Social Origins and University Drop-Out During the Great Recession: The Role of the Field of Study

This paper analyzes how the Great Recession affected the drop-out rate among university students in Italy, and whether their chosen field of study moderated its effect. To examine the potential effects of the crisis on social inequality, we also explore whether students from less-advantaged families who were enrolled in prestigious courses of study were those pushed out of university in disproportionally high numbers. We investigate the interacting influence of economic crisis, social inequalities and field of study on drop-out rate using data from the Istat “Survey on the educational and occupational paths of high school graduates” in two cohorts of university students. Results using propensity score matching show that the economic crisis had a negative effect on university participation. In addition, students from lower socio-economic backgrounds in the most remunerative fields of study tended to leave university more often than their well-off peers

Why Do We Go to the Cemetery? Religion, Civicness, and the Cult of the Dead in Twenty-First Century Italy

Background While attitudes towards death and dying have attracted much schol- arly attention, surprisingly little is known about the practice of visiting cemeteries. According to the secularization thesis, the fate of cemetery visits conforms with declining church attendance. A de-secularization theory suggests that, in the modern world, cemeteries increasingly became spaces for a society of families rather than for a religious community, suggesting that visiting the tombs of the dead might grow alongside secularization. Finally, a ‘civic community’ theory, inspired by Putnam’s work, sees cemetery visits as an expression of a social obligation among and across generations rather than a religious activity. Purpose Analyzing one of the least secular countries in Europe, Italy, we attempt to respond to an apparent paradox: Why is the share of people paying tribute to their deceased loved ones at cemeteries in areas of greater secularization higher than in more religious areas? Methods We take advantage of a rich time use dataset from a representative sam- ple of Italian families surveyed in 2013. To test our hypotheses, we run a series of nested logistic regressions for the probability of visiting the cemetery, jointly con- sidering both individual and contextual features. Results Our results confirm that individual religiosity is a pivotal predictor of cem- etery visits. Yet, even after controlling for religiosity, the probability of visiting a cemetery remains higher among people living in the more secularized part of the country. Our models show that one important reason for this divide is the differ- ent level of civicness, here measured at province level. Hence, net of individual religiosity, the frequency of cemetery visits increases with level of civicness in a community. Conclusions and Implications If religious people visit cemeteries in order to pray for the dead, our results also provide support for the hypothesis that the non-religious people living in civic societies visit cemeteries as way to connect with past genera- tions and with their own communities. Our results are thus consistent with the civic- ness hypothesis, with the caveat that religion and civicness do not seem to cancel each other out

Diseguali su quale base? Lo svantaggio scolastico dei figli di immigrati in Europa

The aim of this research is to analyse the educational gap between native and foreign students in Europe. In last decades, because of the increasing number of immigrants, the sociological literature on the ethnic stratification in education has considerably grown. However, several aspects of the relationship between ethnicity and educational inequality are still under debate. This research is based on the assumption that the gross educational disadvantage of foreign students is due to differences in both achievements and educational choices. I analyse the several dimensions that scholars have identified as being able to influence one of them, or both. The roles played by individual characteristics –micro-level– (such as: social class, cultural background, gender, ethnicity and migration background), by the school context –meso-level– (i.e. peers group, teachers, and the school) and by the institutional context –macro-level– (the educational system and the country’s migration history) will be analytically divided. As different European nations have historically attracted migrants from specific countries in specific periods, individual’s ethnicity has long coincided with his immigration generation. Nowadays, because of the growing number of nationalities present in each country, it is finally possible to separate these two dimensions. Thus, I add to the debate in that I analyse whether ethnicity and migration background influence the individual educational success independently one another and independently of social origins. Moreover, I address whether the relationship between ethnicity and educational inequality is due to primary or secondary effects. In other words, I investigate if ethnicity and migration background influence only academic competences – which than translate in better choices – or if they are also able to directly affect the latter, net of individuals academic skills

Tra centro e periferia. Le forme della distanza in un'area urbana in transizione

Contemporary cities are affected by profound changes. These have been driven by the transformations in the structure of labour market and in the production system, by the crisis of the traditional urban form and by the new demographic trends and migration flows. The effects of these changes, especially within medium-sized cities, seem to emerge with greater clarity and strength in the suburban areas. These places are, in fact, the ones required to renegotiate their position on the centre-periphery axis. The transition process is especially complex, as it involves not only material changes, but also cultural, economic and social issues. The ethnographic study conducted in a medium-sized Italian city, shows how the transition is accompanied by a growing perception of a distance by the inhabitants and the users of the area. Far from being expressed in only one form, distance constitutes a very multifaceted concept

Family background and educational path of Italian graduates

In this paper, we analyse social inequalities along the horizontal dimension of education in Italy. More precisely, we focus on the role of family background in completing specific fields of study at both secondary and tertiary levels of education. To mitigate the limitations of the traditional sequential model, we construct a typology of educational paths based on two axes: the prestige of one’s choice of high school track (academic or vocational) and the labour market returns of the university field of study in terms of monthly net income (high or low). We identify four paths: academic-high, academic-low, vocational-high, and vocational-low. We investigate the influence of social inequalities on educational path using data from the Istat “Survey on the transition to work of University graduates” regarding cohorts of university graduates in 1995, 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2007. Results obtained from multinomial logistic regressions confirm predictions based on rational action theory. We find that family background, defined in terms of parental education, is positively and significantly associated with the completion of the most advantageous educational path. Moreover, we find that high-performing students from lower socio-economic backgrounds show a higher probability of completing the vocational-high path. This result suggests that a vocational upper secondary degree could be perceived as a sort of safety option for students from less wealthy families, which allows them to invest in the most lucrative and risky fields at university

Economic and Social Perspectives on European Migration

This book addresses a wide range of migration- related issues in the European context and examines the socioeconomic consequences of migratory flows throughout Europe, focusing on a number of emblematic European countries. The book is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the tension between migrants and their integration processes in the receiving country, which is deeply influenced by the attitude of the local population and the different approach to highly and less skilled immigrants. The second part analyses the impact of migration on the economic structure of the receiving country, while the third part explores the varying degree of immigrants\u2019 socio- economic integration in the country of destination. The book offers an essential interdisciplinary contribution to the issue of migration and provides readers with a better understanding of the effects that different forms of migration have had and will continue to exert on economic and social change in host countries. It also examines migration policy issues and builds on historical and empirical case studies with policy recommendations on labour market, integration and welfare policy issues. The book is addressed to a wide audience, including researchers, academics and students of economics, sociology, politics and history, as well as government/EU officials working on migration topics