Vita e Pensiero

L. Diotallevi, The world. That is: the evil of loosing time This paper is the result of an attempt to look for the “after” within the social realm, and of an attempt to take this challenge very seriously. Equating time to space is the starting point. Such an equating is also seen as a dramatic characteristic of the early modernity, of its phisics as well as of the state of its politics. Then assuming the luhmannian analysis of the path followed by the social differentiation during the course of modernization, up to the present primacy over that process exercised by the functional differentiation of the society, makes observable both the reapparaisal of the variety of temporalities and the planification and semplification of those temporalities planned and executesd by the egemony project of the state organization. So we are forced to account for the alternative remaining between saeculum – as paradigm centred on the variety of the temporalities – and secularization – as paradigm shaped on the abolition of that variety via spatialization –. Key words: society, social differentiation, space / time, Luhmann.

F.M. Lo Verde, Leisure time and the construction of social capital: a review The production of social capital in a specific area of everyday life such as leisure time and the different socio-cultural contexts it is experienced in is a very interesting research issue, especially in the light of certain specific meanings of the notion of social capital, such as Bourdieu’s or, more recently, Putnam’s. Nonetheless, this research issue is scarcely taken into consideration in Italy. Albeit inexaustively, this paper intends to introduce this issue starting from a brief review on the generation of social capital in youth’s leisure time contexts. In the first paragraph I problematize the notion of social capital as referred to leisure time “contexts” as well as analyze either the social capital literature dealing with the modes and experiences of leisure time, or the leisure time literature focusing on the construction of social capital in leisure time contexts. In the second paragraph I discuss some studies regarding the ways in which a particular age range – youth – produces social capital in leisure time contexts. In the third paragraph I focus on some studies regarding the issue of youth’s leisure time as a potential “antisocial” time. In the fourth paragraph I introduce the discussion about the little importance given to public leisure in the service provision for youth’s leisure time and the consequences determined by that in terms of social capital «erosion». The conclusion offers three metaphors for understanding the trends of leisure time and sociability. Key words: leisure studies; leisure time, Social capital

S. Vergati, Micro – meso – macro: social network analysis as a set of research traditions and programs The article analyses first the disciplinary and epistemological contexts of SNA; after, it compares the different theoretical approaches referable to SNA: the structural, the formalist, and the interactionist one. Then, two main methodological approaches are being compared: the «hard SNA» and the «soft SNA», the first one – typical of the micro-analysis -- which considers the relational structure as the goal of research; the second one, which uses relational data as a tool for the theory building at the meso and macro levels. Further, SNA is proposed as an interdisciplinary and multi-purpose way-out from the theoretical dualism holism vs. individualism, particularly according to the structural interactionist approach. Finally, the four different explicative theories integrated in SNA (the theory of weak ties, the theory of the structural holes, the theory of clusterness, and the theory of relational coordination) are discussed as middle-range theories. Key words: social network analysis, micro-meso-macro level, structural interactionism, methodological individualism, holism.

P. Iagulli, Self and emotions in symbolic interactionism The idea which inspires this essay is to enquire on the place of emotions within what is probably the most «subjectivist» sociological perspective: symbolic interactionism. I will try to demonstrate that there was substantially no space for emotions in what can be defined «classical» symbolic interactionism, that of George H. Mead and Herbert Blumer: this is surprising, but only to a certain point. Symbolic interactionism began to thematize emotions starting from the generation of scholars that can be defined post-blumerian (Shott, Scheff, Heise). The reason for this «delay» is also cultural: this scientific field was, at least in part, a child of its time, i.e. the expression of an «emotional culture» which began to assert itself in a significant manner, especially in the United States, starting from the second half of the Seventies. Key words: self, emotions, Mead, Blumer, post-blumerian symbolic interactionism.