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Social Spirals through Everyday Group Life: Settings and Group Styles in a Comparative Perspective
No full textEveryday group life is generally neglected in the study of the ongoing shifts affecting voluntary associations. This paper is grounded on a comparative ethnography of three Milanese associations affected by transformations in forms of voluntary participation, repertoires of action, and in their relations with public institutions. The study focuses on group styles and settings to ascertain the role played by everyday group life in shaping the implications of these transformations for the production of inclusive outcomes by the observed associations. The author introduces three different results produced by the studied associations and account for them with the same overall argument, which focus on practices and spaces shaping everyday group life. The main findings illustrate that everyday group life works both as a filter through which transformations produce consequences and also as a site of autonomous elaboration through which associations’ outcomes are made and unmade
GRAMSCI'S CIVIL SOCIETY AND THE IMPLICIT DIMENSION OF POLITICS A case study
Full text linkCivil society actors' reduced ability to take political action and adopt critical positions towards public institutions is often ascribed to the "marketisation" of the local welfare systems in which non-profit and third-sector organizations operate. This reading of the depoliticisation of civil society is correct, but it has a number of shortcomings, including the assumption that civil society actors are passive agents that are overwhelmed by the depoliticisation mechanisms to which they are subjected. Instead, this paper explores how civic organizations - albeit unintentionally - engender depoliticisation dynamics that shrink their critical strength. To do so, it draws on Gramscian arguments regarding civil society and politics and uses them to illuminate a case study of a local governance strategy (V'Arco Villoresi Green System), involving both experts and civic groups. The main finding of the research is that civil society sustains what Gramsci called "economism", i.e. a radical rejection of politics, which may be enacted by civil society both when non-critically adhering to governance arenas and when contesting them. The analysis undertaken contributes to our understanding of the depoliticisation of civil society, shedding light, on the one hand, on how this process is not solely due to factors external to civil society and, on the other hand, on what the author calls the implicit dimension of politics
Inclusive togetherness. a comparative ethnography of cultural associations making milan sociable
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Stili di scena urbani. Il nesso "parte/tutto" in via Padova e oltre
No full textLa vivacità della recente ricerca sociologica focalizzata sulla vita quotidiana (sia come ambito empirico sia come prospettiva teorica) solleva la questione delle modalità di costruzione del nesso parte/tutto associate a diverse prospettive d’indagine. L’articolo propone un approccio di ricerca sull’interazione situata in contesti urbani che consente di superare tre limiti analitici ricorrenti nel modo in cui tale nesso prende forma all’interno di numerose pratiche di ricerca. Sia i limiti evidenziati sia la proposta formulata sono introdotti discutendo il materiale empirico raccolto dal 2012 al 2014 nell’area di via Padova a Milano, in particolare analizzando tre casi d’interazioni situate tipicamente urbane: lo scambio quotidiano fra passanti sul marciapiede, la partecipazione ad una festosa “parata multietnica” e le devastazioni occorse durante un’improvvisata manifestazione di protesta. La diversità dei casi scelti e delle tecniche di ricerca adottate per il loro studio illustra la specificità teorica della prospettiva proposta, basata sull’analisi del rapporto tra stili d’interazione e scene in cui sono praticati. I benefici associati all’approccio illustrato sono discussi con riferimento alla sua possibile estensione ad altri ambiti d’indagine e rispetto alla sua applicazione sia a singoli studi di caso sia ad “inventari di casi” tra loro eterogenei ma riferiti allo stesso contesto locale
La dimensione istituzionale dei significati del tempo libero. Indicazioni d'analisi da un classico studio di comunità
No full textThough leisure time and space appear at first sight at the very core of the development of modern cities, urban studies - and in particular sociological urban studies- keep generally ignoring such a domain of study. As a direct consequence of this lack of attention, the analysis of the meanings of leisure – increasingly at centre of various strains of leisure studies- risks of not having the possibilities to grasp the institutional dimension through which contemporary leisure is socially constructed. The paper argues that such a risk can be avoided by learning from the sociological analysis of leisure outlined in the classical community study of Pizzorno (1961). Indeed, this analysis gives a theoretical and methodological wonderful example of the possibilities the sociological urban perspective offers to grasp the institutional dimension of the meanings of contemporary leisure. Also, the analysis of Pizzorno exemplifies the contribution that the urban sociological perspective may give to the study of leisure by focusing on time and space conditions of leisure practices
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