The Making of a Shiite Bourgeoisie in Lebanon Political Mobilisation, Economic Resources and Formation of a Social Group

The thesis analyses the making of the Shiite middle- and upper/entrepreneurial-class in Lebanon from the 1960s till the present day. The trajectory explores the historical, political and social (internal and external) factors that brought a sub-proletariat to mobilise and become an entrepreneurial bourgeoisie in the span of less than three generations. This work proposes the main theoretical hypothesis to unpack and reveal the trajectory of a very recent social class that through education, diaspora, political and social mobilisation evolved in a few years into a very peculiar bourgeoisie: whereas Christian-Maronite middle class practically produced political formations and benefited from them and from Maronite’s state supremacy (National Pact, 1943) reinforcing the community’s status quo, Shiites built their own bourgeoisie from within, and mobilised their “cadres” (Boltanski) not just to benefit from their renovated presence at the state level, but to oppose to it. The general Social Movement Theory (SMT), as well as a vast amount of the literature on (middle) class formation are therefore largely contradicted, opening up new territories for discussion on how to build a bourgeoisie without the state’s support (Social Mobilisation Theory, Resource Mobilisation Theory) and if, eventually, the middle class always produces democratic movements (the emergence of a social group out of backwardness and isolation into near dominance of a political order). The middle/upper class described here is at once an economic class related to the control of multiple forms of capital, and produced by local, national, and transnational networks related to flows of services, money, and education, and a culturally constructed social location and identity structured by economic as well as other forms of capital in relation to other groups in Lebanon.

Minori rumeni tra percorsi migratori e rappresentazioni. Nè soli, nè accompagnati a Bologna

The thesis deals with the heterogenous category of the “unaccompanied minors”, concentrating the scientific work on those who migrate from Romania to the Italian city of Bologna. Between different migratory routes that include Romanian minors, I chose to explore the ones linked with the underground and illegal contexts. In order to analyse the reasons and the morphology of their migratory career, I used the multisituated field research which allowed me to consider the social policies in both the Romanian and the Italian environment. The main debate on the situation of the “unaccompanied children” refers to the extent to which these minors leave their country of origin “accompanied” by different adult figures and it also involves the role played by these adults. The first chapter is dedicated to a brief theoretical and methodological introduction to the main arguments of the thesis such as Romanian migration to Italy, trafficking in human beings, transnationality of migrant’s migration and decentered cooperation as a means of contrasting illegal migration and trafficking. Each field of research is characterized by a specific methodological approach, but they are all linked by the anthropological perspective I adopted throughout the entire work. The Romanian context, analized from a diachronic and a synchronic perspective represents the object of the second chapter. Some aspects of the Regime policies and other characteristics of the Romanian poscomunist period of “transition” are useful frameworks that become a background of the migration flows outside the country. The third chapter focuses on the Romanian patterns of migration. The reconstruction of some past attitudes that Romanians adopted towards migration are relevant in order to reveal the continuity with the present migratory practices. A consistent part is dedicated to a concrete example based on a field research in Bologna on a group of Romanian roma migrating from the south of Romania. The contact with these persons opened a debate on the limits between legal and illegal migration practices among the Romanians. The conclusion is that minors’ migration to Italy follows the adult patterns and flows. The nucleus of the field researches is included in the fourth and the fifth chapter. Before presenting the settings and the itineraries of the field researches, some deconstructive reflections are made on the representations that common sense and social sciences create on concepts as “child”, “minor” and “childhood”. A first perspective on the Romanian migrant minors emerges from a research concentrated on a group of roma teenagers engaged in Bologna in activities like windscreen washing, pocket-picking, begging and street prostitution. The aim of the research was to gain access to their daily life, to observe their relationship with the adults who “accompany” them and the strategies they activate in order to take some material profit out of their migratory experience. A parallel field research focuses on the Romanian minors who are part of the roma group coming from the south of Romania. Most of them are reunited with their family in Bologna, but according to the Italian law, they are all living as illegal migrants. Others are only temporary sheltered by these families and they meanwhile dedicate to illegal survviving practices. An interesting point of my participant observation was to reveal the motivations that these minors give when asked about the refusal to start a legal career inside the local Centres dedicated to the “non accompanied minors”. Their autoreflexivity brings some light on the controversy regarding the adequacy of the local and national care system and the migratory projects the minors have. In this respect, a small part of the research is dedicated to the phenomena of minors’ street prostitution in Bologna, as a useful contribution to the fragmented vision researchers have on the “unaccompanied” or “separated” children. The last chapter focuses on a decentered cooperation project that emerged as an alternative response the local administration from Bologna had chosen for facing the presence of numerous migrants coming from the south of Romania. The group of Romanian roma who was also the object of my field research became the starting point for the cooperation proposals between the city of Bologna and the city of Craiova. Although there are three projects involving the two administrations, throughout a period of stage in the Romanian city of Craiova I chose to analyse, only the one dedicated to the “urgent measures” requested in order to contrast the illegal migration and the trafficking in minors. This final part of the thesis highlightens the possible contribution that such a project might bring to the study of a complex and in some parts contradictory phenomena as that of the “unaccompanied” migrant minors.

The firm. Techno-organizational changes, industrial relations and performances. An enquiry on Reggio Emilia local industrial system

It is not unknown that the evolution of firm theories has been developed along a path paved by an increasing awareness of the organizational structure importance. From the early “neoclassical” conceptualizations that intended the firm as a rational actor whose aim is to produce that amount of output, given the inputs at its disposal and in accordance to technological or environmental constraints, which maximizes the revenue (see Boulding, 1942 for a past mid century state of the art discussion) to the knowledge based theory of the firm (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995; Nonaka & Toyama, 2005), which recognizes in the firm a knnowledge creating entity, with specific organizational capabilities (Teece, 1996; Teece & Pisano, 1998) that allow to sustaine competitive advantages. Tracing back a map of the theory of the firm evolution, taking into account the several perspectives adopted in the history of thought, would take the length of many books. Because of that a more fruitful strategy is circumscribing the focus of the description of the literature evolution to one flow connected to a crucial question about the nature of firm’s behaviour and about the determinants of competitive advantages. In so doing I adopt a perspective that allows me to consider the organizational structure of the firm as an element according to which the different theories can be discriminated. The approach adopted starts by considering the drawbacks of the standard neoclassical theory of the firm. Discussing the most influential theoretical approaches I end up with a close examination of the knowledge based perspective of the firm. Within this perspective the firm is considered as a knowledge creating entity that produce and mange knowledge (Nonaka, Toyama, & Nagata, 2000; Nonaka & Toyama, 2005). In a knowledge intensive organization, knowledge is clearly embedded for the most part in the human capital of the individuals that compose such an organization. In a knowledge based organization, the management, in order to cope with knowledge intensive productions, ought to develop and accumulate capabilities that shape the organizational forms in a way that relies on “cross-functional processes, extensive delayering and empowerment” (Foss 2005, p.12). This mechanism contributes to determine the absorptive capacity of the firm towards specific technologies and, in so doing, it also shape the technological trajectories along which the firm moves. After having recognized the growing importance of the firm’s organizational structure in the theoretical literature concerning the firm theory, the subsequent point of the analysis is that of providing an overview of the changes that have been occurred at micro level to the firm’s organization of production. The economic actors have to deal with challenges posed by processes of internationalisation and globalization, increased and increasing competitive pressure of less developed countries on low value added production activities, changes in technologies and increased environmental turbulence and volatility. As a consequence, it has been widely recognized that the main organizational models of production that fitted well in the 20th century are now partially inadequate and processes aiming to reorganize production activities have been widespread across several economies in recent years. Recently, the emergence of a “new” form of production organization has been proposed both by scholars, practitioners and institutions: the most prominent characteristic of such a model is its recognition of the importance of employees commitment and involvement. As a consequence it is characterized by a strong accent on the human resource management and on those practices that aim to widen the autonomy and responsibility of the workers as well as increasing their commitment to the organization (Osterman, 1994; 2000; Lynch, 2007). This “model” of production organization is by many defined as High Performance Work System (HPWS). Despite the increasing diffusion of workplace practices that may be inscribed within the concept of HPWS in western countries’ companies, it is an hazard, to some extent, to speak about the emergence of a “new organizational paradigm”. The discussion about organizational changes and the diffusion of HPWP the focus cannot abstract from a discussion about the industrial relations systems, with a particular accent on the employment relationships, because of their relevance, in the same way as production organization, in determining two major outcomes of the firm: innovation and economic performances. The argument is treated starting from the issue of the Social Dialogue at macro level, both in an European perspective and Italian perspective. The model of interaction between the social parties has repercussions, at micro level, on the employment relationships, that is to say on the relations between union delegates and management or workers and management. Finding economic and social policies capable of sustaining growth and employment within a knowledge based scenario is likely to constitute the major challenge for the next generation of social pacts, which are the main social dialogue outcomes. As Acocella and Leoni (2007) put forward the social pacts may constitute an instrument to trade wage moderation for high intensity in ICT, organizational and human capital investments. Empirical evidence, especially focused on the micro level, about the positive relation between economic growth and new organizational designs coupled with ICT adoption and non adversarial industrial relations is growing. Partnership among social parties may become an instrument to enhance firm competitiveness. The outcome of the discussion is the integration of organizational changes and industrial relations elements within a unified framework: the HPWS. Such a choice may help in disentangling the potential existence of complementarities between these two aspects of the firm internal structure on economic and innovative performance. With the third chapter starts the more original part of the thesis. The data utilized in order to disentangle the relations between HPWS practices, innovation and economic performance refer to the manufacturing firms of the Reggio Emilia province with more than 50 employees. The data have been collected through face to face interviews both to management (199 respondents) and to union representatives (181 respondents). Coupled with the cross section datasets a further data source is constituted by longitudinal balance sheets (1994-2004). Collecting reliable data that in turn provide reliable results needs always a great effort to which are connected uncertain results. Data at micro level are often subjected to a trade off: the wider is the geographical context to which the population surveyed belong the lesser is the amount of information usually collected (low level of resolution); the narrower is the focus on specific geographical context, the higher is the amount of information usually collected (high level of resolution). For the Italian case the evidence about the diffusion of HPWP and their effects on firm performances is still scanty and usually limited to local level studies (Cristini, et al., 2003). The thesis is also devoted to the deepening of an argument of particular interest: the existence of complementarities between the HPWS practices. It has been widely shown by empirical evidence that when HPWP are adopted in bundles they are more likely to impact on firm’s performances than when adopted in isolation (Ichniowski, Prennushi, Shaw, 1997). Is it true also for the local production system of Reggio Emilia? The empirical analysis has the precise aim of providing evidence on the relations between the HPWS dimensions and the innovative and economic performances of the firm. As far as the first line of analysis is concerned it must to be stressed the fundamental role that innovation plays in the economy (Geroski & Machin, 1993; Stoneman & Kwoon 1994, 1996; OECD, 2005; EC, 2002). On this point the evidence goes from the traditional innovations, usually approximated by R&D investment expenditure or number of patents, to the introduction and adoption of ICT, in the recent years (Brynjolfsson & Hitt, 2000). If innovation is important then it is critical to analyse its determinants. In this work it is hypothesised that organizational changes and firm level industrial relations/employment relations aspects that can be put under the heading of HPWS, influence the propensity to innovate in product, process and quality of the firm. The general argument may goes as follow: changes in production management and work organization reconfigure the absorptive capacity of the firm towards specific technologies and, in so doing, they shape the technological trajectories along which the firm moves; cooperative industrial relations may lead to smother adoption of innovations, because not contrasted by unions. From the first empirical chapter emerges that the different types of innovations seem to respond in different ways to the HPWS variables. The underlying processes of product, process and quality innovations are likely to answer to different firm’s strategies and needs. Nevertheless, it is possible to extract some general results in terms of the most influencing HPWS factors on innovative performance. The main three aspects are training coverage, employees involvement and the diffusion of bonuses. These variables show persistent and significant relations with all the three innovation types. The same do the components having such variables at their inside. In sum the aspects of the HPWS influence the propensity to innovate of the firm. At the same time, emerges a quite neat (although not always strong) evidence of complementarities presence between HPWS practices. In terns of the complementarity issue it can be said that some specific complementarities exist. Training activities, when adopted and managed in bundles, are related to the propensity to innovate. Having a sound skill base may be an element that enhances the firm’s capacity to innovate. It may enhance both the capacity to absorbe exogenous innovation and the capacity to endogenously develop innovations. The presence and diffusion of bonuses and the employees involvement also spur innovative propensity. The former because of their incentive nature and the latter because direct workers participation may increase workers commitment to the organizationa and thus their willingness to support and suggest inovations. The other line of analysis provides results on the relation between HPWS and economic performances of the firm. There have been a bulk of international empirical studies on the relation between organizational changes and economic performance (Black & Lynch 2001; Zwick 2004; Janod & Saint-Martin 2004; Huselid 1995; Huselid & Becker 1996; Cappelli & Neumark 2001), while the works aiming to capture the relations between economic performance and unions or industrial relations aspects are quite scant (Addison & Belfield, 2001; Pencavel, 2003; Machin & Stewart, 1990; Addison, 2005). In the empirical analysis the integration of the two main areas of the HPWS represent a scarcely exploited approach in the panorama of both national and international empirical studies. As remarked by Addison “although most analysis of workers representation and employee involvement/high performance work practices have been conducted in isolation – while sometimes including the other as controls – research is beginning to consider their interactions” (Addison, 2005, p.407). The analysis conducted exploiting temporal lags between dependent and covariates, possibility given by the merger of cross section and panel data, provides evidence in favour of the existence of HPWS practices impact on firm’s economic performance, differently measured. Although it does not seem to emerge robust evidence on the existence of complementarities among HPWS aspects on performances there is evidence of a general positive influence of the single practices. The results are quite sensible to the time lags, inducing to hypothesize that time varying heterogeneity is an important factor in determining the impact of organizational changes on economic performance. The implications of the analysis can be of help both to management and local level policy makers. Although the results are not simply extendible to other local production systems it may be argued that for contexts similar to the Reggio Emilia province, characterized by the presence of small and medium enterprises organized in districts and by a deep rooted unionism, with strong supporting institutions, the results and the implications here obtained can also fit well. However, a hope for future researches on the subject treated in the present work is that of collecting good quality information over wider geographical areas, possibly at national level, and repeated in time. Only in this way it is possible to solve the Gordian knot about the linkages between innovation, performance, high performance work practices and industrial relations.

Partnership fra terzo Settore e Istituzioni Locali nelle Politiche Family Friendly: Il "Distretto famiglia"

L’idea fondamentale da cui prende avvio la presente tesi di dottorato è che sia possibile parlare di una svolta nel modo di concettualizzare e implementare le politiche sociali, il cui fuoco diviene sempre più la costruzione di reti di partnership fra attori pubblici e privati, in cui una serie di soggetti sociali plurimi (stakeholders) attivano fra loro una riflessività relazionale. L’ipotesi generale della ricerca è che, dopo le politiche improntate a modelli statalisti e mercatisti, o un loro mix, nella politica sociale italiana emerga l’esigenza di una svolta riflessiva e relazionale, verso un modello societario, sussidiario e plurale, e che di fatto – specie a livello locale – stiano sorgendo molte iniziative in tal senso. Una delle idee più promettenti sembra essere la creazione di distretti sociali per far collaborare tra loro attori pubblici, privati e di Terzo settore al fine di creare forme innovative di servizi per la famiglia e la persona. La presente tesi si focalizza sul tentativo della Provincia di Trento di distrettualizzare le politiche per la famiglia. Tramite l’analisi del progetto “Trentino – Territorio Amico della Famiglia” e di una sua verticalizzazione, il Distretto Famiglia, si è studiato l’apporto delle partnership pubblico-privato nella formazione di strumenti innovativi di governance che possano determinare una svolta morfogenetica nell’elaborazione di politiche per la famiglia. Le conclusioni del lavoro, attraverso una comparazione tra esperienze territoriali, presentano la differenziazione delle partnership sociali, in base ad alcuni variabili (pluralità di attori, pluralità di risorse, shared project, capitale sociale, decision making, mutual action, logiche di lavoro relazionale, sussidiarietà). Le diverse modalità di gestione delle partnership (capacitante, professionale e generativa) sintetizzano i portati culturali, strutturali e personali coinvolti nelle singole costruzioni. Solo le partnership che interpretano il loro potenziale regolativo e promozionale secondo la riflessività relazionale tendono a generare beni comuni nel contesto sociale.

L'Orientamento politico come fattore di differenziazione delle politiche pubbliche locali: I casi di Modena e Verona

La tesi ha per oggetto lo studio delle politiche pubbliche locali ed in particolare delle politiche sociali che dal 2011 sono diventate politiche esclusivamente territoriali. L’obiettivo è quello di verificare se il differente orientamento politico delle amministrazioni genera politiche differenti. Per verificare le ipotesi si sono scelti 2 Comuni simili sul piano delle variabili socio-economiche, ma guidati da giunte con orientamento politico differente: il Comune di Modena a guida Partito Democratico e il Comune di Verona con un sindaco leghista a capo di una giunta di centro-destra. Nella prima parte vengono esposti ed analizzati i principali paradigmi di studio delle politiche (rational choice, paradigma marxista, economia del benessere, corporativismo e pluralismo, neo-istituzionalismo e paradigma relazionale) e viene presentato il paradigma che verrà utilizzato per l’analisi delle politiche (paradigma relazionale). Per la parte empirica si è proceduto attraverso interviste in profondità effettuate ai due Assessori alle Politiche sociali e ai due Dirigenti comunali dei Comuni e a 18 organizzazioni di Terzo settore impegnate nella costruzione delle politiche e selezionate attraverso la metodologia “a palla di neve”. Sono analizzate le disposizioni normative in materia di politica sociale, sia per la legislazione regionale che per quella comunale. L’analisi dei dati ha verificato l’ipotesi di ricerca nel senso che l’orientamento politico produce politiche differenti per quanto riguarda il rapporto tra Pubblica Amministrazione e Terzo settore. Per Modena si può parlare di una scelta di esternalizzazione dei servizi che si accompagna ad un processo di internalizzazione dei servizi tramite le ASP; a Verona almeno per alcuni settori delle politiche (disabilità e anziani) sono stati realizzati processi di sussidiarietà e di governance. Per la fase di programmazione l’orientamento politico ha meno influenza e la programmazione mostra caratteristiche di tipo “top-down”.

Sicurezza privata e sicurezza partecipata. Le imprese private del settore sicurezza in Italia tra subalternità e sussidirietà

La ricerca esamina il ruolo delle imprese che svolgono attività di sicurezza privata in Italia (oggi definita anche "sussidiaria" o "complementare") in relazione allo sviluppo delle recenti politiche sociali che prevedono il coinvolgimento di privati nella gestione della sicurezza in una prospettiva di community safety. Nel 2008/2009 le politiche pubbliche di sicurezza legate al controllo del territorio hanno prodotto norme con nuovi poteri “di polizia” concessi agli amministratori locali e la previsione di associazione di cittadini per la segnalare eventi dannosi alla sicurezza urbana (“ronde”). Nello stesso periodo è iniziata un’importante riforma del settore della sicurezza privata, ancora in fase di attuazione, che definisce le attività svolte dalle imprese di security, individua le caratteristiche delle imprese e fissa i parametri per la formazione del personale. Il quadro teorico del lavoro esamina i concetti di sicurezza/insicurezza urbana e di società del rischio alla luce delle teorie criminologiche legate alla prevenzione situazionale e sociale e alla community policing. La ricerca sul campo si basa sull’analisi del contenuto di diverse interviste in profondità con esponenti del mondo della sicurezza privata (imprenditori, dirigenti, studiosi). Le interviste hanno fatto emergere che il ruolo della sicurezza privata in Italia risulta fortemente problematico; anche la riforma in corso sulla normativa del settore è considerata con scarso entusiasmo a causa delle difficoltà della congiuntura economica che rischia di compromettere seriamente la crescita. Il mercato della sicurezza in Italia è frastagliato e scarsamente controllato; manca un’azione di coordinamento fra le diverse anime della sicurezza (vigilanza privata, investigazione, facility/security management); persiste una condizione di subalternità e di assenza di collaborazione con il settore pubblico che rende la sicurezza privata relegata in un ruolo marginale, lontano dalle logiche di sussidiarietà.

Prematurità: Interazioni Precoci e Sintomatologia Materna

La prematurità rappresenta un fattore di rischio per la qualità delle interazioni precoci e la sintomatologia materna, soprattutto in caso di nascita VLBW (peso ≤ 1500 grammi) ed ELBW (≤1000 grammi). Scopo dello studio è valutare a 3 e 9 mesi di età corretta le modalità interattive delle diadi madre-bambino e lo stato affettivo materno in due campioni di prematuri, ELBW e VLBW, confrontandoli con un gruppo di bambini nati a termine (GC). Un campione di 119 diadi madre-bambino, di cui 71 nati prematuri (30 VLBW e 21 ELBW) e 68 a termine, sono stati valutati all'età di 3 e 9 mesi. Durante gli assessment, è avvenuta la videoregistrazione dell’interazione madre-bambino, codificata mediante le Global Rating Scales (a 3 mesi) ed il CARE Index Infant (a 9 mesi), e la valutazione della sintomatologia materna, attraverso Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, Penn State Worry Questionnaire, Social Interaction and Anxiety Scale, Social Phobia Scale, Parenting Stress Index-Short Form, Questionari italiani del Temperamento. A 3 mesi, le madri di ELBW appaiono più demanding e meno sensibili rispetto a quelle di VLBW; più intrusive rispetto a quelle di GC. Tali madri, inoltre, sono significativamente meno sensibili di quelle del GC anche a 9 mesi. In entrambi gli assessment, tali madri presentano livelli significativamente maggiori di depressione, ansia generalizzata e stress, rispetto a quelle di entrambi gli altri gruppi. Non emergono differenze rispetto all'ansia sociale nè alla percezione del temperamento. Le analisi della correlazione hanno evidenziato specifiche relazioni tra la sintomatologia materna e i pattern interattivi nei tre gruppi. La nascita pretermine rappresenta un fattore di rischio solo per le madri di ELBW, che presentano difficoltà interattive ed elevata sintomatologia; quelle dei VLBW, infatti, tendono a presentare pattern interattivi affini a quelle del GC, mostrando adeguata sensibilità e bassi livelli di depressione, ansia e stress.

Essays in Health Economics

In the first chapter we develop a theoretical model investigating food consumption and body weight with a novel assumption regarding human caloric expenditure (i.e. metabolism), in order to investigate why individuals can be rationally trapped in an excessive weight equilibrium and why they struggle to lose weight even when offered incentives for weight-loss. This assumption allows the theoretical model to have multiple equilibria and to provide an explanation for why losing weight is so difficult even in the presence of incentives, without relying on rational addiction, time-inconsistency preferences or bounded rationality. In addition to this result we are able to characterize under which circumstances a temporary incentive can create a persistent weight loss. In the second chapter we investigate the possible contributions that social norms and peer effects had on the spread of obesity. In recent literature peer effects and social norms have been characterized as important pathways for the biological and behavioral spread of body weight, along with decreased food prices and physical activity. We add to this literature by proposing a novel concept of social norm related to what we define as social distortion in weight perception. The theoretical model shows that, in equilibrium, the effect of an increase in peers' weight on i's weight is unrelated to health concerns while it is mainly associated with social concerns. Using regional data from England we prove that such social component is significant in influencing individual weight. In the last chapter we investigate the relationship between body weight and employment probability. Using a semi-parametric regression we show that men and women employment probability do not follow a linear relationship with body mass index (BMI) but rather an inverted U-shaped one, peaking at a BMI way over the clinical threshold for overweight.