Search

In post-industrial societies several social movements emerge that pay attention to the risks connected with the technological development. The paper shows the importance of technological risk in contemporary societies and it considers the different analytical perspectives that may be used in the interpretation of this risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Rio de Janeiro there are about one muon favelados living in more than three undred favelas which are the result of the increasing levels of urbanization. The paper is based on fieldwork conducted in a favela in the north of Rio, between Avenida Brasil and the sea, called "Praia de Ramos"; it focuses on a brief history of slums in Rio, and analyses the cultural transformation, the way of life and some forms of urban integration of favelados living in "Praia de Ramos". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomenon of ‘fan activism’ seems to be closely linked to the dynamics which have progressively and significantly transformed football and the ways in which it is consumed. The English dimension, in the period which runs from the second half of the 1980s through the 1990s, offers a key case study. Part of a work in progress, which will look at the various manifestations of an independent approach to fandom in England in the period concerned, this article takes as its key source The Voice of the Valley, the independent fanzine of Charlton Athletic. The article concentrates on this club, and proposes some initial hypotheses on the various forms of mobilization of the supporters, which were a response to a modernisation process frequently interpreted as a negative shift, deforming traditions, identity and a sense of collective belonging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of the increasing number of elderly people is linked with the important change of social representations of third age. Elderly people forcefully claim a new urban protagonism. They look at the city to satisfy not only their needs but also the conditions for their existential planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, as a result of changes in the social and demographic structure of our country, new forms of social intervention, trying to integrate and support the welfare state, have been spreading by mobilizing non-public resources. In addition to representing a new response to the social needs of the individuals, in some cases these types of measures have favored the creation of new employment and new professional figures in the social sphere. A concrete example comes from company-based and occupational welfare that, although not uniformly, is growing at a fast pace in Italy. The increasing importance of this phenomenon has led to the creation of a real market made up of consulting companies, service companies and, above all, provider companies. In order to capture ongoing dynamics of this market, also in terms of employment, this contribution intends to focus first and foremost on these latter subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fashion favors and amplifies the social change, being itself a consistent part of the phenomenon. In this essay, fashion is analyzed over time, from its birth until today, in its different phases (high couture, prêt-à-porter, fast fashion). The focus is on fashion creators, researchers and consumers. This allows to show the differentiation between the roles of creator (maître couturier, stylist, fashion designer) and researcher (trend forecaster, fad hunter), as well as the expansion of consumers. The aim is to highlight the incremental complexity of the fashion phenomenon linked to the transformation of modern and contemporary society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 repoliticization, 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". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

successful planning for tourism cannot exist without taking into account the opinions and attitudes of the host population. This paper analyses the attitudes of residents in a region of the Spanish Mediterranean coast where tourism is mainly based on the building of second homes, often on a massive scale. A face-to-face survey indicates that the opinion context in which residential tourismhas developed with such intensity is contained in a framework of social legitimisation. It is possible to distinguish between two groups: the defenders who tend to justify the residential tourism process by recognising the economic benefits it may bring and the critics who tend to question the socio-cultural and environmental costs of such development.

This paper studies the relationship between planning and the process of social change in England, during the transition from feudalism to capitalism. As primitive forms of planning, enclosure acts were used to destroy old structures of social reproduction that were hindering the formation of the emergent capitalism in this period. The article describes the communal regime prior to enclosure and the ways of life depending on it. After that, we study the process of passing the laws and how they suppressed that regime. As a corollary, we propose a new historiography of the relationship between planning and social reproduction, which allows a subsequent treatment of the hegemonic and dispossessing instances embedded in our practices.

The right to abortion was the forerunner of a new idea of liberty, the liberty from gender roles which 'naturalize' oppressive social constructs. In Italy, in the Seventies of the 20th Century, some feminist opinions objected, in the name of female liberty, to the battle for the right to abortion and against gender roles. This, they argued, could cost women to disclaim their sex as a resource for self-identification and social change. Actually, forty years after its legalisation, abortion remains controversial, nor tells it much about female liberty. As a matter of fact, it did not create a principle of liberty in reproductive choices, and it is regarded as an unwanted and embarassing relative by supporters of LGTB's rights. Does this reveal that there is something flawed in the idea of freedom on which the right to abortion is built? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through an ideal dialogue with Albert O. Hirschman and Charles Lindblom, in this article, I focus on how to envision and assess desired change. The most innovative contributions by Hirschman and Lindblom are still in tune with recent complexity theory-based approaches to policy analysis and evaluation. Departing from rational choice premises, I highlight learning and social mechanisms to mobilize those contextual resources, which are underutilized or hidden. The aim of this article is to shed light on those processual dimensions of change where to focus public policy analysis and evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sociologia del Lavoro is the property of FrancoAngeli srl 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.)

The moment of interpretive understanding in Max Weber's Sociology of Religion has been interpreted taking into consideration the asceticism/mysticism dichotomy, and its combination with intra and ultra mundane levels. This essay states the need to take a different point of view. The moment of Verstehen is directed to the reconstruction of individualization processes and their assumptions and historic and politic implications. In the attempt to reconstruct the types of individual that have inaugurated or inhibited western modernity, Weber singles out elements conveyed by Weltreligionen, that structure different constellations of personality, more or less oriented towards change. In this picture, the extremely social and political human individual, at the origin of Modernity expresses anti-authority and individualistic characteristics as the ability to emerge from the constrictions of being member of a group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By going over the simplistic definition of the blog as «online personal diary's technological pattern», the article stresses the deeply connective nature of this emerging communicative format, to define it as «conversational medium». By retracing the main researches and measures employed until now to analyze and identify the blog phenomenon, what comes out is that the two basic concepts which allow to understand the blog's nature are the individual and his relations, in other words the blog as personal knot and as social relations, therefore a sort of contamination between public and private. The blog's unstoppable ascent doesn't depend on its attitude to set against with other information processing systems, but, on the contrary, on integrating with them: this ascent reflects the present trend of the Net, which is the users' active involvement. Like other typical network tools of expression, as wiki, social network, podcast, the blogs represent a creative laboratory, a space where it is possible to test increasingly proactive and participative expressive patterns which flow into the user generated content. By describing the variety of blog's forms of usage in the youth world, the article claims the hypothesis that the blog is not used just as a «narcissistic publication» of one's identity online, but also as a tool to be active protagonist of the content production. Youngsters provide new interpretative keys for the social changes on the expressive, behavioural and cultural level, thanks to their creative ability to constantly test and revisit different communication and interaction forms, by exploiting the new technological opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research draws on a unique chance of comparison across time: the case of Turin (Italy) 1979-2003. In both years time use surveys have been carried out, each including children aged 7-13. The conditions of the urban young population can be seen as a mirror of the social change in a city moving from a still mainly industrial economy to a post-industrial one. As a consequence, today children live in different family context with more educated parents, more female employment and more divorce rate. Some results about trends in children's patterns of time use are quite striking: TV watching for example one of the most debated forms of leisure despite popular fears, did not increased at all; social life instead, measured as time spent with friends (a more reliable measure than «time spent in social activities» which are not always unambiguously defined) dramatically decreased by 50%. This is likely to be linked with the growing institutionalisation of children in 2003. Today young people spend more time than in the past in institutionalised context such as school and extracurricular activities (sport training, music lessons etc.): time spent at school rose by 31% and time spent doing sports (including training courses above all) increased by 77% on average. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on the role of women in the social transformation process of the work life in Italy. The Small Copernican Revolution gave way to the feminist movement in the Italian society. Women emerged as the new responsible and reliable workforce. Women were employed in work that did not require much specialization and efforts. The globalization further increased their independence and social visibility.

The article examines the social condition of immigrants, searching for jobs in Italy. Immigrants have to face many challenges while searching for a permanent job. The regulations laid by the Italian government are considered very harsh for immigrants in Italy. Foreigners either have to accept unprivileged job conditions or the risk of time specific qualified jobs. Immigrants with low qualifications are also looked with suspicion.

The article focuses on the impact of the advancements in mass media on the society. It helps explain the changes brought about by the media revolution, and its effects on social integration at large. The system of mass media has re-entered in the general interest intermediaries who have counter-distinguished the Western societies of the 20th century. The introduction of digital media has now expanded the opportunities not only of reception and communication but also of the creation, archiving and subdivision. The exponential growth of the options and the increasing possibilities of personalization render it more important than the earlier activity of media selection. The author has tried to outline the forces, which can produce new forms of media consumables in the age of the Internet, and further, linking the changes in the media consumerism to the present social changes.