Culti di eroi in Magna Grecia e Sicilia. Un'analisi storico-archeologica

La tesi tratta i culti degli eroi in Magna Grecia e Sicilia; essi sono analizzati nel contesto delle fondazioni greche in Occidente. Per una coerente trattazione del fenomeno, un capitolo introduttivo è destinato alla definizione del termine “eroe” dal punto di vista linguistico e concettuale. L’analisi condotta ha tenuto conto delle fonti letterarie così come delle dissertazioni di studiosi moderni e consente di comprendere la varietà delle definizioni del concetto di “eroe”, di cui sono analizzati alcuni casi di attestazioni di culto ritenuti paradigmatici in ambito greco. La seconda parte della tesi mira ad analizzare le forme di culto indirizzate a eroi in Magna Grecia e Sicilia. Una ricerca puntuale mostra, laddove possibile, l’esistenza di una corrispondenza tra le notizie tratte dalle fonti letterarie, epigrafiche e numismatiche, e le evidenze archeologiche. Dal confronto emerge un legame tra le fondazioni di poleis in Magna Grecia e Sicilia, con conseguenti fenomeni storici a esse collegati, e l’attestazione di culti indirizzati a ecisti o a personaggi del mito o realmente esistiti, ai quali sono attribuite caratteristiche o imprese tali da essere coinvolti in un processo di eroizzazione. L’interrelazione tra i due aspetti si esplicita nell’ambito religioso, ma ha dei riscontri eminentemente politici dei quali tengo conto nell’analisi puntuale di ciascun caso, inserito nel contesto storico che lo ha prodotto

Lampedusa 2016: per un dialogo tra generazioni

Primo feedback su un progetto di mediazione comunitaria in corso a Lampedusa, dedicato alle relazioni giovani adulti in un'isola duramente provata dall'esperienza degli sbarchi, ma ancora di più dalla massiccia presenza di operatori dell'accoglienza e della sicurezza, la cui presenza ha alterato l'equilibrio comunitario. L’idea guida del progetto suppone che sia possibile attivare percorsi di gestione condivisa delle tensioni esistenti tra le componenti della generazione degli educatori (genitori, insegnanti, catechisti, specialisti impegnati in progetti per gli adolescenti), attraverso cui attivare la loro collaborazione sull’obiettivo comune di ritessere le relazioni tra le generazioni sull’isola. Associando a questa esperienza di mediazione comunitaria un momento di formazione per la costituzione di un gruppo che lavori in futuro con lo stile della peer mediation, si vuole anche stimolare una relazione sistematica che permetta loro di condividere stabilmente l’individuazione delle criticità in ambito educativo, la gestione delle stesse e la progettazione partecipata di interventi per la prevenzione dei disagio giovanile

“Without social there is no health”: Social work perspectives in multidisciplinary healthcare

The pandemic has not just affected the health sphere: strong social effects of the emergency have added to the health risk, stressing on social relations and the deterioration of people’s living conditions, and making those who are already fragile more fragile. Notwithstanding, during the emergency following the COVID-19 pandemic the attention was focused, indeed understandably, on the health aspects, widening the already existing misalignment between the health interventions and the social ones. Emergency oriented efforts and resources more toward a clinical care approach (cure) than toward support for the social and the inclusion aspects (care). Reflecting on the specific area of health care that interacts with social care (and vice versa), shows how the medicalization in managing the emergency have undermined or, at least, weakened the global approach to the person and to vulnerability profiles that should inspire the socio-healthcare integration. The aim of this review is describing the relationship between the health and social systems and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on it: a review of studies on the role played by social work in the health sector before and during COVID-19 pandemic emergency shows how much potential there is still to be developed for social work in the health sector that acts together with the personal health services; a care that looks at the person within his or her relationships, community resources and environmental aspects requires an investment toward integration between hospital care, social services and local communities

The evaluation of grey literature using bibliometric indicators: A methodological proposal

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Newcomers as Agents for Social Change: Learning from the Italian Experience: A Recourse Book for Social Work and Social Work Education in the Field of Migration

This publication is a resource book for Social Workers engaging in the field of migration. It aims to, on the one hand, display facts about the living realities on the ground migrants and Social Workers active in the field are facing, circumstances presented by experienced practitioners and researchers of this field. On the other hand, it presents methods and approaches, extracting them from these experiences and reflections insights, relevant for Social Work and consequently, also significant for Social Work educational practice. The new challenges of the 21st century ask Social Work education for a change, adapting curricula towards more experienced based teaching practices, intercultural, participatory learning sites and exchange, and future oriented personal empowerment and resilience training. International Social Work could take on a transformational leading role, as our global security and well-being of tomorrow depends on the educational foundations laid down today

Migrant Families, Social Policies and Community Relations: Towards What (Kind Of) Integration?

This article aims to present a few considerations regarding the phenomenon of migrant families’ integration processes, in the broader framework of the relationship between politics, policies and services. The stabilization of migrant people in Italy has determined, on the one hand, the growth of the family-based character of the immigrant population, in the face of which, institutions and reception services, in the wake of policy directives, have been called upon to remodel interventions and integration practices. On the other hand, the drastic reduction in political attention to the social, civil and economic integration of migrants and, in particular, of migrant families, linked to the direction taken by migration policies, has had serious effects in terms of social inclusion. The effects of “unsupportive” policies towards migrants have generated major obstacles to integration (ISTAT, 2021), that are added to, exacerbating them, the crisis caused by the pandemic has exacerbated the fragility of migrant families. There has been a fall-out on integration processes, in which the family, the network of relationships and social and socio-medical services play a fundamental role. The provision of social welfare services, up to now, needs both to direct attention not only at the vulnerable and marginalized, but also at the collective dimension, and to integrate the ordinary provision with strategies and resources able to transform the immigrant population from simple consumers to active responsible protagonists

Training Language Mediators and Interpreters through Embodied Cognition, Immersive Learning and Virtual Reality: Didactic, Organizational and Cost Benefits

The use of Virtual Reality (VR) for training purposes has expanded exponentially in the last decade. This paper specifically examines the use of VR in the training of language mediators and interpreters. By way of exemplification, the paper describes a training project at the University of Palermo, the “Coopera” project. The physically-cognitively immersive ‘learning by doing’ factor that characterizes a VR educational experience is particularly well-suited to skill- based activities. The paper explains how the immersive nature of VR and the notion of ‘embodied cognition’ is particularly suited to mediator/interpreter training by plausibly reproducing daily life situations and providing a ‘risk- free’ environment in which students can safely practice (and make mistakes) without causing harm to themselves and others, and also to contain the high costs of mediator/interpreter training. We hope the Coopera project will help foster further research into new technologies in immersive language-mediation pedagogy

Unaccompanied Minors in Greece and Italy: An Exploration of the Challenges for Social Work Within Tighter Immigration and Resource Constraints in Pandemic Times.

The number of unaccompanied minors (UAMs) arriving in the European Union (EU) has been increasing dramatically over recent years resulting in the formulation of EU policy directives around safeguarding and well-being. Notably, the majority of UAMs enter Europe irregularly through two main gateways to the European continent: via Italy, using the Central Mediterranean Sea route; or through Greece, transiting through the Eastern Mediterranean route from Turkey, mostly via sea. Profiles of UAMs travelling via the two different routes are significantly diverse, reflecting Italy\u2019s and Greece\u2019s geographical proximity to North Africa and the Middle East, respectively. Although Italy has witnessed a decline since 2018 (Todaro and Romano 2019), the two countries have faced a significant increase in UAMs, and this has required a considerable reorganisation of the reception systems and, more generally, of their welfare systems. However, difficulties in securing adequate reception for UAMs seeking protection have persisted in both countries. Through an analysis of the impact of the pandemic on the Italian and Greek reception systems and social interventions with UAMs, we utilised a multiple embedded case study approach within a comparative analysis, to identify key changes in the main services which should be guaranteed to minors\u2014namely, hosting/housing, guardianship, foster care, family/relatives reunification, school integration, language, job training for care leaving, and preparation for leaving care after 18 years (Di Rosa 2017; Buchanan and Kallinikaki 2018; Barn et al. 2020). Against a background of critical reviews of the main issues related to policies and reported social work practice in a context of COVID-19 precarity, set within a wider EU framework, this paper contributes to the literature with an analysis of the current situation and the tightening of the conditions of reception, inclusion and integration that await UAMs in these gateway countries today. We conclude that with the suspension of key services and amenities, and with a practical halt to the due process of immigration and asylum, social workers are facing a difficult challenge to prevent the deterioration of UAMs\u2019 mental health and well-being

Towards cross-cultural social work: a teaching approach for development of intercultural competences

Las herramientas profesionales de los trabajadores sociales requeridas por la sociedad contemporánea deben inevitablemente incluir la capacidad de aplicar el conocimiento, de saber cómo actuar y de adquirir nuevas competencias apropiadas para escuchar y para atender a las personas provenientes de diferentes culturas. En relación con el entrenamiento a las futuras generaciones de trabajadores sociales, se debe recordar que tendrán que negociar con una sociedad cada vez más globalizada y afrontar las nuevas demandas hacia la profesión, por la presencia de un número de inmigrantes en Italia en cifras cada vez más altas. La experimentación didáctica llevada a cabo como parte del curso de grado en Trabajo Social de la Universidad de Palermo, en los últimos diez años, ya se ha estado movilizando hacia la integración, en primer lugar, de una conciencia de la necesidad del conocimiento profesional trans-cultural y consecuentemente, como urgentemente, de una planeación y provisión del mejoramiento para las futuras generaciones de profesionales. A partir de esta experiencia se ha estado desarrollando un modelo de enseñanza que permita la integración de una educación académica con las herramientas trasnsculturales y el logro de mayor eficacia, prestando precisamente mayor atención a la diversidad de las vidas de los sujetos en la relación de aiuda social. Entrenar en herramientas interculturales puede conducir a dos objetivos: asegurar la calidad de la atención a la población inmigrante, en términos de brindar igualdad de oportunidades y no-discriminación; transmitir un sentido de seguridad a los trabajadores sociales para generar acuerdos con la población inmigrante, mientras se reduce el estrés y los comportamientos erróneos limitantes. La calidad intercultural de los servicios sociales, con la posibilidad de llevar a cabo un trabajo social transcultural, mejorará los servicios para los inmigrantes (e.g. asistencia para la reintegración social, protección de las especificidades culturales, prevención de la violencia y de la discriminación); igualmente, traerá consigo el rejuvenecimiento de comunidades indígenas, tranquilizando a sus ciudadanos cautelosos y transformando el entero concepto de ciudadanía, en un sentido social más que legal.The professional skills demanded of social workers by contemporary society must unavoidably include the capacity to apply knowledge, to know how to act and acquire the appropriate new competences for listening and taking care of people coming from different cultures. With regard to the training of future generations of social workers it must be remembered that they will have to deal with an increasingly globalized society and face the new demands placed upon the profession by the presence of a greater number of people migrating to Italy in increasingly greater numbers. Teaching experimentation carried out as part of the degree course in Social Work at the University of Palermo over the last ten years has already been moving in the direction of integrating, first of all, an awareness of the need for professional, trans-cultural knowledge and, consequently, also urgently planning and providing an improvement for the future generations of professionals. From this experience a teaching approach is being developed that consents the integration of an academic education with transcultural skills and achieve greater effectiveness precisely by paying more attention to the diversity of the lives of the subjects in the caring relationship. Training in intercultural skills may lead to two objectives: ensuring the quality of care for the migrant population, in terms of equal opportunities and non-discrimination; transmitting a sense of security to social workers in dealings with the migrant population, whilst reducing stress and limiting erroneous behaviour. The intercultural quality of social services, with the possibility of carrying out cross-cultural social work, will enhance services for migrants (e.g. assistance for social integration, protection of cultural specificities, prevention of violence and discrimination); it will also bring about the rejuvenation of indigenous communities, by reassuring its wary citizens and transforming the whole concept of citizenship, in the social rather than legal sense

Transculturality: the new frontier of care relationships

Taking care of migrants constitutes a new challenge for the actual operative structures of the services in general and for the sanitary service in particular, requiring a global and permanent rethinking with regards to both the offer and the procedures for decoding the requests. What determines the complexity of offering care while respecting differences is the fact that it can not be done without the professionals individually deconstructing racism and maturing an anti-racist awareness. However, attention to this question is neither widespread nor shared during the training of doctors and of health service workers in general. It is necessary, therefore, to broaden the traditional staffclient relationship (usually articulated in the dyad staffsubject/client-object) until it is recognized that both parts have a double role, both as a subject and as an object, within the aid process. The transcultural model is based on the concept of reciprocity. What the transcultural relationship involves is a parallel process of a redefinition of identity, both of the doctor or health service worker and of the client: it is necessary for both to question parameters that they considered certain, overcoming their inevitable resistance in the process. It appears necessary to explore within the training programs the strategies that people, in this specific case the professionals whose work regards health, adopt to avoid challenging racism and the implications that these can have in their daily duties