Giuliana B . Prato - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Books by Giuliana B . Prato

Palgrave Macmillan, 2025

• Uses ethnographic cases to examine social, political, and economic inequality in diverse urban ... more • Uses ethnographic cases to examine social, political, and economic inequality in diverse urban settings
• Argues that ethnographically-based analysis significantly contributes to our understanding of inequality
• Features case studies from around the world
This second volume in a two-part series focuses on housing and residential patterns, development and urban regeneration, and education. This book will be of interest to scholars and students in sociocultural anthropology, sociology, politics, socio-legal studies, urban change, education.

Palgrave Macmillan, 2025

This edited volume uses ethnographic cases to examine social, political, and economic inequality ... more This edited volume uses ethnographic cases to examine social, political, and economic inequality in diverse urban settings. This book is couched in the idea that ethnographically based analysis helps to bring out the nature and interconnections between different forms of inequality and sheds light on the major forces that combine to create inequalities. Ethnography also helps to identify the dynamics that undergird the principle of freedom of thought and of action—a key principle, that is, of associated life in a democracy—and recognize empirically that these dynamics not only protect difference but increase it, for they underpin the freedom of the individual to use their talents to manage their lives and achieve their goals. This first volume in a two-part series focuses on legitimacy, governance, labour and urban change, and stereotypes and individual choice. This book will be of interest to scholars and students in sociocultural anthropology, sociology, politics, socio-legal studies, urban change, and education.

Urbanities-Journal of Urban Ethnography, 2020

Includes an Introduction by the editors and 11 chapters: pp. 2-196. Italo Pardo, Giuliana B. Pr... more Includes an Introduction by the editors and 11 chapters: pp. 2-196.

Italo Pardo, Giuliana B. Prato, James Rosbrook-Thompson (Eds), Ethnographies of Urbanity in Flux: Theoretical Reflections. Special Issue. Supplement 3 to Vol. 10 of Urbanities-Journal of Urban Ethnography. February 2020: pp. 2-196. Available at: http://www.anthrojournal-urbanities.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Supplement-3-Feb-2020.pdf

With more than half of the world’s population now living in cities, and this proportion set to increase, the ethnographic study of urban life has never been so urgent and important. Urbanisation proceeding at such a pace continues to alter the social fabric of urban centres, sometimes in profound ways. Ethnographic research shows that all too often urban policies are failing to provide real solutions to the problems that mark life in contemporary cities worldwide — environmental and security issues continue to be major concerns alongside socio-economic disparities. Undergirding the work of the high-calibre scholars of different generations who contribute to the activities of associations like the International Urban Symposium-IUS (See https://www.internationalurbansymposium.com/, especially ‘Events’) and the IUAES Commission on Urban Anthropology (https://www.iuaes.org/comm/urban.html), the findings of ethnographic research in urban settings are attracting increasing attention from non-anthropologists and from professionals and decision-, law- and policy-makers. Robust debate has recently benefited from the vibrancy of this peer-reviewed, open-access Journal, and from the contributions in Anthropology in the City: Methodology and Theory (2012), The Palgrave Handbook of Urban Ethnography (2018), Diogenes (2015) and in the series ‘Palgrave Studies in Urban Anthropology’ (https://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14573) and ‘Urban Anthropology’ (https://www.routledge.com/Urban-Anthropology/book-series/ASHSER1320). This collective effort on Urbanities in Flux intends to contribute to this debate, taking stock of the discussions developed through a one-day Conference on ‘Urbanity: Empirical Reflections’ held at Brunel University in May 2018 and a five-day School cum two-day Seminar on ‘Cities in Flux: Ethnographic and Theoretical Challenges’ held at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge in June 2018. Both exercises were organised under the auspices of the International Urban Symposium. The contributors are social anthropologists, sociologists, architects, historians and urban planners committed to an empirically-grounded analysis of cities in order to develop reflection on a number of pressing methodological and theoretical questions relating to urban change. Their work contributes to demonstrate the potential for methodological and theoretical development in the shared awareness of the unique contribution that ethnography offers for a better grasp of our rapidly changing and increasingly complex cities.

Diogenes, 2016

English edition of "Le Positionnement de l’anthropologie urbaine", Special issue of Diogène, 2015... more English edition of "Le Positionnement de l’anthropologie urbaine", Special issue of Diogène, 2015, 3-4 (no 251-252).

Urbanities-Journal of Urban Ethnography, 2018

• Propels the discussion of legitimacy and legitimation into the present day and beyond. • Intern... more • Propels the discussion of legitimacy and legitimation into the present day and beyond.
• International range of case studies, including banking, neighbourhoods, poverty and unemployment, and political actions and grassroots organizing.
• Articulates the question of morality in relation to legitimacy and legitimation in every chapter.

Global in scope, this original and thought-provoking collection applies new theory on legitimacy and legitimation to urban life. An informed reflection on this comparatively new topic in anthropology in relation to morality, action, law, politics and governance is both timely and innovative, especially as worldwide discontent among ordinary people grows. The ethnographically-based analyses offered here range from banking to neighbourhoods, from poverty to political action at the grassroots. They recognize the growing gap between the rulers and the ruled with particular attention to the morality of what is right as opposed to what is legal. This book is a unique contribution to social theory, fostering discussion across the many boundaries of anthropological and sociological studies

The Palgrave Handbook of Urban Ethnography, Editors: Italo Pardo and Giuliana B. Prato - Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017

These ethnographically-based studies of diverse urban experiences across the world present cuttin... more These ethnographically-based studies of diverse urban experiences across the world present cutting edge research and stimulate an empirically-grounded theoretical reconceptualization. The essays identify ethnography as a powerful tool for making sense of life in our rapidly changing, complex cities. They stress the point that while there is no need to fetishize fieldwork—or to view it as an end in itself —its unique value cannot be overstated. These active, engaged researchers have produced essays that avoid abstractions and generalities while engaging with the analytical complexities of ethnographic evidence. Together, they prove the great value of knowledge produced by long-term fieldwork to mainstream academic debates and, more broadly, to society. ---

The Palgrave Handbook of Urban Ethnography:

Presents a range of topics, such as work, employment, and informality; everyday life and community relations; marginalization, gender, family, kinship, religion and ethnicity; and political strategies and social movements in historical and transnational perspectives;

Points to new topical debates and charts new theoretical directions;

Encourages reflection on the significance of the anthropological paradigm in urban research and its centrality to mainstream academic debates

Le positionnement de l’anthropologie urbaine

Edited by I. Pardo, G.B. Prato & W. Kaltenbaker. Special Issue of the Journal "Diogène". French... more Edited by I. Pardo, G.B. Prato & W. Kaltenbaker.
Special Issue of the Journal "Diogène".
French Edition: 2015/3-4 (n° 251-252), published by Presses Universitaires de France.
Forthcoming, 2017 English Edition published by Sage

Anthropology in the City: Methodology and Theory

Citizenship and the Legitimacy of Governance

"Against the background of unease at the increasingly loose and conflictual relationship between ... more "Against the background of unease at the increasingly loose and conflictual relationship between citizenship and governance, this book brings together rich, ethnographic studies from EU member states and post-Communist and Middle-Eastern countries in the Mediterranean Region to illustrate the crisis of legitimacy inherent in the weakening link between political responsibility and trust in the exercise of power.
With close attention to the impact of the ambiguities and distortions of governance at the local level and their broader implications at the international level, where a state's legitimacy depends on its democratic credentials, Citizenship and the Legitimacy of Governance initiates a comparative discussion of the relationship between established moralities, politics, law and civil society in a highly diversified region with a strong history of cultural exchange.
Demonstrating that a comparative anthropological analysis has much to offer to our understanding, this volume reveals that the city is a crucial arena for the renegotiation of citizenship, democracy and belonging.

Contents: Introduction: disconnected governance and the crisis of legitimacy (Italo Pardo and Giuliana B. Prato); Italian rubbish: elemental issues of citizenship and governance (Italo Pardo); Urban mixes and urban divisions in contemporary Israeli cities (Alex Weingrod); Displacement of citizenship: the multicultural reality of Slovene Istria (Mateja Sedmak); Stereotypes and other lies. The media and the construction of racial hatred (Margarida Fernandes and Teresa Morte); Baltimore, or Boston, in Barcelona: engaging Mediterranean port cities and the new urban waterfront (Fernando Monge); The 'citizen' and the 'transformation' period in Albania: the case of Tirana's periphery (Nebi Bardhoshi); The 'costs' of European citizenship: governance and relations of trust in Albania (Giuliana B. Prato); Between structure and action: contested legitimacies and labour processes in the Piraeus (Manos Spyridakis); The collapse of the Turkish party system and its effects on citizenship and the legitimacy of governance, Kayhan Delibas; Erosion of legitimacy: a Lebanese case of collapsed governance (Marcello Mollica)."

Beyond Multiculturalism: Views from Anthropology

"Multiculturalism has been widely debated within the fields of political theory, social policy, c... more "Multiculturalism has been widely debated within the fields of political theory, social policy, cultural studies and law. Anthropology has initially shied away from the debate. Then, while very few anthropologists have engaged in comparative analysis, even fewer have developed an appropriately articulated critical approach. This new volume offers a comparative view of multiculturalism in different countries in North and South America, Europe and Asia, ranging from traditionally multicultural/multiethnic societies to contexts in which cultural pluralism is a relatively new phenomenon.
Giuliana Prato argues that anthropologists have a unique contribution to make to the multiculturalism literature. She suggests that debates on multiculturalism tend to embrace a closed view of culture as a "thing" to be possessed and shared by a strictly defined group of people and which sets the group apart from other groups. Empirically based anthropological analysis points to the methodological and theoretical weaknesses of such an interpretation of culture, the permeability of cultural boundaries and the potential for change. It also brings to light key weaknesses in the project of multiculturalism and its applications.
The ethnographic case studies included in the volume address multicultural(ism) in everyday life in urban settings. The contributors look at the intersections and relationships between cultural groups rather than taking a single ethnic group as a focus. They address multiculturalism in relation to employment, identity, consumption, education, language, legislation and policy making."

Political Ideology, Citizenship, Identity: Anthropological Approaches

Contents: Preface (G.B. Prato); Introduction: Citizenship as Geo-Political Project (G.B. Prato); ... more Contents: Preface (G.B. Prato); Introduction: Citizenship as Geo-Political Project (G.B. Prato); The Idea of "Sun cities" in the Context of Globalising Processes (S.M. Tchervonnaia); Political Expediency and Mismanagement of Responsibility: An Italian Case (I. Pardo); The 1993 Indian Law and the Revival of Aymara Identity in North Chile (M. Ortega Perrier); Bones In, Bones Out: Political Reburial and Israeli Nationalism (A. Weingrod); Ethnonationalism, Nationalism, Empire: Their Origins and Their Relationship to Power, Conflict and Culture Buinding (A. Rosman & P. Rubel); Planning and Social Tension in Indonesian Cities (F. Colombjin); Pedestrians in Tehran Mega-City (S. Shashahani); Urban Politics, Globalisation and the Metropolis in Southeast Asia (R. Korff)

Citizenship and the Legitimacy of Governance: Anthropology in the Mediterranean Region

Articles and Chapters by Giuliana B . Prato

Urbanities-Journal of Urban Ethnography, 2023

The present article is published in Urbanities-Journal of Urban Ethnography, 13(2), November 2023... more The present article is published in Urbanities-Journal of Urban Ethnography, 13(2), November 2023. Open-access, available at: https://www.anthrojournal-urbanities.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/4-Prato.pdf
The original chapter was published as: Prato, Giuliana B., 2000, “The Cherries of the Mayor - Degrees
of Morality and Responsibility in Local Italian Administration”, in I. Pardo (ed.), Morals of Legitimacy:
Between Agency and System, Oxford: Berghahn Books, pages 57-82
(https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/PardoMorals).

Urbanities-Journal of Urban Ethnography, 2022

Introduction—On Legitimacy. Healthcare and Public Safety

The Legitimacy of Healthcare and Public Health. Palgrave Macmillan: Anthropological Perspectives, 2023

Central to the anthropological study of legitimacy, the complex dynamics of trust and authority r... more Central to the anthropological study of legitimacy, the complex dynamics of trust and authority runs across this collective endeavour. The chapters address in-depth these dynamics, heeding the point that when our health or our significant others’ health is at risk, we are at our most vulnerable. With a focus on urban settings in Europe, the USA, India, Africa, Latin America and the Far and Middle East, we examine the ways in which healthcare and public health are managed by the authorities and experienced by the people on the ground. Benefiting from a robust exchange of ideas during an intense 6-day Workshop and the consequent distillation of positive criticism, revision and rewriting, the analyses offered here have translated into well-integrated, ethnographically-based reflections on ideas of legitimacy and the ambiguities in the official definitions of what constitutes (morally and legally) illegitimate behaviour in this critical field. The book raises key challenges to our understanding of healthcare practices and the governance of public health. With a keen eye on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on urban life, its inequalities and the ever-expanding gap between rulers and the ruled, the findings address the complex ways in which authorities gain, keep, or lose the public’s trust.

Healthcare and Public Health: Questions of Legitimacy (eds I. Pardo & G.B. Prato), special issue of Urbanities, Vol.12 (Suppl. 6)., 2022

This Special Issue on "Healthcare and Public Health: Questions of Legitimacy" brings to the reade... more This Special Issue on "Healthcare and Public Health: Questions of Legitimacy" brings to the reader short essays that originate in the contributions to the invitation-only Workshop on 'Legitimacy: The Right to Health' that we organized in September 2021 in Tuscany, Italy, under the auspices of the International Urban Symposium-IUS.
Started in 2019, this project is driven by intellectual concern on the complex issues raised by growing worldwide mismanagement of healthcare and public health. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Workshop, originally planned for September 2020, was postponed to September 2021. In spite of the disruption caused by pandemic-related international restrictions, the Workshop took place efficiently, thanks to a generous grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research (Gr.CONF-856) and to the intellectual and organizational know-how, and network of the International Urban Symposium-IUS.
FULL ARTICLE AVAILABLE AT: https://www.anthrojournal-urbanities.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/4-PardoPrato-Introduction.pdf

Health Inequalities and Ethics of Responsibility: A Comparative Ethnography

In I. Pardo & G.B. Prato (eds), The Legitimacy of Healthcare and Public Health, 2023

This chapter develops comparative reflections on healthcare practices in Italy and the UK. Althou... more This chapter develops comparative reflections on healthcare practices in Italy and the UK. Although they share a constitutionally declared goal of guaranteeing citizens’ welfare and wellbeing, these two countries embody significant variations in the “access” to healthcare and in the service provided. In Italy, the decentralisation of the national health service has produced significant regional variations in people’s wellbeing, life expectancy and finances. Here, proper healthcare too often depends on how health service personnel choose to perform their duties and on individuals’ means, and willingness, to “buy” private care. Traditionally, Britain has successfully implemented a welfare system in which national health service (NHS) is central. Over time, however, the quality of the NHS has declined following the privatisation of some services, health staff shortage and cuts in public funds. Here, too, devolution has produced territorially diversified services. The ethnography brings out the tension between legislative and performance legitimacy and the legitimacy deriving from shared values that link institutional responsibilities and work ethics to communities’ expectations. It ultimately shows that the legitimacy of the system is challenged when legislation and bureaucratic regulations, instead of facilitating common welfare, generate inequalities and increasingly jeopardise people’s wellbeing.

On the Legitimacy of Democratic Representation: Two Case Studies from Europe

Legitimacy

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-96238-2\_2 Prato analyses the legitimacy of p... more https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-96238-2_2
Prato analyses the legitimacy of political representation and processes of political change in Italy and Albania. Her ethnographically detailed discussion shows how the mediatory role of political parties may corrupt the democratic system. Key elements in Prato’s analysis are the rulers’ ethics of responsibility, different forms of opposition to party rule, conflicting sources of legitimacy and processes of legitimation in contemporary democracy. The author draws on a comparative study of two European case studies to ask to what extent legitimacy is linked to public accountability and trust beyond the strictly legal dimension; she argues that accountability in the political field cannot be separated from integrity, intended as a system of values that carries significant expectations of people’s behaviour.

Palgrave Macmillan, 2025

Urbanities-Journal of Urban Ethnography, 2020

Includes an Introduction by the editors and 11 chapters: pp. 2-196. Italo Pardo, Giuliana B. Pr... more Includes an Introduction by the editors and 11 chapters: pp. 2-196.

Diogenes, 2016

Urbanities-Journal of Urban Ethnography, 2018

The Palgrave Handbook of Urban Ethnography, Editors: Italo Pardo and Giuliana B. Prato - Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017

The Palgrave Handbook of Urban Ethnography:

Points to new topical debates and charts new theoretical directions;

Encourages reflection on the significance of the anthropological paradigm in urban research and its centrality to mainstream academic debates

Le positionnement de l’anthropologie urbaine

Anthropology in the City: Methodology and Theory

Citizenship and the Legitimacy of Governance

Beyond Multiculturalism: Views from Anthropology

Political Ideology, Citizenship, Identity: Anthropological Approaches

Citizenship and the Legitimacy of Governance: Anthropology in the Mediterranean Region

Urbanities-Journal of Urban Ethnography, 2023

Urbanities-Journal of Urban Ethnography, 2022

Introduction—On Legitimacy. Healthcare and Public Safety

The Legitimacy of Healthcare and Public Health. Palgrave Macmillan: Anthropological Perspectives, 2023

Healthcare and Public Health: Questions of Legitimacy (eds I. Pardo & G.B. Prato), special issue of Urbanities, Vol.12 (Suppl. 6)., 2022

Health Inequalities and Ethics of Responsibility: A Comparative Ethnography

In I. Pardo & G.B. Prato (eds), The Legitimacy of Healthcare and Public Health, 2023

On the Legitimacy of Democratic Representation: Two Case Studies from Europe

Legitimacy

in: I.Pardo & G.B. Prato (eds), Urban Inequalities. Ethnographically Informed Reflections. Palgrave Macmillan, 2021

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51724-3\_3 This chapter addresses the Italian regional divide to... more https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51724-3_3
This chapter addresses the Italian regional divide to show how ideologically biased economic policies have not only generated inequalities among cities but also adverse conditions that in the long term have affected the country as a whole. It expands on previous analysis on the economic policies for the South showing how the ‘new’ political debate is replicating past mistakes. Once again, vested political interests are influencing the destiny of this area, resulting in new forms of inequalities, environmental degradation, competition among cities and further economic downturn. I draw on Carlo Cipolla’s laws on human stupidity to unravel what would otherwise appear to be the obscure behaviour of several decision-makers. Cipolla’s Laws are also most stimulating for an analysis of the implications that the latter’s actions have on the broader society in terms of the relative gains or losses that they cause, and thus either adding to or detracting from the general welfare.

in: Urban Inequalities: Ethnographic and Theoretical Insights. New York: Palgrave Macmillan., 2021

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-030-51724-3\_1 ---- This collection brings toget... more https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-030-51724-3_1 ----
This collection brings together revised and expanded versions of select papers discussed at the conference on Urban Inequalities: Ethnographic Insights (Corinth 2019). Leading anthropological thinkers and fellow ethnographically committed social scientists eschew the conceptual confusion between equality—of opportunity, of access, of the right to compete for whatever goal one chooses to pursue—and levelling. The discussions develop in the belief that old and emerging forms of social and economic inequality in urban settings need to be addressed on the ground and in depth, as does the machinery that operates behind
oppression to sustain power and inequality. This collective effort is intended to produce an in-depth understanding of the empirical processes that mark this greatly varied and theoretically complex field of enquiry across different settings, helping to address comparatively urban socio-economic, cultural and political forms of inequality.

"Placing Urban Anthropology" - Special issue of Diogenes (English edition), 2018

The argument developed in this article originates from the reflection that what constitutes a cit... more The argument developed in this article originates from the reflection that what constitutes a city or what is meant by urban are differently understood in different parts of the world and by different scholars. Thus, I first address the problematic of incommensurability. I argue that this key issue in the philosophy of science is central to how the debate on urban anthropology has developed. Then I ask whether this problematic extends to cross-disciplinary debate among the contemporary social sciences and what relevance the resulting understanding of the city has outside the academic world. I maintain that social analysis should endeavour to bring out the political, economic, and socio-cultural complexity of urban life. Having carried out research in urban Europe, I offer an analysis of the city that encompasses the meaning of urbs, polis, and civitas. Finally, I discuss the epistemological significance of urban ethnography, drawing on my field research in Brindisi, a South-Italian city. In this article, I first address the problematic of incommensurability. I argue that this key issue in the philosophy of sciences is central to how the debate on urban anthropology has developed. Then I ask whether this problematic extends to cross-disciplinary debate among the contemporary social sciences and what relevance the resulting understanding of the city has outside academia. Having carried out research in urban Europe, I go on to offer an analysis of the city that encompasses at once the meaning of urbs, polis, and civitas. Finally, I reflect on the epistemological significance of urban ethnography, drawing on my field research in Brindisi, a South-Italian city.

Durrës: Postsozialistische Entwicklungen und urbane Fragen (Durrës: Post-socialist Developments and Urban Questions)

RGOW-Hafenstädte - Maritime Industrie- und Kulturzentren in Osteuropa, 2020

The main port of Albania is a central transportation hub between Western and Southeastern Europe.... more The main port of Albania is a central transportation hub between Western and Southeastern Europe. The post-socialist transformation has led to uncontrolled urban development in the centre and informal settlements on the outskirts. With the help of various laws and projects, the informal areas are to be integrated and the city centre upgraded.
Published in: Hafenstädte - Maritime Industrie- und Kulturzentren in Osteuropa (Port Cities - Maritime Industrial and Cultural Centres in Eastern Europe). Special Section of RGOW (Religion & Gesellschaft in Ost und West) 7-8/2020, S. 26-28.
THE ARTICLE IS AVAILABLE AS SAMPLE READING (Leseprobe) IN GERMAN, ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN at:
https://g2w.eu/zeitschrift/aktuelle-ausgabe/1730-rgow-7-8-2020-hafenstaedte-maritime-industrie-und-kulturzentren-im-oestlichen-europa.

in The Palgrave Handbook of Urban Ethnography, edited by I. Pardo and G.B. Prato. - Palgrave Macmillan, 2017

This chapter examines how the problematic of incommensurability has affected the debate in urban ... more This chapter examines how the problematic of incommensurability has affected the debate in urban anthropology. I advocate a rethinking of the city in terms of 'urban community' in the Weberian sense; that is, as an ideal-type that embraces the meanings of urbs, polis and civitas. This is a community that promotes political and civic participation and provides an environment functional to good government. I argue that, taken together, these three analytical categories bring out the complexity of contemporary cities. Although such an ideal-type may be possible only in free democratic society, its comparative potential may well provide the basis for a theoretically relevant ethnographic analysis that makes commensurable the apparently incommensurable. The discussion addresses the significance of political programmes and grassroots action to urban socioeconomic life, looking at two urban realities that were affected by the changes occurring in Europe between the late 1980s and early 1990s; they are, respectively, Brindisi in Italy and the Durrës-Tirana metropolitan region in Albania. These ethnographies bring out the democratic role that local administrations can play in facilitating the participation of citizens in decision-making. They also highlight how ethnographic research can contribute significantly to our understanding of how abstract models are negotiated at the local level.

in, "The Palgrave Handbook of Urban Ethnography", editors Italo Pardo and Giuliana B. Prato, 2017

Chapter 1, the book's introductory chapter, outlines the state-of-the-art of urban ethnography, h... more Chapter 1, the book's introductory chapter, outlines the state-of-the-art of urban ethnography, highlights the productive relationship between social anthropology and qualitative sociology, warns against abstract superimpositions and pointless classifications of cities and summarizes the bumpy story of 'urban anthropology'; that is, the story of a major disciplinary contribution to the ethnographic study of today's cities. Having pointed out the methodological and theoretical strength and value of ethnographically based analysis, the second part of the chapter discusses the structure of the volume through the insights offered by the 31 original chapters. The final part argues that ethnography matters—particularly in terms of the unique contribution it has to offer to our understanding of our increasingly complex urban world.

Urbanities, Supplement 3 Vol 10, 2020

Urban Ethnographers Debate Legitimacy, Special Issue of Urbanities edited by Italo Pardo and Giuliana B. Prato. Special Issue of Urbanities-Journal of Urban Ethnography, 2018

Pardo, Italo and Prato Giuliana B. Eds. 2018. Urban Ethnographers Debate Legitimacy. Special Issu... more Pardo, Italo and Prato Giuliana B. Eds. 2018. Urban Ethnographers Debate Legitimacy. Special Issue of Urbanities-Journal of Urban Ethnography, 8 (Suppl. 1), pp. 1-81.
Available at: http://www.anthrojournal-urbanities.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Vol-8-Suppl-1-April-2018.pdf

In this Special Issue, published as Supplement 1 to Volume 8 of Urbanities under the auspices of the International Urban Symposium-IUS, a strong international field of 14 mid-career and senior anthropologists and qualitative sociologists who are engaged in empirical research debate the thorny issue of legitimacy drawing on their diverse ethnographic knowledge and wide range of perspectives. The discussions identify a theoretical framework that contributes to clarify the empirical significance of the complex ramifications of legitimacy and the processes of legitimation in the political, economic and moral life of today’s urban world. The complex, highly problematic and often rocky dynamics that mark these processes and their ramifications are central in anthropology, sociology, economics, political science, history and law. This Special Issue anticipates an edited volume on Legitimacy: Ethnographic and Theoretical Insights (2018), in publication in the Series “Palgrave Studies in Urban Anthropology”, that brings together the contributors’ full-length discussions of their work.

Italo Pardo is President of the International Urban Symposium-IUS and Honorary Reader at the University of Kent, U.K.

Giuliana B. Prato is Secretary-Treasurer of the International Urban Symposium-IUS, Chair of the Commission on Urban Anthropology and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Kent, U.K.

http://www.anthrojournal-urbanities.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/13-Prato-Review-Article.pdf S... more http://www.anthrojournal-urbanities.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/13-Prato-Review-Article.pdf
Social research and academic publications are not immune to fashion. In the social sciences, while researchers aim to understand social phenomena and social changes, it is not unusual that the academic establishment either fails to recognise the relevance of new phenomena or, for the sake of securing funding, encourages politically-fashionable projects with the aim of developing and, of course, selling forecasting analyses and grand universal models which are often detached from the empirical reality. When in the 1980s the emerging environmental movements began to voice their concern about our planet’s future, the political and the academic establishments were all too eager to dismiss their protests as a fleeting, mainly youth, movement. In spite of timid interest among a few scholars, still in the 1990s even disciplines like anthropology — notoriously concerned with the human-nature relationship — only lukewarmly welcomed environmental research and tolerated the attendant publicati...

УРБАНІСТИЧНА АНТРОПОЛОГІЯ (Urban Anthropology)

Anthropological research in urban settings – often referred to as ‘urban anthropology’, for short... more Anthropological research in urban settings – often referred to as ‘urban anthropology’, for short – and its attendant ethnographically-based findings are attracting increasing attention from non-anthropologists and from professionals and decision-, law- and policy-makers. Recent publications (Pardo and Prato 2012b; Prato and Pardo 2013) have stimulated a robust debate. Since 2013, the journal Urbanities has carried a Forum on ‘Urban Anthropology’ (2013, 2014) including contributions by a growing number of scholars, which is likely to continue for some time to come. An edited volume for the Series ‘Palgrave Studies in Urban Anthropology’, intended as a substantial contribution to making this debate available to a wider audience, is in progress (Pardo and Prato 2017).
This Special Issue of Diogenes is an integral part of this ongoing process. Its genesis traces back to a round-table discussion stimulated by the then just published volume Anthropology in the City: Methodology and Theory (Pardo and Prato 2012b) that took place in Naples in 2012 during the international interdisciplinary conference on ‘Issues of legitimacy: entrepreneurial culture, corporate responsibility and urban development’. Together with the editors of this Special Issue, that discussion involved several anthropologists and other social scientists from across the world, leading to the view that further reflection was needed on the place of ‘urban anthropological research’ in the future of anthropology and of research in the humanities and social sciences more generally.
So, in September 2013 a round-table Conference on ‘Placing Urban Anthropology: Synchronic and Diachronic Reflections’ was held at the University of Fribourg. This conference was convened by Italo Pardo, Giuliana B. Prato and Wolfgang Kaltenbacher.

From Nationalization to Neoliberalism: Territorial Development and City Marketing in Brindisi

This chapter addresses the relationship between economic policies and political ideologies. Drawi... more This chapter addresses the relationship between economic policies and political ideologies. Drawing on contemporary and historical material from the province of Brindisi, in Southeast Italy, it links the local dimension to processes at regional, national, and international levels. The diachronic analysis brings out the impact of two apparently contrasting dynamics of structural adjustment. On the one hand, it shows how vested political interests have influenced both the post-unification national policies for the development of the South and the post-World War II agreements on the alleged national control of the economy. On the other hand, it addresses the effects of the modified Bretton Woods Accords, which, instead of facilitating investment in this region, have resulted in environmental degradation, competition among cities, and further economic downturn.

Rosemary Harris (1930-2015) - A Commemoration: Obituary by Giuliana B. Prato; Tributes - by Gary ... more Rosemary Harris (1930-2015) - A Commemoration:
Obituary by Giuliana B. Prato; Tributes - by Gary Armstrong, John Gledhill, Italo Pardo, Manos Spyridakis and Pier Paolo Viazzo; Eulogy - by James Fraser and Paul Monaghan (pages:107-126).

RGWO-Religion & Gesellschaft in Ost und West, 2020

Social Science Matters #SocSciMatters, 2021

Oggi l’uguaglianza — di opportunità, di accesso alle risorse, per competere — continua ad essere ... more Oggi l’uguaglianza — di opportunità, di accesso alle risorse, per competere — continua ad essere un’utopia. Poiché le disuguaglianze socio-economiche e politiche diventano sempre più forti, complesse e ramificate, e in molti casi implicite o camuffate, è importante comprendere sia l’impatto e le ramificazioni di questa essenziale distorsione della vita associata sia le varie e complesse modalità con cui gli individui la affrontano.
Il valore della conoscenza etnografica per nuovi sviluppi teorici è un punto fermo in antropologia sociale. Diffidando sia dell’eccessivo empirismo che dell’astrazione infondata, suggeriamo che questa disciplina è ben attrezzata per indagare sulla distribuzione del potere nel sistema sociale e politico e far luce su come (troppo spesso) le regole formali avvantaggiano alcuni e svantaggiano altri.

Beyond multiculturalism: views from anthropology -- Journal MMD Review

Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 2013

This annual Training School is organised and hosted by the International Urban Symposium-IUS in c... more This annual Training School is organised and hosted by the International Urban Symposium-IUS in collaboration with an international group of senior scholars from leading universities.

This 6-day invitation-only Workshop is an integral part of a comparative project that started lon... more This 6-day invitation-only Workshop is an integral part of a comparative project that started long before the Covid-19 pandemic. It was originally scheduled in 2020, but was postponed due to travel restrictions. In September 2021, fourteen scholars from various countries, who are at different stages of their academic careers, drew on empirical knowledge from Europe, the USA, India, Indonesia, Africa, Latin America and the Far and the Middle East to study how healthcare and public health are addressed by the authorities and is experienced by the people on the ground. In particular, attention has been paid to a growing ambiguity that across many ethnographies mars the official definition of what constitutes (morally and legally) illegitimate behaviour in public life. Here, the analytical focus is on the management of the health services and of the urban environment, which has a direct impact on individual and public health.
READ MORE AT: https://www.internationalurbansymposium.com/events/2021-2/

Montecatini Terme, Tuscany, Italy

This eight-day Field Training School and Research Seminar is addressed to postgraduate and doctor... more This eight-day Field Training School and Research Seminar is addressed to postgraduate and doctoral students, and to postdoctoral researchers, professionals and practitioners who are interested in ethnographic research and empirically-grounded analysis. It is organised and hosted by the International Urban Symposium-IUS in collaboration with an international group of senior scholars from European, Indian, Middle Eastern and US Universities, who will lead a series of teaching seminars, student research seminars and field trips. Teaching will be in English. Social events will also take place taking advantage of the centrality of the location within easy reach of Tuscany’s world-renowned iconic places.

DEN, 2012

International Conference on "Issues of Legitimacy", hedl in Naples (Italy), September 2012. Inter... more International Conference on "Issues of Legitimacy", hedl in Naples (Italy), September 2012.
Interview the with Prof. Italo Pardo, Organizer and Scientific Coordinator, and Dr Giuliana B. Prato, chair of the Commission on Urban Anthropology.

TWO PANELS OF THE COMMISSION ON URBAN ANTHROPOLOGY at the IUAES 2021 Congress (9-13 Nov 2021). S... more TWO PANELS OF THE COMMISSION ON URBAN ANTHROPOLOGY at the IUAES 2021 Congress (9-13 Nov 2021).

Submission Deadline: 30 June 2021

PANEL 28: Paths to Build Legitimate Memories: Cultural Heritage at the Centre of the Socio-Political Order [Commission on Urban Anthropology]
PANEL 52: Power Game and Symbolic Icons in Evolving Urban Landscapes [Commission on Urban Anthropology & Commission on Marginalization and Global Apartheid]

For a full description of our panels, see attached PDF file, or search for Panel 28 and Panel 52 at: https://www.iuaes2021yucatan.org/approved-panels/

Paper proposals should be submitted directly to the Congress website at: https://www.iuaes2021yucatan.org/call-for-papers-registration/
The paper proposal must include:
a) Title of the Panel (select panel 28, or Panel 52 from the Drop-down List);
b) Title of paper (maximum 20 words);
c) Paper’s abstract (maximum 400 words);
d) Five keywords.

This Conference aims at understanding the roles and meanings of informal practices in the context... more This Conference aims at understanding the roles and meanings of informal practices in the context of the current political and economic crisis. Using a notion of informality that encompasses the economic, the social and the political realms, this conference seeks to explore the importance of informal practices in cities and asks the key question Is the informal a panacea in times of crisis? In today's global scenario, urban settings are a dominant form of associated life that encapsulate the socioeconomic impact of increasingly significant international regulations, and selective management of capital, knowledge and people. Over the last three decades, the crisis, and subsequent discredit, of polarized ideologies which had characterized international politics since the Second World War has apparently determined the supremacy of economics over politics, an acceleration of economic globalization and a progressive erosion of democracy. In many cases, however, politics in the form of authoritarian decision-making and superimposed adverse policies have jeopardised the democratic covenant and the attendant terrains of representation, responsibility and accountability in the exercise of the power to rule. This process has often brought about the loss of important parts of sovereignty, as wealthier nations and powerful supranational interest groups have been seen to bully weaker nations, often also resulting in ever-growing fiscal demands and withdrawal of credit throughout the social scale, which has often been paralleled by national and local governance riding roughshod over the broader society.

With specific reference to urban settings and the dynamic interactions between cities and region,... more With specific reference to urban settings and the dynamic interactions between cities and region, this Conference aims to contribute to increasing our capacity to understand important processes of agency in a worldwide context marked by a growing gap between citizenship and governance. The Conference will stimulate reflection on the interplay between personal morality and civic responsibility, and between value and action. Anthropologists, and ethnographers more generally, have demonstrated the moral and cultural complexity of individual action and the ways in which misplaced or instrumentally selective moralities in policy and in the production and enforcement of the law encourage exclusion and widen the gap between governance and the governed across the world. They have demonstrated the impact of rules and regulations inspired by concepts that are ambiguous, elusive, biased towards those in power, or badly defined or impossible to apply, thus compounding the perceived weak legitimacy of governance and the law in the broader society. Ethnographic research has a unique contribution to make to our capacity to understand important processes of agency (individual and collective) and the ways in which agency is capable of influencing the system (Philip Abrams) and encouraging good governance that takes into account the needs and expectations of agency. Anthropological analysis of diverse ethnographies has brought to light the significance in people's life and to society more broadly of a strong continuous interaction between the material and the non-material (Pardo). Parallel to this, new anthropological research over the past decade has focused on the properties of the 'digital society' with respect to how people experience external changes, how they organize themselves and, in turn, enact new change (Fischer). Governance, at various levels, is increasingly recognising the relevance of intangible resources.

Both individuals and groups in local urban settings have been impacted by global economic forces,... more Both individuals and groups in local urban settings have been impacted by global economic forces, international regulations, and flows of capital and people. The global financial crisis has also created scenarios that directly bear on urban research methods and theory. For example, in Europe, the local effects of the crisis have been exacerbated by the imposition of the Maastricht parameters among most of the countries that have adopted the Euro. There as elsewhere, such as in the USA, the crisis has dramatically impacted on neighbourhoods, provoking catastrophic housing and job losses and, as a by-product, setting in motion dynamic urban social processes such as the relatively peaceful "Occupy Wall Street" movement as well as bloody street demonstrations in Greece.

Postgraduate Training School in Social Anthropology & Ethnographic Urban Research. August-Septe... more Postgraduate Training School in Social Anthropology & Ethnographic Urban Research.
August-September 2006.
In collaboration with University of Tirana & Albania Academy of Sciences & Catholic University ZKM.
Sponsored by Sponsored by Co-Plan Albania, Institute of Habitat Development.
Convenor Giuliana B. Prato (University of Kent, UK).
Co-Directors: G. B. Prato and Italo Pardo (University of Kent, UK).
The School also involved anthropologists from the University of the Peloponnese (Greece), the University of Messina (Italy), and staff from the Institute of Folk Studies at the Albanian Academy of Sciences.
The School was aimed at postgraduate training in Social Anthropology, with particular reference to Urban Anthropological Research (theoretical, methodological and ethical issues). It included lectures, interactive seminars, field-trips, supervision of Master dissertations and Doctoral theses.
The School was attended by junior and senior scholars and professionals from: University of Tirana, Albanian Academy of Sciences, Catholic University “Zoja e Këshillit të Mirë” (Tirana), Municipality of Tirana, Albanian Ministries of Labour and of Transport, University of Prishtina (Kosovo), Kosovar Ministry of Education, University of Graz (Austria), University of Halle (Germany), Polish Academy of Sciences.

Palgrave Studies in Urban Anthropology

BOOK SERIES https://link.springer.com/series/14573 Half of humanity lives in towns and cities ... more BOOK SERIES
https://link.springer.com/series/14573
Half of humanity lives in towns and cities and that proportion is expected to increase in the coming decades. Society, both Western and non-Western, is fast becoming urban and mega-urban as existing cities and a growing number of smaller towns are set on a path of demographic and spatial expansion. Given the disciplinary commitment to an empirically-based analysis, anthropology has a unique contribution to make to our understanding of our evolving urban world. It is in such a belief that we have established the Palgrave Studies in Urban Anthropology series. In the awareness of the unique contribution that ethnography offers for a better theoretical and practical grasp of our rapidly changing and increasingly complex cities, the series will seek high-quality contributions from anthropologists and other social scientists, such as geographers, political scientists, sociologists and others, engaged in empirical research in diverse ethnographic settings. Proposed topics should set the agenda concerning new debates and chart new theoretical directions, encouraging reflection on the significance of the anthropological paradigm in urban research and its centrality to mainstream academic debates and to society more broadly. The series aims to promote critical scholarship in international anthropology. Volumes published in the series should address theoretical and methodological issues, showing the relevance of ethnographic research in understanding the socio-cultural, demographic, economic and geo-political changes of contemporary society.

?nav=tocList 2012 G.B. Prato & I. Pardo (eds), Anthropology in the City: Methodology and Theory. ... more ?nav=tocList 2012 G.B. Prato & I. Pardo (eds), Anthropology in the City: Methodology and Theory. The volume includes revised papers that were presented at the Round-table Conference held at the LSE (London). Farnham: Ashgate (now published by Routledge).