The essay, that is not merely a praise post mortem, focuses on Merton’s contribution to the
sociology of science. The Authoress underlines the intellectual debt of Thomas S. Kuhn towards
Robert K. Merton, and examines the remarks to the American sociologist, trying to demonstrate how,
during the time, the Merton’s analysis of science has revealed itself, more than ever, realistic and ethically
important.
In this paper I will be discussing the research I had done in Mozambique’s Sofala and Cabo
Delgado provinces about the rural markets, in September and October of 2003. I will discuss three
themes: Africa’s modernity, rural markets, anthropological research. Mozambique is stepping into a
form of modernism, since this country’s historical events (colonialism, the marxist regime, the civil
war, the introduction in a capitalist economy and within the international aids system) have forced
Mozambique to deal with local global issues. The rural markets analysis shows three systems of
circulating goods: the system of domestic production, the system of regional production and the
one of international production. In the first system (domestic) women have an essential role, being
the ones who cultivate the fields and organize the selling of excess goods. In some of
Mozambique’s markets we find foreign products for everyday use: we call these markets «transition
markets». Together with these markets new professional figures, who play the role of cultural
mediators, are developing. The third consideration is about anthropological research method. I’m
describing the importance of using «critical knowledge» to read the transformation process of the
cultures and to create a true intercultural dialogue.
This article primary concerns the analysis of the conditions which determine situations of
growth without development: processes of quantitative increment of the resources without a complete
promotion of the human being. This phenomenon, in Africa as well as in other countries, is caused
by at least three factors: wealth distribution, availability of institutional models in the use of the surplus,
and corruption. The last one, in particular, is examined referring to Polanyi’s integration models
between economy and society: reciprocity, redistribution and market exchange. As a result, corruption
seems being determined by the rapid transition from integration models based on reciprocity
and redistribution, towards models of market exchange. Therefore, while the culture is still based on reciprocity and redistribution the economic structure follows market logics that weaken the normative
contest, and determine opportunistic behaviours, individualism and therefore corruption.
The article explores the collective movement known as «no global» by analysing the most common
theories related to collective behaviour and social movements in the sociological tradition and
adopting a historical prospective that sets the phenomenon within the period from 1968 to the present.
The essay specifically focuses on «no global» in Italy and emphasizes the importance of understanding
their structure in the virtual world on the Internet. In fact, the massive use of the Internet
profoundly and uniquely characterizes these groups by demonstrating a complexity that goes beyond
the simplistic view given by the media. Consequently, the challenge of the social movements studies
seems to be the definition of new methodological instruments that are necessary to avoid misinterpretations
of these new forms of collectivities.
Moving from the perspective of social system theory, we present a concept of social movement.
According to this theory, two are the more important theses: a) the society is a communication system
distinguished from its own environment composed of human beings (the human environment), on
the one hand, and the natural environment (non-human environment), on the other hand; b) the
modern and contemporary society is a functional differentiated society. The starting point of analysis
is the survey within this society of a diffused perspective (risk perspective) addressed to observe the
risks (ecological risks) which damage the human and non-human environment of society. With
respect to these risks, society develops a special self-observation from which emerges a problematisation
of many kinds of decisions (economical, political, scientific, medical, etc.), to which these risks
are imputed. According to the hypothesis of this study, the social movements protesting against such
risks (ecological movements) are a form of this self-observation and self-problematisation. Their
social function is to make manifest by the communication the problems of compatibility between the
need of structural variability of the functional subsystems of society, on the one hand, and the need of
integrity of its own human and non-human environment, on the other hand.
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