RISULTATI RICERCA

Osservare oggi le danwei, unità di lavoro socialiste, significa scoprire un interessante laboratorio di progetto urbano per la Pechino contemporanea. La loro presenza nel tessuto urbano testimonia ancora oggi l’organizzazione della città post- 1949, e offre un’esperienza urbana capace di mediare tra gli hutong e i «superblocchi» contemporanei. Una delle loro principali caratteristiche è la configurazione mista: nello stesso recinto fabbriche, case, scuole, palestre, club di lavoratori. Se guardiamo in particolare alle danwei industriali, ciò le rende «urbane» quasi per definizione, in contrapposizione con le fabbriche europee la cui scala, con poche eccezioni, rappresenta una frattura nel tessuto urbano. Il patrimonio industriale cinese si presta pertanto a pratiche di riuso dedicate non tanto al singolo oggetto, ma al tessuto urbano. È possibile immaginare strategie innovative di recupero delle danwei, ispirate alla tradizione europea dell’urbanistica dialogica, e basate su una ricca comprensione della stratificazione di memorie?

Nelle megalopoli asiatiche decine di milioni di persone condividono uno stesso spazio, frammentato in luoghi del quotidiano reciprocamente disconnessi. A Guangzhou, megalopoli nella Cina sud-orientale, il tessuto urbanizzato ha inglobato un numero consistente di villaggi tradizionali. La coesistenza spaziale, la condivisione di servizi urbani e l’allineamento degli stili di vita non corrispondono tuttavia ad una effettiva assimilazione alla «città». Con pro e contro, i «villaggi urbani» sono isole nella megalopoli che difendono forme e usi tradizionali dello spazio, così come codici di vita collettiva divergenti rispetto agli standard urbani. I casi illustrati e l’approfondimento sulle istituzioni informali - seppure codificate - illustrano come i «villaggi urbani» occupino una nicchia vitale all’interno della megalopoli

A Singapore la questione dell’abitare è stata al centro delle politiche pubbliche sin dal periodo del self government nel 1959. Il modello scelto è stato quello della costruzione massiccia di new towns da parte dell’Housing and Development Board (hdb) per alloggiare la popolazione in appartamenti venduti ai beneficiari grazie ad un sistema di prestiti sovvenzionati. Il modello ha conosciuto nel tempo varie riforme ma lo spirito iniziale è sempre rimasto percepibile. A partire dall’inizio del nuovo secolo, tuttavia, una maggiore apertura del mercato immobiliare agli attori privati ha rimesso in questione la logica stessa del sistema pubblico. L’articolo analizza l’impatto della riforma sulle culture dell’abitare, tra rischio di rottura negli equilibri locali di un’urbanità concepita attorno a una visione relativamente egualitaria delle politiche edilizie

Il saggio riflette sui mutamenti di paradigma che hanno portato la più grande tra le metropoli asiatiche - una città che tra anni ’60 e anni ’80 fu spesso collocata sullo stesso piano delle megalopoli occidentali - a essere analizzata prevalentemente a partire da sguardi concentrati sulla scala micro. Il crescere dell’attenzione per progetti di spazi domestici di dimensione minima e il moltiplicarsi di studi dedicati agli spazi urbani di prossimità fanno apparire Tokyo come una città i cui tratti più peculiari possono essere colti solo osservando i dettagli, i piccoli incidenti, i modi di abitare gli interstizi. Un’attitudine culturale che ha radici in diversi modi di analizzare la città giapponese nel corso del Novecento ma che al tempo stesso riflette un mutamento profondo e recente di alcuni stereotipi interpretativi sull’urbanizzazione dell’Asia orientale

L’impetuoso sviluppo urbano dell’Asia orientale è spesso descritto, per velocità e dimensione delle trasformazioni, attraverso la retorica dei superlativi o dei grandi numeri. Ma non tutto è gigantesco a Tokyo, Singapore, Pechino, Seul, Guangzhou o Hong Kong. Sebbene sia importante osservare queste città da più vaste prospettive geografiche, economiche e politiche, gli stessi luoghi possono essere studiati con efficacia anche da vicino: analizzando micro forme di abitare, riconoscendo esperienze urbane specifiche, seguendo il consolidarsi o il dissolversi delle comunità

Il saggio suggerisce che la connessione tra la governance metropolitana e le disuguaglianze consente di considerare queste ultime non solo come un esito delle politiche ma anche come componente del modo in cui le stesse vengono implementate. Superando una visione razionale o positivista della governance, sosteniamo che i processi di governo delle città non siano mai né completi né lineari: sono in continua costruzione e producono significative differenze nelle diverse città e nel corso del tempo. L’analisi sistematica della letteratura mostra la necessità di descrivere e documentare in modo sinergico 1) il modo in cui i processi di governance agiscono in relazione ai progetti di sviluppo urbano e all’implementazione delle politiche pubbliche e 2) cosa questo comporti in termini di disuguaglianze

To be competitive today, it is essential to create corporate/business networks, especially for those small and medium companies that do not have the capacity to internationalize their product or invest in research and development. Starting from an analysis of Italian cases, the main idea supported in this research is that a simple network of actors/ companies involved in a system of relations, is not a sufficient condition to create the premises for economic growth, competitiveness and innovation. To create a successful corporate network, it is necessary a common aim sharing, oriented to the ‘We-relation’. We-Relation is the foundation of all effective communication (Ostrow 1990), it is possible only in the face to face situation (Schutz and Luckmann 1973) and enhance the Trust between human beings (Vaitkus 1991). The essential features of We-relation can be seen in reflection, after the concrete We relation has come to on end (Schutz 1976) and it is impossible to construct the same thing on the web (Bakardjieva 2005). The research has also tried to classify the types of corporate networks that currently exist (subdivided in vertical, horizontal, transversal, informal) as well as understand how to establish relationships capable of determining positive results in terms of effectiveness and sustainability.

In this paper, I present analytically some findings from the Survey "Aspects of daily life", conducted by ISTAT in 2012, which included a section dedicated specifically to families with children aged 0 to 13 years (3?745 families). Theoretically, the study refers to social capital, a key concept in relational sociology. Social capital is understood as the set of cooperative and trust-worthy relationships promoted by the families for their own wellbeing. Social capital may be present to different degrees depending on a number of variables that refer to both the structural level (resources and constraints) and the referential level (values and goals of wellbeing). In this work, through a number of multivariate analyses, I present the analytical framework for the characteristics of the Italian families in different areas of life, which are found to be more or less friendly toward the needs of the families with respect to social capital.

The essay examines the way in which the last Quality Research Assessment VQR 2004-2010 was performed in Italy. The critique of the "absolute" separation of the products of research from the processes and structures implementing them, prevents the Assessment from being a reflexive tool for the scientific community and indicators from being useful to the scientific activity. The essay incorporates specific and collective reflections taking place in the Italian Sociological Association and in other scientific associations of the Area 14 of the National University Council. Referring to these insights, the author underlines the contradictions and overlapping of the proposed evaluation criteria and the way in which they were operationalized and assembled into a single index. In this light, proposals for improvement are developed for the next Research assessment; in particular, the author suggests the use of Cantril scales and indicators constructed on the basis of "circumstantial" evidences, which will assign greater responsibility to the evaluator, who must thus document and properly explain the rationale for judgments.

Universities take an important role in the knowledge-society. For reasons of accountability to the public or in order to assure or enhance research quality, many universities implemented assessment procedures, often using bibliometric and other performance indicators. These procedures are mostly developed in a data-driven manner and not much is known about what the indicators in these procedures actually measure and how they affect behavior. Furthermore, the methods stem from the natural and life sciences and cannot be readily transferred to the social sciences and humanities. In this article, we present (i) quality criteria for research from the perspective of humanities scholars and how they can be transferred to sociology (ii) summarise the opportunities and limitations of the research rating of the German Council of Science and Humanities, and (iii) suggest that sociology as a discipline should develop a discipline-specific approach to research evaluation that takes into account the sociology scholars’ notions of quality and the disciplines’ research practices, that is bottom-up in nature, and uses both quantitative as well as qualitative data.

The article first presents the characteristics of the national research evaluation systems of some countries, in order to show the big difference that exists at the level of the political objectives and in terms of the methodological choices. Then proceed to offer a "formal theory" of evolution of national systems of evaluation, based on the idea of the inherent limitations of the two main methods of assessment. The authors tries to corroborate this idea by presenting the most significant results of the research on peer review and bibliometrics. The confirmation of the inherent limitations of the methodologies available (and their mix) will take the authors, in conclusion, to poin out the limit of the Italian system of assessment, not so much in terms of methodology as a political aspect, thus showing to a re-orientation of the debate in this direction.

A scientific evaluation must follow rigorous, codified and reproducible procedures. The methodological adequacy of the peer review procedure in the latest Italian research evaluation exercise (VQR 2004- 2010) is the key focus of this work. First and foremost the analysis regards the referee selection procedure. Afterward the matching between the referees and the research products to be evaluated is considered. Also the evaluation form available to the referees is examined, together with the synthesis procedure of the scores. The last focus concerns the peer judgments stability and homogeneity. Also concrete proposals for the improvement of the evaluation procedures are presented. The study is limited to the Political and Social Sciences Area, because of its epistemic peculiarities.

The results of the Italian Quality Research Assessment VQR 2004–10 in the area of Sociology were characterized by the scarcity of excellent ratings and a lack of consensus among referees. These two aspects, which affected the assessment of all social sciences and humanities, descend directly from the use of the peer review as a method of evaluation. As a matter of fact, peer review, although irreplaceable, poses different issues on which critical thinking is needed. In this paper, I aim to contribute to this discussion. Firstly, I focus on the system framework, i.e. an assessment exercise where in total almost 200,000 scientific publications from universities and research institutes have been analyzed. Then, the rules of the game have been reviewed and also the specific characters of the macro-area “14” where Sociology is located. The judgments formulated by the referees and the level of inter-rater agreement were descriptively considered, considering the main features of the referees, the publications and the authors. Finally, some possible interpretations are outlined together with recommendations for future improvements.