Vita e Pensiero

L. MAURI, Applied Social Research and Policy Making: multiple methodological approaches This contribution deals with the cognitive and methodological issues that involve applied social research in its relation with policy design and political decision making, showing some exemplifications of empirical options considered effective to produce good knowledge for facing social changes and all the new needs and questions it produces. In this prospective, surpassing the dichotomy within «academic research» and «applied research», the essay on one hand wants to focus on the techniques and tools addressed to improve a knowledge-based decision making in the field of welfare policies and on the other hand to discuss the role and the ethical commitment of social researchers in the policy community, their responsibility in contributing of the best «social organization of future». Key words: social research, social survey, indicators, customer satisfaction, social design, methodology.

A. VITALINI, The use of social networks for the construction of probability samples: opportunities and limitations for the study of populations without sampling frame Populations without sampling frame, usually called hidden populations, are inherently hard to sample by conventional sampling designs. Often the only practical methods of obtanining the sample involve following social links from some initially identified respondents to add more research partecipants to the sample. These kinds of link-tracing designs make the sample liable to various forms of bias and make extremely difficult to generalize the results to the population studied. This article describes some attempts to build a statistical theory of link-tracing designs and illustrates, deeply, the Respondent-Driven Sampling, a link-tracing sampling design that should allow researchers to make, in hidden populations, asymptotically unbiased estimates under certain conditions. Last, the article discusses some features and problems of the Respondent-Driven Sampling which deserve further investigation and study. Key words: snowball sampling, link-tracing sampling, sampling hidden populations, responentdriven sampling, Markov chain.

S. CHESSA - A. VARGIU, University evaluation and institutional changes in Europe. The paper deals with the theme of university evaluation in the light of institutional changes that European academies are presently facing. Some key factors of those changes as well as critical elements concerning them that are to be found in literature are discussed. In the paper, a distinction is made between macro, meso and micro levels at which changes are taking place. As to the macro level, the role of the European research and higher education policies is taken into account with a particular emphasis on the Open Method of Coordination. At the meso level, the main directives of National policies carried out in the different European member States are presented and discussed particularly by referring to accountability and autonomy. Whereas what is here defined micro level is dealt with by briefly discussing the links between the diffusion of new public management, university governance and evaluation. Following such premises, some proposals are made as to the ambits and modes of university evaluation that do not appear sufficiently developed. Key words: Higher education, Research, Europe, Evaluation, Accountability.

M. PALUMBO - C. PENNISI, Reasons for University evalutation: ethical and deontological issues The necessity of University evaluation derives from ethical and deontological issues, linked to the autonomy that is a necessary feature of the University, since its foundations. Nevertheless, it is not «the University» as a whole to be evaluated, but those specific components and activities, in which the scientific interests of professors must be coherent with the interests of other stakeholders (students, colleagues, public institutions, society) by clearly defined rules and objectives. Evaluation is strongly tied to autonomy, by means of the accountability that every autonomous institutions must warrant. Unfortunately, the recent University reform law does not propose evaluation as an instrument of accountability and as a tool to make Universities responsible, but as an instrument of their external control. Key words: Academic evaluation, Universities evaluation, University reform, Institutional change.

I. BERETTA, Catton and Dunlap: affinities and differences within the context of an all too topical message. Within the context of Environmental Sociology, the role is by now generally recognised of William R. Catton Jr. and Riley E. Dunlap as founding fathers of the subject. Their names are often jointly cited, above all because of the number of texts written together; and yet the two authors come from rather dissimilar personal and vocational training backgrounds, and only in a specific period of their lives did they meet, materially and intellectually, giving life to a new branch of Sociology and to a unique, original, and innovative sociological paradigm. This article stems from a desire to satisfy a curiosity of mine inasmuch as, though having been involved for many years in Environmental Sociology, one day I realised I was not acquainted – in what is for me a detailed enough way – with the thought of the two different sociologists, their different personalities, life histories, vocational backgrounds. In particular, I asked myself about the specificity of the contribution given by each of these authors to the birth of the subject and to the definition of the New Ecological Paradigm. In this essay then, I have focused above all on the aspects that seem to me most meaningful in the lives and works of Catton and Dunlap, while outlining that the inevitable diversity of the two authors is also a major element of strength and richness of the works they produced together. To put it in the words of Dunlap himself: «Collaborations can be difficult, frustrating, and disappointing, but they can also be very rewarding. The best ones reflect the synergy created by two (or more) colleagues with quite different backgrounds, strengths, and interests coming together and creating something that neither would have produced on their own. This is definitely the case for my collaboration with Bill Catton, particularly the early series of articles we wrote in the late 1970s» (Dunlap, 2008). Key words: Origins of Environmental Sociology; New Ecological Paradigm, Socio-environmental interaction.

G. GILARDONI, Reasoning on the value of convergence between sociology and history. In order to better understand social reality phenomena the convergence of more perspectives should be adopted. Possible convergences between sociology and history are herein represented by the recall of some factual interconnections and mutual integrations which occurred and correlations implemented from methodological reasoning. The case study proposed regards the Freedom Rides, an episode of the Civil Rights Movement during the struggle against segregation. Racial segregation is first explored at its beginning through historical direct sources and historiography as a way to re-establish the previous privilege of whites after slavery had been abolished. It is then observed from a sociological point of view, specifically from the Social Limits to Growth by F. Hirsch. His work, although not directly referring to historical events and social phenomena considered, has provided an illuminating key of interpretation, revealing how segregation has functioned as a effective device which partially stemmed the progressive erosion of the satisfaction connected to consumptions experienced during the economic boom of the Sixties. This article thus proposes a concrete example of how sociology and history can usefully converge for a better understanding. Key words: Sociology, history, racial segregation, social limits to growth.