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.

'Defending the rights'. An integrated model of collective action for "public water" in Italy

In many communities, supplying water for the people is a huge task and the fact that this essential service can be carried out by the private sector respecting the right to water, is a debated issue. This dissertation investigates the mechanisms through which a 'perceived rights violation' - which represents a specific form of perceived injustice which derives from the violation of absolute moral principles ��� can promote collective action. Indeed, literature on morality and collective action suggests that even if many people apparently sustain high moral principles (like human rights), only a minority decides to act in order to defend them. Taking advantage of the political situation in Italy, and the recent mobilization for "public water" we hypothesized that, because of its "sacred value", the perceived violation of the right to water facilitates identification with the social movement and activism. Through five studies adopting qualitative and quantitative methods, we confirmed our hypotheses demonstrating that the perceived violation of the right to water can sustain activism and it can influence vote intentions at the referendum for 'public water'. This path to collective action coexists with other 'classical' predictors of collective action, like instrumental factors (personal advantages, efficacy beliefs) and anger. The perceived rights violation can derive both from personal values (i.e. universalism) and external factors (i.e. a mobilization campaign). Furthermore, we demonstrated that it is possible to enhance the perceived violation of the right to water and anger through a specifically designed communication campaign. The final chapter summarizes the main findings and discusses the results, suggesting some innovative line of research for collective action literature.

Profili critici in materia di transnational group action

La presente tesi di dottorato ha ad oggetto l���analisi dei profili critici emersi nella prassi in relazione alle transnational damages group actions. All���interno di tale esteso ambito di ricerca, senza pretese di esaustivit��, si affronteranno determinati aspetti, tenendo in considerazione quanto accaduto negli ordinamenti che, sebbene in modo assai limitato, hanno gi�� conosciuto tali problematiche. A seguito di una prima parte meramente introduttiva, nel secondo capitolo, si inquadreranno brevemente gli strumenti di tutela collettiva risarcitoria, indicando in che cosa consistano, a quali esigenze rispondano e quale origine abbiano; si indicheranno altres�� i criteri distintivi e di classificazione che maggiormente possono rilevare nell���ottica di una cross border litigation. Nel terzo capitolo si analizzer�� in termini essenziali la disciplina delle azioni collettive di alcuni Paesi, al fine di porre le basi necessarie per comprendere in quale contesto normativo si pongano le problematiche inerenti alle multi-jurisdictional collective redress actions. Nel quarto capitolo, si prender�� in considerazione la dimensione transnazionale delle azioni collettive, tenendo presenti le categorie e le regole affermatesi nel diritto internazionale privato e processuale e, soprattutto, quelle esistenti nell���ordinamento italiano e comunitario. Si individueranno poi gli obiettivi prioritari che si deve porre il giudice richiesto di giudicare sull���azione collettiva nella necessit�� di rendere una pronuncia o approvare una transazione che, da un lato, sia riconosciuta ed eseguita nei Paesi in cui dovr�� essere riconosciuta ed eseguita e che, dall���altro lato, in ipotesi di opt out procedure, precluda ai soggetti che la pronuncia o la transazione dovrebbe vincolare successive azioni individuali e/o collettive in altri Paesi. Nel quinto capitolo, alla luce dei dati indicati nel terzo capitolo e delle considerazioni effettuate nel quarto capitolo, si analizzeranno alcuni dei profili critici posti dalla dimensione transnazionale delle azioni collettive; a tal fine, la trattazione verr�� suddivisa in diversi punti che, pur essendo necessariamente connessi tra loro, nella loro individualit�� riescano ad evidenziare l���importanza e la centralit�� di determinate questioni. Peraltro, nell���intento di rispondere in modo adeguato alle problematiche analizzate, si indicheranno alcune delle soluzioni sperimentate dalla pratica giudiziaria o proposte dalla recente letteratura sul tema. Seguir��, infine, un ultimo capitolo contenente le osservazioni conclusive sugli esiti del lavoro.

Lives apart? Experiences of transnational motherhood by Georgian labour migrants to Italy and their children

International labour migration processes of the last decades saw increasing numbers of solo female migrants employed in the developed countries. Many of these women were mothers who left their children in the sending countries and thus gave rise to a controversial phenomenon of transnational motherhood. The present thesis is based on the first empirical study of intergenerational narratives of mothers, Georgian labour migrants to Italy, and their children, left behind in Georgia. Mothers��� international labour migration is a challenge to the traditional ideology of motherhood. Although unconsciously migrant mothers often adhere to ���alternative���, ���rational���, future-oriented model(s) of parenting, they continue to live their experiences in the framework of traditional understandings of motherhood, which appears to be unequipped to ���frame��� transnational motherhood as, from its point of view, mothers��� choice to leave their children is reprehensible, yet transnational mothers��� physical absence is not an equivalent of ���leaving��� their children. Informants��� narratives strongly suggest that long periods of physical separation did not jeopardize bonds between mothers and children in transnational families. While informants��� selection bias is probable, the mother-child bond was not ���broken��� and the very essence of motherhood remained intact. Many forms of mothers��� and children���s online co-presence were documented during the interviews. Interviews also prove that the Internet cannot be considered a solution to the problem of family separation, experienced painfully by both mothers and children: it may reduce the pain caused by separation, but cannot be a substitute for mothers��� physical absence from their families. Despite the pain caused by separation, mothers��� emigration appeared to be the right decision made for the good of the family. Interviewed mothers almost univocally reported readiness to ���keep going on���, and continue working in emigration to help their children until physically able to do so, because, as they put it, ���motherhood never ends���.

Donne migranti a Modena: il lavoro di "badante" tra vincolo e risorsa

This study enters the world of migrants women daily involved in the work of caregiving to elderly people in Modena. The multidimensional analysis that characterizes this work brings together elements which are examined, simultaneously, as bounds and/or opportunities within the migratory experience of these women. The interviews collected will be analyzed in parallel and linked to the international debates on contemporary migrations: the meaning of transnational migrations, the role of the networks in guiding integration, the limits and strengths of multiculturalist theories, the concept of ���superdiversity���, the link among entitlement, rights and access to citizenship. The present study place at the centre of its observation the ���daily practices��� that allow every migrant to negotiate its ���power���, its ���freedom��� and its ���rights���, so as to recognize agency to these women in the creation of their strategies and social boundaries. Moreover, the study focuses on the ability and power of the State, and its institutions, to create categorizations among migrants based on their social and economic ���usefulness���, which produce effects in the daily lives of these workers.

Language and Embodiment: sensory-motor and linguistic-social experience. Evidence on sentence comprehension

In this work I address the study of language comprehension in an ���embodied��� framework. Firstly I show behavioral evidence supporting the idea that language modulates the motor system in a specific way, both at a proximal level (sensibility to the effectors) and at the distal level (sensibility to the goal of the action in which the single motor acts are inserted). I will present two studies in which the method is basically the same: we manipulated the linguistic stimuli (the kind of sentence: hand action vs. foot action vs. mouth action) and the effector by which participants had to respond (hand vs. foot vs. mouth; dominant hand vs. non-dominant hand). Response times analyses showed a specific modulation depending on the kind of sentence: participants were facilitated in the task execution (sentence sensibility judgment) when the effector they had to use to respond was the same to which the sentences referred. Namely, during language comprehension a pre-activation of the motor system seems to take place. This activation is analogous (even if less intense) to the one detectable when we practically execute the action described by the sentence. Beyond this effector specific modulation, we also found an effect of the goal suggested by the sentence. That is, the hand effector was pre-activated not only by hand-action-related sentences, but also by sentences describing mouth actions, consistently with the fact that to execute an action on an object with the mouth we firstly have to bring it to the mouth with the hand. After reviewing the evidence on simulation specificity directly referring to the body (for instance, the kind of the effector activated by the language), I focus on the specific properties of the object to which the words refer, particularly on the weight. In this case the hypothesis to test was if both lifting movement perception and lifting movement execution are modulated by language comprehension. We used behavioral and kinematics methods, and we manipulated the linguistic stimuli (the kind of sentence: the lifting of heavy objects vs. the lifting of light objects). To study the movement perception we measured the correlations between the weight of the objects lifted by an actor (heavy objects vs. light objects) and the esteems provided by the participants. To study the movement execution we measured kinematics parameters variance (velocity, acceleration, time to the first peak of velocity) during the actual lifting of objects (heavy objects vs. light objects). Both kinds of measures revealed that language had a specific effect on the motor system, both at a perceptive and at a motoric level. Finally, I address the issue of the abstract words. Different studies in the ���embodied��� framework tried to explain the meaning of abstract words The limit of these works is that they account only for subsets of phenomena, so results are difficult to generalize. We tried to circumvent this problem by contrasting transitive verbs (abstract and concrete) and nouns (abstract and concrete) in different combinations. The behavioral study was conducted both with German and Italian participants, as the two languages are syntactically different. We found that response times were faster for both the compatible pairs (concrete verb + concrete noun; abstract verb + abstract noun) than for the mixed ones. Interestingly, for the mixed combinations analyses showed a modulation due to the specific language (German vs. Italian): when the concrete word precedes the abstract one responses were faster, regardless of the word grammatical class. Results are discussed in the framework of current views on abstract words. They highlight the important role of developmental and social aspects of language use, and confirm theories assigning a crucial role to both sensorimotor and linguistic experience for abstract words.

Reti socievoli: l���impatto dei social networks nella costruzione dello spazio pubblico

La tesi si �� consolidata nell���analisi dell���impatto dei social networks nella costruzione dello spazio pubblico, nella sfera di osservazione che �� la rete e il web2.0. Osservando che il paradigma della societ�� civile si sia modificato. Ridefinendo immagini e immaginari e forme di autorappresentazione sui new media (Castells, 2010). Nel presupposto che lo spazio pubblico ���non �� mai una realt�� precostituita��� (Innerarity, 2008) ma si muove all���interno di reti che generano e garantiscono socievolezza. Nell���obiettivo di capire cosa �� spazio pubblico. Civic engagement che si rafforza in spazi simbolici (Sassen, 2008), nodi d���incontro significativi. Ivi cittadini-consumatori avanzano corresponsabilmente le proprie istanze per la debacle nei governi.. Cultura partecipativa che prende mossa da un nuovo senso civico mediato che si esprime nelle ���virt����� del consumo critico. Portando la politica sul mercato. Cultura civica autoattualizzata alla ricerca di soluzioni alle crisi degli ultimi anni. Potere di una comunicazione che riduce il mondo ad un ���villaggio globale��� e mettono in relazione i pubblici connessi in spazi e tempi differenti, dando origine ad azioni collettive come nel caso degli Indignados, di Occupy Wall Street o di Rai per una notte. Emerge un (ri)pensare la citizenship secondo due paradigmi (Bennett,2008): l���uno orientato al governo attraverso i partiti, modello ���Dutiful Citizenship���; l���altro, modello ���Self Actualizing Citizenship��� per cui i pubblici attivi seguono news ed eventi, percepiscono un minor obbligo nel governo, il voto �� meno significativo per (s)fiducia nei media e nei politici. Mercato e societ�� civile si muovono per il bene comune e una nuova ���felicit�����. La partecipazione si costituisce in consumerismo politico all���interno di reti in cui si sviluppano azioni individuali attraverso il social networking e scelte di consumo responsabile. Partendo dall���etnografia digitale, si �� definito il modello ���4 C���: Conoscenza > Coadesione > Co-partecipazione > Corresposabilit�� (azioni collettive) > Cultura-bility.

Processi e impatti della migrazione. L'esperienza di chi resta in tre famiglie peruviane

Questo studio propone un���esplorazione dei nessi tra fenomeno migratorio, dinamiche transnazionali e quadri familiari, in un contesto specificato che �� quello peruviano. Dal confronto critico con i paradigmi disciplinari in uso negli ambiti dell���antropologia delle migrazioni, degli studi sul transnazionalismo e sulle famiglie transnazionali, e dell���etnografia multi-situata, si �� tentata una lettura teorica e metodologica che renda conto del contesto socio-familiare di partenza non come parte periferica di una completa visione del migrante, ma quale oggetto specifico della ricerca. L���obbiettivo �� verificare, a livello locale, quale siano gli impatti della migrazione esterna di uno o pi�� membri sulle strutture e sulle dinamiche, sui codici e sui ruoli del nucleo parentale originario. E individuare, sul piano transnazionale, quali reti, quali rituali o pratiche di connessione funzionino tra coloro che vanno e coloro che restano, quali discorsi e quali culture migratorie si sviluppino e si condividano. La ricerca si �� svolta in Per�� tra il 2009 ed il 2011. Il campo dell���indagine si �� diviso tra due localit�� nell���area della Costa del Per��. Lima, la capitale, e Chicl��n, un villaggio rurale nella regione settentrionale de La Libertad. Attraverso le tecniche d���inchiesta della pratica etnografica, una permanenza prolungata sul terreno e l���osservazione partecipante, si �� lavorato con i membri adulti di ambo i sessi di tre gruppi parentali distribuiti tra i due luoghi menzionati, selezionati in partenza sulla base dei contatti forniti da alcuni dei loro familiari emigrati in Italia tra il 1990 ed il 2000. Centrare l���analisi sulle figure per certi aspetti marginali dell���esperienza della migrazione normalmente considerata, �� servito da un lato a rovesciare parzialmente la prospettiva transnazionale aggiustandola proprio rispetto a quegli attori sociali; dall���altro e ad un tempo, ha permesso di fare luce su dinamiche migratorie pi�� generali, di ricostruirle e di ri-teorizzarle.

Analysis of the Slow Food movement impact on the farmers and rural areas��� sustainable development

The evaluation of the farmers��� communities��� approach to the Slow Food vision, their perception of the Slow Food role in supporting their activity and their appreciation and expectations from participating in the event of Mother Earth were studied. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model was adopted in an agro-food sector context. A survey was conducted, 120 questionnaires from farmers attending the Mother Earth in Turin in 2010 were collected. The descriptive statistical analysis showed that both Slow Food membership and participation to Mother Earth Meeting were much appreciated for the support provided to their business and the contribution to a more sustainable and fair development. A positive social, environmental and psychological impact on farmers also resulted. Results showed also an interesting perspective on the possible universality of the Slow Food and Mother Earth values. Farmers declared that Slow Food is supporting them by preserving the biodiversity and orienting them to the use of local resources and reducing the chemical inputs. Many farmers mentioned the language/culture and administration/bureaucratic issues as an obstacle to be a member in the movement and to participate to the event. Participation to Mother Earth gives an opportunity to exchange information with other farmers��� communities and to participate to seminars and debates, helpful for their business development. The absolute majority of positive answers associated to the farmers��� willingness to relate to Slow Food and participate to the next Mother Earth editions negatively influenced the UTAUT model results. A factor analysis showed that the variables associated to the UTAUT model constructs Performance Expectancy and Effort Expectancy were consistent, able to explain the construct variability, and their measurement reliable. Their inclusion in a simplest Technology Acceptance Model could be considered in future researches.

Labour, LGBT* rights, and Europe. Discourses in Italy and Serbia

At the time of writing, all three elements that are evoked in the title ��� emancipation and social inclusion of sexual minorities, labour and labour activism, and the idea and substance of ���Europe��� ��� are being invested by deep, long-term, and ��� to varied degrees ��� radical processes of social transformation. The meaning of words like ���equality���, ���rights���, ���inclusion���, and even ���democracy��� is as precarious and uncertain as are the lives of those European citizens who are marginalised by intersecting conditions of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and class ��� in a constellation of precarities that is both unifying and fragmented (fragmenting). Conflicts are played, in hidden or explicit ways, over material processes of redistribution as well as discursive practices that revolve around these words. Against this backdrop, and roughly ten years after the European Union provided an input for institutional commitment to the protection of LGBT* workers' rights with the Council Directive 2000/78/EC, the dissertation contrasts discourses on workplace equality for LGBT* persons produced by a plurality of actors, seeking to identify values, semantics, and agendas framing and informing organisations��� views and showing how each actor has incorporated LGBT* rights into its own discourse, each time in a way that is functional to the construction and/or confirmation of its organisational identity: transnational union networks, by presenting LGBT* rights as a natural, neutral commitment within the framework of universal human rights protection; left-wing organisations, by collocating activism for LGBT* rights within a wider project of social emancipation that is for all the marginalised, yet is not neutral, but attached to specific values and opposed to specific political adversaries (the right-wing, the nationalists); business networks, by acknowledging diversity as a path to better performance and profits, thus encouraging inclusion and non-discrimination of ���deserving��� LGBT* workers.

La migrazione del chagas: Costruzione bio-medica e socio-politica delle malattie tropicali dimenticate

Questo studio propone un'esplorazione dei nessi tra processi migratori ed esperienze di salute e malattia a partire da un'indagine sulle migrazioni provenienti dall'America latina in Emilia-Romagna. Contemporaneamente indaga i termini del dibattito sulla diffusione della Malattia di Chagas, ���infezione tropicale dimenticata��� endemica in America centro-meridionale che, grazie all'incremento dei flussi migratori transnazionali, viene oggi riconfigurata come 'emergente' in alcuni contesti di immigrazione. Attraverso i paradigmi teorico-metodologici disciplinari dell'antropologia medica, della salute globale e degli studi sulle migrazioni, si �� inteso indagare la natura della relazione tra ���dimenticanza��� ed ���emergenza��� nelle politiche che caratterizzano il contesto migratorio europeo e italiano nello specifico. Si sono analizzate questioni vincolate alla legittimit�� degli attori coinvolti nella ridefinizione del fenomeno in ambito pubblico; alle visioni che informano le strategie sanitarie di presa in carico dell'infezione; alle possibili ricadute di tali visioni nelle pratiche di cura. Parte della ricerca si �� realizzata all'interno del reparto ospedaliero ove �� stato implementato il primo servizio di diagnosi e trattamento per l'infezione in Emilia-Romagna. �� stata pertanto realizzata una etnografia fuori/dentro al servizio, coinvolgendo i principali soggetti del campo di indagine -immigrati latinoamericani e operatori sanitari-, con lo scopo di cogliere visioni, logiche e pratiche a partire da un'analisi della legislazione che regola l'accesso al servizio sanitario pubblico in Italia. Attraverso la raccolta di narrazioni biografiche, lo studio ha contribuito a far luce su peculiari percorsi migratori e di vita nel contesto locale; ha permesso di riflettere sulla validit�� di categorie come quella di ���latinoamericano��� utilizzata dalla comunit�� scientifica in stretta correlazione con il Chagas; ha riconfigurato il senso di un approccio attento alle connotazioni culturali all'interno di un pi�� ampio ripensamento delle forme di inclusione e di partecipazione finalizzate a dare asilo ai bisogni sanitari maggiormente percepiti e alle esperienze soggettive di malattia.