Young Italians cherish collective values and interests, especially those concerning the environment. And they express a clear desire for engagement. Unfortunately, however, they have little confidence in politics, partly because politics (and public institutions) have scant regard for them and their future. And also because, for the most part, they leave a schooling system that (in the case of one out of every two young people on the threshold of maturity) fails to equip them with the tools to understand a text in Italian and solve a basic problem in mathematics (they lack the skills, therefore, to understand reality and face its various facets). And if the basis of liberal democracy lies in conscious citizenship, capable of participating in a well-informed “public discourse” (according to the clear-sighted teachings of Jurgen Habermas) and of critical judgement – with considered voting at its heart – then disappointment, disaffection and ignorance are profound obstacles to keeping our political system (a democracy based on freedoms, the market economy and welfare) in good health.

These are the considerations that emerge from two recent surveys, the first conducted by the Istituto Toniolo’s Osservatorio Giovani, in collaboration with Ipsos and the Statistics Laboratory at Milan’s Università Cattolica, and the second consisting of the 2024 Invalsi Report on the cognitive skills of Italian school students.

Let’s look first at the research by the Istituto Toniolo and Ipsos, conducted by Alessandro Rosina and based on 6,000 interviews with young people in five European countries (Germany, France, Spain, Poland and Italy), with a special focus on Italy (Corriere della Sera, 9 July). Italian Generation Z and Millennials believe first and foremost in scientific research (74%), then in volunteering (66%), followed, in descending order, by hospitals, schools and small and medium-sized enterprises. The institution most worthy of their trust is the President of the Republic (55.2%), followed by the European Union, the police, large industry and the local authorities with which young people have a closer relationship (the municipalities and regions where they live). Somewhere in the middle come the tools that voice public opinion, social networks and newspapers (with 43.9% and 42.5%), and, in ever lower numbers, trade unions, banks, the national government (35.3%), Parliament and the Catholic Church (32.6%), with political parties bringing up the rear (31.6%). The figure related to parties is very low, although it is growing: in 2016, it was just 13.8%, rising to 29.1% in 2020.

The research dwells a great deal on parties and politics, seeking to better understand what lies in that public space inhabited by young people where there is great trust in voluntary work (that is, community-based values: commitment, altruism, civic and charitable awareness, the ability to take on the problems of others and care for the environment, social hardship and the needs of the weakest people) but also a distrust of politics in practice and parties.

Indeed, three out of four of the young people interviewed say that “you can get involved personally to improve the country” but then, in relation to politics, only 5.2% say that “politics offers opportunities for younger generations to engage and take action”, compared to 20.4% who think the exact opposite, believing that there are no opportunities whatsoever. 41.9% say “there are very limited opportunities” and 32.5% say there are opportunities, but only “in some parties and movements”. It’s a challenging situation, but it can be improved.

There is an underlying awareness: 61% believe that “real democracy depends on parties” and 67.4% state that “it is wrong to say that parties are all the same”. In any case, for 73.9 per cent, “it remains possible to get personally involved to make things work”.

Millennials and the so-called Generation Z, while highly critical, are leaving the door open to active political leaders, making a gesture of trust and declaring themselves available – all of which they hope will be taken up. And meanwhile they are getting down to work, with widespread volunteering providing ample confirmation of their engagement.

Enrico Giovannini, Scientific Director for Asvis, the Alliance for Sustainable Development, comments: “It is a stereotype that young people are not interested in politics. They are not interested in this kind of politics, because they are dissatisfied with their representation among political parties and how such parties act, with the ‘politicking’ you see on talk shows. Instead, they are socially engaged”, they believe in the values of merit and work done well and are passionate about environmental and social sustainability issues. In short, it is up to the parties and institutions to engage with how young people display attention and interest and try to come up with satisfactory answers.

Nevertheless, there remains an underlying problem with education and providing the tools required to understand a rapidly changing reality. Tests carried out by INVALSI, Italy’s educational assessment institute (covered by Chiara Saraceno in La Stampa on 12 July), document a slow improvement in the acquisition of cognitive skills by the country’s students in primary school through to upper secondary school, although the numbers of young people not achieving minimum proficiency levels despite finishing their schooling remains a serious problem: 44% for Italian, 48% for mathematics and, respectively, 40% and 55% for understanding a written or spoken text in English (with the phenomenon particularly acute in southern regions).

Chiara Saraceno comments: “There is concern, and rightly so, about the low logical and mathematical skills of a significant proportion of youngsters and a pronounced gender gap to the detriment of girls, which already seems to be well established in primary school (a phenomenon not found, at least not to the same degree, in other countries). But equally worrying should be the poor grasp of the use of the Italian language and text comprehension skills, which affects half of school-leavers, and males to a greater extent than females”.

In short, “we should not underestimate the risk of these children being led towards functional illiteracy, reducing their ability to understand the information they receive, to express and process their own and others’ emotions, to enjoy culture in all its forms, and to assert their rights in democratic debate”. In other words, to consciously engage in politics. To fully engage as citizens. And that harms freedom, participation and the future.

(photo Getty Images)

A different perspective outlined by a series of investigations and research

Cooperate to do business better – and more efficiently and fairly. And while thinking of others and the local area. Cooperative and social entrepreneurship has much to contribute to the economy and business culture. However, we also need to have an objective understanding of its particularities, be clearly aware of its characteristics and have a precise grasp of its possibilities. Enter Radici nel futuro. Economia sociale e cooperazione (Roots in the Future. Social Economy and Cooperation), a collection of research on the topic coordinated by Eleonora Vanni and Maria Felicia Gemelli.

The various investigations take as their starting point an observation of the features of the current economic and social period. The introduction states: “We are living through a time of profound change marked by elements representing a decisive break with the past: social and economic ruptures that have widened, a digital transformation that has grown faster (partly a result of the pandemic period), transformations in work, both in an organisational form – especially in relation to remote working – and in terms of an approach to work that seems to be evolving beyond mere salary-related considerations.” This leads to the acknowledgement of the need for “a new and different model of development geared towards sustainability across the economic, social and environmental spheres, raised again in a very significant way by the debate on the role that the Social Economy plays as a driver for development”.

The body of research first outlines the processes of change and then takes a closer look at the tools available for the development of social entrepreneurship. Subsequently, other investigations focus on the relationships that can exist to create and give form to different kinds of participation. A series of case studies breathes life into the collection, which ultimate concludes that the social cooperative model is a tool that can provide a starting point for embarking on a different path of development. This is a model – as flagged at the beginning of the collection – “that overcomes the state-market dichotomy and provides greater economic democracy and market participation for a wider range of individuals with diversified aims, all within an entrepreneurial setting. These are aims that the social economy, in the European vision, prioritises in the pursuit of a better balance in the distribution of produced value between people (members) and territories (communities), in the context of a lower impact of production on the environment and democratic and participatory governance.”

The book contains a number of investigations that will certainly not unite everyone in agreement at their conclusions; nevertheless it represents a valuable toolbox for learning more about a reality that cannot be overlooked.

Radici nel futuro. Economia sociale e cooperazione (Roots in the Future. Social Economy and Cooperation)

Eleonora Vanni, Maria Felicia Gemelli (eds.)

Trasformazioni, Barberini Foundation. Memoria e immaginazione, 2023

A book that discusses the topic of social washing has just been published

A focus on the environmental implications of your business and care for the social implications of your company’s presence in a specific local context; concrete measures, not just good intentions, demanded by the market which wants to see such measures demonstrated with ever greater precision and reliability. These are precise requirements that companies must satisfy, with all the costs and risks that this involves. Because, more and more, companies that make use of sustainability and social issues are exposed to at least two dangers. First of all, being excluded from the market due to regulations that are becoming increasingly severe and stringent; secondly, being publicly accused of social washing – in other words of engaging in socially positive behaviour, but only in a superficial way. The latter comes in a colourful range of flavours: pinkwashing, rainbow washing, blackwashing, healthwashing, sportswashing, right up to the silent act of greenhushing.

This is the theme of Rossella Sobrero’s book, Pericolo socialwashing. Comunicare l’impegno sociale tra rischi e opportunità (The Danger of Social Washing. Communicating Social Responsibility Amid Risks and Opportunities). In around 200 pages, the volume succeeds in shedding light on one of the most complex and controversial aspects of current business management.

Sobrero answers a range of different questions. First of all, we need to ask ourselves what drives an organisation to expose itself to the risk of social washing. The answer, in general terms, comes from the market and the company’s stakeholders. While, on the one hand, in order to establish its social role, the company might limit itself to organising philanthropic activities, launching corporate volunteering programs and carrying out promotional initiatives for social responsibility, on the other, all these activities, however important, are no longer enough. Businesses are expected to demonstrate a real desire to contribute to solving society’s problems. To do this, they must interpret current trends, understand people’s needs and act in an honest, coherent and transparent way. Only in this way will stakeholders – and in particular consumers – reward companies who have authentically committed themselves to the common good as well as to achieving their own corporate goals.

All this has a cost, not only in economic terms but in organisational terms too. The book goes on to clearly illustrate, partly thanks to numerous examples, the main kinds of social washing; it reminds us that there are actions and tools that can protect, at least in part, the organisation from such accusations, and it goes on to propose a new reading of the relationship between organisations and stakeholders. Sobrero emphasises, among other things, that while we generally look at what the company can do to involve stakeholders, we rarely reflect on the role that stakeholders can play in urging the company to adopt appropriate behaviour and describe it in a transparent way.

Of great value are the contribution of the experts who, in the second part of the volume, contribute to stimulating debate and reflection on a topic whose many facets are brought out by their words. There are interviews with: Andrea Alemanno, Concetta Cardamone, Giampaolo Cerri, Vittorio Cino, Monica De Paoli, Barbara Falcomer, Filippo Giordano, Enrico Giovannini, Enrico Giraudi, Pina Lalli, Paola Magni, Federico Mento, Roberto Natale, Matteo Pietripaoli, Roberto Randazzo, Angelo Rindone, Francesca Vecchioni, Clodia Vurro, Stefano Zamagni and Alberto Zambolin.

Rossella Sobrero’s book should absolutely be read by those who deal with the issues of corporate social and environmental responsibility. And it’s a book that’s worth re-reading.

Pericolo socialwashing. Comunicare l’impegno sociale tra rischi e opportunità (The Danger of Social Washing. Communicating Social Responsibility Amid Risks and Opportunities)

Rossella Sobrero

Egea, 2024

We are in the midst of the demographic winter, with fewer than 400,000 children born in 2023 and an increasingly aging population. Tens of thousands of youngsters are fleeing abroad, in search of better working and living conditions: 525,000 of them from 2008 to 2022, to be precise, according to data provided by the Governor of the Bank of Italy, Fabio Panetta, in his annual Report in May. Italy is struggling to view the future in positive terms. And while negative demographic data are nothing new, despite political decision makers and governments talking a great deal about young people, promising measures for them and boasting about their choices, they still seem unable to launch convincing measures capable of reversing the dramatic decline. And this, in turn, affects the population and GDP, productivity and the prospective competitiveness and sustainable development of the country’s economy.

The latest alarm was sounded by a study conducted by Ipsos for the Barletta Foundation, which will be presented on Wednesday and was previewed in Il Sole 24 ore on 7 July. It found that 35% of young Italians under 30 are ready to move abroad for “higher wages” and “better job opportunities”. This is a dramatic figure: one in three of our children and grandchildren wants to leave, one in three are “voting with their feet” (choosing, that is, to leave Italy, demonstrating a real crisis of confidence in the country), rejecting, therefore, labour policies, career prospects, and what the public sector and businesses can offer them. In summary, then, one in three of those with an Italian degree wants to go abroad to be an engineer, a doctor, a scientific researcher or a university professor, a computer technician or chemist and so on – across all professions and trades, especially those in high-tech fields, which guarantee a more rewarding future.

On average, young people’s inclination to move abroad concerns all Italian regions and cities. But in the South the phenomenon is much worse. Because when you read the results of the Ipsos survey, it turns out that in addition to the 35% ready to leave the country, only 15% say they do not want to move at all. Another 18% say they would go “anywhere in Italy” and 32% are willing to move “only within my region or to neighbouring regions”. In total, that means 85% of young people have made the decision to leave home. This represents a gigantic social and economic upheaval, a radical change in the family and urban fabric. Cristina Casadei and Claudio Tucci comment in Il Sole 24 ore that: “While Northern Italy more or less manages to compensate for young people leaving by attracting their counterparts from the South, the South itself has no means of replacing youthful talent. This double whammy puts the resilience of the entire country to the test, especially when the exodus concerns professions with high added value.”

Milan, a large university city (with more than 200,000 students across more than ten universities that are world class in terms of education and research quality) continues to be an attractive destination – even for young people from abroad. But the rest of Italy is struggling.

A low number of graduates (only 22% of the population hold a higher education degree, fewer than other EU countries) drives the entire country’s productivity down and weakens the impulse for innovation, change, entrepreneurship and the construction of new and better opportunities not only for economic growth, but for improving the quality of life overall. At a time when the “knowledge economy” dominates, the shortage of graduates, not only in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) but more generally, makes it a real challenge for Italy and its companies to withstand competition in increasingly demanding and discerning markets. And while highlighting and supporting quality Italian manufacturing is a very useful policy, above all we need to invest in long-term training, tax support for investors and innovators and European-scale industrial policies. Everything, in short, that is also needed to grant young people future prospects – the elements for rebuilding trust to bring back those who left and keep those who still want to continue living in Italy. Elements that will also attract young people from other areas of the Mediterranean, from Europe and from the world.

We need young people’s intelligence, up-to-date knowledge and skills, and visions that are open to change. Without their talents, Italy’s economy will increasingly struggle. One statistic puts the phenomenon into perspective: companies say they are ready to hire 800,000 people, but they can only find fewer than half.

Without the appropriate strategic choices, in the future things will get even worse. This is confirmed by forecasts reiterated for some time by someone who pays close attention to the relationship between culture, training and competitiveness – Francesco Promico, a man of science and government (formerly Minister of Education and president of the CNR and Compagnia di San Paolo). In 2023, there were 180,000 graduates, compared to 800,000 children born at the beginning of the 2000s. Going by the same percentages, in 20 years’ time, the 379,000 children born in 2023 will result in 80 or 90,000 graduates. That’s a derisory figure.

And therein lies the key point of the declining birth rate. Over 20 years, we have lost three million young people between the ages of 18 and 34. And in thirty years, according to calculations by Gian Carlo Blangiardo, a professor of demography and former president of statistics agency ISTAT, the working-age population (in the 15-64 age group) will go from the current figure of 37.5 million to 27.2 million: that’s ten million fewer people, a decrease of 27.3%. An economic disaster. And in social terms, an aging Italy loses resources, stimuli and prospects.

So, what is to be done? We need to think of policies to combat the falling birth rate, making the unavoidable choices now to stem a long-term phenomenon. We need to prepare and manage immigration policies, with everything that implies in terms of integration and training, employment and citizenship. But we also need to improve the quality of schooling – from primary classes onwards – right away and increase the number of youngsters who go through university from the current 22% to at least 30%, seeking to rapidly align ourselves with the rest of Europe. And, naturally, in terms of innovation, we need to make our companies more attractive, starting with manufacturers – the backbone of Italian-made excellence. This applies not only to salaries, but to the quality of work, career and life prospects, the environment, relationships and personal, professional and cultural opportunities. In short, this is a challenge related to quality and the future.

(photo Getty Images)

Research highlights the key role of people and training in all technological transitions

Expertise comes first and foremost, human expertise – it’s essential. That’s also, and especially, true in the case of high-tech transitions. Alice Campolucci, Lorenzo Compagnucci and Francesca Spigarelli (from the Department of Law, University of Macerata) reflect on this situation in their recently published research “Industria 5.0: verso un approccio umano-centrico. Il caso Campetella Robotic Center S.r.l.” (Industry 5.0: towards a human-centred approach – the case of Campetella Robotic Center S.r.l.).

The investigation seeks to identify and understand the challenges, opportunities and good practices that companies, workers and institutions encounter in the transition from the Industry 4.0 (I4.0) model and methods to those of Industry 5.0 (I5.0). After a section dedicated to the theory and scientific literature on the subject of I5.0, the three researchers verified everything by studying the case of a medium-sized family business, the Marche-based Campetella Robotic Center S.r.l., a company founded in 1897 and specialised in the design and implementation of innovative solutions in the field of industrial automation.

The analysis, in particular, researched and focused on the pillars of I5.0: sustainability, resilience and a human-centred approach. The survey revealed a shortage of skills for facilitating the transition from I4.0 to I5.0, and the need to invest in staff training to correctly apply digitalisation and manage the social and ethical implications arising from interactions between humans, robots and cobots.

The enabling technologies of I4.0 – the three researchers maintain – should be integrated with the pillars of I5.0, the human-centric approach in particular. Businesses and institutions are also called upon to define a long-term strategy that requires both courageous choices in terms of economic investment and training, and a major cultural change in the way production activities are understood. Human beings, therefore, and their particular culture of producing and creating community, remain the founding pillars of all innovation.

Industria 5.0: verso un approccio umano-centrico. Il caso Campetella Robotic Center S.r.l.

Alice Campolucci, Lorenzo Compagnucci, Francesca Spigarelli

ECONOMIA MARCHE Journal of Applied Economics,

Vol. XLIII, No.1, Aprile 2024

An account of the career of someone who organises and manages production that becomes a management manual

Leading a company, but also changing it and having the courage to do it. Taking care of the (financial) accounts, but also everything that, together with that, really makes for a comprehensive company. The businessman and the manager have a difficult and complex profession, one that needs to be told in order to be properly understood, rather than explained with an abundance of theories. And this is precisely the story that characterises Il manager veste il kilt. Crescita di un leader nella visione della fabbrica perfetta (The manager wears the kilt: growth of a leader in the vision of the perfect factory), written jointly by Lorenzo Romagnoli – long-time manager and currently executive of the GE Vernova group – and Giovanni Barni – journalist and writer – who in just over a hundred pages have really recounted the events of Romagnoli’s life and profession, ultimately writing a kind of “field” management manual.

One observation provides an outline for the underlying theme of the book: big companies (but you could say every company) are complex machines. They are trains that run along their tracks and can’t suddenly steer towards a new destination. But there are cases, situations, events and eras that force companies to change rapidly, to change their skin, their image, their face. These kinds of changes can be attributed to a very specific category of manager. They are people, women and men, with great expertise whose work is often concealed from the spotlight of great communication. They are capable of interpreting the new and overcoming the rigorous constraints of the tasks that organisations and company bureaucracy assign to them.

This book, based on Romagnoli’s experiences, indicates how this aim is achieved, what qualities you need and how much intelligence is required. Readers are therefore accompanied on a twin journey: there’s the true story of Romagnoli’s work and there’s also learning the tools needed to relaunch and change a manufacturing company in the difficult transition between an analogue past and the promises of a digital future. That is to say, exactly the situation of most businesses today.

Readers are therefore guided through learning management techniques by degrees: from the meaning of investment as a factor for transforming the environment, we move to the value of training as a tool for cultural change even before changes in production. In the last chapter, the manager’s strategic plan is fleshed out completely into a proposal to build an ideal production facility where technology blends with individuals and the local community is completely integrated with its factory. It’s the dream of the perfect factory.

Romagnoli and Barni have written an original book, which effectively combines the features of a story with those of a manual. It should be read and annotated, and its content also verified in other business contexts.

Il manager veste il kilt. Crescita di un leader nella visione della fabbrica perfetta

Lorenzo Romagnoli, Giovanni Barni

Franco Angeli, 2024

Identity does not reside in the subject, but in relationship, as Emmanuel Levinas, a major 20th-century philosopher, taught us. Not “in oppression and desire to annihilate the Other”, but in the dialectic of exchange, in sharing. Identity is therefore not remotely closed, exclusive or hostile, but rather open and in dialogue. This is also demonstrated in the history of Mediterranean civilisation, where Italy has played a decisive role, with the aptitude for building bridges rather than threatening walls, to adopt the far-sighted thinking of Pope Francis.

It is precisely the words of Levinas that come to mind as the “Genio Mediterraneo” (Mediterranean Genius) Forum is launched in Milan (presentation at Palazzo Marino on Wednesday, two-day conference at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo in November): an initiative promoted by the mayors of Milan and Palermo, Beppe Sala and Roberto Lagalla respectively. They differ in political alignment (centre-left and centre-right), but have similar origins in “civil society” (the business world for Sala, universities for Lagalla, former rector) and above all a shared interest: discussing the strategies and content of a sustainable development project which focuses on the two “frontier cities” but concerns Italy as a whole system, while the entire surrounding geopolitical context is in flux – an EU seeking greater balance so as not to be crushed by US and Chinese competitive decisions and a Mediterranean torn by conflicts old and new.

Milan and Palermo are of course different cities, in terms of history, economic weight and growth prospects. For greater comprehension of their characteristics, it is also helpful to browse the pages of Città. Milano, the wonderful, cultured magazine founded years ago by Guido Vergani and now edited by Giangiacomo Schiavi, and dwell on the reflections of Romanzo urbanistico, published by Sellerio and written by Maurizio Carta, architect and Palermo city councillor.

They are nonetheless cities united by a series of strong connections, in their shared sensitivity to the dynamics of change and in the second half of the 20th century also for the essential contribution of Sicilians to Milan, distinguishing themselves in the sectors of economics, business and culture. A few examples are banker Enrico Cuccia, who monitored the fortunes of Italian capitalism from the offices of Mediobanca, and writer Elio Vittorini, due to his “polytechnic” capacity for cultural and editorial innovation, as well as Leonardo Sciascia, with his love for Manzoni and Stendhal, cornerstones of literary wisdom and civic passion. Milanesi si diventa (one becomes Milanese) was the title of a great eighties novel by Antonio Castellaneta. And one remains Sicilian, even in Milan, despite everything, even when the island’s borders have been long crossed to seek different living and working conditions. But one remains more tied to the island than ever, by complex networks of roots and love.

The culture of relationship, à la Levinas, and the “sweet patriotism” of open identity help to keep roots and future together, to plan and build economic and social growth initiatives in the name of a true “future of memory”. This is also a very Mediterranean inclination.

Making the best use of one’s social capital represents a starting point. In Milan, there’s an insistence on entrepreneurship and solidarity, competitiveness and inclusion, “polytechnic culture” as a synthesis of beauty and innovation and of humanistic and scientific knowledge. In Palermo, it’s about a special attitude to getting busy, to building work and business (being ‘mprisiusi, in dialect) despite all the environmental and indeed familial and clientelistic resistance. It’s about a sophisticated inclination towards good culture with a European scope, with the elegance that comes from a sharp critical intelligence. It’s about the still vigorous tendency to be “Sicilians of the open sea”, that is, anything but inclined towards the “terrible insularity of spirit” condemned by Leonardo Sciascia. It’s also about valuing legality and good administration, areas in which history of extraordinary civic intensity has been made precisely in Palermo: we remember Piersanti Mattarella and Pio La Terre, Giovanni Falcone, Paolo Borsellino and Ninni Cassarà, to name just a few of “men of the state”, killed by the mafia. These are good underlying principles to promote and reaffirm, social capital certainly worthy of pride.

For the Forum on the “Mediterranean Genius”, today it is worth discussing Italian and European industrial policy decisions for facing the twin environmental and digital transition: Milan as the focal point for innovation in the heart of Europe at its most productive and competitive and Palermo as a potential logistical, cultural and educational platform with a European scope, in the heart of the Mediterranean and as a European gateway to the push from Africa. This is a fundamental perspective precisely in this time of ever-spreading Artificial Intelligence, which is radically shifting the paradigms of knowledge, production and exchange.

Mediterranean wisdom, European values.

Milan, a welcoming city, is at the heart of the networks of values, interests and cultures across which the future of the EU extends, between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, with awareness of the responsibilities of the West and attention to the tensions arising in other areas of the world and calling upon Europe. Palermo has an extreme need to feed on the values ​​of business culture, efficiency and productivity precisely from the perspective of sustainable development. It needs an ethic of work and responsibility that has had a space, in Sicily, in seasons of high entrepreneurial quality (the history of the Florios, before the decline caused by excessive aristocratic emulation, clearly demonstrates this and deserves reflection).

The strategic centrality of training has great weight in this context, with open dialogue between the universities of Milan (a university city of growing international value) and the universities of Palermo and the south, rich in dialectical but also inclusive cultural tensions and traditions of exchange that have also developed in recent times.

There is a common responsibility: to offer job prospects and a better quality of life to the coming generation, fundamental precisely at this time of demographic decline and brain drain, phenomena which affect both the north and south of the country, albeit in different ways. This also has to include a critical rereading of the investments underway through the PNRR funds (ultimately, this is a debt borne by the coming generation).

In short, the aim is to rewrite the maps of the intersections of knowledge and production between Milan and Palermo: reflecting on networks, flows, exchange and movement, and not just places, with the administrative, political and cultural baggage that limits their potential. The aim is also to discuss these issues while promoting the keys to environmental and social sustainability and, as we said, legality.

We need a project for a high-tech south, including innovative industry, for services, for education and the environment, and not for tourist attractions alone, important as they are.

This is the crux, which concerns Palermo and Sicily and drives the dialogue, aware of the role of Milan, focal point for relationships with a European scope involving industry and finance, high-tech services and culture, training and the green and digital economy. The ongoing experiences, such as BIP’s investments in Palermo (Business Integration Partners, the large Milanese consulting company led by Nino Lo Bianco of Palermo) and in other cities in southern Italy by Microsoft, Pirelli, etc. are good examples of how to best use the talents and skills of well-educated young people in a system of national and international production networks precisely thanks to digital technologies.

The issues that the mayors of Milan and Palermo are debating will concern the new industrial supply chains, between north and south (aerospace, mechatronics, construction, automotive, high-tech components, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, as well as agro-industry, fashion and clothing), material and immaterial infrastructure for development, with a logic of public-private collaboration, urban regeneration, housing policies and environmental strategies to protect and promote the areas themselves, but also for better economic growth. They will also address policy for health and well-being and scientific research, cultural and creative enterprises and new knowledge technologies, the knowledge economy, with a logic of lifelong learning. And of course, they will discuss the complete package of civic virtues required to lend substance to the economic and social processes that are underway.

Territorial and cultural relations and concrete economic projects. In a changing Europe, amid tensions and opportunities, it’s also up to Milan and Palermo to be smart cities: not just technological, but elegantly intelligent, in ideas and in spirit.

There are profound economic and social distortions in the skewed growth of the Italian system. This is confirmed by some illustrative figures. 230,000 workers without contracts or rights, exploited in the Italian countryside, whose condition has been highlighted dramatically in recent days by the death of Satnam Singh, an Indian agricultural labourer, left to die by his employers after a serious accident. But also 768,000 graduates that companies are ready to hire, for high-level jobs and good pay, but of which they can’t find at least half. On the one hand, unreported and underpaid work (as documented by a report in La Stampa, 24 June), and unfilled qualified work on the other. The economy is suffering from a crisis of productivity and competitiveness, with its roots precisely in an unbalanced, unjust job market, also marked by unacceptable conditions of safety and exploitation (350 deaths at work already in the first four months of 2024, compared to 1,041 in 2023). President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella rightly denounced this situation once again, after Singh’s death, speaking of “a form of work that manifests itself with inhuman characteristics and that is part of a phenomenon – which emerges not infrequently – of exploitation in the work of the weakest and most defenceless, with illegal and cruel methods and conditions.”

So these distortions need to be overcome, moving beyond the sentiment-filled government speeches that follow every serious accident. Positive dynamics also need to be set in motion again, just as the new dimensions of the “knowledge economy” and the radical transformations brought about by the spread of Artificial Intelligence posit the urgency of decisions to relaunch and reinforce the country’s productivity on the part of businesses and Italian society in general, in the now serious “demographic winter”. So it’s no to in-work poverty and brain drain (“7/10 emigrated graduates don’t consider returning to Italy”, notes Il Sole24Ore, talking about higher salaries and better prospects for professional success abroad; 17 June), yes to investment in knowledge and the quality of industry and work itself. Otherwise, it will mean deterioration and irreversible decline for our country.

We’re not starting from scratch by taking this angle.

Those who look closely at the dynamics of Italian growth, alongside the widespread imbalances (“Gangmasters, fictitious companies and turning a blind eye in the public administration”, writes Il Sole24Ore, 23 June), also observe the very positive contribution made by companies that have been innovating, investing and keeping pace with the dual environmental and digital transition for nearly 20 years, establishing themselves as outstanding and capable of occupying important positions in the highest value added niches on international markets and guaranteeing Italy a role among the top five countries in the world in terms of exports (650 bn is this year’s figure). In short, they’re companies that focus precisely on human capital and the social capital of virtuous relationships with the cultures of the areas where production is located to strengthen their growth paths on the markets. They’re “polytechnic cultures”, capable of original fusions of humanistic and scientific knowledge, of beauty and new technologies.

This is echoed in the pages of the “Cohesion and competition” report by the Symbola Foundation and supported by Unioncamere and Intesa San Paolo, which will be presented in the next few days in Mantua, from 26 to 29 June, on the occasion of the association’s annual summer seminar. It documents, once again, how companies that have invested in environmental sustainability have boosted productivity, exports and employment (43% of those making green investments had a 7-point increase in production compared to non-eco-investing firms). It also documents how attention to quality training, innovation and care for areas are key to strengthening a productive fabric that’s rich in innovative manufacturing and services that have made culture and sustainability a strategic competitive factor rather than a communication decision.

“Digitalisation and decarbonisation represent the outlook for good companies,” maintains Ermete Realacci, president of Symbola, with the awareness that industry and the environment aren’t conflicting realities, but converging factors in a process that sees the circular and civil economy, quality of work, scientific and technological research and the deepening of all aspects of knowledge as the key factors for Italy’s growth in Europe and the Mediterranean. So neither negative degrowth nor anti-industrial ideology, but critical awareness of sustainable development.

“We are the times”, is the key phrase of the Symbola seminar. A quote from St Augustine: “Bad times, hard times. This is what people keep saying; but let us live well, and times shall be good. We are the times.”

Indeed, there’s profound wisdom in this perspective. There is no waiting for better times: there’s a concrete choice of a political, social and cultural commitment to create and strengthen the conditions for a better, more humane and responsible development.

Here we find the roots of the commitment to build “a safer, more civilised” and, indeed, “kinder” world referred to in the “Assisi Manifesto”. This document “for an economy on a human scale” was drawn up in 2021 by the Franciscans of the Sacro Convento and Symbola and signed by figures from economics, culture, universities, businesses and a long list of associations in civil society, starting with Assolombarda and Confindustria. And you can hear an echo of the powerful lessons of Pope Francis’s encyclicals and of a large part of the best economic literature that, after the imbalances of financial greed and unbridled globalisation, attempt to define conditions that can maintain a combination of market and society, international competitiveness and widespread well-being, political and economic democracy and participation. These strong values of a Europe to be relaunched and revived, moreover, have to contend with close-mindedness, nationalistic self-interest and protectionism.

Among sources of inspiration, there is an awareness, one that inspired the political commitment of Alex Langer, one of the leaders of Italian environmentalism: “Ecological conversion will only proceed when it’s socially acceptable.”

The example of the best Italian companies and the commitment of cultural and social associations proceed precisely on this positive path, to build more civilised “times”, in keeping with the human person.

A publication edited by the Feltrinelli Foundation takes stock of access to digital networks and outlines the problems that remain outstanding

You need to be connected in order not to be left behind. That applies to individuals, just as it does to organisations and to businesses. Connections pass through digital networks, as well as through social and economic networks. These subjects are addressed by the essays collected in Dentro e fuori la rete Lavoro, cittadini e welfare alla prova della transizione digitale (Inside and Outside the Internet. Work, Citizens and Welfare Put to the Test by the Digital Transition), which features contributions from several writers and is edited by the Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Foundation.

The book starts with an observation: digital access should be viewed as an aspect of democratic development. And, whether you like it or not, rights flow from this point – above all, the opportunity to benefit from them, as well as opportunities for development and growth, dialogue and discussion. The volume is divided into four sections dealing with four general topics. The internet is an access point and is itself a universal right; it is a tool for work and for working, a platform for services aimed at citizens and businesses; lastly, the internet is a vehicle for economic development, especially for particular situations such as those affecting inland areas. Digital networks, in other words, are viewed as inclusive tools and infrastructure, which are now unavoidable but not yet accessible to everyone.

The book touches on all these aspects, delves into the details and sets out the potential evolution and solutions to the difficulties that exist today. And this is precisely the point where – in addition to the analysis of individual aspects – one of the collection’s most notable points of interest emerges. As the conclusion explains: “Fair access to the internet has been identified as a fundamental right and a lever for social, economic and cultural inclusion. However, significant challenges remain, such as the need to ensure adequate infrastructure with high-speed broadband and the reduction of access-related inequalities, in addition to increasing digital skills.” This is then taken further: “The digital transformation of businesses and local areas offers opportunities for economic growth and regional regeneration, but it is crucial to ensure that these processes are sustainable and respect social and environmental goals.” In other words, the possibilities offered by the internet still have some way to go until they can be considered to be for everyone. It is a question of democracy and, even more fundamentally, of culture.

Dentro e fuori la rete Lavoro, cittadini e welfare alla prova della transizione digitale (Inside and Outside the Internet. Work, Citizens and Welfare Put to the Test by the Digital Transition)

VARIOUS AUTHORS.

Scenari, 62, Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Foundation, March 2024

An analysis of candidacies for European Capital of Culture demonstrates the role of good business

The culture of know-how, the land, the people who inhabit it, and the sharing of common goals and best practices: these are the factors that generate both material and spiritual prosperity – and they are often to be found in Italy. Now a study titled “The Role of SMEs and Crafts in Culturally-Based Urban Transformations: The Experience of UNESCO Creative Cities and Capitals of Culture” by Lucio Argano (of the Department of Communication at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome) examines this set of circumstances. The research specifically highlights the significance and contribution that craftspeople and SMEs can make to cities that choose to undertake medium to long-term urban transformations by leveraging culture, the arts, and creativity, seeing growth and development through a comprehensive cultural lens.

Argano concentrates on the principal activities and programmes of the fourteen Italian cities belonging to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, centred around seven creative clusters including Crafts & Folk Art. To gain a clearer insight into what actions have been taken, the author examines the project documents of the finalist cities in Italy’s contest for the 2019 European Capital of Culture title, which Matera ultimately won. He goes on to identify initiatives that have promoted both the arts and other forms of craftsmanship, and how these have contributed to addressing the urban challenges highlighted by the project.

The study therefore reveals the core strengths underpinning the projects: the unique individuals and their talents, encompassing both craftsmanship and business acumen, which form the primary cultural and creative foundations of each city. However, that is not all. The application documents further reveal the recognition of culture and creativity as vital components of what Argano describes as a “wider urban ecosystem where places, people, practices, stories, traditions, innovations, and symbolic significance are interwoven.” Entrepreneurship and craftsmanship are, therefore, essential elements of a place’s culture, capable, among other things, of serving as catalysts for development. Lucio Argano’s research deserves credit for giving substance to this model.

The Role of SMEs and Crafts in Culturally-Based Urban Transformations: The Experience of UNESCO Creative Cities and Capitals of Culture

Lucio Argano

Quaderni di ricerca sull’artigianato, Issue 1/2024, January-April.

https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.12830/113588