Vita e Pensiero
La (non) quantificazione nello studio della società. Indicatori sociali tra controllo sociale e partecipazione democratica
digital
Anno:
2010
P. PARRA SAIANI, The (non) quantification in the study of society. Social indicators between social
control and democratic participation
The social indicators movement seems to be regaining its appeal. It was an heir to the supporters
of quantification in the Social Sciences, as numbers were believed to be objective and scientific
per se. Echoing the London Statistical Society’s policy that was declared two decades earlier, the
newly created Statistical Society of Paris resolved in 1860 that «statistics is nothing else than the
knowledge of the science of facts». It was, their statutes continued, an indispensable science for a
liberal state: «It ought to provide the basis upon which society is governed». But the aspiration to
know the territory was not always the simple thirst for knowledge: initial attempts were conducted
by governments to carry out a policy of control and taxation. Only in the mid-18th century did
many initiatives flourish. These concerned the collection of information in a more democratic spirit:
information was now considered to be a citizen’s right. The study of society in its various dimensions
has stimulated the search for and construction of statistical indicators and indices. The search
for a better way of studying the progress of societies has often led to inappropriate uses of indicators
and measures. GNP, for example, has been commonly considered to be an indicator of wellbeing.
The lack of a conceptual frame for studying well-being is not the only problem, nor even the
greatest. Of similar importance are the meagre statistical skills of journalists and policy-makers. All
together, these elements facilitate limiting the use of data in public debate.
In this paper, I will consider the shift from political arithmetic to modern social reports (par.
1); the success of quantification in the Social Sciences (par. 2); the use of quantification (par. 3); the
validity of official statistics (par. 4); the current non-use of quantification and the search for contextual
conditions that interfere with the transformation of information into knowledge (par. 5).
Key words: social indicators, policy, democracy, quantification, well-being, knowledge.
€ 6,00
L'etica nelle ricerche di mercato
digital
Anno:
2010
G. DI FRAIA, Ethics in the market research
In advanced societies, market research play a very important role within processes of production
of material and symbolic reality. This role makes the ethical issue relevant to every stage
of the production of marketing research and involving all stakeholders in the system. At present,
the reflection on the subject tends to remain confined within the system and to be undertaken
primarily at the level of professional ethics drafted in formal codes of conduct by the
industry associations. The development of new technologies is radically changing the detection
techniques, making observational processes increasingly invisible and «pervasive». The thesis
proposed in this paper is that this process, opening a whole series of new problems, make
urgent the activation of a broad debate on the subject able to increase widespread awareness
about the role of research market and its ethical implications.
Key words: market research; ethics; deontology of market research; innnovative marketing
research methods.
€ 6,00
Ricerca scientifica e ricerca di mercato. Sinergie e conflitti tra campo accademico e campo del coolhunting
digital
Anno:
2010
M. PEDRONI, Scientific Research and Market Research. Synergies and Conflicts Between Academic
Field and Coolhunting
Within the market research it has been developed, in recent years, a set of research techniques
inspired by sociology and anthropology, known as coolhunting or trend research. The
aim of coolhunting is to intercept and document emerging trends in consumers’ lifestyles, providing
the enterprises with reports containing guidelines for planning future production and
communication. Starting from an empirical investigation based on 43 in-depth interviews to the professionals engaged in trends prediction, together with a participant observation of the Dutch
agency Science of the Time’s activities, the paper tries to identify: (1) the methodological features
of coolhunting and its links to the non-standard social research; (2) the relationship
between coolhunting and academic field: on the one hand, the benefits that coolhunting
obtains from the academic research (especially the symbolic legitimation); on the other, its
potential advantages for an employ in the explorative social research.
Key words: coolhunting; trend research; non-standard research; social research methodology;
market research.
€ 6,00
I Fondi strutturali e lo sviluppo del Mezzogiorno: il ciclo di programmazione 2000-2006. Una storia di successo?
digital
Anno:
2009
The European Regional policy was started in 1989. After 20 years, a sound review of its
results can be done. In 2013 the Italian Mezzogiorno will probably come out from Objective 1 of the Structural Funds (it involves those regions in which GDP per head does not reach 75 %of the average for the Union), that is almost 25 years after the beginning of the EU cohesion policy. Has such policy been a successful one for the Italian Mezzogiorno? Even if it may appear a bit provocative, this question is quite legitimate if you look more at the quality and stability of the actual outcomes rather than simply at the quantity of the funds granted within the various cycles (four). The goal of this article is double: to offer some analytical categories (policy learning, institutional performance; assessment and evaluation) and verify, by means of a comparative analysis between the period 1994-1999 and 2000-2006, whether the outcomes reached are coherent to the objectives of the Structural Funds.
Key words: structural funds, assessment and evaluation, policy learning, administrative reform, institutional performance, European cohesion policy, convergence.
€ 6,00
Prospettive euroregionali per il futuro della governance dei territori italiani transfrontalieri
digital
Anno:
2009
This article focuses on the most meaningful aspects of a research aimed at the analysis of the state of the art of cross-border cooperation in Europe – through qualitative systems and analysis of quantitative data in fifty-three European border areas – taking into account actors, shapes and objectives with a particular attention to the Euroregional process. The research hypothesis is that putting into action mechanisms of cross-border welfare systems, organized in Euroregional structures, can be the basis not only for the elaboration of an original model for local development, which can be applied in areas influenced by a border, but also for legitimating more strongly the cross-border dimension of integration, on a cultural, economic and institutional level. The article is divided into two parts. The first part aims at providing a theoretical framework on the concept of border, crossborder cooperation and Euroregion, subsequently developing them through the analysis and evaluation of cross-border cooperation in Europe, with a particular attention to Euroregional variables. The second part concerns the concepts of local development and welfare, overlapping them, with the aim of setting them within a strict cross-border dimension and so to understand those factors which allow for their development. The model for such a cross-border welfare system was applied to
the Italian-Slovenian cross-border context, analysed in terms of the quality of its cooperative process, of the Euroregional prospects, of the cross-border third sector, and of the development of institutionalised cooperation in the context of cross-border health care.
Key words: cross-border cooperation, Euroregions, cross-border welfare System.
€ 6,00
Piani di zona e partecipazione in Friuli Venezia Giulia. Riflessioni sulla costruzione partecipata delle politiche sociali
digital
Anno:
2009
The paper suggests a reflection about participation in making social policies, moving from
the results of a research focused upon the Piani di Zona, the instrument wanted by L. n.
328/2000 for planning social policies, in Friuli Venezia Giulia (a Region in the Nord Est of
Italy). The paper reflects upon the main questions of the research that is how to incentive and maintain the partecipation of local associations, cooperatives and citizens in making social policies, overcoming to set against approaches that promote participation and approaches that promote deliberation and without falling in rethoric. The reflection remarks the necessity to incentive participation in making social policies, the importance of sharing the sense of participation and of organizing the partecipation and, at last, the fundamental role of public administration in ensuring a participation rappresentative and transparent.
Key words: participation, social planning, active citizenship, coordination
€ 6,00
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