La ricerca si è occupata dei legami di solidarietà spontanea che si creano a partire dalle azioni volontarie messe in atto in una comunità territoriale. L’insieme di questi legami è stato considerato una risorsa sociale che ha la natura di bene pubblico ed che è in grado di favorire il benessere sociale di una società locale. Questa risorsa è stata concettualizzata attraverso la nozione di “capitale sociale solidale” e di essa si è tentato di comprenderne: 1) le specificità; 2) il suo processo di microfondazione; e infine 3) le sue implicazioni teoriche per una teoria dell’integrazione sociale. Il primo obiettivo è stato raggiunto mappando le azioni volontarie messe in atto nelle provincie di Trento e di Treviso. La mappa ha mostrato un quadro eterogeneo e diffuso di 119 azioni realizzate dalle principali categorie di attori della società locale. Per analizzare il processo di generazione di questa risorsa, le ragioni dei promotori sono state identificate grazie a 23 interviste biografiche. I risultati di queste interviste mostrano una pluralità di motivazioni che sostengono queste azioni e i limiti esplicativi della teoria della scelta razionale. Per quanto riguarda il terzo obiettivo, la riflessione ha cercato di chiarire la natura di bene pubblico del capitale sociale e l'utilità della nozione di capitale sociale solidale per i dibattiti sulla società civile e sulla coesione sociale. Da questo punto di vista, la ricerca ha messo in luce da una parte il contributo del capitale sociale solidale nella valorizzazione del legame sociale e, dall'altra, l'utilità della nozione nelle analisi della tradizione associativa interna al dibattito sulla società civile e nei modelli individualisti di tipo comunitario della coesione sociale. Infine, a partire dai risultati conseguiti vengono indicati tre percorsi di ricerca futuri da realizzarsi sia nel Nordest e sia nella regione francese Pays de la Loire.

La ricerca analizza una vicenda in cui si ipotizza in atto un fenomeno di erosione delle politiche del welfare state nel settore penale al fine di comprendere come reagiscono gli assistenti sociali e come definiscono la propria posizione professionale.

This study investigates what’s known as the world’s largest human migration from rural to urban areas. It examines both the destinations and the origins of the mobility trajectories of Chinese internal migrant workers which is somewhat neglected by current literature. Based on a multi-sited ethnography of the daily life of migrant workers in arrays of social setting (sheds in construction sites, urban villages, factories, restaurants) in their urban stay as well as the well-known left behind population in a rural village, the thesis explores the social and economic changes that this mass regional mobility brought to both rural and urban China. The implication of this work lies in a comprehensive and thorough examination on the regional rural-urban migration. It contributes to a dynamic assess, which deserves to study further, by providing an analysis on all the agents involved in the context of Chinese rural-urban migration: the left behind population in villages, the migrant workers and the urban citizens in cities.

The new wave of global immigration to Europe has increased the urgency to discern which aspects of school context and of social interactions within the educational system need to be strengthened in order to create an environment where both immigrant and native students can perform at their best. Looking at educational ambitions allows studying educational performance, in order to estimate the gap between students of migrant backgrounds and natives, and to measure the social integration of immigrants’ children. My presentation aims to identify which resources and interactions within the school environment need to be strengthened with the purpose of improving educational expectations and aspirations of immigrants’ children and natives. First, I explore to what extent school resources, parental involvement in school and family environment shape educational expectations of migrants and natives in two European countries: Belgium and Italy. After delineating this international perspective, I deepen the analysis of the Italian case. I investigate to what extent the expectations and aspirations of the children of immigrants are influenced by the educational expectations of their native schoolmates using data on children of immigrants living in Italy and attending their final year of middle school (8th grade). In the final part of my presentation, I tackle the challenging issue of the impact of the presence of immigrants’ children on the educational aspirations of natives.

he aim of this dissertation is to assess if and how institutional features are likely to shape fields of study differentials in the overeducation risk. This issue is addressed with two different perspectives. First it is comparatively analysed how the differential incidence of overeducation among graduates from different fields of study is affected by labour market institutions. Then the effect of the university reform dictated by the guidelines of the Bologna Process on tertiary graduates’ risk of overeducation is evaluated. Italy is selected as a relevant case study for these analyses since, in comparison with other developed countries, it displays both low graduation rates and modest returns to tertiary education.

The study focuses on artists who adopt performance art as a form of creative expression within the world of contemporary visual art. Some performances are extreme exhibitions which often assume violent and aggressive forms; others are quasi-visible events like communication misunderstandings or reiterated behaviors which make the flow of ordinary interaction unusual and sometimes create a feeling of anxiety in the audience. There are of course basic differences between these kinds of performance; nevertheless, in the case of both the most spectacular events and «minimal performances», the artist acts at the borderline of what is explainable, and his/her artistic practices highlight the need to traverse the frontiers between traditional genres, mixing them up or forsaking them. A performance essentially consists in the creation of an interactive event, and artists manage the central elements of the interactive order: the dimension which, according to Erving Goffman, represents a reality in itself, possesses its own logic, and cannot be reduced either to macro-structural dimensions or to individual psychology. The topic of the research reported here can be summarized in the following question: how is it possible to turn a «social interaction» into an «artistic object»? The answer can be articulated on different dimensions: how a performance is projected, arranged and carried out; what happens during performance events; how such events can be recorded and conserved. A performance results from cooperation among a group of people which cannot be defined as a «system»: there are no formal roles, there are no fixed positions, there are no decisional centers. Nevertheless, the basic elements are in place for it to be possible to talk of the existence of an interactional unit: different social actors act together in an intentional, reiterated and settled manner. It is possible to find a great number of events which take place on specific sites and during which artists, venue managers, critics, collectors and performance audiences meet, work together, and share their interests. It is thus possible to use the term «sphere» to refer to a place to which admittance is granted only after an initiation process and rite of passage. In such «spheres» people follow careers based on internal, formal and informal hierarchical ladders. Moreover, there are subjects who act as gatekeepers, and myths and symbols are shared. The research was conducted in Northern Italy, where several towns were selected as central nodes in the Italian contemporary art field. I conducted in-depth interviews with subjects occupying the three main roles in the artistic field: artists, venue managers and curators, and art critics. The selection of the interviewees was based on their strategic position in the field. My purpose was to investigate the node that they occupied in the art world by combining two criteria: first, the spatial position of the environment in which they lived and worked (marginal, peripheral, central); second, the stage of their professional career (beginning, emerging, established).

La ricerca mira a ricostruire la definizione della situazione politica che alcuni elettori italiani hanno prodotto per maturare la propria scelta di voto in occasione delle Elezioni Europee del 2014. Per poter agire infatti, gli individui hanno prima bisogno di comprendere la situazione nella quale agiscono. I risultati mostrano che, a seguito dei cambiamenti avvenuti nel panorama politico italiano l'anno precedente, elettori, partiti e leader si sono mossi a velocità diverse, faticando nel condividere una medesima definizione. Rilevare questa situazione di disallineamento aiuta a comprendere, in generale, gli effetti della valence politics sul voto e, nello specifico, il percorso politico dei partiti italiani.

The dissertation explores the intricate interplay between wealth and family dynamics across human life courses, motivated by recent shifts in wealth distribution and demographic trends in Western countries. A comprehensive framework is introduced, delineating the examination of wealth accumulation and distribution within and across families. Via conceptual, theoretical, and empirical work, this dissertation seeks to advance the understanding of the wealth-family nexus from a comparative and historical perspective, with a focus on post-war European countries. To achieve this, cross-sectional (GESIS Panel) as well as prospective (SHARE) and retrospective (SHARELIFE) longitudinal large-scale survey data are analyzed. The first chapter explores the heterogeneity of wealth accumulation trajectories across ten European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland), adopting a categorical approach to wealth ownership. The second chapter examines the context-specificity of the relationship between family life course trajectories and subsequent wealth accumulation across Scandinavian (Denmark and Sweden), Continental (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, and Switzerland), and Southern (Greece, Italy, Spain) European countries, situating it within the broader discourse on family change. The third chapter delves into population heterogeneity in norms concerning family estate division among siblings in Germany.

The role of social networks in creating and sustaining migration flows, as well as in the adjustment and settlement of migrants, has long been recognized in migration studies. However, cross-fertilization between migration research and network approaches is still uncommon. Utilizing a mixed-method network approach, this study contributes in furthering the understanding of how migrant networks operate. Migrant networks are conceptualized as embedded in dynamic and changing systems, and shown as evolving depending on various contexts and situations. Examined are ego-centric networks of the 134 respondents (58 in London and 76 in New York) in three migration phases: before coming to London or New York; initial period of adjustment; and the current network as a result of the subsequent process of settlement in the place of destination (in total, 402 network maps). In particular, compared are three different occupational groups – nurses, domestics, and care workers. Conceptually dividing the migration process in three phases provided the opportunity to study network dynamics and networking practices, albeit retrospectively. Eliciting migrant networks was embedded within in-depth interviews using both electronic and paper-based network visualization. The findings suggest contrasting network composition in two global cities and across the three occupational groups. In New York, familial ties play an almost exclusive role in facilitating and supporting the movement of Filipino migrants. In London, most of the research participants relied on former employers (in the case of domestic workers) or recruitment agencies (in the case of nurses and care workers in institutional facilities) to facilitate their move. These differences in pre-migration networks then shaped subsequent network formations, adjustments, and settlement experiences. Findings also illustrate that although networks have supportive influence on facilitation of the move and post-migration settlement, familial and co-ethnic ties can also be exploitative to the newly-arrived and undocumented migrants. Situating the particular cases in macro-level context, the study explores how the narratives of attaining the good life through overseas work are interconnected to the need and demand for care labor in the US and the UK as well as the Philippine state-led marketization of high-quality workers as an export commodity.

Education continues to define social positions and reproduce social inequalities. Deficiencies in education may lead to disadvantages at both the individual and societal levels, and lower qualifications are usually obtained by already disadvantaged youths. One of the biggest problems in this regard is dropping out (also named early school-leaving)—i.e. young people who leave the education system before completing upper secondary school. Many interventions have attempted to prevent or discourage students from dropping out of school. Among them there are two straightforward systemic policies: raising the age of compulsory schooling and creating alternative tracks for completing education. They aimed to achieve the same goal—reducing dropping out—but using different strategies. Despite the diffusion of these reforms, it is not clear to what extent one or both may succeed in their goal. Both of these policies were actively pursued in Italy in a less than five-year period—from 1999 to 2003. In 1999, the so-called Berlinguer reform extended compulsory schooling from age 14 to 15, and in 2003 the State-Regions Congress introduced experimental vocational and training programmes (IFP). These intensive changes allow for the comparison of these two interventions in a single context one after the other, but no extensive studies have been made so far. The dissertation seeks to address this lacuna by making the best use of the available data. The broad question of the thesis is whether the extension of compulsory schooling and/or the creation of new vocational and training programmes have modified students’ (and families’) dropping-out decisions. To answer, propensity score matching, counterfactual time series, segmented regression, region fixed effect and individual multilevel cross-classified logistic analyses are used. The results are framed in the theoretical debates about education: its roles, its expansion, its contribute to (in)equality and its policies.