RISULTATI RICERCA

Together with the concept of lifeworld, the concept of relevance plays a central role in the sociology developed by Alfred Schutz. Both concepts are in some way connected to each other, as occurs with most of the concepts he deals with, it means, the exploration of one concept leads necessarily to another one, making the understanding of Schutz’ work sometimes a complex task. The aim of this article is not so much to explore the concept of «relevance» in itself, but rather to scrutinize some implications of this idea for the sociological empirical investigation.

This paper is divided into two parts. The first traces the conceptual development of because motives, while simultaneously endeavouring to grasp the notion of the unconscious revealed in Schutz’s analysis. The author refers to Leibniz’s theory of petites perceptions and Freud’s theory of the unconscious; theories whose respective characteristics are somehow compared, integrated and thus juxtaposed with the characteristics of because motives. The second part of the paper raises the question why Schutz, in his analysis of motives and unconscious behaviour, does not refer to Husserl’s conception of the unconscious

Does the phenomenological paradigm omit the examination of the problem of power? Frequently formulated criticisms of phenomenological thought underline that it would be characterized by oblivion of power. The following line of argument will demonstrate that phenomenology and phenomenologically oriented sociology do have the theoretical potential to open up a critical perspective as well as to analyze phenomena of power. The focus will be on the basic question on how the phenomenological perspective can be used to investigate power structures, social inequality, justice, violence, subjective and intersubjective experiences of alienation and suffering. In this sense some reflections will be presented on how phenomenological description is used as critical diagnosis. The paper deals on the one hand with criticism of the phenomenological paradigm of an alleged oblivion of power, and on the other hand it reflects upon the this paradigm’spotential of with respect to a formulation of social critique.

The system of thematic, interpretational and motivational relevance is the model expounded by Schutz to highlight how the constitution of meaning. The relationship between the system of relevance belonging to different finite provinces of meaning is fundamental. Just as important are the fluctuations in the modes of experiences, in relation to appresentational processes of meaning in the shift from one sphere to another. This paper will focus on the shift from one province of meaning to another, i.e., enclaves. According to Schutz, enclaves can be understood as both symbolic entities and necessary discontinuities in the shift from one finite province of meaning to another, discontinuities that can be identified as vacancies to be filled.

The aim of this paper is to explore an uncharted aspect of Schutzian description of the structure of the stock of knowledge. The linkage between the stock of knowledge and the life-world isexamined through the cartographic metaphor of the map. Starting from an analysis of different manuscripts, it is shown that the cartographic metaphor is the heuristic resource used by Alfred Schutz to depict the complex relationships between knowledge and life-world. It is argued that the allegorical reference to the use of maps expresses the conversion of our perception of the life-world into contour lines or hatchings, which corresponds to the phenomenological insight that objects are given in perception through manifesting sides or adumbrations. Moreover, it is stated that the metaphor of the relevance-isohypses helps Schutz to describe not only the structurization of our stock of knowledge into theme and horizon and the levels of familiarity and typicality we perceive in the objects of the world, but also the incomplete character of our knowledge, i.e., the shadows and hatchings sketched in it as a consequence of the opacity of the life-world. It is maintained that far from belonging solely to geography, the metaphor of the unknown world as a «terra incognita» suggests an inquiry into the process of production of knowledge. The cartographic blanks do not preclude the impossibility of knowledge, but, on the contrary, they constitute its original source.

This paper reveals Schutz’s double characterization of science. First, he characterizes science as a modification of interest and relevance. This is compatible with his basic view of science as embedded in the life-world. Second, in contrast, he often excludes working and communication from his argument on science and characterizes science as a pure cogitation. By critically examining the distinction between scientific attitude and scientific activity as well as the concept of cognitive style, this paper concludes that the second characterization proposed by Schutz is untenable. In addition, this paper indicates that the second characterization experienced a significant change from On Multiple Realities to Symbol, Reality, and Society. Although Schutz has been challenged by contemporary science studies because of his ineffectiveness to deal with scientific activity, the careful and critical examination of his argument allows a positive interpretation of his theory as offering basic concepts for the investigation of scientific activity.

My aim is to depict Schutz’s theory of topic relevance as his own distinctive phenomenology of consciousness. I will show that his conception of consciousness is elaborated from at least three types of elements. First, I will disclose Husserl’s influence on Schutz in this matter. I will list a few Husserlian terms that Schutz takes into consideration such as noema, horizon, parts and wholes, attentional ray and passive synthesis. Second, I will show that Schutz turns to Gurwitsch’s idea that consciousness is a field of experience where the previously listed elements are held together and find their relational meaning. Third, I will expose how all these elements taken from Husserl and Gurwitsch are reinterpreted by Schutz as being relative to relevance as a basic phenomenon of our mind’s selective activity which puts at work different levels of our personality according to the schizophrenic ego hypothesis.

The conception of relevance has come to be increasingly under discussion in various scientific fields under the recent social-cultural-historical conditions of the globalization, digitalization, and liquidation of society. In my opinion, many of these various discussions are, explicitly or implicitly, founded on Alfred Schutz’s ideas about relevance. This essay aims to clarify his sociological conception of relevance founded on phenomenological investigations by inquiries into what he said about the concept and problem of relevance through a comparison between Schutz’s ideas on how to deal with the «incomprehensiveness» of the «totality» of the world with M. Weber’s and F. von Hayek’s with reference to Schutz’s ideas as to how human experience proceeds

The author’s aim is to provide some key introductory points to the reading of the topic of relevance. First, it should be stressed that the system of relevance provides access to all the «places» of Schutz’s analyses, from the world of life to the theory of action, whether they concern the methodological, theoretical or «applied theory» dimensions. Moreover, the system of relevance can be understood as the pivot on which the entire Schutz’s interpretative paradigm rotates. The system of relevance contains, at various degrees of articulation, the mechanism of the construction-interpretation of experience based on the principle of the «selective character of the spirit». Although the system (and the process that concerns it) is always understood as unitary, it is distinguished, for heuristic reasons, in three sub-systems: thematic, interpretative, motivational. Each of these, in turn, is articulated dichotomously into imposed versus intrinsic or «voluntary» relevance. The system thus manages to fathom deeply the different traits of the constitutive of experience.

Climate change, the agri-food sector and trade are closely related. This contribution aims at presenting issues related to the economic impacts of climate changes on international trade. The agri-food sector is one of the most hit by changes in climate, and it is also responsible of substantial environmentalimpacts. In a globalised world, these effects do not alter only the agri-food domestic markets but propagate across countries.While climate change may trigger changes in trade patterns by altering food availability and access as well as comparative advantages across countries, trade itself may constitute an adaptation strategy. Our note provides elements to be considered in the future debate that will likely be focused on the interrelations between, climate change, trade and global value chains of agri-food products.

The desire for sustainability calls for new development paths for the agricultural sector. Some suggest creating small to medium size farms, performing agricultural practices that preserve ecosystems, are labour intensive and connected to local markets. New farmers are a necessity in many rural areas, yetthe main obstacle to the settlement of newcomers is access to land. This research suggests an alternative to private property of land, such as experienced by the Foncière Solidaire created by the association «Terre de Liens» in France, which collectively buys land (13,500 shareholders, end of 2019) to lease themto new farmers under long-term basis. The research question is therefore: “Is this alternative to private property of land durable?” Here, durability means the permanence of farms, despite the on-going upheavals. We suggest that the values are the key, and that values leading to everlastingness describe aconception of Justice. To identify whether or not the values describe a conception of Justice in practice, the discourses should be consistent with the six axioms of the Grammar of Justice by Boltanski and Thévenot (1991) when implemented to a Local Common Good (Thévenot, 1993). The whole movement cannot last without the association Terre de Liens being permanent itself. We will highlight that the discourse(official communication) of the Terre de Liens association calls on Justice, being consistent with the six axioms. We  also underpin that the main challenges are the evolution of regulations, and especially the European laws and French annual financial laws, which set the rules for fiscal exonerations and drive agricultural practices. Whatever these evolutions, it is likely that the association would achieve permanence because of the high number of actors (communes searching for farmers, applicants to taking or transferring farms, donors, shareholders) who are federated around its “Fair” raison d’être. Yes, there is a potential for durable alternative to land private property in agriculture.

Despite the importance of mountain areas and mountain farming, the literature on studies on consumers’ opinion concerning mountain food products is not numerous. In order to contribute to filling this gap, this study aims at exploring Italian consumers’ opinions regarding beef and wine produced in mountain areas as well as their opinions concerning the new European regulation on mountain food products. To do so, a qualitative approach with observations, focus groups and semi-structured interviews were applied. The results indicate that consumers living in mountain areas and those living in non-mountain areas, including rural areas, have different knowledge about the practices in mountain farming and different opinions concerning mountain food products. Nevertheless, both want mountain food products to be healthier and sustainably produced. Furthermore, they associate wine and beef mainly to credence attributes. As for European regulation, most criticisms are directed to the flexibility of the rules. The inclusion of wine in the mountain quality scheme is not a consensus among consumers. However, the analyses point to the existence of consumers who are interested in wines produced in mountain areas, indicating the emergence of a potential niche market for these wines.

Following the growing trend towards globalisation of the agrifood system over the last few years, a number of scientific publications with different aims and methodological approaches have addressed the issue of the progressive link loss between the place of consumption and production of food. In part, thescientific debate has focused on the various agri-food production commercial outlets, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of both the dominant models like mass market retail, as well as emerging models like solidarity purchasing groups The present study can be classified as concerning the sustainability of agri-food supply chains. It compares five different extra virgin olive oil (evoo) supply chains in terms of the distance between the agricultural producer and end consumer, from both an economic perspective (the number of intermediaries) and a geographical one (production and consumption places). The examined aspects are 1) all the supply chain segments in which value is added to what will be the final food product purchased by the consumer, with a focus on trade and the transport cost estimated in relation to food miles; 2) the environmental impact of transport along the entire supply chain up to the distribution of evoo to the final consumer; and 3) the trade-offs between the environmental impact and economic results.The results obtained confirm some existing general evidence in the literature, such as the greater enhancement of agricultural products through short supply chains, and they emphasize as combining the value chain results with the environmental impact based on FMs, no real trade-offs, but rather trends, emerge.

The main aim of this study was to determine the factors that influenced profitability of companies involved in the Valencia food industry between 2006 and 2015. For this, macroeconomic, sector and company variables were the key elements used in the statistical analysis, together with their dependenceon the economic cycle in indicating the present state of the sector in the Valencian Region. The panel data was obtained from the sabi data base and combined with transverse data and time series. Economic and financial profitability are both influenced by certain common factors, especially the sales margin. The higher the margin the higher the profit, although this relationship also depends on where the business company is located. Rotation of assets also contributes to raising profits in times of economic expansion. The Economic Crisis saw profits fall in 2009 and 2012, two of its worst years. Finally, differences were also found between large and small enterprises.

This paper aims to illustrate and discuss the importance of packaging attributes in the wine market. A survey was conducted in the north of Italy to assess how different attributes affect the probability of choosing a bottle of Prosecco wine. Two hundred face-to-face interviews based on a structured questionnaire were administered in Milan and Padua supermarkets to elicit preferences. Each respondentranked three new bottles of Prosecco wine and expressed the importance of different packaging characteristics in its choice.Product attributes include Label’s form, Label’s colours, the Label in its entirety, the Writing “Prosecco”, the Band on the bottle’s neck and the Bottle’s shape. The interviews allowed us to recognise the bottle customers found the most attractive, and rank-ordered logistic regression was able to disentangle whichpackaging characteristic led to their decision.

Il centro siderurgico di Taranto ha avuto e ha una grande importanza nella storia industriale italiana. A esso sono stati dedicati studi approfonditi. In queste pagine, ripercorrendo quanto emerge da tali studi così come dalla più recente storiografia sull’impresa pubblica in Italia e sull’Iri, si proporranno alcune considerazioni sul ruolo della siderurgia nell’economia italiana, sulla parabola delle partecipazioni statali e il loro rapporto con la politica, sulle politiche perseguite nel secondo dopoguerra per ridurre i divari tra Nord e Sud. Si guarderà anche ai contenuti e ai toni del dibattito pubblico su tali questioni. Le scelte di volta in volta compiute e le diverse posizioni assunte saranno storicamente contestualizzate. Molti degli interrogativi che questa storia solleva hanno ancora oggi bisogno di risposte adeguate ai tempi.

L’accesso di massa alla proprietà privata della casa di abitazione è un fenomeno che ha segnato in profondità la storia dell’Italia repubblicana, pur restandone a oggi uno degli aspetti meno indagati in ambito storiografico. L’articolo intende contribuire a colmare questa lacuna risalendo alle origini del processo che ha portato l’Italia a diventare uno dei paesi con la più alta quota di proprietari di casa dell’Europa occidentale. Un ruolo decisivo, al riguardo, hanno avuto le politiche abitative ed edilizie volte a incentivare e sostenere la piccola proprietà.Cruciali, sul piano politico e legislativo, furono gli anni del secondo dopoguerra, quando si posero alcuni dei tasselli fondamentali che sarebbero poi andati a comporre il mosaico dell’Italia quale paese di proprietari di casa. L’articolo prende in esame le posizioni programmatiche dei partiti e il confronto politico in sede di Assemblea costituente e di discussione parlamentare su provvedimenti di primaria rilevanza come il piano Ina Casa e le leggi Tupini e Aldisio per l’incremento edilizio.