Social Structure In Italy

Social Structure In Italy
Author: Sabino Acquaviva
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 175
Release: 2019-06-21
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000311902

This book demonstrates that twentieth century social stratification and the distribution of political and economic power in Italy cannot be properly understood without carefully analyzing the historical dynamics of the development of Italian society. This analysis is also needed to explain the woeful economic, and governmental and administrative performance of the strata that finally reached the levers of power. The Italian society and social and political system are in a crisis: development is uneven and the bureaucratic structures are in shambles. The roots of this crisis lie in the endemic underdevelopment typical of the second half of the nineteenth century. Clearly, they cannot be attributed to the historic failures of Fascism, Democracy, Catholicism or Marxism in Italy, but they are the outcome of a long history of underdevelopment followed by extremely uneven regional evolution leading to tremendous cleavages between ultra-modern and utterly antiquated phenomena, the juxtaposition of flexibility and rigidity, of optimistic enthusiasm and hidebound traditionalism, of extreme wealth and abysmal poverty, of high and low levels of earnings, and of a maladjusted, ill-functioning, uneasy combination of agricultural, industrial, and post-industrial society. All this is aggravated by the crisis in the church and by the North-South situation in which many millions of people have migrated from the South to the North, and by the ensuing struggle between a mass of lumpen proletarians and proletarian immigrants from the South, who are exploited as a work force for the industrial development of the North.

Social Support Systems in Rural Italy

Social Support Systems in Rural Italy
Author: Giovanni Gregorini
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 318
Release: 2023-05-02
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 303124303X

This book examines the development of social support systems in the Modern age in the rural areas of the city-states of Northern Italy. This investigation achieves two main purposes: first, it allows researchers to understand the role occupied concretely by welfare and micro-credit activities in the political and socio-economic panorama of rural Northern Italy; secondly, it verifies to what extent the formation of a more or less structured support system influenced the establishment of local identity and the rooting of individuals. The book brings together perspectives from different fields of research ranging from economic and political history to the study of the history of ecclesiastical institutions, as well as integrating recent research on the anthropological value of welfare actions and the use of multiple historical sources. It considers how the retreat of the welfare activity of the State, associated with a depopulation of the rural areas of the peninsula and a steady increase of poverty into social fringes that were previously not affected by economic problems, pushes us to investigate more carefully the dynamics that in the Ancien Régime gave shape to the support activities against indigence and poverty. This book will be of interest to academics and students working in economic history and social history.

Contemporary Italy

Contemporary Italy
Author: Martin J. Bull
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 161
Release: 1996-02-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 0313387656

A unique bibliographic and historiographic guide to the study of contemporary Italy, this book points to over 650 texts that have shaped the academic and scholarly study of postwar Italy. It is the first guide to include a genuine mix of English-language and Italian-language materials and to approach these materials in a historiographic as well as a bibliographic manner. It is an ideal guide for English, North American, and Italian scholars who have just begun their study of Italy or want to know more about research in areas outside their area of expertise. Following the introduction, which outlines the context within which the evolution of Italian studies should be viewed, the book is divided into two parts. Part I includes five historiographic chapters providing a detailed survey and analysis of works published in history, politics, government, the economy, and society. Part II is an annotated bibliographic guide to all of the texts pointed to in Part I.

Making Democracy Work

Making Democracy Work
Author: Robert D. Putnam
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 282
Release: 1994-05-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 140082074X

"A classic."—New York Times "Seminal, epochal, path-breaking . . . a Democracy in America for our times."—The Nation From the bestselling author of Bowling Alone, a landmark account of the secret of successful democracies Why do some democratic governments succeed and others fail? In a book that has received attention from policymakers and civic activists in America and around the world, acclaimed political scientist and bestselling author Robert Putnam and his collaborators offer empirical evidence for the importance of "civic community" in developing successful institutions. Their focus is on a unique experiment begun in 1970, when Italy created new governments for each of its regions. After spending two decades analyzing the efficacy of these governments in such fields as agriculture, housing, and healthcare, they reveal patterns of associationism, trust, and cooperation that facilitate good governance and economic prosperity. The result is a landmark book filled with crucial insights about how to make democracy work.

Recent Social Trends in Italy, 1960-1995

Recent Social Trends in Italy, 1960-1995
Author: Alberto Martinelli
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 514
Release: 1999
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780773518421

Italy remains an enigma for many observers. Recent Social Trends in Italy, 1960-1995, the sixth volume from the international Comparative Charting of Social Change program, provides a new and convincing schema for its comprehension. It shows that three essential institutions have structured and unified Italian society: the family, the church, and political parties. While the state remains a weak institution, it is important as a regulator of the economy and of society through the welfare state. The book, which contains a long introduction by Alberto Martinelli on the uneven modernization of Italy, shows the usefulness of analysing social change through study of a series of macro-social trends. These trends range from life-style structures to fertility, leisure, consumption, inequality, religion, and family, among others. This sixth national profile provides more arguements in favour of a hypothesis of diversification, rather than convergence, of modern societies. As Henri Mendras writes in the preface of the book, "The more we change, the more we remain ourselves: that is the conclusion of our comparative research, and the Italian study provides further ample proof of it."

Punishment and Social Structure

Punishment and Social Structure
Author: Otto Kirchheimer
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2017-09-29
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1351495399

Why are certain methods of punishment adopted or rejected in a given social situation? To what extent is the development of penal methods determined by basic social relations? The answers to these questions are complex, and go well beyond the thesis that institutionalized punishment is simply for the protection of society. While today's punishment of offenders often incorporates aspects of psychology, psychiatry, and sociology, at one time there was a more pronounced difference in criminal punishment based on class and economics. Punishment and Social Structure originated from an article written by Georg Rusche in 1933 entitled "Labor Market and Penal Sanction: Thoughts on the Sociology of Criminal Justice." Originally published in Germany by the Frankfurt Institute of Social Research, this article became the germ of a theory of criminology that laid the groundwork for all subsequent research in this area. Rusche and Kirchheimer look at crime from an historical perspective, and correlate methods of punishment with both temporal cultural values and economic conditions. The authors classify the history of crime into three primary eras: the early Middle Ages, in which penance and fines were the predominant modes of punishment; the later Middle Ages, in which harsh corporal punishment and capital punishment moved to the forefront; and the seventeenth century, in which the prison system was more fully developed. They also discuss more recent forms of penal practice, most notably under the constraints of a fascist state.The majority of the book was translated from German into English, and then reshaped by Rusche's co-author, Otto Kirchheimer, with whom Rusche actually had little discussion. While the main body of Punishment and Social Structure are Rusche's ideas, Kirchheimer was responsible for bringing the book more up-to-date to include the Nazi and fascist era. Punishment and Social Structure is a pioneering work that sets a paradigm for the study of crime and punishment.

Urban Society In Roman Italy

Urban Society In Roman Italy
Author: Tim J. Cornell
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2005-07-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1135361983

This collection of original essays focuses upon Roman Italy where, with over 400 cities, urbanization was at the very centre of Italian civilization. Informed by an awareness of the social and anthropological issues of recent research, these contributions explore not only questions of urban origins, interaction with the countryside and economic function, but also the social use of space within the city and the nature of the development process.; These studies are aimed not only at ancient historians and classical archaeologists, but are directed towards those working in the related fields of urban studies in the Mediterranean world and elsewhere and upon the general theory of towns and complex societies.

Decisions and Trends in Social Systems

Decisions and Trends in Social Systems
Author: Daniela Soitu
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 423
Release: 2021-06-01
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3030690946

This book presents a systemic perspective on the broadly perceived problem of social care, meant in terms of a network engaging balanced resources and actors to assure the functionality, in an integrative approach. The approach involves individual, institutional and organizational structures, at the micro, mezzo- and macro-levels, in their interrelations, with proper contexts for understandings, interpretations and actions by stakeholders. The papers presented suggest ways of changes, involving even participant actors as changing agents, taking into account evolving behaviors and human relations, policies and inter-institutional frameworks, from many points of view. In the first part, various aspects, notably economic and emotional, of innovative and integrated approaches to long-term care are dealt with. Different aspects are considered exemplified by legal, educational, economic, environmental, cultural and those related to the perception of aging, labor market for the elderly, perceived quality of life, etc. The planning and management of social services are discussed in terms of a functional, and effective and efficient system, with the identification and analysis of actors and processes, and transformation policies. This is done at the local, regional and global levels.