A Study about Generativity in Intergenerational Care in Pandemic Time

The paper aims to present, through an educational approach, a reflection about generativity, defined as the desire to leave a positive legacy and related activities that raise outcomes for future generations (Erikson, 1950; McAdams, de St. Aubin, Logan, 1993). Sustaining the future has been identified as a key factor in the welfare of future generations and the desire to leave a positive legacy (Hauser et al., 2014) helps young adult to cope with the challenges of the transition to adulthood in contemporary life. However, interdisciplinary theoretical insight suggests that generativity as a targeted midlife task may no longer be sufficient for explaining a life course pattern of generative concerns, commitment, and actions (Kim et al., 2017). Some scholars in the symbolic-relational area interpret generativity as an essentially relational construct: the value of the relationship between the generations (Scabini, Rossi, 2012). In agreement with these studies, generativity derives from the relationship with the Other and it expresses itself in this relationship with the Other. We might consider generativity as a product of the relationship between different generations, not only of the individual him/herself. The analysis underlines how the intergenerational dimension is at the origin of family generativity (Dollahite et al., 1998) as it develops and grows thanks to the donative sources within family systems. Family generativity is a holistic concept because it is inherently familiar, intergenerational, relational and communal. It involves care for the rising generation on the part of the previous generations, including the grandparent generation, not simply as individuals but also as the extended family group that makes up the ‘older generation’. The discussion points out emerging educational needs not only related to young people, but also to adults; today there is a priority to educate adults to take and rewrite their generative role in an intergenerational exchange that cannot and must not be interrupted, but that has to turn into a current, social, cultural and economic scenario linked also to the pandemic

Understanding Italy's new 'bipolar populism'

Italy's parliament is reconvening today following the Italian election on 4 March, with a high degree of uncertainty still existing over the nature of the country's next government. Maria Chiara Vinciguerra assesses how Lega and the Five Star Movement came to be the greatest winners from the election, and the long-term implications of the result for political stability in Italy and the rest of Europe

Punching Below Its Weight: The Role of the European Parliament in Politicised Consultation Procedures

With Lisbon, the European Parliament formally acquired an equal standing to that of the Council of the EU in the making of policies in the AFSJ (area of freedom, security and justice). However, the growing political salience of policy issues at stake and bottom-up politicisation in the AFSJ has had the unintended effect of undermining the European Parliament’s internal unity even under consultation procedures. To show how this played out in practice during Europe’s migration and refugee crisis, this article analyses the European Parliament’s role, preferences, and bargaining position in the making of two Refugee Relocation Decisions (Council Decisions 2015/1523 and 2015/1601) under consultation procedure. To do so, this article exploits Putnam’s two-level framework (level I and II politics throughout the policy-making process) to explore early agenda-setting attempts and groups’ positions on issues of refugee relocation and burden-sharing, as they were formally stated in their position papers and expressed at the LIBE Committee and at plenary. This article shows that the high domestic salience and politicization of the issues at stake left MEPs torn between competing principals at home and within their European Parliament political groups and had the effect of weakening overall unity on the issue of refugee relocation.</jats:p

Freshwatwer nematodes from South Africa. 8. New and known species of Actinolaimoidea

No Abstract

I luoghi della nascita: una ricerca-intervento sui fattori di rischio nelle madri migranti

El embarazo implica cambios físicos y también relacionales y afectivos. Durante los nueve meses, y en los meses posteriores al nacimiento, las mujeres desarrollan una serie de expectativas y fantasías sobre sí mismos y sus hijos. La manera en la que las las mujeres viven su maternidad expresa, además, los valores culturales, los mitos, y las reglas que la sociedad ha transmitido. Entonces, el nacimiento puede considerarse como un evento cultural con características distintivas. Pasando de estas consideraciones, nos preguntamos cómo las mujeres inmigrantes viven su experiencia de la maternidad en un país extranjero. Examinamos la manera en que las mujeres llevan a cabo la reconstrucción, la historia de su embarazo en relación con su propia identidad maternal, la identidad de su hijo y su cultura de origen, para evaluar el riesgo de depresión posparto. En este estudio, reunimos a 11 mujeres inmigrantes, que pertenecen a diferentes culturas y viven en Palermo. Las participantes realizaron una entrevista semiestructurada sobre representaciones maternas (IRMAG y IRMAN respectivamente), un dibujo simbólico del espacio de la vida familiar (DSSVF) y luego la escala de Depresión Postnatal Edimburgo (EPDS) durante el embarazo y puerperio.Pregnancy involves physical changes but also relational and affective ones. During the nine months’ period and in the months following the birth, women develop a series of expectations and fantasies about themselves and their child. The way women live their motherhood expresses, in addition, the cultural values, the myths, the rules society has transmitted to them. Then, birth can be considered as a cultural event with distinctive features. Moving from these considerations, we wondered how immigrant women live their experience of motherhood in a foreign country. We examined the way women reconstruct the history of their pregnancy in relation to their own maternal identity, the identity of their child and their culture of origin, to evaluate the risk of post-partum depression. In this study, we met 11 immigrant women, who belong to different cultures and live in Palermo. The participants were administered a semi-structured interview about maternal representations (IRMAG and IRMAN respectively),a symbolic drawing of family life space (DSSVF) and then the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) during pregnancy and puerperium.peerReviewe

Servizi educativi e scuole dell’infanzia: le vie per una nuova corresponsabilità educativa con le famiglie

Alla luce di alcuni documenti nazionali e internazionali, il presente contributo intende proporre alcune riflessioni sulle possibili vie da intraprendere per ricostruire alleanze educative tra servizi educativi, scuole dell’infanzia e famiglie, con particolare riferimento alla formazione di educatori e insegnanti della prima infanzia. Il contributo, infatti, presenta gli educatori della prima infanzia come possibili facilitatori di corresponsabilità educativa con le famiglie e, quindi, di comunità educanti inclusive.In light of national and international literature, this paper focuses on some reflections on possible ways to recreate edu-cational alliances between kindergartens and families. In particular, this reflection refers to the training of early childhoodeducators and teachers. In this sense, the paper presents early childhood educators as possible facilitators of educationalco-responsibility with families and, therefore, of inclusive educating communities

Corresponsabilità e cura educativa dei genitori nello “zero-sei”: un’esperienza di ricerca e formazione attraversata dalla pandemia

The paper focuses on early childhood educators as possible facilitators of educational co-responsibility with families and, therefore, of inclusive educating communities, according to the PNRR. A research-training with educators of Palermo, started before the pandemic and then reformulated, is presented. During this research, in 2019, a questionnaire was administered to investigate three areas from which, according to the literature, obstacles to an effective educational alliance often arise: pre-understandings on the family education of educators, representations of parents and ideas of co-responsibility. In 2022, an online questionnaire similar to the first was administered, also exploring the lived-experiences related to the pandemic. The comparative analysis, carried out with qualitative phenomenological methodology, reveals changes in all the areas investigated. Moreover, the need for educational support of parents perceived by educators entails their need to be formed to respond to it. Hence the requirement of an adequate training in family pedagogy to implement educators’ professionalism clearly emerges.Il contributo presenta gli educatori della prima infanzia come possibili facilitatori di corresponsabilità educativa con le famiglie e, quindi, di comunità educanti inclusive, come indicato dal PNRR. Viene descritta una “ricerca-formazione” con educatrici di Palermo, avviata prima della pandemia e poi riformulata. Durante tale ricerca, nel 2019, era stato somministrato un questionario per indagare tre ambiti da cui spesso sorgono, stando alla letteratura, ostacoli per una effettiva alleanza educativa: precomprensioni sull’educazione familiare delle educatrici, rappresentazioni dei genitori e idee di corresponsabilità. Nel 2022, è stato somministrato un questionario on-line analogo al primo, per esplorare anche vissuti legati alla pandemia. L’analisi comparativa, realizzata con metodologia qualitativa fenomenologica, rivela cambiamenti in tutte le aree indagate. Emerge altresì che al bisogno di sostegno educativo dei genitori percepito dalle educatrici, corrisponde il loro bisogno di essere formate a rispondervi. Ne deriva la necessità di un’adeguata formazione di pedagogia della famiglia per implementare il profilo professionale degli educatori

UNA RIFLESSIONE PEDAGOGICA SULLE COMPETENZE EDUCATIVE GENITORIALI TRA AFFETTIVITÀ ED ETICA

The paper deals with notion of parental competence by exploring its pedagogical and educational meanings. In the light of the contemporary “cult of emotion”, not only emotional but also ethical aspects are highlighted. An inquiry into the educational need for recognition is developed, thus a reflection on the “maternal” and “paternal”, not in terms of opposing functions but in terms of educational responsibility and reciprocity. Thanks to this analysis, co-parenting and coresponsibility will emerge as key categories of contemporary family pedagogy, also in the perspective of a wider educational community

Laboratory tests on the biocontrol of chestnut insect pests on Etna (Sicily, Italy) by means of entomopathogenic nematodes

The virulence of seventeen strains of entomopathogenic nematodes, belonging to four species of Steinernema and two of Heterorhabditis, against the chestnut insect parasites Curculio elephas, C. glandium, Pammene castanicola, Cydia splendana and C. fagiglandana, was tested in laboratory. The bioassays were conducted on the insect larvae collected in three different years (2010-2012) in chestnut groves of Etna. Most of the strains tested resulted good biocontrol agents for all the treated insect pests. The strains S. feltiae ESA and S. feltiae EPP were the most effective strains autochthonous of Etna when all the species of insect pests are considered as a whole