Il conio del capitale sociale : la questione meridionale dopo il meridionalismo
Salvatore Lupo
The coining of social capital.
The «questione meridionale» after «meridionalism»
This paper argues that the representation of the Italian Mezzogiorno conveyed
by the debate on its economic backwardness is overtly unfaithful due to a series of
reasons. Several positive aspects like the recent success in the fight against the
Mafia, are systematically neglected. At a more analytical level the influence of the
works by Putnam and Banfield on the lack of civicness and amoral familism have
exerted a deep influence on the common sense view that the problems originate
from the culture of the Mezzoigiorno and from the lack of a positive social
attitude. The weakness of these two works and of the methodology on which they
are based is highlighted. More in general, the concept of social capital is put under
scrutiny and its limitations as well as its inadequacies in the interpretation of the
Mezzogiorno are brought to the surface. An analysis which takes into account
both positive and negative features in order to gain a better knowledge of the
Mezzogiorno is strongly advocated.
Esiste una specificità demografica del Meridione?
Giuseppe A. Micheli, Rosella Rettaroli
A specific demography of the South. Does it exist?
Historical studies have always underlined deep differences in the demography
of southern Italy respect to that of the northern and central part of the country.
This paper is particularly interested in discovering if nowadays the Southern
demographic dynamics are finally comparable with the recent evolution of the
North and the Centre of the Peninsula. We examine specifically the different
evolutions of mortality, fertility and family formation. The hypothesis is that
beneath the similarities shown by the data there are economic and anthropological
differences.
Economie della circolazione e mercati locali : un'etnografia del commercio transnazionale a Napoli
Camille Schmoll
The economics of circulation. Ethnography of transnational trade in Naples
During the 1990’s, Naples has become an important market where North-
African suitcase traders buy their goods. This paper aims to highlight some of the
relationships between immigrants’ transnational entrepreneurship and the social
and spatial organization of Naples as a marketplace. Moreover, the paper
addresses some of the difficulties connected with research on circulations and
informal economies and points at some possible research strategies.
Il capitale umano nel Mezzogiorno: un approccio di sistema per evitare la trappola di basso sviluppo
Giulio Guarini, Sergio Scicchitano
Human capital in Southern Italy:
a systemic approach to avoid the low development trap
The paper attempts to provide an explanation of the reasons of the qualitative
and quantitative human capital weakness of in Southern Italy. Our analysis
identify a low-skills low-quality trap generated by the interaction between supply
factors – operating within the education system – and demand factors – located
within the productive system. The paper, by considering the main theoretical and
empirical contributions, develops a descriptive statistical analysis and an
econometric model, which prove the existence obstacles on both supply and
demand sides. Only a systemic approach can avoid traps and make development
policies really effective.
Vivere di politica nel Sud d'Italia
Antonio Costabile
Living «off» politics in the South of Italy
By analysing several significant phenomena of the social, political and
institutional life of the Italian Mezzogiorno, this work aims to use the well
known Weberian concept of living «off» politics in a different way from the usual
one. Through this concept the German sociologist refers to people who get their
sustenance and remuneration from political associations and institutions, while
the paper applies the concept not only individuals and groups but to a whole
society that depends upon politics for its working. The conflicts and
contradictions that this imply – both today and possibly in the future – are
highlighted in the paper.
Come sostenere i Sud che si muovono: ovvero perché non bisogna tornare al Mezzogiorno
Carlo Triglia
How to sustain the development of southern regions.
Or why we should not come back to the old category of «Mezzogiorno»
In the 1990s, southern regions showed new signs of dynamism. The «Italian
model» based on local systems of small firms spread in some regions of the South.
New forms of social and political mobilization also grew. In the 2000s, the
expectations of a more stable and sound development were disappointed. The
paper argues that this trend should not lead back to the old category of
«Mezzogiorno», that is to the old idea that the South of Italy is a homogeneous
backward area, and to old policies based on financial incentives to individual
firms. It remains crucial to promote more effective policies aimed at improving
the accountability of local political and economic leadership and increasing the
supply of collective goods at a local level.
Ripensare le politiche per il Mezzogiorno
Maurizio Franzini, Anna Giunta
A new approach to the Policies for Italy’s Mezzogiorno
The paper critically assesses the policy known as «programmazione
negoziata» which has been the dominant approach to the development of the
Mezzogiorno over the last 10 years. There is general agreement that this policy
has not delivered the expected results but there is no shared consensus as to the
reasons of this failure. The paper provides a general scheme of analysis of such
failure making a distinction between the basic view of what Southern Italy needs
in order to develop, the institutional conditions necessary to make effective the
measures suggested by the view and, finally, all what makes the actual policies to
diverge, and even to conflict, with the basic view. This last element called
«implementation inconsistency», as the paper shows, has been quite important in
the case of the «programmazione negoziata». The paper concludes with some
suggestions on how to reinforce the basic view of the problems to be tackled and
how to tackle both the risk of institutional dysfunctionality and of inconsistencies
in the implementation.
Il Mezzogiorno e l'Italia : contributi a un dibattito
Fabrizio Barca, Piero Barucci, Marco Magnani, Gianfranco Viesti