Las madres solas en contextos urbanos europeos. Milán y Berlín : puntos en común y divergencias en los procesos de empobrecimiento

La comparación entre madres solas en una ciudad prospera, Milano (Italia), y una ciudad en crisis económica y laboral, Berlin (Alemania), se dirige a descubrir si existe un modelo único de empobrecimiento urbano, o bien si la construcción social de la pobreza tiene características contextuales. El estudio de las trayectorías biográficas de madres solas ha permitido la construcción de trayectorias ideal-típicas de empobrecimiento. Nuestro trabajo de campo muestra como los procesos de empobrecimiento tienden a divergir entre modelos locales. Entre las madres solas encontramos, por una parte, trayectorias de pobreza recurrente en Milano y, por otra, pobreza prolongada en Berlín.The comparison of single mothers in an affluent city, Milan (Italy), and another in economic and employment crisis, Berlin (Germany), aims to verify whether a common pattern of urban impoverishment does exist or poverty has contextual features. The dynamic analysis of biographical trajectories allows for the construction of ideal-typical trajectories of impoverishment. Our fieldwork demonstrates how impoverishment processes tend to diverge between local dynamic models. Among lone mothers we find, on the one hand, recurrent poverty in Milan and, on the other, continuous poverty in Berlin

The Shaky Social Citizenship of Early-Career Independent Professionals: Work Transformation, Career and Life Uncertainty, Unrepresented Rights

The combination of a segmented and flexible labour market and a fragmented welfare system has given rise to an unprecedented risk of uncertainty for the new generation of independent professionals. Independent self-employment frequently conceals precarious working conditions, low wages and limited protection; tasks, knowledge, networking and creativity are deteriorating, with an evident decline in autonomy often leading to entrapment in poor occupational careers. A qualitative research, involving 72 early-career I-Pros in Milan, argues that the new generation of professionals is undergoing a crisis of social citizenship – since social integration through labour market inclusion, structured representation of interests, welfare protection, are lacking – and it is also showing a “culture of uncertainty”, a day-by-day approach to life and career. Beyond a group of fully integrated I-Pros, most professionals show to suffer from economic and work vulnerability as well as relational fragility, whereas the weakest part of interviewed I-Pros experiences social and professional vulnerability, strong isolation at work and renunciation of personal objectives

POLARIX: a small mission of x-ray polarimetry

X-Ray Polarimetry can be now performed by using a Micro Pattern Gas Chamber in the focus of a telescope. It requires large area optics for most important scientific targets. But since the technique is additive a dedicated mission with a cluster of small telescopes can perform many important measurements and bridge the 40 year gap between OSO-8 data and future big telescopes such as XEUS. POLARIX has been conceived as such a pathfinder. It is a Small Satellite based on the optics of JET-X. Two telescopes are available in flight configuration and three more can be easily produced starting from the available superpolished mandrels. We show the capabilities of such a cluster of telescopes each equipped with a focal plane photoelectric polarimeter and discuss a few alternative solutions.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Las madres solas en contextos urbanos europeos. Milán y Berlín : puntos en común y divergencias en los procesos de empobrecimiento

La comparación entre madres solas en una ciudad prospera, Milano (Italia), y una ciudad en crisis económica y laboral, Berlin (Alemania), se dirige a descubrir si existe un modelo único de empobrecimiento urbano, o bien si la construcción social de la pobreza tiene características contextuales. El estudio de las trayectorías biográficas de madres solas ha permitido la construcción de trayectorias ideal-típicas de empobrecimiento. Nuestro trabajo de campo muestra como los procesos de empobrecimiento tienden a divergir entre modelos locales. Entre las madres solas encontramos, por una parte, trayectorias de pobreza recurrente en Milano y, por otra, pobreza prolongada en Berlín.The comparison of single mothers in an affluent city, Milan (Italy), and another in economic and employment crisis, Berlin (Germany), aims to verify whether a common pattern of urban impoverishment does exist or poverty has contextual features. The dynamic analysis of biographical trajectories allows for the construction of ideal-typical trajectories of impoverishment. Our fieldwork demonstrates how impoverishment processes tend to diverge between local dynamic models. Among lone mothers we find, on the one hand, recurrent poverty in Milan and, on the other, continuous poverty in Berlin

Società insicure. Un’analisi critica del concetto di rischio nelle società contemporanee

L’insicurezza sociale sembra un fenomeno in crescita; lo è nei fatti da alcuni punti di vista, pensiamo alla sfera lavorativa e alla questione della precarietà economica ed esistenziale, e lo è solo come percezione da altre prospettive, pensiamo al timore della microcriminalità anche in società piuttosto sicure e in fasi di diminuzione dei reati. Dalla letteratura sociologica più recente emergono due grandi filoni, che non vanno concepiti come contrapposti né reciprocamente escludenti, anzi una loro connessione va ricercata proprio perché potrebbe consentire una comprensione approfondita di un fenomeno così complesso. Da una parte, le radicali trasformazioni sociali ed economiche che hanno colpito le società occidentali – e questo il contesto di cui ci occupiamo – negli ultimi 40-50 anni, dall’altra il paradosso di società sempre più protette e sempre meno sicure. L’intento di questo contributo è di provare a spiegare l’insicurezza sociale, intesa allo stesso tempo come presenza effettiva, in qualche modo oggettiva, di rischi sociali e anche come percezione diffusa di pericolo, come effetto delle dinamiche di rottura o sfilacciamento dei legami sociali. Da questo punto di vista l’insicurezza va intesa come mancanza o carenza di relazioni sociali. La società contemporanea e fondamentalmente insicura a causa di meccanismi sociali che tendono a rompere le relazioni sociali e quindi a isolare, nei casi più gravi, o a limitare, nella gran parte dei casi, le connessioni che l’attore sociale ha costruito o può costruire con gli altri

Il lavoro attivato. Il significato dell’occupazione nelle nuove politiche

The ALMPs can be used to understand the social meaning of contemporary work. The activation approach has been forging the labour market policies. ‘Welfare to Work’ and ‘social investment’ represent different versions of activation: the former stressing conditionality and pushing recipients to accept any job, the latter aiming at using public funds to invest in ‘human capital’ formation. Despite that difference, the activation approach as a whole shows several critical aspects: ‘individualization’ as theoretical base, coercion and moral labelling of welfare recipients, the key role of financial sustainability in the ALMPs, and the welfare re-commodification. These elements inevitably affect the meaning of labour. Just as the employment contract institutionalised work alienation (Supiot), the service pact with public administration established in the ALMPs subtracts the control of work (the choice whether to work or not) and of its quality (which job to choose or to accept) from benefit recipient