Using an ethnographic approach, the present essay deals with the topic of salary formation within... more Using an ethnographic approach, the present essay deals with the topic of salary formation within the informal labor market in the agricultural sector. Attention is therefore focused on the daily interaction and processes of negotiation that have at stake the definition of a \uabfair wage\ubb. Examining what is said to be a \uabfair\ubb salary allows one to focus on the normative aspects of the economic action and permits the investigation of the concepts of \uabjustice\ubb and relative \uabjustifications\ubb. The ethnographic account of an experience of covert participant observation, conducted in a greenhouse farm located in a transformed littoral belt in the province of Ragusa (Sicily), allows these phases of negotiation to be explored. The article aims to focus on the ways in which the value of labor is intersubjectively defined, according to a set of conventions that include gender, nationality and the concept of productivity
Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia pubblica contributi nell\u2019ambito della teoria e della ricerca... more Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia pubblica contributi nell\u2019ambito della teoria e della ricerca sociologica. La rivista vuole offrire una panoramica aggiornata della disciplina, aperta alla pluralit\ue0 delle prospettive teoriche e degli approcci metodologici, proponendosi come strumento di sviluppo del sapere sociologico. Allo stesso tempo, la rivista favorisce il dialogo interdisciplinare e, in particolare, promuove il confronto della sociologia con altre scienze umane e sociali come l\u2019antropologia, la psicologia, l\u2019economia, la scienza politica, la demografia, l\u2019urbanistica e la storia
<div> <p>The chapter aims to illustrate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and, in ... more <div> <p>The chapter aims to illustrate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and, in particular, of the of amnesty law passed by the Italian government in May 2020 for migrants working in agriculture, highlighting the continuity of the latter measure with the previous policies regulating migration and agricultural labour. For decades, these policies have managed both international migrations and domestic mobility of the seasonal labour force through an emergency approach. The chapter resorts on data collected through statistics, interviews and participant observation inside informal settlements in the South of Italy. In conclusion, we argue that the health emergency accelerates the resort to administrative and bureaucratic emergency practices in the management of migrations, thus contributing to the reproduction of an emergency frame, that relegates labourers to the role of 'victims of exploitation', and at the same time regulates their possibility of movement and their employment opportunities.</p> </div>
The aim of this paper is to extend discussion on subcontracted labour by focussing on the labour ... more The aim of this paper is to extend discussion on subcontracted labour by focussing on the labour process and on the role of race and racialization within it. The existing literature has so far analysed the factors that have encouraged employer decisions to outsource labour, together with its effects on labour conditions and on industrial relations. Missing, however, has been any detailed analysis of the role of race and racialization processes, pivotal elements in the facilitation of subcontracting thereby accelerating the worsening of labour conditions. Based on qualitative empirical research on the meat industry in Northern Italy, this article highlights how the processes of outsourcing and racialization intersect to support the segmentation of labour within the workplace. In particular, we argue that, through contracting out work to racialized groups of migrant workers, outsourcing has been both facilitated and legitimized. Furthermore, the presence of in-plant contractors has fo...
Stuck and Exploited Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Italy Between Exclusion, Discrimination and Struggles, 2021
The chapter aims to illustrate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and, in particular, of the of... more The chapter aims to illustrate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and, in particular, of the of amnesty law passed by the Italian government in May 2020 for migrants working in agriculture, highlighting the continuity of the latter measure with the previous policies regulating migration and agricultural labour. For decades, these policies have managed both international migrations and domestic mobility of the seasonal labour force through an emergency approach. The chapter resorts on data collected through statistics, interviews and participant observation inside informal settlements in the South of Italy. In conclusion, we argue that the health emergency accelerates the resort to administrative and bureaucratic emergency practices in the management of migrations, thus contributing to the reproduction of an emergency frame, that relegates labourers to the role of ‘victims of exploitation’, and at the same time regulates their possibility of movement and their employment opportunit...
Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 2016
This paper describes and reflects on a teaching experience developed as a complimentary workshops... more This paper describes and reflects on a teaching experience developed as a complimentary workshops to MA class on history, theory and politics of consumption. We used Wikipedia as a tool to consider the circuit of knowledge production in the Web 2.0 era, where consumers are no longer passive audiences but producers and consumers at the same time. We developed a collaborative team-work workshop aimed at the production of Wikipedia entries on topics related to the class content. In this note we describe the structure of such “Wikiworshops”, our teaching strategy on sources management, teamwork and group teaching, and elaborate on students' reception of the workshop. Wikiworkhops proved to be an effective exercise in a collaborative economy of knowledge, and an opportunity for young sociologists to be part of it, expressing their creativity as well as becoming aware of the boundaries and limits inherent in the mechanism.
Starting from an ethnographic research carried out in Campobello di Mazara (Trapani), the article... more Starting from an ethnographic research carried out in Campobello di Mazara (Trapani), the article focuses on the living conditions of the laborers employed as olive pickers. The contribution investigates the institutional strategies aimed at the management of the seasonal workforce, shedding light on the effects they have on the productive system and on workers’ everyday life. By trying to transfer workers from "ghettos" to camps, the effect has been to produce, on the territory, a multiplication of the settlements and a wider segregation of the laborers.
The aim of the article is to discuss the interconnections existing between urban and migration st... more The aim of the article is to discuss the interconnections existing between urban and migration studies. It argues that, at the beginning of the XX century, namely in the pioneering works of the Chicago School, the two debates developed jointly. The essay illustrates the added value of using a spatial lens to understand migrations. Moreover, it shows the advantages of considering migratory processes to read the current transformations undertaken by contemporary cities and rural areas. Finally, it introduces the contributions collected in this monographic section of the Journal «Urban and Rural Sociology».
Le decisioni che riguardano i processi di selezione, quantitativa e qualitativa, degli stranieri ... more Le decisioni che riguardano i processi di selezione, quantitativa e qualitativa, degli stranieri che chiedono di essere ammessi sul territorio e di quelli che sono entrati illegittimamente e che possono essere destinatari di procedure di allontanamento, e le decisioni che riguardano gli stranieri che si trovano già all'interno di un Paese, per facilitarne, o viceversa, scoraggiarne la permanenza, sono temi che hanno acquisito ormai da tempo una collocazione centrale nelle agende politiche dei governi, per tacere della rilevanza che ...
Throughout this article, the author deals with the topic of the moral economy of the informal lab... more Throughout this article, the author deals with the topic of the moral economy of the informal labor market, focusing on the greenhouses' sector in the province of Ragusa (Sicily). The ethnographic experience as a participant observer in one of the richest districts of South Italian agriculture, helped to reconstruct the interplay emerging between the State, the entrepreneurs and the Italian and migrants laborers, harnessed in this quasi-informal system of production. The case of "fake agricultural workers", namely of people fictitiously hired in agriculture in order to receive the unemployment subsidy, represents an interesting example, since it allowed to scrutinize some of the categories, both cognitive and normative, that constitute the "moral order" of the agricultural local labor market. The author, thus, through several empirical examples, tried to rep to some relevant questions, like what is deem to be "legitimate" or "illegitimate" in the economic realm, what is constructed as "convenient" or "valuable" and how does ethnicity play a role in defining the "appropriateness" of individuals’ coping strategies. Nel corso dell'articolo, l'autrice affronta il tema dell'economia morale nel mercato del lavoro informale, concentrandosi sul settore serricolo in provincia di Ragusa (Sicilia). L'esperienza etnografica da osservatrice partecipante in uno dei distretti piu produttivi dell'agricoltura meridionale, ha aiutato a ricostruire le interazioni che emergono tra lo Stato, gli imprenditori e i lavoratori italiani e migranti, imbrigliati in questo sistema di produzione semi-informale. Il caso dei "falsi braccianti", ovvero di persone ingaggiate in maniera fittizia al fine di ricevere il sussidio di disoccupazione agricola, rappresenta un esempio interessante, poiche consente di indagare alcune categorie, di tipo sia cognitivo che normativo, che costituiscono "l'ordine morale" del mercato del lavoro agricolo locale. L'autrice, dunque, attraverso diversi esempi empirici, cerca di rispondere ad alcune domande rilevanti, come ad esempio cosa e ritenuto "legittimo" o "illegittimo" nell'ambito economico, cosa e costruito come "conveniente" o "valido", e in che modo l'etnicita gioca un ruolo nel definire le strategie d'azione piu "appropriate".
The spreading of remote work in Italy following the Coronavirus pandemic has brought numerous cha... more The spreading of remote work in Italy following the Coronavirus pandemic has brought numerous challenges that have prompted trade unions to include this form of work as a matter of collective bargaining. The article aims to study unions' everyday bargaining practices, by investigating how the main union guide-lines on remote work have been implemented during the pandemic. Based on empirical data collected in Veneto and starting from the perspective of union officials and representatives, the article sheds light on unions' bargaining practices concerning access to remote work, remote workers' income, working time, and workloads. The analysis permits us to stress that union practitioners adapt the strategies of their union organisations to the specific sectors and workplaces in which they are embedded, according to the specific needs of the workforce they represent and to how they perceive their own bargaining power. We argue that the different variables - geographical lev...
Using an ethnographic approach, the present essay deals with the topic of salary formation within... more Using an ethnographic approach, the present essay deals with the topic of salary formation within the informal labor market in the agricultural sector. Attention is therefore focused on the daily interaction and processes of negotiation that have at stake the definition of a \uabfair wage\ubb. Examining what is said to be a \uabfair\ubb salary allows one to focus on the normative aspects of the economic action and permits the investigation of the concepts of \uabjustice\ubb and relative \uabjustifications\ubb. The ethnographic account of an experience of covert participant observation, conducted in a greenhouse farm located in a transformed littoral belt in the province of Ragusa (Sicily), allows these phases of negotiation to be explored. The article aims to focus on the ways in which the value of labor is intersubjectively defined, according to a set of conventions that include gender, nationality and the concept of productivity
Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia pubblica contributi nell\u2019ambito della teoria e della ricerca... more Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia pubblica contributi nell\u2019ambito della teoria e della ricerca sociologica. La rivista vuole offrire una panoramica aggiornata della disciplina, aperta alla pluralit\ue0 delle prospettive teoriche e degli approcci metodologici, proponendosi come strumento di sviluppo del sapere sociologico. Allo stesso tempo, la rivista favorisce il dialogo interdisciplinare e, in particolare, promuove il confronto della sociologia con altre scienze umane e sociali come l\u2019antropologia, la psicologia, l\u2019economia, la scienza politica, la demografia, l\u2019urbanistica e la storia
<div> <p>The chapter aims to illustrate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and, in ... more <div> <p>The chapter aims to illustrate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and, in particular, of the of amnesty law passed by the Italian government in May 2020 for migrants working in agriculture, highlighting the continuity of the latter measure with the previous policies regulating migration and agricultural labour. For decades, these policies have managed both international migrations and domestic mobility of the seasonal labour force through an emergency approach. The chapter resorts on data collected through statistics, interviews and participant observation inside informal settlements in the South of Italy. In conclusion, we argue that the health emergency accelerates the resort to administrative and bureaucratic emergency practices in the management of migrations, thus contributing to the reproduction of an emergency frame, that relegates labourers to the role of 'victims of exploitation', and at the same time regulates their possibility of movement and their employment opportunities.</p> </div>
The aim of this paper is to extend discussion on subcontracted labour by focussing on the labour ... more The aim of this paper is to extend discussion on subcontracted labour by focussing on the labour process and on the role of race and racialization within it. The existing literature has so far analysed the factors that have encouraged employer decisions to outsource labour, together with its effects on labour conditions and on industrial relations. Missing, however, has been any detailed analysis of the role of race and racialization processes, pivotal elements in the facilitation of subcontracting thereby accelerating the worsening of labour conditions. Based on qualitative empirical research on the meat industry in Northern Italy, this article highlights how the processes of outsourcing and racialization intersect to support the segmentation of labour within the workplace. In particular, we argue that, through contracting out work to racialized groups of migrant workers, outsourcing has been both facilitated and legitimized. Furthermore, the presence of in-plant contractors has fo...
Stuck and Exploited Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Italy Between Exclusion, Discrimination and Struggles, 2021
The chapter aims to illustrate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and, in particular, of the of... more The chapter aims to illustrate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and, in particular, of the of amnesty law passed by the Italian government in May 2020 for migrants working in agriculture, highlighting the continuity of the latter measure with the previous policies regulating migration and agricultural labour. For decades, these policies have managed both international migrations and domestic mobility of the seasonal labour force through an emergency approach. The chapter resorts on data collected through statistics, interviews and participant observation inside informal settlements in the South of Italy. In conclusion, we argue that the health emergency accelerates the resort to administrative and bureaucratic emergency practices in the management of migrations, thus contributing to the reproduction of an emergency frame, that relegates labourers to the role of ‘victims of exploitation’, and at the same time regulates their possibility of movement and their employment opportunit...
Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 2016
This paper describes and reflects on a teaching experience developed as a complimentary workshops... more This paper describes and reflects on a teaching experience developed as a complimentary workshops to MA class on history, theory and politics of consumption. We used Wikipedia as a tool to consider the circuit of knowledge production in the Web 2.0 era, where consumers are no longer passive audiences but producers and consumers at the same time. We developed a collaborative team-work workshop aimed at the production of Wikipedia entries on topics related to the class content. In this note we describe the structure of such “Wikiworshops”, our teaching strategy on sources management, teamwork and group teaching, and elaborate on students' reception of the workshop. Wikiworkhops proved to be an effective exercise in a collaborative economy of knowledge, and an opportunity for young sociologists to be part of it, expressing their creativity as well as becoming aware of the boundaries and limits inherent in the mechanism.
Starting from an ethnographic research carried out in Campobello di Mazara (Trapani), the article... more Starting from an ethnographic research carried out in Campobello di Mazara (Trapani), the article focuses on the living conditions of the laborers employed as olive pickers. The contribution investigates the institutional strategies aimed at the management of the seasonal workforce, shedding light on the effects they have on the productive system and on workers’ everyday life. By trying to transfer workers from "ghettos" to camps, the effect has been to produce, on the territory, a multiplication of the settlements and a wider segregation of the laborers.
The aim of the article is to discuss the interconnections existing between urban and migration st... more The aim of the article is to discuss the interconnections existing between urban and migration studies. It argues that, at the beginning of the XX century, namely in the pioneering works of the Chicago School, the two debates developed jointly. The essay illustrates the added value of using a spatial lens to understand migrations. Moreover, it shows the advantages of considering migratory processes to read the current transformations undertaken by contemporary cities and rural areas. Finally, it introduces the contributions collected in this monographic section of the Journal «Urban and Rural Sociology».
Le decisioni che riguardano i processi di selezione, quantitativa e qualitativa, degli stranieri ... more Le decisioni che riguardano i processi di selezione, quantitativa e qualitativa, degli stranieri che chiedono di essere ammessi sul territorio e di quelli che sono entrati illegittimamente e che possono essere destinatari di procedure di allontanamento, e le decisioni che riguardano gli stranieri che si trovano già all'interno di un Paese, per facilitarne, o viceversa, scoraggiarne la permanenza, sono temi che hanno acquisito ormai da tempo una collocazione centrale nelle agende politiche dei governi, per tacere della rilevanza che ...
Throughout this article, the author deals with the topic of the moral economy of the informal lab... more Throughout this article, the author deals with the topic of the moral economy of the informal labor market, focusing on the greenhouses' sector in the province of Ragusa (Sicily). The ethnographic experience as a participant observer in one of the richest districts of South Italian agriculture, helped to reconstruct the interplay emerging between the State, the entrepreneurs and the Italian and migrants laborers, harnessed in this quasi-informal system of production. The case of "fake agricultural workers", namely of people fictitiously hired in agriculture in order to receive the unemployment subsidy, represents an interesting example, since it allowed to scrutinize some of the categories, both cognitive and normative, that constitute the "moral order" of the agricultural local labor market. The author, thus, through several empirical examples, tried to rep to some relevant questions, like what is deem to be "legitimate" or "illegitimate" in the economic realm, what is constructed as "convenient" or "valuable" and how does ethnicity play a role in defining the "appropriateness" of individuals’ coping strategies. Nel corso dell'articolo, l'autrice affronta il tema dell'economia morale nel mercato del lavoro informale, concentrandosi sul settore serricolo in provincia di Ragusa (Sicilia). L'esperienza etnografica da osservatrice partecipante in uno dei distretti piu produttivi dell'agricoltura meridionale, ha aiutato a ricostruire le interazioni che emergono tra lo Stato, gli imprenditori e i lavoratori italiani e migranti, imbrigliati in questo sistema di produzione semi-informale. Il caso dei "falsi braccianti", ovvero di persone ingaggiate in maniera fittizia al fine di ricevere il sussidio di disoccupazione agricola, rappresenta un esempio interessante, poiche consente di indagare alcune categorie, di tipo sia cognitivo che normativo, che costituiscono "l'ordine morale" del mercato del lavoro agricolo locale. L'autrice, dunque, attraverso diversi esempi empirici, cerca di rispondere ad alcune domande rilevanti, come ad esempio cosa e ritenuto "legittimo" o "illegittimo" nell'ambito economico, cosa e costruito come "conveniente" o "valido", e in che modo l'etnicita gioca un ruolo nel definire le strategie d'azione piu "appropriate".
The spreading of remote work in Italy following the Coronavirus pandemic has brought numerous cha... more The spreading of remote work in Italy following the Coronavirus pandemic has brought numerous challenges that have prompted trade unions to include this form of work as a matter of collective bargaining. The article aims to study unions' everyday bargaining practices, by investigating how the main union guide-lines on remote work have been implemented during the pandemic. Based on empirical data collected in Veneto and starting from the perspective of union officials and representatives, the article sheds light on unions' bargaining practices concerning access to remote work, remote workers' income, working time, and workloads. The analysis permits us to stress that union practitioners adapt the strategies of their union organisations to the specific sectors and workplaces in which they are embedded, according to the specific needs of the workforce they represent and to how they perceive their own bargaining power. We argue that the different variables - geographical lev...
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