Marco Serino | Università degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II" (original) (raw)

Books by Marco Serino

Di reti culturali oggi si parla sempre più spesso. La collaborazione come modalità operativa è en... more Di reti culturali oggi si parla sempre più spesso. La collaborazione come modalità operativa è entrata a pieno titolo nei settori della produzione di cultura, anche in virtù della necessità di condividere gli oneri delle iniziative in essi realizzate. Tuttavia occorre interrogarsi anche sulle implicazioni sociali della collaborazione, con un'attenzione specifica ai sistemi di potere materiale e simbolico che essa giunge a configurare. Il volume affronta tali questioni adottando una duplice prospettiva teorica e metodologica applicata a una ricerca sulle reti di coproduzione tra imprese teatrali operanti in Campania.
Da un lato, le argomentazioni proposte nel libro sono incentrate sull'idea di collaborazione come insieme di relazioni concrete tra quanti operano nei mondi dell'arte, nella concezione del sociologo americano Howard Becker, ovvero le "reti di cooperazione" che rendono possibile la produzione e la diffusione di opere artistiche. Lungi dal restare confinato nell'idea di rete come metafora, il volume sviluppa questa tematica attraverso l'approccio "strutturale" dell'analisi delle reti sociali. Dall'altro lato, la prospettiva dei campi di produzione culturale proposta da Pierre Bourdieu fornisce un quadro teorico alternativo e, in un certo senso, complementare a quello dell'analisi delle reti. Nel campo artistico, la posta in gioco è la conquista di posizioni dominanti basate sul possesso di capitale economico, culturale e simbolico. Tuttavia, la tesi sostenuta nel volume è che anche la partecipazione a progetti condivisi possa costituire un vantaggio nella competizione per il riconoscimento nel campo artistico.
Il sistema teatrale della Campania è dunque concepito e analizzato ad un tempo come campo di produzione culturale e come rete di collaborazione, combinando le due prospettive e i relativi presupposti teorici e metodologici in un approccio innovativo la cui traduzione empirica conduce all'applicazione dell'analisi multidimensionale dei dati - adottata dallo stesso Bourdieu - alle reti di coproduzione teatrale.

"In this brief essay, originally published in France in 1956, the Russian born French sociologist... more "In this brief essay, originally published in France in 1956, the Russian born French sociologist Georges Gurvitch (1894-1965) traces the very early project for the sociology of the theatre. He first discusses the “striking affinity” between theatre and social life in such a way that his treatise parallels the well-known “dramaturgical metaphor” argument. Then Gurvitch describes what he considers to be the branches of the sociology of the theatre, some of which are: the study of the audiences; the research on the different types of theatre workers (actors, directors, playwrights, scenic designers, and so on), including the social/professional interactions among them; the relationships between plays and social frameworks (arguing that the sociology of the theatre would be a kind of sociology of knowledge). Further, the above-mentioned affinity between theatre and society leads Gurvitch to conceive a way of making sociological experimentation by using theatre within the settings of the everyday life.

Sociologia del teatro (1956) è il breve saggio con il quale Georges Gurvitch ha impostato per la prima volta un programma per la ricerca sociologica nel campo del teatro. Le sue indicazioni risultano ancora oggi attuali e delineano percorsi di analisi di fatto seguite e approfondite da diversi studiosi nei decenni successivi. Il panorama delle proposte contenute in questo saggio rivolge l’attenzione a temi quali la realtà sociale dinamica e stratificata del pubblico teatrale, le interazioni tra i professionisti del teatro a tutti i livelli (attori, registi, scrittori, ma anche tecnici, responsabili amministrativi e organizzazioni di categoria), le trasformazioni delle opere, delle teorie e delle pratiche teatrali in relazione al contesto politico-sociale, e così via. Inoltre, collocando questa riflessione nel vivo del dibattito sociologico della sua epoca, Gurvitch ragiona, a partire dall’imprescindibile e «sorprendente affinità» tra teatro e vita sociale, e individua per la sociologia un metodo di indagine sperimentale che, proprio attraverso il teatro, sia in grado di cogliere la più viva realtà dei gruppi e delle collettività «in fermento». Uno scritto anticipatore, la cui portata è stata a lungo misconosciuta. Questo volume ne propone la prima traduzione italiana, nell’intento di sottrarlo all’oblio nel quale è stato relegato e di sollecitare una riapertura del dibattito intorno ai temi dei quali è oggetto.

Georges Gurvitch (1894-1965), dopo i primi studi di filosofia e diritto, si dedicò alla sociologia nell’intento di sviluppare un pensiero in grado di cogliere il divenire della realtà sociale, in una continua tensione umana e intellettuale propria del suo spirito di studioso e della sua esperienza di vita. Nacque in Russia, dove visse in prima persona la Rivoluzione d’Ottobre ed iniziò la carriera accademica nelle università di Pietrogrado (oggi San Pietroburgo) e di Tomsk. Emigrato nel 1920, insegnò a Praga per poi approdare in Francia, sua patria d’elezione dal 1925, e prendere, nel 1935, il posto di Halbwachs alla cattedra di sociologia a Strasburgo. Tra il 1940 ed il 1945 soggiornò negli Stati Uniti, entrando così in contatto con la sociologia nordamericana. Rientrato in Francia, dal 1948 fu professore alla Sorbona e all’École Pratique des Hautes Études. Pensatore arguto e appassionato, oggi quasi dimenticato, ha lasciato ampia traccia di sé in opere come La vocazione attuale della sociologia (1950), Determinismi sociali e libertà umana (1955), Dialettica e sociologia (1962)."

Papers by Marco Serino

SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO, 2020

Quaderni di Sociologia, 2017

Contemporary social theorists argued that classical sociology has often eluded the importance of ... more Contemporary social theorists argued that classical sociology has often eluded the importance of space and spatiality in social life. In recent decades, a “spatial turn” arisen in the social sciences and humanities witnessed the reintroduction of space in social theory, as sociology itself did by rediscovering space as a key feature of theoretical models. However, despite the claimed absence of space in the sociological tradition, not all classical sociologists have ignored space in their work. Two important exceptions are Georg Simmel and Émile Durkheim. This essay thus reconsiders the way these authors have dealt with space and spatiality and how their works on the matter may represent key antecedents of more recent research lines. In the light of a modern “spatial perspective” as well as of the “new sociology of space” practised by some contemporary sociologists, Simmel and Durkheim’s approach to space is carefully examined to integrate the relevant debate, focusing on several theoretical and methodological issues.

SOCIOLOGIA DELLA COMUNICAZIONE, 2018

This paper presents a study that tries to map social interactions among spectators in theatre ven... more This paper presents a study that tries to map social interactions among spectators in theatre venues, by means of social network analysis and participant observation. Different types of theatre venue may be related to dissimilar modes of participation and, thus, to different patterns of relations among attenders. Drawing on Goffman’s concept of "social occasion", the study is focused on the social gatherings occurring in two different settings: a traditional theatre and an informal space, both located in the Campania region, Italy, during two theatre events, using sociometric questionnaires and observing theatregoers’ conversations. The results show that the networks of interactions are differently patterned in the two locations, giving an account of how different venues can be related to different kinds of social occasions.

Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia, 2018

This essay presents a theoretical framework for comparing the two perspectives of Bourdieu's fiel... more This essay presents a theoretical framework for comparing the two perspectives of Bourdieu's field theory and Social Network Analysis (SNA). Although previous studies have already focused on these approaches to highlight their respective differences and similarities, a thorough understanding and assessment of such comparison is still needed. The essay begins with a discussion of the foundations of field theory and SNA and of the way they can be aligned in both theoretical and methodological terms. Chief attention is paid to the notions of social position within these distinct traditions, as these notions are based upon two seemingly different conceptions of social structure, which can nonetheless be compared to provide insights into the mutual constitution of structural (objective) relations à la Bourdieu and the observed relations that network scholars deal with. In this work it is also argued that a special form of social network, namely affiliation networks, can be considered for analysing cultural fields as far as these latter are made of social agents involved in specific cultural events or activities. By doing so, the «intersection» of these social and cultural units may reveal the interplay between the duality of positions and position-takings in fields and the duality of actors and events in affiliation networks.

Poetics, Jun 2017

In this study, the theatre industry is conceived of as a field of cultural production, and analys... more In this study, the theatre industry is conceived of as a field of cultural production, and analysed in the framework of Bourdieu’s field theory and social network analysis (SNA). The theatrical field is formalized as an affiliation network of companies participating in stage co-productions in Italy’s Campania region, over four theatre seasons. Differently from Bourdieu, but similarly to other works in the sociology of culture and the arts, the study focuses on relational and attribute-based dimensions of theatre production, presenting a novel way to combine field theory and SNA. By adopting the positional approach of SNA through Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA), Multiple Factor Analysis (MFA) and blockmodeling for affiliation networks, the study reveals oppositions among companies by reason of their differential partnerships in co-productions, and a combination of hierarchy and segmentation characterizing the network structure of the field. These oppositions also appear in the ‘objective’ social space defined by the attributes of companies and co-productions (positions and position-takings), showing the unequal distribution of symbolic cultural capital among theatre producers and the latter’s inclinations towards different theatrical styles and genres.

Networks of collaboration among producing theatres in Campania region (Italy) This article prese... more Networks of collaboration among producing theatres in Campania region (Italy)

This article presents some findings from a research on the networks of collaboration among producing theatres located in Campania region, Italy, involved in stage co-productions. The study adopts basic social network analysis techniques
in order to describe and analyze the characteristics of such a network, focusing on actors’ centralities in particular. The co-production network is considered as a form of affiliation (two-mode) network involving several organizations linked via co-memberships in the same co-productions. Furthermore, this research also aims at understanding the motivations of collaboration and
the specific dynamics concerning work in the theatre industry. Therefore, results are discussed with regard to both the network analysis conducted and the findings emerging from interviews held with the members of the organizations under study.

"New Theatre Quarterly", Volume 29, Issue 01, February 2013, pp 61-75. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0266464X13000067; ISSN: 0266-464X; EISSN: 1474-0613, Feb 2013

Since the mid-twentieth century, urban cultural policies have tended to broaden citizens’ access ... more Since the mid-twentieth century, urban cultural policies have tended to broaden citizens’ access to cultural and arts facilities in most European cities. Italy saw its theatre infrastructure being enhanced by the teatri stabili which have emerged since the late 1940s, in developed urban contexts, and the decentralization of theatre activities during the 1970s, in the suburbs of cities as well as in small regional towns. This changed the distribution of theatregoing accessibility, but not sufficiently to make opportunities equal across the country's different geographical areas. In the present article Marco Serino discusses the decentralization of theatre in Italy, in particular as it has affected the southern Campania region, basing his argument on his own census of the venues in existence in southern Campania in 2008. Social, economic, and political issues are involved in the discussion since these always influence theatre policy and practice.

This article describes a tutorial experience during which the author has led a small group of soc... more This article describes a tutorial experience during which the author has led a small group of sociology students in their first semester at university. It focuses on students’ transition from school to university, considering how this implies some critical changes in their lives in terms of social relationships and individual awareness. The key issue is that students have to be trained to modify their habits and improve their basic skills. This process operates as a kind of secondary socialization in which the tutor should introduce students into a new way of learning.

This article retraces some theoretical and practical relationships between performances and the u... more This article retraces some theoretical and practical relationships between performances and the urban space. It tries to connect issues from theatre history and architecture with those relating mostly to sociology, starting from the idea that the location of places of performance within an urban or regional area is a matter of how cultural practices interact with social organization.

Introduzione a G. Gurvitch, Sociologia del teatro, Calimera (Lecce), Kurumuny, 2011

Conference Presentations by Marco Serino

8th midterm Conference of the ESA - European Sociological Association Research Network Sociology of the Arts

Collaboration among art institutions and firms may have a critical impact on cultural production,... more Collaboration among art institutions and firms may have a critical impact on cultural production, particularly with regard to innovation and creative improvements. In the performing arts sector, collaborations among producing theatres are frequently held and involve different institutions in order to realize co‐productions, either national or international. Both economic and socio‐cultural reasons inform theatre companies’ willingness to be involved in such partnerships. On the one hand, companies can share economic risks and gain mutual advantages from co‐producing. For example, one or more partners can compensate for one another’s lack of essential resources such as financial means or spaces for rehearsals and performances. On the other hand, deciding to work conjointly for co‐productions can rely on shared artistic principles and views of theatre‐making. Thus, collaboration obviously depends on the extent to which co‐productions do fit the characteristics of these firms. In any case, theatrical co‐productions rely on the relationships that theatre institutions establish and maintain with one another, these links being, at the same time, an outcome of those collaborations. Sometimes, pre‐existing relations among theatre firms may induce them to collaborate. Nonetheless, links created ad hoc as resulting from these forms of collaboration are even more interesting. In this light, the structure of the links connecting firms involved in co‐productions can be seen as a form of network. The purpose of this paper is thus to describe and examine the co‐production network among producing theatres located in Campania region, Italy, by means of social network analysis. A social network constitutes of a number of actors and the links that connect them. In this study, producing theatres are the primary actors to be considered, along with other types of institution – such as theatre companies, festivals, local authorities, universities, foundations, and so on – that participate in co‐productions. Further, the network considered here is made of actors – as defined above – and events, that is, the co‐productions. For each co‐production, the actors that collaborate in it are considered as affiliated to the same event – therefore, this network can be termed affiliation network. The main research hypotheses is that the structure and composition of affiliations among producing theatres are related to degrees of innovation that characterize co‐productions. One expected result is that the more complex and geographically dispersed the affiliations, the more innovative the co‐productions will be. Further results may reveal differences between institutions in terms of power and extension of their linkages to others.

Theatres and spaces for performances in general are designed to allow people to meet each other a... more Theatres and spaces for performances in general are designed to allow people to meet each other and have sociability time besides experiencing live shows. But do the spatial organization of these places drive social interactions among attenders? And are social relations formed differently according to the specific location of a given performance? This paper aims at presenting a study which tries to answer these questions by means of both social network analysis and ethnographic approach. We studied social relations occurring in two different settings: a traditional Italian style theatre and a former factory rearranged to function as a space for performances, both located in Campania region, Italy. The theoretical background concerns space and place issues, considering both the spatial configurations of theatre venues and the ways of experiencing them.
The main hypotheses are that, on the one hand, the physical settings of these two venues provide specific equipments that will have different impact on interactions among spectators. On the other hand, different types of theatres – including distinctions between larger and smaller venues – might be related to dissimilar modes of participation and, thus, diversely structured patterns of relations among attenders. Further, we hypothesize that these relations can make theatre space a “place” – in sociological sense – due to reiterated social encounters. We illustrate results from a social network analysis carried out through ego-centric network approach, within an ethnographic framework. A survey has been conducted in the two settings via questionnaire-based interviews, in the course of two theatrical events. Spatial arrangements and patterns of interactions have been examined by means of participant observation during data collection.

Giornata di studio “Social network analysis per le scienze economiche e sociali”

"People spend some of their everyday life in those places which are clearly devoted to entertainm... more "People spend some of their everyday life in those places which are clearly devoted to entertainment or, more generally, leisure activities. Theatres are places of this kind, where performing arts experience matches sociability and recreation. Referring to Marc Auge, a theatre can be defined as a “place” in so far as it is “relational, historical and concerned with identity”, thus being perceived differently to the so-called “non-places”. It can be argued that a relational nexus is to be found between people, i.e., spectators, and a theatre (also in terms of frequency of attendance), and among spectators themselves, for whom that venue may well represent a rendezvous. Under such conditions, different forms of relationships or interactions among audience members can be examined: friendship, kinship, and even mere conversations. People can enter a theatre with relatives and then meet friends or acquaintances there. These encounters constitute a complex of networks of relationships and interactions in situations of co-presence.
Therefore, we can focus on those physical settings of theatre venues which are spatially and symbolically designed for gatherings, i.e., the entrance, the foyer, the bar, and even the auditorium. These spatial arrangements can be “sociopetal”, in so far as they stimulate face-to-face interactions (which are situated in space and time). In this light, some further concepts borrowed from Anthony Giddens’s approach can lead us to treat of theatres as “locales”, the physical settings of situated and contextualized interactions. As such, a theatre is also “regionalized”: its whole space is divided into several regions devoted to “routinized social practices” and zoned differently in time.
This paper aims at recollecting and analysing network data from a theatre venue’s setting, using ego network approach. It deals with a pilot, small-scale study on a group of spectators (the egos) whose personal networks’ information have been collected by a multiple name generator-name interpreter in a self-administered questionnaire. As the research is based on the aforementioned concepts, the main hypothesis is that a theatre venue, as a “place”, and its spatial arrangement are related to specific sociability patterns and relational structures within spectators’ personal networks. For instance, it can be argued that these networks will differ according to the spectator’s status as a season-ticket holder compared to whom are occasional participants. Moreover, it is expected that even the conversations among spectators in the theatre are to be observed as personal networks, with particular spatial properties as well."

Book Reviews by Marco Serino