Alfredo Alietti
PhD in Sociology
Lecturer in Urban Sociology
University of Ferrara
ITALY
E-mail: ala@unife.it
Lecturer in Urban Sociology
University of Ferrara
ITALY
E-mail: ala@unife.it
Intellectual Profile
I graduated
in Political Science at the University of Milan, with a thesis on
International Economic Organization (title: “Analysis of Urban Informal
Sector: The Case of Peru”). In 1995, I received my PhD in Sociology at the University of Milan, with a research (an
urban ethnography) on the cohabitation between migrants and autochthones
in a deprived neighbourhood. From 1996 to 2003, I was a postdoctorate scholar at University of Padua, Department of
Sociology, where I collaborated teaching Sociology and Sociology of
Work. I then moved to teaching Methodology of Social Sciences and Social
Research in Urban Context at the Department of Human Sciences, Faculty
of Letters and Philosophy, University of Ferrara from 2000 to 2005. Currently, I am a lecturer in Urban Sociology at the University of Ferrara.
I was involved in several researches at national and European level on different topics, in particular racism, interethnic relations in urban setting, socio-spatial segregation and urban requalification of deprived areas. The main researches on these issues are:
- “Social Privation and Social Services in the Popular Neighbourhood Stadera (Milano)”, European Programme “Cities against Racism” (DGV);
- “Migrant Women and Patterns of Entry in Formal and Informal Labour Market in the Metropolitan Area of Milan”, Transnational Project NOW, Active Policies for Migrant Women, European Union Initiative;
- “Living on the Margins: a Report on Roma People’s Settlements in Lombardia Region”, ISMU Foundation, Milan;
- “Cosmopolitan Neighbourhood and Stigmatization: the Case-Study of Via Padova in Milan”, personal research project (with Alfredo Agustoni);
- “Immigrants Housing Needs and Housing Policies in Lombardia”, ISMU Foundation, Milan.
Currently, I am carrying out a study on the policies of urban requalification in Italy, called Contratti di quartiere (Neighbourhood Contracts), and their impact on social and economic exclusion of the residents.
Furthermore, I just begun a survey research on Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in Italy; this research will include a qualitative study on Anti-Semitism among the second generations from Maghreb countries living in Italy.
I am member of the editorial committees of the following international and national reviews:
- Theomai Journal, Society, Nature and Development Studies;
- Passaggi, Rivista italiana di Scienze Transculturali (Italian Review of Transcultural Sciences);
- Razzismo e Modernità (Racism and Modernity).
I am also a member of ESA’s (European Sociological Association) Research Network 31 on Ethnic Relations, Racism and Antisemitism.
I was involved in several researches at national and European level on different topics, in particular racism, interethnic relations in urban setting, socio-spatial segregation and urban requalification of deprived areas. The main researches on these issues are:
- “Social Privation and Social Services in the Popular Neighbourhood Stadera (Milano)”, European Programme “Cities against Racism” (DGV);
- “Migrant Women and Patterns of Entry in Formal and Informal Labour Market in the Metropolitan Area of Milan”, Transnational Project NOW, Active Policies for Migrant Women, European Union Initiative;
- “Living on the Margins: a Report on Roma People’s Settlements in Lombardia Region”, ISMU Foundation, Milan;
- “Cosmopolitan Neighbourhood and Stigmatization: the Case-Study of Via Padova in Milan”, personal research project (with Alfredo Agustoni);
- “Immigrants Housing Needs and Housing Policies in Lombardia”, ISMU Foundation, Milan.
Currently, I am carrying out a study on the policies of urban requalification in Italy, called Contratti di quartiere (Neighbourhood Contracts), and their impact on social and economic exclusion of the residents.
Furthermore, I just begun a survey research on Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in Italy; this research will include a qualitative study on Anti-Semitism among the second generations from Maghreb countries living in Italy.
I am member of the editorial committees of the following international and national reviews:
- Theomai Journal, Society, Nature and Development Studies;
- Passaggi, Rivista italiana di Scienze Transculturali (Italian Review of Transcultural Sciences);
- Razzismo e Modernità (Racism and Modernity).
I am also a member of ESA’s (European Sociological Association) Research Network 31 on Ethnic Relations, Racism and Antisemitism.
Research Interests:
Racism; interethnic relations in urban areas; socio-spatial segregation; urban requalification policies; urban ethnography.
Current Projects:
My current research projects are related to two different issues:
1. analysis of urban requalification policies directed to contrast social and spatial segregation in marginalized areas in Italy (with Sonia Paone, University of Pisa);
2. analysis of the house demand from disadvantaged people, in the specific case immigrant families.
1) At the end of the 90s, in Italy, following the example of other European countries, particularly France, the left government have set up renewal policies for the urban neighbourhoods of public housing, called “Contratti di quartiere” (Neighbourhood Contracts). The purpose of these urban policies, financed by the central government, concern the improvement of the conditions of urban neighborhoods and social policy interventions for disadvantaged groups of inhabitants (elder people, unemployed, etc.). These policies focus on the “governance” (political, social and economic actors) and participation of residents with respect to the possible choices of public and private interventions. However, the issue of governance and participation is often an administrative fiction, a “rhetoric”, that does not change the conditions of marginality. The social and economic difficulties experienced in these areas affected by the transition towards the post-Fordist society do not promote the organizational ability and the capacity of claiming rights of its inhabitants, which could trigger a genuine process of empowerment and change. In the long run this situation worsened because of the disappearance of a political and social web belonging to the working class and of the failing of the leftist political parties’ capacity of representation. Moreover, the action of the public services at local level appears to be fragmented and unable to neutralize the mechanisms of social exclusion at macro level. So the object of the analysis is to highlight the real effect of these policies and of the possible negative effects of the administrative action that do not affect the conditions of exclusion and socio-spatial segregation. The methodology utilized is qualitative with the use of the ethnographic techniques, such as the collection of public documents, interviews with representatives of institutions, representatives of no profit associations and with local inhabitants, and the direct participation in events connected with the projects. The case studies are concentrated in the metropolitan area of Milan and in the city of Livorno. We are collecting experiences from other cities in the North and in the South of Italy for comparing social effects and results.
2) The study on the house needs of migrant families is addressed to analyze two dimensions correlated: first, the reconstruction of Immigrants’ “housing careers” in Lombardy region, particularly in the cities of Milan and Brescia, two metropolitan areas marked by strong criticism in providing houses; secondly, the collection of the different points of view on this issue and the different visions about the hypotheses of intervention of both institutional (administrative) actors and civil society (union trade of tenants, cooperatives). The immigrants’ settlement dynamics, with respect to the case of Milan city, are characterized by three distinct factors: the first is the immigrants inclusion in the rents private market in certain areas of the city, often in old and crumbling buildings, no longer desirable by Italian inhabitants; the second is the access of a part of immigrants, those of the older migratory flows, to public housing, in this case too, in neighborhoods with high concentrations of social and economic problems (also, with a strong social stigmatization); the third concerns a wide part of migrants who find answers in the black housing market, often with rents higher than those provided by the regular market. The widespread discrimination does not favor the supply of houses from Italian people, exacerbating the situation of marginalization and segregation. The same policy characterizing the management of the public sector, provides mechanisms of social exclusion and spatial fomenting conflicts with the autochthones living in conditions of poverty. The objective is to analyze how the interventions of public institutions and civil society are able to deal with the house needs and to contrast discrimination affecting immigrants and their families in accessing the housing market.
1. analysis of urban requalification policies directed to contrast social and spatial segregation in marginalized areas in Italy (with Sonia Paone, University of Pisa);
2. analysis of the house demand from disadvantaged people, in the specific case immigrant families.
1) At the end of the 90s, in Italy, following the example of other European countries, particularly France, the left government have set up renewal policies for the urban neighbourhoods of public housing, called “Contratti di quartiere” (Neighbourhood Contracts). The purpose of these urban policies, financed by the central government, concern the improvement of the conditions of urban neighborhoods and social policy interventions for disadvantaged groups of inhabitants (elder people, unemployed, etc.). These policies focus on the “governance” (political, social and economic actors) and participation of residents with respect to the possible choices of public and private interventions. However, the issue of governance and participation is often an administrative fiction, a “rhetoric”, that does not change the conditions of marginality. The social and economic difficulties experienced in these areas affected by the transition towards the post-Fordist society do not promote the organizational ability and the capacity of claiming rights of its inhabitants, which could trigger a genuine process of empowerment and change. In the long run this situation worsened because of the disappearance of a political and social web belonging to the working class and of the failing of the leftist political parties’ capacity of representation. Moreover, the action of the public services at local level appears to be fragmented and unable to neutralize the mechanisms of social exclusion at macro level. So the object of the analysis is to highlight the real effect of these policies and of the possible negative effects of the administrative action that do not affect the conditions of exclusion and socio-spatial segregation. The methodology utilized is qualitative with the use of the ethnographic techniques, such as the collection of public documents, interviews with representatives of institutions, representatives of no profit associations and with local inhabitants, and the direct participation in events connected with the projects. The case studies are concentrated in the metropolitan area of Milan and in the city of Livorno. We are collecting experiences from other cities in the North and in the South of Italy for comparing social effects and results.
2) The study on the house needs of migrant families is addressed to analyze two dimensions correlated: first, the reconstruction of Immigrants’ “housing careers” in Lombardy region, particularly in the cities of Milan and Brescia, two metropolitan areas marked by strong criticism in providing houses; secondly, the collection of the different points of view on this issue and the different visions about the hypotheses of intervention of both institutional (administrative) actors and civil society (union trade of tenants, cooperatives). The immigrants’ settlement dynamics, with respect to the case of Milan city, are characterized by three distinct factors: the first is the immigrants inclusion in the rents private market in certain areas of the city, often in old and crumbling buildings, no longer desirable by Italian inhabitants; the second is the access of a part of immigrants, those of the older migratory flows, to public housing, in this case too, in neighborhoods with high concentrations of social and economic problems (also, with a strong social stigmatization); the third concerns a wide part of migrants who find answers in the black housing market, often with rents higher than those provided by the regular market. The widespread discrimination does not favor the supply of houses from Italian people, exacerbating the situation of marginalization and segregation. The same policy characterizing the management of the public sector, provides mechanisms of social exclusion and spatial fomenting conflicts with the autochthones living in conditions of poverty. The objective is to analyze how the interventions of public institutions and civil society are able to deal with the house needs and to contrast discrimination affecting immigrants and their families in accessing the housing market.
Key Publications:
- La convivenza difficile, Turin: L’Harmattan, 1998 (The Hard Coexistence);
- (with Istituto Ecopolis), Milano, Stadera. Abitare la città delle differenze, Milan: Franco Angeli, 1998 (Milan, Stadera. Living in the city of difference);
- (with Dario Padovan) Sociologia del razzismo, Roma: Carocci, 2000 (Sociology of Racism);
- (with Dario Padovan), Metamorfosi del Razzismo, Antologia di scritti su distanza sociale, pregiudizio e discriminazione, Milano: Franco Angeli, 2005 (Metamorphosis of Racism. Anthology of Works on Social Distance, Prejudice and Discrimination);
- (with Alfredo Agustoni), Società Urbane e convivenza interetnica, Milano: Franco Angeli, 2009 (Urban Societes and Interethnic Cohabitation).
- (with Istituto Ecopolis), Milano, Stadera. Abitare la città delle differenze, Milan: Franco Angeli, 1998 (Milan, Stadera. Living in the city of difference);
- (with Dario Padovan) Sociologia del razzismo, Roma: Carocci, 2000 (Sociology of Racism);
- (with Dario Padovan), Metamorfosi del Razzismo, Antologia di scritti su distanza sociale, pregiudizio e discriminazione, Milano: Franco Angeli, 2005 (Metamorphosis of Racism. Anthology of Works on Social Distance, Prejudice and Discrimination);
- (with Alfredo Agustoni), Società Urbane e convivenza interetnica, Milano: Franco Angeli, 2009 (Urban Societes and Interethnic Cohabitation).
