published by the American Journal of Sociology (Ajs) in almost a century (1921-2016). As it is know, in the scientific knowledge production the collocation and the prestige of a journal is usually assessed by the quality of papers and the editors play a central role in this process. If we consider the 'selection of ideas' and the publications of certain topics by inhibiting other ideas in a scientific journal, then the we can analyse the topics which is permitted to circulate among a journal and those that have a different destiny. The case of topic 'religion' in a generalist journal presents an opportunity to explore how scientific production is constructed and sheds new light on how Ajs tends to support and reproduce the orthodox view of sociological study of religion by removing certain dimensions of religion from the contemporary scientific debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the actual presence of Weberian Kadi-Justiz in Italian criminal justice system, arguing that it is represented by correctional Tribunal legislation and jurisprudence regarding among others probation orders modifying prison sentence. This feature seems to be connected to and influence stagnation of recidivism risk assessment actuarial instruments evolution in Italian criminological science still nowadays stuck on traditional clinical judgment that has been called metaphorically Kadi-science. On the other hand, according to authors, comparing the situation with the common law area especially the USA it is possible to highlight a contrary rationalization and formalization process affecting sentencing guidelines, parole and bail decisions, probation orders and so on, due to incremental use of actuarial and evidence-based recidivism risk assessment tools up to introduction even statutory and compulsory provisions. The two totally reversed situations can be explained according to Damaska proposed activist and reactive State models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]