For the sixth year in a row, the Pirelli Foundation is again taking part in MuseoCity, which is promoted by the City of Milan. From 4 to 6 March 2022, it will involve institutions and museums around the city, as well as some outside Milan.

The Pirelli Foundation is organising Back to Bicocca: Pirelli e i luoghi dell’industria, an interactive online show for people of all ages, created in collaboration with the Associazione Culturale Dramatrà. Through tests and games, the participants will learn about the long history of the Bicocca district in Milan and find out about the buildings, both ancient and modern, that have been put to very different uses over the years, becoming symbols of the transformation that the area has undergone over the course of two centuries. Pirelli has been in this area since 1907 and still today has its Headquarters here, with its Global Research and Development Centre and the Pirelli Foundation, which also houses the Group’s Historical Archive.

A journey through past and present to discover the city of Milan, through the story of a girl in search of her family history, which is intertwined with that of Pirelli. The protagonist will find herself facing a challenge that she can win only with the help of the participants, who will have to try to solve tests of skill and ingenuity.

To register, please fill in the form at this link. Booking required. Registration ends on Tuesday 1 March 2022. The meeting, which will last approximately 75 minutes, will be held live on the Microsoft Teams platform.

Detailed information concerning participation in the online events will be sent to you in the booking confirmation e-mail.

A new tool is available for consulting the online Historical Archive. The digital collection can now be searched not only by type, such as papers, photographs, drawings, posters, and magazines, but also by content. To achieve this, a structured set of more than 800 entries concerning the history of Pirelli has been created, all linked to each other hierarchically: some general themes have been selected, linked to production, communication, and sport, and each of these has then been structured internally into more specific sub-themes. The thematic macro areas are thus tyres, miscellaneous products and cables. Each production sector is then divided into its various branches; tyres into those for cars, trucks, farm machinery, bicycles, motorcycles, and miscellaneous products into technical items for industrial use, retail, sport, and the home. The tyre sector is closely tied to that of the means of transport that have been fitted with them over the years: from the most prestigious cars, such as those made by Alfa Romeo, BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche and others, to motorcycles such as Bianchi, Gilera, Guzzi, Indian, and Yamaha to name but a few, and bicycles (Bianchi, Maino, Prinetti Stucchi and others). Lastly, there are trucks, farm machinery, aeroplanes and airships. And then, of course, there is motorsport, with the historic races in Italy and around the world in which Pirelli tyres have played a key role, such as the Targa Florio, the Monza Grand Prix, the Mille Miglia, and the Monte Carlo rally.

Then there are Pirelli’s factories and offices: the Bicocca plant and factories in various countries around the world, but also the Pirelli Tower and the Vizzola Ticino test track.

And there is also a fascinating chapter on the history of communication and design, as well as on the products themselves, at the countless trade fairs and shows that Pirelli has taken part in with its tyres and articles for the nautical, fashion, packaging and toy sectors, and many more.

All this content can now be explored on the page devoted to browsing by subject, selecting the items from a tree structure and pulling up all the digital resources in the archive that have to do with the selected theme. At the same time, the thesaurus entries are added to the other filters (by date, place, person or organisation) that appear in each documentary section (documents, photographs, drawings and posters, and audio-visuals).

The online archive is thus enriched with another important tool that opens up the company’s documents with 150 years of the history of Italy and the world.

Useful contributions and analyses to better understand what is happening and how to better deal with new situations have been collected in a recently published book

Employment has changed over the last two years. In fact, the whole production system (and, more in general, the whole social system) has changed over the last two years. It is one of the consequences of the COVID-19 storm, which has radically transformed how we conceive human coexistence. A transformation that has affected – it could not have been otherwise – human relationships in factories and offices, too. This is the theme around which revolve the studies collected by Paola Frison and Luigi Spadarotto in Il futuro delle risorse umane. Come innovarne la gestione generando innovazione (The future of human resources. How to innovate its management and generate innovation) in a recently published book, which attempts to answer a specific question: how have the pandemic and its related economic and social transformations affected organisational choices related to human resources management? This issue is not restricted to the world of production, it actually touches a significant part of all our lives.

The book’s curators have asked some of the most important consultants and scholars on the topic to examine, from their own viewpoint, the links between human resources management, innovation and social change. This has given rise to a series of essays dealing with this complex question, as well as with the “overheated climate” dictated by the pandemic.

The book, then, includes some overarching themes, in order to frame its subject-matter (which comprises notions about innovation and human resources management), as well as some more specific topics, such as the changes that innovation and the different context in which we operate demand from human resources management, the role played by human resources managers when corporate innovation becomes necessary, the new mechanisms introduced for the selection of collaborators and other tools available, the links between “cultural diversity” and innovation.

Contributors to Frison and Spadarotto’s work have successfully met the challenge while always keeping into account the particular historical period we are living in, as well as its social, psychological, logistical and contractual consequences, resulting in a book that also represents an excellent tool to better deal with change in companies and factories.

Il futuro delle risorse umane. Come innovarne la gestione generando innovazione (The future of human resources. How to innovate its management and generate innovation) 

Paola Frison, Luigi Spadarotto (curated by)

Guerini Next, 2022

A collection of literature on Smart Working provides interpretations and analyses on the latest frontier of corporate work

Working from home, but not only – working according to individual schedules, modes and locations that better suit the individual. This is Smart Working, which has played a significant role in production organisations in recent years, and not just because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The concept of Smart Working is only a superficially “easy” one and this is why it is important to examine it with care. Maria Laura Frigotto, Simone Gabbriellini, Luca Solari and Alice Tomaselli have succeeded in bringing some order to the large body of studies and research on this topic with Lo Smart Working nel panorama italiano: un’analisi della letteratura (Smart Working in Italy: a literature review), a remarkable overview of all relevant research generated by Italian academics (a considerable limitation that, however, does not detract anything from this substantial body of studies).

This is not only a praiseworthy effort – the merits of the work undertaken by Frigotto and the other researchers also lie in how it clarifies that Smart Working is not a phenomenon exclusively brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, we immediately learn how the ways in which work is organised and carried out in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is becoming increasingly important. It also points out how in Italy, too, and in both private companies and public administration, managing work according to more autonomous schedules, locations and modes is becoming an increasingly widespread occurrence – Smart Working (SW), in other words, which in Italy has been regulated ad hoc since 2017 (Law 81/2017) under the terms of agile working.

The authors begin with the literature review, then proceed to summarise the key features of SW, understood as a working mode that allows to align workers’ objectives with companies’ goals, thus still contributing to their competitiveness and still supporting the new organisational models that are arising. In SW mode, workers undergo more training and acquire new skills, while HR specialists and managers are learning to abandon a culture based on workplace “presence” and supervision in favour of one based on sharing and trust. Great attention is also paid to legal aspects, which are also part of the debate: from a comparison of SW with remote working, to changing notions of managerial authority, including the concepts of subordination and autonomy, to the role of collective bargaining, the right to disconnect, and the application of SW in the particular sphere of public administration.

This investigation by Frigotto and her peers not only makes for a good read – it also makes for a useful handbook to be consulted when a better understanding of the true nature of agile working becomes a necessity.

Lo Smart Working nel panorama italiano: un’analisi della letteratura (Smart Working in Italy: a literature review)

Maria Laura Frigotto, Simone Gabbriellini, Luca Solari, Alice Tomaselli

STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI, 2021, 2

Two words for Milan? “Small and gracious”, says Lucia Mascino during a break in the rehearsal of Smarrimento (Bewilderment) at the Teatro Franco Parenti theatre, directed by Lucia Calamaro; meantime, on the small screen, her starring role on the TV series Delitti del BarLume (Murders at BarLume), with Filippo Timi, is becoming increasingly more popular.

“Small and gracious” – two unusual terms for this metropolis that keeps on growing, investing, innovating, its cranes busy building ambitiously sumptuous neighbourhoods and high-tech companies, research centres and investment banks, luxury boutiques and fusion restaurants, in a turmoil of expanding wealth and new social issues, attractions and scary episodes of urban violence. Yet, in an incisive interview on la Repubblica (11 February), Mascini reiterates: “At first I was struck by its well-being, everyone seemed so clean, freshly showered and shampooed. Well-combed hair, scented – a bit too much perhaps. Then I changed my mind…”. Basically, “I don’t like the Milan that flaunts itself at the cocktail hour, but if you know it, you can avoid it.”

Lucia Mascino is a fine, intelligent and sensitive artist. She knows how to go beyond appearances, notices the discrepancies, explores the contradictions. And she’s deft at discerning beauty and gentleness beyond the city’s fragile trends and neurotic business deals that sharpen inequalities, at detecting the city’s ingrained traits, those that still distinguish it, that used to captivate Stendhal and, after him, generations of insightful intellectuals, artistic personalities, humanist bankers and well-educated entrepreneurs.

The message is clear – behind the skyscrapers’ thousand lights we can ultimately find a welcoming and inclusive, responsible and civil, metropolis. A metropolis we should get to know, understand and enrich, but also protect, to avoid it becoming too expensive, “a posh enclave”, a bubble of disproportionate wealth excluding young and creative people.

Reading about Milan only helps us understanding it better.

“I listen to your heart, city”, proclaimed with loving inquisitiveness Alberto Savinio during the first, thorny years of the 1940s, discovering a Milan that was “learned and meditative”, “romantic”, “all stone and hard on the outside” but also “softened by gardens on the inside”. Listening to this heart today, wondering like love-struck flâneurs amongst the streets and squares of some of the neighbourhoods that used to be suburban and working-class but are now under renovation, means trying to attune oneself to the variable voices, tensions and moods of those who live in a constant flow of social and cultural transformation. A colourful, working-class heart – a multicultural one, too, more recently – still vibrant with ancient memories, hurt by the harsh social differences yet nonetheless stirred by that special kind of hope that knows how to conceive and build positive changes. Then again, this is how Milan is – a kaleidoscope.

Let’s look at one of the many examples of this. NoLo (“North of Loreto”) is the ingenious new name given by a group of playful artists to a neighbourhood that, only a few years before, comprised the Gorla, Precotto and Turro areas, as well as the long straight streets heading north-east such as Via Padova and Viale Monza, and all the other roads running beyond Piazzale Loreto. A neighbourhood whose inhabitants, traditionally, were mainly factory workers, mechanicians and labourers, while now it features plenty of cafés and small eateries, cutting-edge cultural hubs, small squares saved from dilapidation, and gathering places where traditional residents mix with young artists and creative talents. It’s all very pop. So much so that it deserves its own “Guide”, part of a series published by newspaper la Repubblica and sold in bookshops and newsagents, listing the sites that are worth exploring.

NoLo shares its vibe with Milan. Because Milan always possessed a global vibe, as well as its own more intimate and discreet one. It’s an open, creative, strict yet welcoming city, as its own shape shows: round, with no corners, grown in concentric circles that, from the Navigli neighbourhood to its walls – the Mura Spagnole – and then to its ring roads, have absorbed hamlets and villages into itself, with the Duomo at the centre but looking outwards towards the world.

Milan on the go. After all, it never had barred gates meant to exclude, but toll houses to invite exchange and commerce, communication hubs, so that this city in the middle of a plain grew into a dynamic space through which people, ideas, goods, flowed, blending manufactures and cultures.

Its character has been unmistakable for a long time now, and it’s well summarised by the historic decree issued by the Archbishop of Milan Heribert of Ariberto, in 1018: “Those who know what work is come to Milan. And those who come to Milan are free people.” Work as an opportunity for personal and social growth, as a mark of citizenship, as an obvious token of freedom. A thousand years later, that decree is still echoing in conversations about Milan’s dynamic nature, in-between memories, the everyday and the future.

Work, indeed.

NoLo, before it acquired its new name, was a typical part of the industrial area of Milan, extending towards the manufacturing region of Brianza and bordering with the province of Bergamo – warehouse after warehouse, mainly developing northwards, interwoven with the Naviglio della Martesana canal, with its slow flow and bicycles on its bank. The Pirelli company in the Bicocca area, the Breda and Falck enterprises going towards Sesto San Giovanni. And, all around, a tangle of steelworks and chemical plants, workshops, warehouses, as well as factories and depots, smokestacks and railway tracks, a landscape featuring walls and machinery, beloved by painter Mario Sironi and engineer-cum-poet Leonardo Sinisgalli, born in Lucca yet Milan’s lovingly adopted son: “I enter a factory with my head uncovered, as if entering a cathedral, and I watch the movements of people and machinery as if they were part of a sacred rite… In these plants where people and machines bustle about works that always appear like a miracle: a metamorphosis.”

Metamorphosis. A word that accurately describes NoLo, too.

The huge factories are no longer there. The Bicocca area, following the projects accomplished by Vittorio Gregotti, now boasts a university with 35,000 students and a series of scientific research successes of international standing – a veritable “knowledge factory”. Nearby, office buildings, banks, publishing houses, the headquarters of multinational companies (Pirelli, Prysmian, Deutsche Bank, etc.) arise, as well as the HangarBicocca, one of the largest European centres for contemporary art, with “The seven heavenly palaces” by Anselm Kiefer and a schedule brimming with excellent exhibitions. The Sesto neighbourhood is no longer “Italy’s Stalingrad” but a residential and tertiary area. True, industry is still present, between the Monza and Brianza regions. In the city, however, is much less important than it used to be.

In NoLo, too, the metropolis is under transformation, it’s shedding its skin.

Refurbishing memories and building change.

Pensioners who still talk about the factory sirens that used to mark the time, about the fog, the taverns and eateries, are joined by new residents from all over the world, and, more recently, by a new wave of settlers – intellectuals, creative talents, young people who skilfully experiment with a different future.

Then again, this is what metropolises are: motion, transformation,

Milan was always driven by this, and it’s precisely these neighbourhoods that are able to renew themselves, that refuse to be just “suburbs” by choosing to breathe new life into their own squares, concocting new identities and getting renamed, which embody the city’s past while flying towards the future. Just as NoLo shows us, with a good dose of knowing irony. The human condition continues to be harsh, demanding, marked by hardship and hope, but it never gives up. Here, feelings retain a hopeful future.

A recent instance? BienNoLo, a contemporary art exhibition, a “neighbourhood Biennale” that brings avant-garde art to a wide, ordinary audience. An amusing, skilful interplay of installations, the images of colourful murals injecting new life into the time worn walls of old yards. Hybridisation. Regeneration. Imagination. Energy.

Another way to resume life, playfully yet earnestly. Then again, history teaches that even during the greatest crises, Milan’s recovery was always rekindled through culture.

The Pirelli Historical Archive holds four original drawings from 1964 by the painter Giuseppe Ajmone, who made them for Pirelli magazine. These four watercolours and gouaches on paper were commissioned from the artist, who was born in Carpignano Sesia on 17 February 1923, to illustrate Abruzzo senza pastori (“Abruzzo without Shepherds”) an article by the Romagna-born poet Raffaello Baldini.

The article is a tale in words and pictures of Ajmone and Baldini’s journey that year through the Gran Sasso and Maiella mountains. This was a suggested itinerary for tourists, and one of a series of articles published in Pirelli magazine in the late 1950s and in the 1960s. The company turned to the palettes of artists and to the inspiration of photographers to discover the lesser known areas of Italy and other countries. In the winter of 1959, for example, Renato Guttuso and Giovanni Pirelli went down the Nile from Aswan to the delta, while the writer Michele Prisco visited the Amalfi Coast together with his painter friend Gennaro Borrelli. And then Piero Chiara and Giovanni Cazzaniga went on a trip through the green and rocky Valsolda.

The nine watercolours that Ajmone made for this reportage were reproduced across a double page, becoming an important part of the article: an authentic story in pictures telling of the most beautiful lands in Abruzzo, where the landscape takes centre stage, amid natural elements and man-made constructions. The only human figure present in the painter’s works appears in an oil painting showing Signorina Gerarda Ciarletta, a telephone operator from Scanno, one of the few Abruzzo women – as the caption of the work informs us – who still wore the traditional costume. This work was presumably chosen by Arrigo Castellani, who was the editor-in-chief of the magazine at the time, for the cover of the issue in which the article was published.

Giuseppe Ajmone’s painting, with its misty but realistic rendering, effectively conveys the lights and charm of this “ancient land covered with trees, bushes or just moss, with sudden rolling plateaus, villages perched upon the coasts, beautiful little churches, a few sheep here and there, and many abandoned, ruined sheep pens”.

Pirelli’s earliest visual communication came in the form of illustrated product catalogues, which it published in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. They show how their decorative and illustrative functions were the focus of extreme care, alongside commercial considerations. The many rubber products made by Pirelli included consumer items that appeared in this type of communication, with clothing and haberdashery items, as well as tyres. These products targeted consumers and retailers, unlike the technical items and cables, which were capital goods mainly purchased by public administrations, or by industrial or transport companies.

The illustrations were entrusted to artists, some of whom were well-known, while others were less so: Giuseppe Barberis created lithographs for the 1886 list of elastic rubber carpets, Luca Fornari, a caricaturist and the founder of the weekly Il Mondo umoristico, created the clothing catalogues from 1896 to 1902; Giuseppe Galli and Osvaldo Ballerio created the illustrations for tyres, a product that requires immense advertising skills, for the market was already dominated by major competitors. In 1899 – the year that saw the first experimental production of “pneumatic garnitures for automobiles”, alongside those for bicycles and motorcycles – the painter Giuseppe Galli, a fairly successful watercolourist taken on by Pirelli in 1886 as a technical draughtsman and designer of ornamentation, illustrated the inside pages and the cover of the new price lists in a floral style with shades of gold.

In 1904 it was the turn of the painter Osvaldo Ballerio, who created the cover of the catalogue of “Tyres for Velocipedes, Motorcycles and Automobiles”. Born in Milan in 1870, and a graduate from the Accademia di Brera, he specialised in poster design and advertising graphics, with a particular focus on sports. In the 1910s he created several advertisements for Pirelli, which appeared on the covers of the Italian Touring Club magazine and in the magazines published by the Treves brothers (L’Illustrazione italiana, Il Secolo XX, and Lidel).

These were the years of the first real advertising campaigns in magazines and on posters, which were created by the great names in Italian and international poster design: Ballerio was soon joined by such artists as Leopoldo Metlicovitz, Alessandro Dudovich, and Plinio Codognato.

And this was the start of the long history of Pirelli advertising.

In times of crisis, marked by a pandemic that’s slowly receding after a long period filled with sorrow and hardship, and economic difficulties that are worsening among fears of inflation and global instability (the sudden increase in energy prices is just one of its many facets), it’s best to devise new economic and social theories rather than vainly hope to go back to “how we used to be”. Hence, Michele Salvati and Norberto Dilmore examine “inclusive liberalism” in their book published by Feltrinelli, and attempt to outline “a possible future for our corner of the world”. Salvati is one of the most clear-headed political scientists in Italy, and he’s been pondering how to combine freedom and a better social balance for a long time. Norberto Dilmore is the pseudonym chosen by a representative from the Italian economic sphere, and his chosen assumed first name is meant to evoke the figure of Norberto Bobbio, one of the most authoritative Italian intellectuals and progressive exponent of the various attempts to blend liberal culture (in the tradition of Piero Gobetti and the Rosselli brothers) with the best reformist socialism. Their perspective, however, entails leaving behind traditional comparisons between the ideas of Keynes and Friedman in order to identify innovative ways to interpret and shape governments, so as to make them more suitable to the unprecedented dimensions of a “digital society” and the new relations between economic growth and good social equality standards.

Its starting point lies in the notion that retracing the great European political mindset, which takes into account sustainability, reforms, the fight against inequality, new and better development opportunities for the new generations in particular, becomes paramount when looking for a “paradigm shift” allowing us to build an economy with less inequality – the consequence of mismanaged globalisation, the cause of increasingly wider geographical, social, personal, gender and cultural gaps. The attainment of inclusive liberalism and reformism, entrepreneurial dynamism and social inclusion, competitiveness and solidarity. All values included in Salvati and Dilmore’s book and that underlie the archetypal European culture: liberal democracy and welfare, promotion of individual rights and social responsibility – a path that’s extraordinarily relevant right now, in these times of crisis and radical transformation.

There’s also another viable concept, however, found in the best contemporary writings on economics, as well as in the works by Stiglitz, Krugman, Fitoussi and Federico Caffè, innovative interpreter of Keynes’s ideas and the intellectual inspiration of Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi: “A virtuous triangle composed by companies, State and civil society”, which could lead to new development trajectories lying outside traditional debates revolving around the question, “More State or more market?”. A concept by Philippe Aghion, French economist and professor at the London School of Economics, at Harvard and at the Collège de France, which he unravels in his latest book, published in Italy by Marsilio Editori with title Il potere della distruzione creatrice – Innovazione, crescita e futuro del capitalismo (The Power of Creative Destruction: Economic Upheaval and the Wealth of Nations), written collaboratively with two other economists from the Collège de France, Céline Antonin and Simon Brunelli. As the title suggests, the book refers to the theories of Joseph Schumpeter concerning the creative power of innovation, but also to the monopolistic tendency of more dynamic market players, which ends up destroying the very market that made them. The aim is to demonstrate how a new, balanced relationship between politics, entrepreneurs and civil society could counteract both the decline of capitalism and the rise of demagogic populism while reviving the market economy (in a transparent, well-regulated and sustainable fashion) and, above all, liberal democracy itself. The authors analyse the technological evolution, argue against bizarre theories suggesting that robots should be taxed in order to stop the digital evolution in businesses and safeguard traditional jobs, reject notions of a “happy degrowth” and propose new ways to connect British innovation with the best European welfare traditions.

Here’s the deal: in order to talk about “inclusive liberalism” and reformism, Italy really needs a decent political set-up. These past years have unfortunately seen reformist politics getting crushed under populist and sovereignist pressures and overcome by erroneous and useless reactions to plausible solutions to real social hardship issues, as well as the collapse of confidence in a better future.

Now, however, in Italy and more generally in Europe, we see signs allowing for some fragile hope towards a recovery. The re-election of a president like Sergio Mattarella and the strengthening of the Draghi government, with its demanding programme of reforms in line with the EU Recovery Plan‘s priorities concerning the Next Generation (environment, digital economy, innovation, training, education) are veritable cornerstones on Italy’s path to recovery. The intimations made by Mattarella in his speech, concerning the “dignity” of work, culture, institutions, laws, rights of women and young people, are the foundations on which we can restore Italian politics, reinstate confidence and build better opportunities for the future.

Democracy and development are at stake, notwithstanding the heavy crisis – yet, it’s precisely in these difficult times and in spite of the uncertainties, downfalls, gloomy undertones and irresponsible behaviour lying right at the heart of Italian politics, that the country is showing it possesses positive “social capital” as well as an extraordinary recovery force.

Something that has also been noticed by influential international observers, such as The Economist, for instance, which last December declared Italy “country of the year for 2021”, setting temporarily aside its traditional tendency to severely – at times even ruthlessly – criticise the Italian Republic. Now, instead, the current issue of the weekly British magazine affirms that “Southern Europe is reforming itself”, recalling how “the old PIGS” (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain, bundled up in a rather offensive acronym) “are airborne, even as northern countries fall to earth”. When discussing the growing weight of Mediterranean Europe, also owing to a change in international assets, The Economist continues to acknowledge the positive reformist impetus that is driving Italian legislature, pensions and economy under the leadership of Mario Draghi, as well as the beneficial effects the country is exerting on the rest of the EU. There are still doubts, that’s true, but positive forces are rising, and “inclusive liberalism” could really be the way forward.

What is happening in contemporary societies, interpreted according to a key duality of our modern times.

Freedom to undertake an enterprise, as well as to criticise, to change one’s mind, to develop oneself by following one path rather than the other, to express one’s opinion or disagreement. Key principles in any good society, as well as in any good production organisation. Freedom that, however, does not signify free will and even less the right to wreck everything. Freedom against authority, then, or freedom that, incorporating an appropriate degree of authority, can grow and become more powerful. A complex theme, no doubt, especially nowadays. This is why, a (careful) reading of La porta dell’autorità (Authority’s gateway), a book collaboratively written by Mauro Magatti (sociologist and economist, full professor of Sociology at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan) and Monica Martinelli (associate professor at the same university) is very useful.

The book focuses on observing what happened in the past and what is happening today and starts from the consideration that challenging, to the point of rejecting, authority as a restriction to one’s freedom of self-expression is truly part of our late twentieth century’s heritage. A heritage whose weight is still felt today when the pillars on which authority stood – tradition, patriarchy, education, the Church – are being challenged. All in the name of asserting one’s individuality in a horizontal society without patriarchs or masters. Yet, the two authors explain how, just like the phoenix, authority is always rising from its own ashes, taking new forms that may be more fleeting and undefined but nonetheless equally effective. In other words, we are witnessing a proliferation of forces demanding the return of an authoritarian, tyrannical and conservative patriarchy or, in subtler and more insidious ways, of a technocratic dominion actually bent on taking us beyond the human condition as we know it, and there are also those who want to erect walls or others who, in the name of individual freedom, reject all obligations (including those related to the more tragic aspects of contemporary life).

According to the book, what we are experiencing pretty much everywhere today is the starkest – at least on the surface – conflict between freedom and authority (in terms of economy and production, too).

What can we do, then? Magatti and Martinelli are adamant: we cannot go back, rather, we need to move forward, finding new ways to conceive a duality that is as fundamental as it is complex. As the book very clearly explains, a world without authority is not possible, unless freedom is forfeited – a freedom whose limit becomes the source of action, contextualising the way we see the world. Namely, we need to re-establish a connection between generations, acknowledging the fact that authority is the juncture between those who were and those who will be (and not only in a temporal sense). In this way, authority can be seen like a gateway that, while framing and as such defining a direction, at the same time opens onto a future that does not yet exists but is forthcoming. A condition that, upon closer examination, applies to society as a whole as well as to its sections, such as institutions, businesses, groups. Magatti and Martinelli’s book makes for a challenging read that everyone should undertake.

La porta dell’autorità (Authority’s gateway)

Mauro Magatti, Monica Martinelli

Vita e Pensiero, 2021

The collection of contributions and research assembled for the 75^th anniversary of the UN makes for an important toolbox for everyone

Interdependence. Deep connections that often go unnoticed. The awareness of how complex the current economic and social systems are also entails this observation: every action generated by a specific economic and social “site” affects other parts of the system. It is true for all organisations and it is a complex theory that could nonetheless find some applications. Confirmation and instances of all this can be found in the body of research collected in Le Nazioni Unite di fronte alle nuove sfide economico-sociali 75 anni dopo la loro fondazione (New socio-economic challenges faced by the United Nations 75 years after its foundation), recently published in volume 23 of La Comunità Internazionale (The international community), the quarterly review of the SIOI, Società Italiana per l’Organizzazione Internazionale (Italian Society for International Organisation). The publication includes a series of contributions conceived for a study session organised, as mentioned in the title, for the 75th anniversary of the UN, and represents a good handbook for those who wish to learn more about the complexities we experience today.

The series of contributions collected in “Sfide economico-sociali e agenda 2030: gli obiettivi di sviluppo sostenibile” (“Socio-economic challenges and 2030 agenda: the sustainable development goals”) is especially important to read, and can be summarised in Staffan de Mistura’s words: “Conflicts and economic injustice, economic issues, are closely linked, and therefore if we want to deal with the many conflicts we have before our eyes we need to focus our attention on the connection between geopolitics, economy and crisis.” The other research papers unfold from this statement. Starting from a contextualisation of the relationships between the 2030 Agenda and conflicts, to continue with the theme of “climate change, human rights and business activities”, and other topics such as gender equality, sustainable development and the new digital technologies. What arises is a scenario that encompasses steps made forward and backward, conflicts and attempted cooperation, friction and collaborations that, in hindsight, frame the space which almost all current economic and social systems occupy.

Readers of this series of studies included in the volume 23 of SIOI will certainly find more than one useful tool to better understand what is happening just on our doorstep, whether at home or at work. Moreover, it is a must-read for those entrepreneurs or managers who are in charge of a business that, one way or another, operates on the international stage.

Le Nazioni Unite di fronte alle nuove sfide economico-sociali 75 anni dopo la loro fondazione (New socio-economic challenges faced by the United Nations 75 years after its foundation)

Various authors.

La Comunità Internazionale, Quarterly review of the Società Italiana per l’Organizzazione Internazionale, volume 23, 2021