Vita e Pensiero

V. CESAREO - I. VACCARINI, The proposal of humanist constructionism Sociological theory in the twentieth century polarized between collectivist doctrines which asserted social determinism and individualist ones which asserted the autonomous action of atomistically conceived individuals. The late 1900s also saw the advent of a kind of radical individualism which can be labelled «sociological minimalism». «Social constructionism» is the contemporary approach which seeks to reconcile the above polarizations, and it is within its theoretical domain that lies the proposal for a «humanist constructionism» put forward in this article. Humanist constructionism sets value on subjectivity and historicity. On this base it thematizes the person understood as a sociological category, and it crucially refers to the sociology of Max Weber in so far as it is qualified by the existential and historicist dimensions. The distinctive feature of humanist constructionism is its axiological profile founded upon the concept of citizenship. Within contemporary sociology, «humanist constructionism» has a particular elective affinity with the morphogenetic approach of M. Archer. Key words: humanism, constructionism, person, citizenship.

T. MARCI, Notes on the idea of «Big Society» The aim of this paper is to underline the sociological meaning of the political idea of «Big Society»: an idea that was launched on July 2010 by the Prime Minister David Cameron, leader of the British Conservative Party. The genesis of the «Big Society» was the idea, first articulated by Phillip Blond, that the stifling duopoly of a centralised state and a laissez-faire free market had reached the point of diminishing returns – and that nothing less than a radical, coherent platform for reinvigorating civil society would suffice. In this way, the aim was to create a climate that empowers local people and communities, building a «Big Society» that will take power away from politicians and give it to people. This is a bottom-up vision, not a government program dictated from the state to citizens. «Big Society» is about a cultural change where people don’t always turn to officials, local authorities or central government for answers to the problems they face but instead feel both free and powerful enough to help themselves and their own communities. The paper propose a critical point of view about these problems. Key words: big society, civil society, social enterprises, communities, citizenship.

A. MILLEFIORINI, The micro-macro linkage in Max Weber’s Theory of sociological categories This essay intends to point out the micro-macro linkage in the remarks developed by Max Weber in the first volume of Economy and Society, where he outlines his Theory of the Sociological Categories, which gives the title to the volume. Although the micro-macro linkage wasn’t the author’s declared intention, nevertheless, reading the text regarding under this specific perspective, some relevant elements appear; they give a meaningful contribution to the Weber’s sociological theory under this specific aspect too, and so, as we shall see, under the one of the construction of sense in the societies. The great merit of Weber’s work is that he has pointed out that the linkage between micro and macro consists just in the fact that «a right causal interpretation of a concrete acting shows that the external direction and the [internal] reason are recognized as adherent and, in the same time, intelligible in a way that it has got meaning in their connection» (Weber 1999a: 11). In other words, it is necessary an intelligible connection between the «external direction», that is the meaning and the sense that the action of the subject has for the others, thanks to the macro elements above which it is based, and the internal reason, namely the interior motivation of the subject to do that specific action. This is the turning point of the micro-macro linkage Weber has pointed out, and it represents one of the most relevant aspects of all his social theory. Finally we propose, on the bases of the reasonings developed in this work, the substitution of the concept of «objective sense» with that one less rigid of «shared sense» or «evident sense»; it is more capable to give reason of the presence, in the societies, to a time of participation and conflict, communicability and uncommunicability, loyalty, defection and protest, movement and institution, form and life, taxi and cosmos, order and chaos, concordia discors, etc. Key words: micro-macro, sense, construction of sense, objective sense, subjective sense, social theory.

The author presents a concise and peculiar view on the studies and researches which have been developed in the last 30 years or so about the social dimension of time. The article underlies the persisting validity of the idea of time as a socio-cultural institution (Durkheim and his school) and as a social construction (Berger and Luckmann); it also hints at the concept of «temporal culture», which has been rarely employed in studies concerning social times. According to the author, the main transformation concerning social times today is represented by the consequences of globalization and related aspects, such as «agglutination» of experiences concerning communication through space-time. In the last paragraph the question of rhythm in general and particularly of social rhythms is discussed: the author argues that this concept, distinct from time, deserves much more attention than it has received until now by social scientists interested in the subject. Key words: time, rhythm, globalization, network society, values.

This paper analyses two different generations of young people: Stuck Generation – those who are thirty years old – and Active generation – younger brothers, or twenty years old youngs. These two generations show both elements of continuity and (interesting) discontinuity. While Stuck Generation is characterized by low social and spatial mobility, by limited planning and privatism, Active Generation is proving a major social and political committment, a more critical attitude and a desire to invest in the future. Active Generation is also optimistic and pragmatic, it wants to live at full rhythm its time and it is no longer willing to accept to live an empty time, without any chance of real life. Key words: time, rhythm, mobility, youth, generations.

The rise of the network society and the digitalization of communication processes changed modern experience of time and rhythm; notwithstanding a lot of theories account timeless time, real time and network time as a consistent and typical kind of temporality of internet and mobile communication devices, forcing our everyday experience of time and rhythm in a very deterministic way, technical affordances, cultural forms and users’ practices describe a more complex, pluralistic and flexible kind of temporality. Users’ everyday practices of CMC and ICT look like a jazz performance, that includes qualities such as «swinging», improvising, group interaction, developing an «individual voice» on the basis of their social position, habitus and moral economy. Key words: time, rhythm, communication, internet, mobility.

The words «rhythm» and «time» define two important characteristics of psychomotion, but they are, at the same time, two significant aspects of theatrical communication languages. They give sense and significance to the body and image, to movement and sound, and they allow theatre, where actors use all these means of expression, to be heard and understood. The theatre SUMMARIES 341 makes sense just through a rhythmic score, a gesture, a short series of words or a music, and it can show that hidden whole composed by motivation and emotion, that the performers has turned into an understandable form of expression that can be seen or heard; for example, the feeling of happiness will have a fast and intense rhythm, which will produce a series of quick and light movements and will characterize in the same way the verbal language too. To assert that a feeling has its own rhythm we have to analyse our heartbeat and our breath, that are our so-called «natural rhythms», when that particular emotional state occurs. Every human being has his own «natural rhythms», that characterize the way he thinks and moves, for example the way he raises his arm, he walks, he works or he organizes his own time. Key-words: time, rhythm, theatre, communication, emotion.