How does leaving the parental household shape transition to adulthood among young asthmatic patients? Through analysing first results from a qualitative study carried out in Grand-Est (France), this article tries to offer an answer to this main question. The aim of this contribution is to describe and discuss individual agency and social tensions which build both transition to adulthood and health care trajectories among young asthmatic patients when they leave the parental home. Drawing on the sociology of the transition to adulthood, the article will analyse empirical data in order to question youth and the entry into the adult age as a progressive process of responsibilization where young people biographical and medical paths have to deal with parents and professionals’ control.
Georg Simmel set himself the goal of defining the origins and character of modern society, evaluating the meaning it takes on for individuals. His sociology is open to dialogue between disciplines and develops the individual and collective levels together. With this approach, he studied society as a dichotomous, contradictory, and syllogistic world without arriving at a conclusive synthesis. This aspect makes his perspective very current in a world that radicalizes traits of modernity (Giddens 1990) and for which an interpretative key may be in abandoning all attempts at synthesis. A central theme of Simmel’s thinking is about the “forms” of modern society. Money is central to these forms, and the metropolis is their setting. These forms lead to a world of contradictions and help define the origins and traits of capitalism, as seen in Max Weber’s producer cities (1921, 1924). Capitalism does not have a spirit, but it is a spirit that interacts with the animal spirits of Joseph Alois Schumpeter (1942), Émile Zola’s Saccard (1891), and Sombart’s (1938) bourgeois spirit. After so many years, today more than ever, Simmel’s meditation on capitalism suggests very actual challenges for our present and future societies.
In organization studies (OS) paradigm thinking seems to have abated over the past fifteen years, notwithstanding the enduring use of the paradigm concept within the field. The purpose of this paper is to suggest that the relevance of paradigm debating to OS still remains high and should be cultivated. To this aim, the paper begins by returning to some key points in the first-wave discussions on the paradigm idea, which followed the publication of Burrell and Morgan’s seminal work. Next, it briefly outlines the present state of the art, by distinguishing three different broad positions in recent attempts to re-launch or re-articulate – or to bring closure to – the paradigm debate, with particular regard to the main controversy surrounding it, i.e. the incommensurability issue. Thereafter, in what is intended as the key part of the paper, a set of topic areas are identified in which paradigm thinking can provide significant contributions to contemporary OS.
Although incomparably richer than it has ever been before, ours is still a world of tremendous deprivation and disturbing inequality. In addition to being composite and irregular, inequality is also “slippery”, both due to the multiplicity of terrains, often inaccessible and unknown in which it is born, and the way it evolves and is perceived. In this work, starting from the images of the national photography competition promoted in 2017 by the NGO Oxfam Italia, those same inequalities made up of numbers and percentages are “brought into focus” through the approach of visual sociology. The interpretative analysis carried out on the images has provided elements to go beyond the external datum, offering the possibility to advance, through a work of perceptual organization, classification, interpretation and attribution of meanings, to the discovery and explanation of the deeper meaning of inequalities. What will emerge will be a multidimensional imaginary, consisting not only of poverty and marginalization but also of indifference, loneliness and vulnerability.
The importance of involving children and young people in decisions that affect their lives is being increasingly recognized. However, even in the presence of a relationship of trust, children are not always able or willing to talk to the adults responsible for them or those who make decisions about their lives. This difficulty could arise from the lack of confidentiality or because children know that the social workers have to decide important things about their lives. Young people are not supported by an independent practitioner dedicated to them are unlikely to participate fully in decision-making meetings and have their voice taken seriously. Independent professional advocacy is useful for this to be effective. Advocacy is described as the action of speaking up on behalf of children, supporting them to have a voice and putting their views across. In Italian child protection system independent professional advocacy is a new professional practice. The paper shows results from a qualitative research. Social workers and young people are being interviewed on their experience on using independent professional advocacy.
Emotions are an extremely relevant issue in the practice of social work. Nevertheless, this issue is not always adequately examined, both within social services and institutions and in the scientific literature, and often the management of emotions is responsibility of the professional alone. Through a qualitative exploratory research, carried out through the use of an interview with 30 professionals working in as many municipal social services in Veneto Region, the article discusses some emerging issues in this field. Starting from the theoretical, dramaturgical and cultural approach to the sociology of emotions (Goffman 1959; Hochschild 1979) and from the social work literature, the ways in which professionals decline, deal with and manage emotions in everyday professional practice are analyzed and discussed.
Le giovanni donne sempre più lontane, i giovani in solitaria ricerca, il dovere degli adulti di mettersi in ascolto: Paola Bignardi racconta il libro-inchiesta "Dio, dove sei?".