Next Generation EU is the name of the Recovery Fund that the EU is preparing to roll out in order to help the countries most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic -and by the ensuing recession – to emerge from the crisis. The very name of the fund reinforces the message of looking towards the future, in order to provide young Europeans with more and better opportunities for growth. Names are never chosen at random: they identify a condition and point in a certain direction; they refer to history and the future. And right now, with a wisdom that was not wholly expected and far-sighted ambition, Europe has declared that in order to emerge from the most serious economic and social crisis since the devastating economic and financial collapse of 1929, we need to radically change our way of life and focus on the new generations, in order to organise the economy, school and work. The concrete areas into which we must channel our efforts are also clearly indicated: the green economy and the digital economy. Environmental and social sustainability and innovation, quality of life and professional activities and knowledge. In order to achieve this, the EU intends to pursue an extensive public investment programme, as well as stimulating private investments.

As such, this is the horizon on which national governments must set their sights when making decisions – beginning with Italy. The goal is to focus on “investing in human capital“, as per the title of a volume edited by Assolombarda in collaboration with Confindustria Canavese on “the future of training“, or in other words, the theme of giving “greater strategic importance to the competitiveness of companies and the development of the country in the long term”: the people and the “education and training processes” that serve to qualify this human capital, without which there will be neither economic growth nor a good social balance. So, “the future of training is dually linked to the future of work”: “Entrepreneurs, the ruling class, teachers, public decision-makers, students and workers are all called upon to design and act within a new framework that provides a response to the future that lies ahead, and that we are already ,” maintains Pietro Guindani, Chairman of Vodafone Italy and Vice-President of Assolombarda, delegated to deal with “universities, innovation and human capital”.

It is a theme that is starting to find its way into public discourse. In the “Corriere della Sera” on Sunday 17 May, Ferruccio de Bortoli spoke emphatically of the central position that a major investment in schools must take, in light of the fact that they represent a pivotal place for the improvement of the civil conscience and the establishment of a new ruling class, combining public and private resources. A number of other authoritative voices have joined him over time. In view of the reopening of schools in September, the issue is gaining increasing attention from the general public, but as yet, without any clear, effective or satisfactory indications from the government. We need serious, responsible, forward-thinking decisions to be made.

It is a challenge to which companies are particularly sensitive. The challenge to engage in “good” politics. This concerns not only the government and the various political forces, but also key social figures, people from the world of culture, and any citizen who cares about the development of the country.

The current state of education, from school to university, and to the processes that connect education and work is unfortunately far from good. Let’s look at a few numbers in order to gain a better understanding.

We have the lowest number in Europe when it comes to young graduates who have found work three years after completing their studies: Italy’s percentage stands at just 58.7%, compared to 93.1% in Malta, 92.7% in Germany, 75.7% in France and 73% in Spain (data from Eurostat 2020). The Covid crisis has further reduced employment levels. And if we take a closer look at the general statistics, we can observe that the rate in southern Italy is much lower than the average in the country as a whole: a marginality within a marginality. And in an era that is dominated by the “economy of knowledge”, we are poorly equipped to stand face to face with the European and international competition.

Our share of graduates was already well below the EU average, at just 28% of young people between 30 and 34 years old, compared to 40.3% in Europe long with a school drop-out rate of 14.5%, the fourth lowest in Europe. Wasted intelligence, abandoned skills, plans for growth shattered nd a social ladder which is naturally blocked off: without study, a better job or income does not exist.

The gap is widening at the precise moment at which the Covid-19 crisis has also served to highlight the effects of increasing “digital inequality”. Agcom (the Italian Telecommunications Authority) has found that, in the face of a country-wide network coverage that potentially allows 88.9% of households to access internet services at speeds of at least 30 Mbps, only 37.2% have a connection that actually allows this (“IlSole24Ore”, 8 July). And once again, things are worse in the south: a Censis study on the stress to which the Coronavirus has subjected Italy shows that in the southern regions, more than 40% of families do not have PCs or tablets, while in the centre-north of the country, this is between 25 and 35%. And so we are looking at a serious digital divide, which also affects training and education (many children and adolescents have been unable to access “distance learning”, and as such, have effectively lost an entire school year), and will have significant effects on opportunities for work and the future.

The DESI (Digital Economy and Society Index) by the EU Commission confirms that Italy is 25th in the ranking of the 28 EU countries. Poor digital skills, low productivity, lousy competitiveness a sluggish economy.

On the basis of these considerations, the European funds will be used in order to establish and roll out programmes with a focus on the green and digital economy, where school and training will play a central role. Investments in educational infrastructure, both tangible and intangible. An extensive programme of digitalisation, with the European 5G network. A focused, long-running emphasis on improving the quality of teaching, including the selection process, with prizes awarded to the best teachers nd a close connection between training and eduction and work. Here, too, the European Recovery Fund returns to the fore: the fiscal stimuli for Industry4.0, the cornerstone of the digital economy driven by the expansion of “Artificial Intelligence“, must be extended, from investments in systems and technologies to investments in training, in order to shape individuals who are capable of designing and managing production and services within a data driver economy.

And indeed, it is the very rapid development of technology that leads us to pose a fundamental question, regarding the need to keep up with skills that are at constant risk of being worn out and overtaken. As such, the school and university system must teach our young people to “learn how to learn”, or rather, to acquire critical knowledge that enable people to update or radically change the skills that they have acquired, to gain new ones, and finally, to prepare themselves to work on those in the future.

“New technologies may well be useless if there is no-one with the skills necessary to use them. And at the same time, it is essential that there are people who have the ability to create new technologies. These two aspects are very closely related to one another, and when considered together, they constitute the essence of economic growth,” states Patrizia Paglia, President of Confindustria Canavese, mindful of Adriano Olivetti’s lessons on the essential nature of school and training in general.

There is a second line of decisions, on which investment must be focused: continuing education, as part of a constant process that continues throughout life. To work in a better way and to benefit from the opportunity to change jobs, acquiring new skills. As such, as Guindani summarises in the Assolombarda book, we must “move towards a greater focus on digital skills and STEM disciplines” (the acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics); we must invest in re-skilling and up-skilling, offering more new vocational training for workers who are already operating within the market. We must also: “promote vocational guidance activities, fully engaging companies as partners in the world of training, in order to create degree courses that can genuinely meet the needs of young people in terms of employability.” And “give a renewed sense of dignity and social visibility to the technical and professional training sector: technical training cannot and should not be viewed as a secondary choice compared to higher education.” The fifth point: we must “recognise companies as training partners for schools, in order to shape the professional figures of the future, above all by placing more emphasis on alternating with apprenticeships.”

But there is also a more general aspect that must play a central role in our reflections, and in the investment programmes focused on schools. Knowledge and wisdom are indispensable in order to enable us to work and grow more – and better. But above all, they serve to provide us, as citizens, with the intellectual and cultural tools we need to make decisions on the general issues that, with a nod to science, occupy and condition our lives. If democracy is conscious participation, knowledge is one of its cornerstones.

A newly-published study which begins to discuss the advantages and challenges of working from home within a particular field

Working from home. Or as it is sometimes described, smart working. A practice that was once uncommon, but which today – suddenly and abruptly – has become an obligation for many, and a question mark for many others. The events of recent months with Covid-19 have called into question certain working practices and standards that once seemed set in stone. So, while the factories (necessarily) stopped producing, offices (in many cases) were faced with a different fate.

The issue of smart working also extends to the public administration, and Giovanna Filosa (a technologist working for INAPP, the National Institute for Public Policy Analysis, formerly known ISFOL) has focused her attention on this particular issue. With “Il cambiamento come opportunità: la formazione ai tempi del Coronavirus”, (Change as opportunity: training in the time of Coronavirus), Filosa to examine what home-working used to mean for the public administration. It is a common opinion – the researcher writes – that the COVID-19 emergency has placed our manufacturing structures (which were traditionally organised around a rigid separation between work and home life, both in terms of time and location) in crisis. All this has taken place against the backdrop of a global emergency, and as such, changes have often been implemented without adequate trial periods and/or training that would have enabled workers to adapt in a less traumatic way to the new organisational model that is based on working from home.

This is the starting point for Filosa’s research: to try to understand what exactly has happened, in terms of the emergency, training and the radical and rapid changes to established habits. She uses the public administration as a case study.

As such, this is presented as “a unique working context (…), which over the course of just a few days was subject to a real Copernican revolution: from obligatory and hyper-controlled ”, to smart working as a favoured and indeed strongly recommended form of organisational set-up.” Filosa has observed a series of training processes – above all those delivered via computers (e-learning) which can be used remotely, in a more or less interactive manner, as well as in asynchronous mode (webinars), or as self-learning – seeking to understand the challenges faced by workers, the solutions adopted and the results in terms of production.

The author, therefore, ponders whether we can draw positive and lasting lessons from everything that has happened, and is happening now. As such, Filosa writes: “There is no going back: the advantages of smart working, both for the individual and the community as a whole, are now well known to all, as is the obsolescence of organisational models that take a task and control-based approach, instead of one which focuses on the verification of results and the achievement of agreed and shared production objectives. The Covid-19 crisis has forced an abrupt acceleration of processes that can no longer be deferred: it now seems clear that innovation within the public administration will not be achieved through the biometric detection of staff attendance, but rather through moving beyond a time card-based approach to work.”

Il cambiamento come opportunità: la formazione ai tempi del Coronavirus(Change as opportunity: training in the time of Coronavirus)

Giovanna Filosa

Rivista trimestrale di Scienza dell’amministrazione. Studi di teoria e ricerca sociale, 2/2020

In the imagination of designers and advertisers, the Cinturato tyre became an icon of travel in the 1950s and 1960s. It was a revolutionary product and it accompanied the Italians on their journey towards mass motorisation, and into a new concept of safe driving that was at last within everyone’s reach. This can be seen in the brilliant advertising campaign called “Un viaggio, ma”, created in 1966 by the visionary Arrigo Castellani, then director of advertising, and by the graphic artist Pino Tovaglia. Castellani’s surreal word games that appear in Tovaglia’s black-and-white geometries also inspired the writer Camilla Cederna in Pirelli magazine. Rubber is an essential ingredient in holidays: Federico Patellani’s photo shoots immortalise a world of bathing caps and inflatable boats, rubber rings for those learning to swim, inflatable mattresses, and coloured balls. And then we find goggles for diving down to the seabed, as worn by movie stars like Ingrid Bergman on the set of Stromboli, directed by Roberto Rossellini. The bathing costumes are in Lastex yarn, the magical elastic fabric that won over the young Marilyn Monroe, Pirelli’s endorser in 1952. And these holiday outings could hardly be without their dinghies and outboard motor boats: the materials they are made of have names that are both technical and exotic, such as “Resivite” and “Kelesite” and they are light, unbreakable, and tough. Produced by Monza, a Pirelli company that called them “Levriero”, “Daino” or “Giaguaro” – greyhound, deer, or jaguar – they became essential kit for tourists on their holiday adventures. Introducing a new idea of travel and of freedom.

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A photograph can effectively and instantly convey a sense of distant places, at uncharted latitudes. And when the talent of a great photographer is combined with that of a great traveller and narrator such as Fosco Maraini, the outcome can be quite a surprise. We can see this in “The fishermen’s island”, an article written by Maraini in 1956 for Pirelli magazine. A distinguished orientalist, the author reveals the secrets of the Ama female pearl-divers on Ekura island in Japan who plunge down to the seabed to collect precious awabi molluscs. While the text shows the workings of an inquisitive mind, the photos taken by Maraini at the O Bon festival are inspired by oriental sacredness. Giulia Ferlito sought out other enchanting spots and other islands, though closer to home, in the Aegean, when in 1958 she spent three weeks sailing from Piraeus to Chalkidiki, Patmos, and Rhodes. One island each day, in a riot of white houses and blue domes, windmills, storks on roofs, and sails billowing out in the Meltemi wind. Giulia Ferlito, whose acquired surname was Pirelli, also created a splendid photo shoot in 1965 in Kenya with stunning black-and-white photos of the Masai. In the magazine we see the Samburu women with their metal rings and the cheetah in the Amboseli reserve. More islands: Homer’s “island of the lotus-eaters” – Djerba, Tunisia – stars in the photographs by Marianne Adelmann accompanying an article by Tijani Zalila in 1966. The island is “an oasis that floats on the sea”, and the domes of the mosques carve out pure geometries against the blue sky. And then, of course, there is Fulvio Roiter, who immortalised the colourful houses of the Pelourinho in Salvador de Bahia in “Oba Brasil” in 1963, and the landscapes of “old Europe” in an article entitled “Elusive Bruges”, written in 1968 by Paul van del Bosch. These continued all the way to a masterpiece of colour, ranging from purple to white and orange, of Madeira in “On a man’s back”, penned by Suzanne Chantal in 1969. A world of visions by visionary masters.

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In the mid-1960s, great-name photography burst onto the scene in publications, such as Pirelli magazine, that also catered for the general public. A generation of photographers began taking these magazines by storm, and they included such young artists as Enzo Sellerio, Fulvio Roiter, and Pepi Merisio. Their reports began taking over more and more space at the expense of the text. In the “Travel and Tourism” sections, words were reduced to just a short caption, because the image alone was enough to tell the whole story. In 1964 Antonio Stefani published an article entitled “La cara estate”, with a precise, critical analysis of the situation of tourism in Italy in the mid-1960s, with photographs by Fulvio Roiter: views of Rome from on high, the look of a tourist in Venice, a group of American sailors in Pompeii. In 1967 Raffaello Baldini described the Ciociaria, poised between an archaic past and a present of health spas: the text is accompanied, and completed, by black-and-white pictures by Pepi Merisio, a photographer of hidden countryside views and villages. The following year, in 1968, Merisio’s camera left the land and the woods for a nocturnal look at the sea dotted with the lights of lampara fishing boats. Just a few words say it all: “Once the net is thrown, they wait in the yellow light of the lampara”, all the rest is in the magic of the colours and of the slow movements captured by the photographer. Enzo Sellerio had already created his masterpiece The Volcano in Bloom in 1964, showing Etna, with its lava-stone villages, black-and-white portraits of peasants, and the coloured lamps at a patron saint’s festival. Reminding us in just a few words that “fighting the giant takes patience and strength, which is why the villagers never go up to the crater”. The balance between text and image had been reversed: the great masters’ photographs showed Italy in a universal language.

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Ever since the days of Homer and his Odyssey, travel notes have been turned into masterpieces by celebrated writers. Even short ones, of just a few pages, of just a short stroll, but always with a guide able to tell the stories of journeys and emotions, describing places and sensations. The pages of Pirelli magazine were open to the greatest authors of the time, and it published numerous and illustrious examples of literary journeys. Like the slow walk of Piero Chiara one morning in 1962, with the works of Antonio Fogazzaro under his arm, through the silence and shadows of the Valsolda, between Lake Lugano and Lake Como: Valsolda, a “lure and sigh of souls in love, a solitary corner of dreams and poetry”. In that “little, ancient world”, Fogazzaro lived and brought to life the characters of his masterpieces. “A city at sunset”, on the other hand, was Tuscania contemplated by Carlo Cassola in 1959: “Here, everything is collapsing. Here, everything is going to ruin!”, little by little, the tufa was corroding Tuscia, which was also being plundered of its Etruscan treasures by grave robbers. A little farther south, in the Fucino basin in Abruzzo, silence turned into cold and snow in the article signed by Ignazio Silone in 1970. In this piece, he speaks of “bought bread” – the bread that used to be made at home during “the time of hibernation” in winter, and that shepherds and farmers in Pescina now prefer to buy, because it costs less: “people used to think about keeping supplies, while now it’s all about money, everything is bought and sold.” There is no trace of cold or silence in the on-the-road story by Renzo Biasion along the Apennine ridge in the Marche, in 1964: “If Umbria is made of silk, the Marche is made of wool”. There is indeed an explosion of colours, from the cyclamen pink dresses of the girls in Montefeltro to the pinkish tinge of the clouds, the blue-green meadows, the yellow of the fields, and the white of the snows. From Urbino to Camerino, to the beaches in Numana and the summit of the Conero, everything is a curious and amused transition of people and landscapes. From north to south, Italy is portrayed in all its nuances by the masters of twentieth century literature.

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The two of them travel in the same car, on the same train, on the same ship. The writer looks out and takes notes in his travel diary, while the painter observes and outlines his first sketches on his drawing pad. The first is Giovanni Pirelli, who later writes in Pirelli magazine under the pseudonym Franco Fellini, and the second is Renato Guttuso. It is the winter of 1959 and they are going down the Nile from Aswan to the delta. The long diary of the two friends’ travels in Egypt with their wives is both inspiring and amusing. “Guttuso grits his teeth, sweats, suffers, never gives in, and continues to draw”: the painter is struck down by tropical fever but that will not prevent him from creating his wonderful illustrations. It is a wintery Sunday in 1952, on the other hand, when the writer Michele Prisco sets off for the Amalfi Coast with his family in his Fiat 1100: their friend, the artist Gennaro Borrelli is with them in the car, “with his bottle of India ink and drawing folder.” All the writer needs is his fountain pen and a notebook, which he always has in his pocket. The rest is all in the writer’s brisk prose and in the little churches, towers, and shepherds traced out by Borrelli: “Wherever did these artists end up – just to paint!”. In an article for the magazine in 1964, with watercolour illustrations by Giuseppe Ajmone, his travelling companion, Raffaello Baldini takes us to Abruzzo. In 1961 Ernesto Treccani travels through Spain and becomes both narrator and illustrator for the magazine. He draws the eyes of a little girl, Conchita, the olive trees in Cordoba, and the white rose of Seville. But when faced with the green of the orange groves, he wonders: “how can one render that green on white with just a humble spot of ink?” The answer can still be seen in the pages of Pirelli magazine.

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In the 1950s, Italy had just emerged from the ravages of war, and found that it had enormous potential for tourism. Or rather, it rediscovered tourism, for it had been home to the glories of the Grand Tour, which had started in the seventeenth century – a tourism for the elite, for men and women of culture and aristocratic adventurers. At the time of the economic boom, the idea of the Grand Tour gave way to that of annual holidays and vacations. Leisure activities were now within the reach of a new middle class with greater financial resources: people who now ventured out onto the roads in their fast cars on their way to the beaches and mountains of Italy. In other words, tourism was a “mother lode” of gold, as the writer Ignazio Scurto put it. Already in 1950 he wondered aloud in Pirelli magazine if the country would be able to make the most of this treasure trove because, as he pointed out, there was no real “tourism system”, in the form of planning and organisation, and no overall view of the phenomenon. The hotels did not offer what the average traveller was looking for, for Italy only had the grand hotels of the past and cheap, uncomfortable inns. Above all, there were no ethical rules to keep prices in check. These were structural problems that, according to the economist Franco Bellorini – who wrote for the magazine in 1955 – made it impossible to “sell the sun”. Bellorini wrote of “tourism awareness” when he appealed to the hotel system to respond to the huge demand that Italy was receiving from abroad. Otherwise we would always have a “discontented tourist”, as Enrico Altavilla put it in his amusing article of 1956. Just over ten years later, in 1968, the young scholar Fausto Malcovati came up with a completely new interpretation of tourism. Far from the madding crowd, far from petty bourgeois conformism, far from the overcrowded beaches: it’s so wonderful to spend one’s summer hidden away in a bungalow deep in the wild nature of the Tremiti Islands or of the Maddalena. The height of luxury was now a horseback ride on the beach. Was silence back again, had Goethe’s meditations during his Grand Tour returned? Maybe, but in the meantime society had undergone enormous change, as had the idea of travels and holidays.

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The text of a speech by the Governor of the Bank of Italy provides an insightful analysis of the situation and prospects for Italy

Acting now, and getting it right. With a close eye on the future. This is the message that the Governor of the Bank of Italy, Ignazio Visco, sought to convey in “Le prospettive e le necessità di riforma dell’economia italiana” (The Italian economy: prospects and the need for reform) a speech given as part of the States General of the Country in June 2020. Visco’s analysis is useful for at least two reasons. First and foremost, it delivers an effective summary of the situation and the possible prospects for Italy, and uses clear, careful language: a rare occurrence, particularly these days.

In addition, the plan that Visco proposes is based on a number of steps: it is a wide-ranging project composed of a series of specific economic measures and – above all – of a positive, proactive approach that is still sorely lacking in Italian institutions and the economy.

The Governor does not seek to underplay the complexity and uncertainty of the situation, but he explains: “This high level of uncertainty must not be an excuse for inaction.” But how can the steps proposed be achieved? In terms of method and with regard to economic culture in its purest form, Visco reminds us – as he did before, a little while back – of Keynes, and his suggestions, 80 years ago, of “possible ways of facing the difficulties of a great war at an economic level.” The best strategy for the immediate future, Visco says, “is to develop a good plan for the medium to long term.”

A long-term vision, then, is precisely what Visco proposes, stating in the same speech that “a completed project makes our perspective clearer, and has a positive influence on expectations as well as increasing confidence.”

The Governor then indicates three macro-areas in which the intervention must be based: public administration, innovation and safeguarding the country’s natural and artistic heritage. What matters most, however, is the need for action that Visco succeeds in communicating, as well as the attention to the individual, as opposed to just the numbers.  “The resources,” says Visco, “must be channelled into the areas where the highest social returns can be achieved.”

Effective planning, then, is what counts, and therefore, a positive vision of the future that is dependent on the resources of the country, which are there, despite everything. The text of Visco’s speech is well worth reading, not only for his effective summary of the situation we find ourselves in today, but also in light of the growth of a business culture that must always look ahead, and never focus exclusively on the past.

Le prospettive e le necessità di riforma dell’economia italiana

Ignazio Visco

National consultation, Rome, 13 June 2020

The latest book from a great historian makes the reader think about one of the core concepts for mankind

Looking ahead. Seeing a brighter horizon, a better future. Attempting to make sense of what’s going on. The ability to do these things is important for anyone who wants to maintain a conscious awareness of where they are. This also applies to production organisations, and as such, to entrepreneurs and managers who are interested not only in profit but also in the deeper meaning of their business activity.

In light of the above, Progresso (Progress) by Aldo Schiavone (a historian and keen observer of the way in which history is interwoven with today’s reality) is a great read. A short book (just under 140 pages), but nonetheless packed full of ideas and content, Schiavone’s latest literary effort takes the reader on a journey around and into the concept of progress, viewed and described through the eyes of someone with a lifetime of historical studies under his belt, along with great critical insight (as well as the ability to write well and tell a good story).

As such, the author focuses the text around a word that today is almost seen as something to be avoided; a memory of distant times and lost intellectual innocence. And yet, the idea of progress expresses something profound and essential: a representation of history without which our identity and our ability to conceive the future would be at risk. This idea is at the heart of the book’s value, not least for all those who find themselves having to “govern” an association or a company.

The structure of the book is simple: it begins with an analysis of the idea of progress over the course of history, before addressing the theme of the present, and of how to approach the idea of progress today – as well as how far this concept still bears contemplating. Schiavone writes: “An awareness of the past (…) helps us to focus on the challenge ahead of us: a testing future asks us to adapt to a dizzying technological leap (something that has just begun, and has already proved very disconcerting), developing a capacity to build social, ethical, political and legal structures that can sustain the effects of these changes, and focusing these on a goal that has never yet left us, despite terrible failures and devilish complexity: that of achieving greater freedom for human beings, and fostering in all of us an enhanced capacity to understand and give full expression to ourselves.”

Schiavone’s book brings all the hope that we can draw from the human condition to life. As long as we know what needs to be done. Written shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic, Progresso is now invested with even deeper meaning.

Progresso

Aldo Schiavone

Il Mulino, 2020