Since the XIX century, the project on the Bridge over the Strait of Messina is a long-lasting obsession that entails symbolic, political and economic reasons that intertwine with different phases of capitalism and the Italian national history. Thus, it is possible to distinguish between a modern and a contemporary phase of this project. The article focuses mainly on the latter phase, and it analyses the role that different actors played in reactivating this venture as well as opposing it. The main idea is that in spite of its original vertical nature, the project, though devastating, has been supported by large sectors of the local civil society. It is, therefore, the calamitous project that the city deserves – so that Messina is not another area of sacrifice, but an area of «deliberate immolation».
Gli immaginari sul futuro di bambine e bambini non sono mere fantasie individuali, ma rappresentazioni sociali che incorporano e rielaborano norme, disuguaglianze e contraddizioni del contesto adulto. Questo articolo presenta i risultati di una ricerca qualitativa condotta in due piccoli comuni lombardi, volta ad analizzare come si strutturano gli immaginari professionali, familiari e di sé in bambini e bambine della scuola primaria. Attraverso l’analisi di disegni, racconti brevi, interviste con insegnanti e focus group, lo studio evidenzia una persistente rigidità degli stereotipi di genere. I risultati mostrano un’asimmetria fondamentale: le bambine, pur esplorando parzialmente professioni tradizionalmente maschili (agentic), interiorizzano precocemente il dilemma della conciliazione come problema femminile e concepiscono il corpo come oggetto di cura e riconoscimento sociale. Al contrario, l’immaginario maschile rimane rigidamente confinato entro canoni di maschilità tradizionale, con assenza di professioni di cura (communal) e di qualsiasi consapevolezza delle responsabilità domestiche. Le narrazioni infantili rivelano anche l’interiorizzazione di un senso di precarietà e di timore per il futuro. La discussione colloca questi risultati nel quadro teorico delle “trasformazioni incompiute” dei ruoli di genere, argomentando come gli immaginari infantili riflettano le frizioni di una società in cui le spinte al cambiamento convivono con resistenze profonde. L’articolo conclude, sottolineando l’urgenza di interventi educativi che amplino deliberatamente i repertori culturali a disposizione dell’infanzia, per favorire l’emergere di soggettività meno vincolate dagli stereotipi.
Robert van Krieken notes that Norbert Elias provides one of the most systematic sociological descriptions of the social and historical dynamics of various processes driving the pacification of hostility and the dismantling of antagonism. He states that Elias wrote about the emotions that drive such antagonism, including aggression, anger, embarrassment, fear, shame, happiness, sadness, hatred, repugnance and disgust, and alongside his concern with the ways in which antagonism in human relations has been pacified over time (van Krieken 2024: 22) Van Krieken lists a wide range of emotions, which surprisingly excludes gratitude. This article aims, among other things, to fill this gap. Gratitude is, in fact, as significant in the dialectical process of civilization/decivilization as national pride. We can consider gratitude a part of pacifying aggression, but also emerging antagonism. This article aims to analyze the dialectic of gratitude/ingratitude as political emotions; fill a gap in Eliasian sociology by including gratitude as a key emotional factor in the pacification and/or antagonization processes; show how gratitude serves to discipline international partners. Based on the example of US–Polish–Ukrainian relations in the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, this text demonstrates how the expression of and demand for gratitude connect to shaping the boundaries of international solidarity.
Questo articolo si concentra sulle possibili intersezioni tra l’anti-oppressive social work e le teorie queer, per comprendere il contributo che queste ultime possono portare nel campo del servizio sociale. L’intento comparativo tra i due filoni prende avvio dall’identificazione di un comune movente pragmatico: pur sviluppatisi in contesti e in relazione a istanze differenti, in entrambi i casi l’origine e l’evoluzione ha visto l’emergere di riflessioni teoriche, sollecitate da movimenti che hanno lottato e lottano per il riconoscimento di discorsi, esperienze e pratiche tenute ai margini o esposte a forme di discriminazione (Honneth, 2007). Appare dunque utile cogliere possibilità di ibridazione tra i due sguardi, per potenziare le lenti teoriche con cui studiosi e professionisti del servizio sociale cercano non solo di comprendere i fenomeni, ma anche di innescare trasformazioni nei mondi di vita di persone e comunità sistematicamente esposte a forme di misconoscimento o riconoscimento negativo.
L’articolo vuole proporre di leggere l’ideologia del gender come, in realtà, forma ideologica di negazione di riconoscimento e, allo stesso tempo, la lotta del movimento Lgbtq* come forma di lotta di riconoscimento non ideologica. Per sostenere questa ipotesi, l’autore discuterà soprattutto di due processi delineati da Honneth: quello della reificazione e quello della produzione di ideologia in quanto, secondo l’autore, sono strettamente connessi da un legame di reciproca necessarietà: il secondo i produce il primo che, a sua volta, lo rafforza.
The paper examines the ways in which healthcare systems, despite formal commitments to universality and equality, reproduce structural inequalities that marginalize people who escape heteronormativity, whether through non-normative gender identities, sexual orientations, or embodied expressions. It conceptualizes healthcare not as a neutral or universally accessible service, but as a biopolitical apparatus that shapes bodies and subjectivities according to binary, heteronormative, and cis-centric norms. The analysis situates these dynamics within a global perspective, highlighting how access to affirming care varies across geographical, political, and cultural contexts. Empirical evidence from international studies illustrates that disparities in healthcare access and outcomes are shaped by the intersection of structural stigma, socio-economic marginalization, and the persistence of pathologizing medical frameworks. The paper devotes particular attention to Italy, using data from the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) on the health status and healthcare experiences of transgender and non-binary people. These findings reveal marked inequalities in mental health, preventive care uptake, and exposure to discrimination, underscoring the gap between the formal promise of the national healthcare service and the lived realities of access. The discussion argues for a shift from rhetorical inclusion toward structural transformation, identifying key areas for change: destructuring medical epistemologies, reconfiguring the spatial organization of care, transforming professional education, and embedding institutional accountability. The conclusion reflects on the politics of resistance within healthcare systems, emphasizing that confronting normative structures is essential for creating environments that are not only accessible, but queer-informed and just.
This contribution explores LGBTQIA+ adolescents’ perceptions of the representations and self-representations of LGBTQIA+ subjectivities in digital media, with particular attention to the tensions between visibility, authenticity, and recognition. Drawing on 21 in-depth interviews with young people aged 16 to 18, the study investigates how online queer visibility is received, filtered, and sometimes rejected by LGBTQIA+ individuals. In this context, selectivity, silence, and disengagement emerge as active strategies of communicative agency, capable of negotiating belonging and redefining the conditions of recognition. The paper invites us to rethink visibility not as an absolute value, but as a negotiated space between authenticity, desire, and the complexity of queer experiences during adolescence.
This article offers a critical re-reading of contemporary queer geographies by questioning the metronormative paradigm that has historically associated LGBTQIA+ experiences with Western urban space. Drawing on a dialogue between queer theory, the sociology of space, and decolonial studies, the article examines how non-heteronormative subjectivities are also produced and negotiated in rural, peripheral, and Mediterranean contexts. It weaves together the concepts of queer ruralities, queer anti-urbanism, and critical queer regionalities to show how non-metropolitan areas function as active spaces of resistance, belonging, and social innovation. Particular attention is given to the Italian and Mediterranean contexts, understood as laboratories for the experimentation of situated queer practices, in which tourism, mobility, and family models contribute to reconfiguring visibility, intimacy, and agency. The article argues that a genuinely critical perspective requires the decolonization of the sociological gaze, capable of decentering itself from Euro-American trajectories and of recognizing the plurality of queer temporalities, scales, and forms of life. It concludes by proposing a transscalar research agenda that values territorial differences and promotes a situated, intersectional, and territorially grounded queer sociology.
Il saggio analizza in prospettiva comparata le normative adottate in vari ordinamenti per vietare o limitare le cosiddette “terapie di conversione sessuale”. Queste pratiche, finalizzate a reprimere o modificare l’orientamento sessuale e l’identità di genere delle persone LGBT+, sono unanimemente condannate dalla comunità scientifica per la loro inefficacia e per i gravi danni psicologici che possono causare. L’articolo propone una loro classificazione sulla base di quattro paradigmi (regolatorio-deontologico, proibizionista limitato, proibizionista integrale, ostile alla regolazione) e li confronta lungo vari assi: la fonte giuridica, i soggetti tutelati, le pratiche vietate e le sanzioni previste. L’analisi mette in luce limiti e potenzialità delle diverse strategie legislative, evidenziando l’importanza di accompagnare gli interventi normativi con misure culturali e educative, e sottolineando l’urgenza di un approccio intersezionale e strutturale alla tutela dei diritti LGBT+. This article offers a comparative analysis of the legal frameworks adopted across various jurisdictions to prohibit or restrict so-called “conversion therapies”. These practices, aimed at repressing or altering the sexual orientation and gender identity of LGBT+ individuals, are widely condemned by the scientific community for their ineffectiveness and harmful psychological consequences. The article proposes a typology of four normative paradigms (regulatory-deontological, limited prohibitionist, integral prohibitionist, and anti-regulatory) and compares them along several key dimensions: legal basis, protected subjects, banned practices, and applicable sanctions. The analysis highlights both strengths and weaknesses of existing legal strategies and stresses the need to complement legal bans with cultural and educational measures. It calls for a structural and intersectional approach to LGBT+ rights, moving beyond medicalized or minor-centered protections.
This paper critically examines the phenomenon of platform capitalism through the lens of national contextual factors that shape its evolution, challenging the prevailing tendency in the literature to emphasize convergence towards a uniform North American entrepreneurial model. Two theoretical perspectives emerge: one positing a uniformity in platform models and the other advocating for diversification due to varying institutional frameworks. While platforms aim for global scalability through established business models, the influence of distinct economic contexts on their operations remains underexplored. This study argues for a deeper investigation of national specificities in platform capitalism, particularly through the framework of Varieties of Capitalism (VoC). The analysis focuses on two Mediterranean economies, Italy and Spain, exploring how food delivery and ride-hailing platforms interact with their mixed market systems, thereby illuminating the differential conditioning and differentiation processes inherent in these contexts.
This article aims to present the contributions of a number of Romani activists and academics, several of whom explicitly identify as “feminists,” to Romani Studies over the past two decades, promoting a “critical turn,” as well as contributing to the social sciences more broadly. Drawing on critical social theories - such as critical race theory, feminist and intersectional approaches, and postcolonial theory - and focusing on epistemic power relations in Romani Studies, Romani feminism explicitly seeks to decolonize the field. Offering a “meridian” perspective rooted in Europe’s internal margins, Romani feminism provides a unique lens through which to interpret social reality and produce counter-hegemonic discourse. The article is structured in two main parts. The first section reviews contributions that have theorized the condition of Romani people in Europe as “internally colonized.” The second section traces the emergence, contributions, and recent developments of Romani feminism in activism and academia. The conclusion summarizes the main contributions of Romani feminism and the recent field of Critical Romani Studies to the decolonization of the social sciences.
Among the main symbolic referents for Italian Gen Z identified in the literature, trap music and digital platforms emerge as particularly prominent. Trap, the most listened-to musical genre among Italian Gen Z and characterized by the youngest average age of artists in the history of recorded music, conveys complex meanings that require analysis through a trans- and cross-media lens. As a generational response to historical, political, economic, and media transformations, trap music reappropriates and reconfigures elements of hip-hop—especially gangsta rap—emphasizing success, power, and violence as markers of competence traditionally linked to hegemonic masculinity. However, trap culture also constitutes a space in which a number of female artists are currently gaining visibility and engaging in self-representation to an extent previously unseen in the history of Italian hip-hop. Building on this premise, the present contribution explores the trap scene as a gendered space, examining the negotiations, continuities, and ruptures of gender norms enacted within it by female artists. In particular, the analysis will focus on the figure of Anna Pepe, currently the most followed and listened-to female artist on the main digital platforms, and the subject of the highest number of posts.
Abstract. Il nostro obiettivo è esaminare i concetti di tipizzazione, rilevanze e interpretazione seguendo un percorso di indagine che integra i contributi teorici della fenomenologia di Edmund Husserl e Alfred Schütz. Intendiamo delineare un quadro teorico che evidenzi le connessioni e le trasformazioni tra queste teorie, fornendo uno strumento utile per decodificare la costruzione sociale della realtà, focalizzandoci sui meccanismi della costituzione dell’esperienza del mondo della vita quotidiana a partire dalla tipicità. A tal fine, esploreremo i fondamenti fenomenologici della tipizzazione, analizzando i suoi legami quotidiani con le rilevanze e il fondo di conoscenze che utilizziamo per comprendere la vita sociale.
