1,721,057 research outputs found
Deconstructing homelessness: Alternative narratives on and by marginalized and homeless groups in the city of Bologna
Get PDFThe paper addresses the political and cultural problem underpinning mainstream narratives on homelessness. The absence of data, in conjunction with the misconceptions associated with homelessness, translate into the criminalization and stigmatization of homelessness, both at the local level and in fragmented policies at national and international levels. Section one presents an overview of homelessness as a cultural and political problem; section two then introduces the Italian situation and Bologna as a case study. After a presentation of the method followed in section three, sections four and five describe and then discuss two projects initiated by a political collective in the city of Bologna that directly involve homeless people in the deconstruction of imageries and narratives around homelessness. Finally, section six draws conclusions about the need to generate new narratives capable of accounting for the intersectional and complex nature of the phenomenon of homelessness: new narratives capable of restoring to the homeless their articulate human identity
Public libraries as social infrastructures: libraries’ response to the COVID crisis in the Emilia-Romagna region
No full textThe research investigates the response of public libraries to the COVID crisis in the Emilia-Romagna region (Italy). Group interviews were conducted involving 36 librarians from the 9 provinces of the Region, using the ethnographic methodology of "deep hanging out". Results show the resilience of public libraries during the crisis; the importance of libraries as social infrastructure beyond the services they provide, highlighting how the digital divide has affected the demand for the libraries' services; the need to implement librarian communication and digitization skills, as well as a lack of consistent support from the Region were noted. The first section of the paper provides framework over cultural institutions and the COVID crisis. The second introduces the methodology for the sample choice and for conducting the interviews. The third section presents findings from the interviews. The fourth section presents conclusive remarks and policy indications for the support of public libraries
When opera met the city: emerging intersections between culture and people in urban transformation
No full textThe paper analyses the relationship between opera theatres and the urban environment. While it is rather commonly acknowledged that cities are transforming, what is less frequently discussed upon is the twofold pace at which they are changing:
on the one hand, interactions, mediations and contaminations between individuals and groups bear witness to a new fluidity in the social fabric; on the other hand, cities are still being structured in a post-industrial fashion: the productive centre is refurbished with services which the peripheral branches of the cities invariably, progressively lose.
This is all the more true for culture, still anchored to a highbrow-lowbrow dichotomy in its urban diffusion reflecting the hierarchy
of the city. Opera theatres, in particular, respond to an out-dated paradigm of isolated centrality, never meeting the cultural itineraries of its potential audience.
In the first section, a theoretical framework is provided: the city’s non-response to the changes of society is matched with the atrophied rigidity of opera theatres, whose relationship with the city remains unchanged since its Golden Age, where it
responded to a precise physical and social hierarchy. New urban patterns and new audience desires correspond to a new urban map of culture, which opera does not meet, and to new languages, which opera does not develop.
The second section further inspects this gap, and analyses opera theatres’ present approach to urban and social transformation. Uncritical reproduction of the repertoire is sided by innovating attempts such as “special effect” productions and ephemeral flash-mobs: neither of them produces critical mass nor an emotional adhesion in the contemporary audience.
Starting from some virtuous examples, the third section explores the potential for innovation of opera theatres from a twofold perspective: the audience’s cultural itinerary in the city is reached through decentralisation and diversification of channels, while a fertile hybridization of languages empowers opera’s ability to meet and enable social innovation effectively
Regulating the Stage: Storms, Wrecks and Lifebelts in the Italian Experience
No full textThe paper analyses how the performing arts are structured and regulated in Italy. The orientation and the trend of the legislation shows an endemic instability due to the prevailing view of permanent emergency generated by a combination of static subsidies and peer evaluations. The ambiguous equilibrium between centralization and delegation on a National and Regional level, as well as the byzantine categorisation of the different administrative structures, ended up generating a slow and inefficient managerial system, on the one hand, and the uncertainty and mistiming of funds, on the other hand. Moreover, the amount of funds devoted to supporting the performing arts organisations has been progressively reduced, while the contradictory mechanisms aimed at establishing their distribution has been strengthened, providing theatres and companies with a clear incentive to overemployment, conservative choices, and managerial rigidity. The analysis of the Italian legislation aimed at supporting the performing art system shows a sequence of many acts clearly generated by financial emergency. Each new act has been aimed at counterbalancing the fragilities generated by the previous act, and has paradoxically generated new emergencies, in a sort of self-weakening sequence whose dominating value has constantly been the search for survival
fenomeni di restanza in una prospettiva demografica ed economica: note sull’innesto delle popolazioni straniere nelle aree interne italiane
No full textChallenging spaces and formats of culture in the city: highlights on the future of cultural heritage management
Get PDFThis paper focuses upon the relationship between culture and society in the urban environment. The first section introduces the social and urban changes of our time from a critical theory perspective, integrating socioeconomic and urban studies: what emerges the fading of social boundaries and the emersion of new political claims arising from cultural instances; the second section focuses on the discrepancies between such changes and the cultural offer, still anchored to rigid heritage preservation, never meeting new forms of cultural expression. This stern dichotomy needs to be faced through a paradigm shift, which is dealt with in the third section: some best practices across Europe are selected, highlighting the need to focus on cross-sector partnerships, vertical integration, and a public support aimed at favouring the diffusion of culture on multiple social layers. The map of culture is eventually redesigned, and new creative encounters are made by challenging the use of space in the urban scenario
How did Adriano Olivetti influence John Ruskin?
Get PDFThe aim of this paper is to interpret Ruskin’s thought through the lens of contemporary political economy and cultural policymaking.
The first section focuses upon Ruskin’s critical thoughts on industrial economy and technical reproducibility, which mirror new sustainable paradigms of production and consumption: economies of scale and competition are exchanged with unique crafting and personal interactions.
The second section focuses on labour and education: Ruskin identified expressive freedom as a criterion of artistic quality opposed to mechanic perfection, anticipating the relationship between skills, knowledge management and the working environment in the experiences of contemporary creative industries.
The third section focuses on arts and society: Ruskin championed a crucial role for art and beauty in society, which not only contemporary philosophers but also advanced companies trust as a powerful driver of growth. Today, Ruskin’s theories on heritage, creativity and cultural activities reveal challenging implications for cultural management and policymaking.
In conclusion Ruskin’s theories effectively suit the challenges of our century, while his value system proves a pioneering weltanschauung for our world
The joint contribution of grassroots artistic practices to the alternative and vital city. The case of Bologna and Venice (Italy)
Get PDFThe article explores grassroots artistic practices as stances of vital urbanism, intended as the urban dynamics activated from below and from outside established institutions that make a city lively thanks to the heterogenous, adaptive, and ultimately transformative initiatives of its citizens, especially when aggregated in the form of organised associations. Specifically, it focuses on how and why grassroots cultural organisation contribute to the vitality of their city. The research analyses the grassroots cultural milieux of two Italian cities, Bologna and Venice. Despite the local specificities, a thematic analysis has developed themes coherent across the two cases. They are: (1) political conflict; (2) imagining the alternative city; (3) making the alternative city; and finally (4) a discourse about the cultural economy. Ultimately, the findings illustrate how their visions and motivations shape a collective imagery of an alternative city and that their ideals and actions aim not just to keeping the city alive, but to let it evolve and develop.</p
Beyond Collaboration: A Network Analysis of Local Stances and Global Frameworks in the Collective Design of the City
Get PDFThe research observes practices of collective city-making beyond the participatory framework of institutional urban gov- ernance. In particular, it looks at how grassroots organizations in Bologna are able to produce a dual movement between the local and the global, mutually informing global movements and local practices oriented toward the sustainable growth
of cities. The first section introduces the theoretical frame- work, based on participatory governance, urban commons and grassroots networks; it presents the methodology in the second section, introducing the criteria for the dataset and the network analysis consisting of local and global nodes within the city of Bologna; it then presents the results of the analysis, discusses them and draws the conclusions in the final section
Posizionamenti transfemministi. Saperi situati e pratiche spaziali nel movimento Non una di Meno
Get PDFThe aim of this paper is to analyse, through the toolbox of gender geography, the methodology of positionality and situated knowledge. The article examines some spatial practices of the transfeminist movement Non Una di Meno that involve us both as researchers and activists. The different forms of territorialisation and ways of “doing with” the space of the movement, are here presented through the specific cases of the demonstrations organised during the Covid-19 pandemic on the 25th of November 2020 and 8th March 2021. This enables us to present the methodology of positionality, and to analyse how feminist spatial practices can be the object of research and vice versa
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