RISULTATI RICERCA

Luoghi e attori della "pietas hispanica" nella Roma del Seicento - Places and actors of "pietas hispanica" in baroque Rome Along all the 17th century Rome represented for the Spanish monarchy an ideal scenario where to show the signs of a piety, which first aim, behind the religious purpose, was the affirmation of Spanish primacy within the Catholicism. All the iconographies prepared in Rome to celebrate some major events of Spanish monarchy, as the canonizations of Spanish saints or the deaths of Spanish kings, were part of a strategy to assert in the site of pontifical power the image of the Spanish monarchy as an advocate of Catholicism. In this way Rome became the space to play strategies, among holy and profane, in which had a relevant role a number of works of art, permanent or ephemeral, marks of the Spanish presence in the town.

Tra devozione e politica: le chiese e gli ospedali di Santiago e Montserrat di Roma, secoli XVI-XVIII - Between devotion and politics. The churches and hospitals of Santiago and Montserrat in Rome (16th-18th cent.) At the end of the Middle Ages the city of Rome saw the foundation of the hospitals and churches of Santiago of the Castilians, located on piazza Navona, and of Montserrat of the Aragonese Nation, settled on the homonymous street. Both of them were affluent institutions, developing an intense welfare and religious action in favour of their nationals. Little by little they became the tangible symbol of the Spanish presence in Rome, provoking the intervention of the Spanish royal power. The study takes advantage of a wide range of archival sources, reconstructing in detail income, expenses and the investments of the two institutions throughout the 16th to 18th centuries.

Forme della presenza mercantile spagnola a Roma all’inizio dell’età moderna: spunti per un confronto europeo - The different forms of presence of Spanish merchants in Rome since the beginning of Early Modern Age: ideas for a debate at European level. Between the 15th and the 16th centuries, due also to the political coverage offered by the empire of Charles V, both Castilians and Catalans succeeded in establishing themselves as the most dynamic merchants in Europe. The control they had over strategic raw materials such as wool, iron and alum and their privileged position gave them easy access to monetary flows in the coastal cities from Flanders to the Mediterranean, where a number Spanish colonies were established. These cities were soon granted with major privileges by local authorities, which fostered the settling of merchants and bankers in certain areas therein. The result, as in the case of Bruges, was the creation of districts protected by exclusive jurisdictional rights or, as in the case of Rome, a random scattering of the new settlers, with no real reference points. In the mid 16th century, in Rome the distribution of places of work and residence followed no national or religious criteria. The complex structure of social relations was thus reflected also in Rome topography.

Città e cerimoniale: lo spazio urbano e la corte vicereale di Napoli nel XVII secolo - City and ceremonial: urban space and the vice-royal court during the 17th century in Naples The article intends to refute the historiographical tradition that, starting from the so-called Masaniello revolt, maintains the dramatically negative effects of the Spanish presence in Naples. Actually, the Spanish government was characterised for an high level of attention and for a constant effort of communication with Neapolitan community, both on popular and aristocratic level, although without giving up the basis of the royal power. The process of mediation was carried out through a series of complex ceremonials, also aimed to shape the urban space. The vice-royal court was the central point of this process, from which spread all over the city the courtesan etiquette, based on the personal honour. The religious devotions, of course, played an important role in the ceremonials, as they were necessary to reinforce the process of political legitimation of the Spanish power. Some particular cults, linked to specific areas in the town, were adopted by the vice-royal entourage as a complementary way to emphasize the Spanish presence in town.

Le tante città di una capitale: Napoli nella prima età moderna - The many cities of a capital: Naples in early modern history History of Naples (16th-17th cent.) Spanish presence in Naples (16th-17th cent.) Neapolitan civic administration Neapolitan aristocracy Spanish viceroys in Naples Naples represents an interesting case study within the context of Spanish territories in Italy. More than elsewhere, in Naples the orders issued in Madrid, and carried by the viceroys, needed to be negotiated with the prerogative of the local authorities, aristocracy in particular. During Spanish domination important works were made not only to improve city conditions, but also to ensure security and visibility to Spanish power. The demographic growth, the afflux of nobles from the rest of the Kingdom, the increasing number of ecclesiastics were all factors that concurred to increase in Naples conflicts and tensions, in which local institutions, both civic and ecclesiastical, played an important role.

Introduzione - The articles in this monographic number of &&Storia Urbana&&& stress the wide range of meanings that the Spanish presence represented for the major Italian cities. Although the catholic monarchy didn’t impose in Italy any kind of urban model, it is nevertheless possible to retrace in many cities distinguishing marks of the Spanish influence, from the political-administrative level to urban planning, in which the symbolic aspects play an important role in terms of consolidating the image of the power of the Spanish king.

Social enterprises and relationships with the local community: embeddedness, legitimisation and representation - The local embeddedness of social enterprises, within community-based contexts and networks, is generally taken for granted. Yet, empirical research on the matter in Italy is still poor. Even theoretical analyses often follow a prescriptive approach, as if community networking and social capital generation were natural properties of such organizations. The article elaborates on a few theoretical categories which can be helpful in operationalizing and empirically testing the third sector’s ties with local communities - whether in the start-up or during the life course of social enterprises. A case study on an EU-led funding initiative involving social enterprises is then analyzed. Special attention is given to the role of "intermediary bodies", representative of the civil society at local level. This allows for a critical reflection on the potential and the limits of partnerships between public authorities and social enterprises. As far as these enterprises state, and as they aree expected to participate in local policy-making processes, some key dilemmas emerge, such as the tension between advocacy and policybuilding, or between the representation of local civil society and their active involvement in public policies. Finally, a balance is provided of the prospects for a more "community oriented" model of social enterprise to be developed across the country.

Keywords: Social Enterprises, Community, Social Capital, Organizational Networks, Participation in The Policy-Making Process.

Social Conflict and Incomparability of Goods - According to mainstream economics, rational agents choose between alternatives that aree supposed to be ranked and compared. This assumption is strongly criticized by sociologists and anthropologists; it may partly hold true only when the commercial transactions sphere establishes a uniform measure: money. But what happens when a community compares social goods supplied by different institutional spheres? The rigorous equalization of any rate of exchange is replaced by a system of conventional equivalences. This system is temporary, since it changes as collective beliefs evolve; it is conflictual, because the "rates of conversion" between social goods often express relations of power among the groups themselves; and finally it is unstable, because individuals tend to develop private "rates of conversion" that aree different from the collective ones. This system, despite its fragility, is a crucial tool of reproduction of a complex society. This essay discusses and analyzes some aspects of the issue.

Keywords: Incomparability, Rational Choice, Money, Conflict, Participation.

Solidarity Purchasing Groups. A solid proposal in a liquid society - In the currently liquid and uncertain world, purchasing represents a dimension where individuals live the illusion of control over their own lives. Solidarity Purchasing Groups (or GAS, an Italian acronym for Gruppi di Acquisto Solidale) aree an attempt to reverse this model, and to build relationships not despite but through the market and purchasing. They choose products and producers on the basis of respect for the environment and solidarity between the members of the groups, traders, and producers. GAS aree rooted in a critical approach to today’s global economic model and lifestyle of consumerism; individuals that feel the unfairness in this model and who aree searching for a practical alternative can find reciprocal aid and advice by joining solidarity purchasing groups. They aree a catalyst of political and social change. Empirical research, which completes these reflections, points out two very different ways to live this experience: "health cares" ("salutisti") and "critical protester" ("contestatori critici"). Only the second one is characterized by a strong, albeit scarcely perceptible, political impact.

Keywords: Solidarity Purchasing Groups, Purchase, Market, Civicness, Political Participation.

Socio-Political Participation and Responsible Consumption: between the collective dimension and a sense of efficacy - Participation has been studied from different points of view. One of the possible ways to address the topic is to interrelate it with cultural consumption, con- sidering the relevance of both terms with regard to social cohesion and integration. The essay is designed to evaluate the interaction between participation and cultural consumption, leading to a definition of some citizens’ groups with homogeneous features compared to both variables. Moreover, the essay aims to examine the groups’ behaviour, compared with a phenomenon related to both cultural consumption and socio-political participation: responsible consumption. The groups’ behaviour relative to this variable helps the understanding of some social dynamics and, above all, highlights the close relationship between a particular group (the actives) and alternative consumption behaviours. A thorough analysis of the relationship between a high degree of cultural consumption and a high degree of political participation underlines that responsible consumption is a collective action and, at the same time, finalised to and endowed with political efficacy.

Keywords: Political Consumerism, Participation, Cultural Consumption, Collective Action, Political Efficacy.

The Consumer Turn in Political Responsibility and Citizenship - This article investigates how and why a growing number of civil society actors increasingly turn to the market as a complement to, or replacement of, traditional tools of political participation. After a discussion about its historical antecedents, the paper focuses on the present features of political consumerism. A section dedicated to theoretical issues introduces the concept of individualized responsibilitytaking to explain why societal roles as consumers should be considered as political agents with responsibilities for others. Two more sections aree also devoted to an investigation of political consumerism. The first section distinguishes eight broad issue areas where political consumerism is to be found, and identifies the role played by civic groups in prompting consumer action. The second section reports on a number of research findings on how civic groups inform and sensitize consumers about the public orientation of their consumption practices. The article ends with a few evaluative comments on the significance of the consumer turn in politics.

Keywords: Political Consumerism, Individualized Responsibility-Taking, Market-Based Action Repertoire, Taming of Consumption, Sustainable Citizenship.

Storiaindustria.it: a multidimensional project - The article illustrates the process of conceiving and developing the multimedia project Storiaindustria.it, born as a tool with principally didactic aims to offer free access to educational web resources on the history of industry and work in Piemonte, Liguria and the Valle d’Aosta since 1850. The analysis shows the evolution of the narrative structure of the portal, examining the historical content and the language in relation to a wider consideration of writing practices in digital history: it also examines the technological solutions inspired by Web 2.0 and used to involve the users in the research, publication and sharing of micro-content, evaluating it in a dynamic context that has profoundly changed the cultural uses of the Net in recent years.We also deal with the didactic aspects of the portal, inquiring into teaching and learning models for contemporary history with the aid of the new technologies and, in particular, into the requisites that make ‘surfing’ a research activity and the availability of sources a ‘didactically equipped knowledge’. The article concludes with an evaluation of the relationship between Storiaindustria.it and the world of scientific research, in relation to the practices of economic and social history, in order to understand the innovative possibilities - but also the methodological problems - that online multimedia tools like the portal bring to the construction and diffusion of historical knowledge.

Parole chiave: storia industriale, storia digitale, didattica della storia, ambienti di apprendimento, multimedialità, interazione industrial history, digital history, teaching history, learning environments, multimedia, interaction

Party, revolution and war. On the polical speech of Nicola Bombacci (1879-1945) - Nicola Bombacci was an important PSI’s leader during the First World War and the biennio rosso (1919-1920). After his expulsion from the PCd’I, of which was one of the founders, he approached fascism and became one of the last supporters of it since he had been shooted by partisans and died in Como Lake, and had been exposed in Loreto Square beside to Mussolini. After a short historical mention of the Bombacci’s political life, these pages will analyse deeper the question of the passage from the left to fascism in interwar Italy, through the analyse of his political language. The method executed in order to analyse the question foresees the use of a biography by dates and the identification of the political interpretation’s categories, which permit to carry out a comparison between the social-communist and fascist period. In conclusions, the article proposes a thesis of interpretation: the political passion.

Parole chiave: Fascismo, Nazione, Rivoluzione, Classe, Guerra, Passione politica Fascism, Nation, Revolution, Class, War, Political passion