There is a need to pay greater attention to the digitalisation of production processes with respect to markets, too.

Corporate social responsibility. A major requirement for all organisations of production these days, also in terms of the digitalisation of processes as well as of relationships with the market and with customers. The latter is a new aspect that involves not only companies, but the customers themselves. This is the theme developed by Renato Fiocca and Ivo Ferrario in their contribution entitled “Una riflessione sulle responsabilità dei clienti nel mondo digitale” (“Reflecting on the responsibilities of customers in the digital world”), published in the journal Micro & Macro Marketing.

A theme that may sound banal, but only superficially as, indeed, the digitalisation of the economic and production systems has an impact on the relationships between corporate production and its ultimate recipients, too. Fiocca and Ferrario explain how, in Italy (but not only there), after having overcome a lack of network infrastructures, we now have to tackle what can be defined a second level of digital divide, which mainly concerns the use people make of the web. Something that, indeed, touches not only end consumers but also production organisations. The two authors describe how misinformation (fake news) as well as, more in general, the want for a greater level of awareness when using technologies, arise from a partially warped understanding of the internet and of social media. Here is where Fiocca and Ferrario see the need to “call forth a sense of joint responsibility between companies and consumers”. If, on the one hand, those who produce must be mindful not only of the quality of a product but also of the communication strategies that endorse it, on the other hand “customers”, too, must pay equal attention to how reliable the information they may find on the web is.

In this way, Fiocca and Ferrario conceive a kind of new ‘pact’ between companies and markets. A pact that, as well as attention to quality and the environment, also includes the need to be as mindful of digitalisation techniques, which are seen as means for better information but, if misused, can become a source of great misinformation. In such a way, both a good culture of production and a proper culture of consumption can move forward.

Una riflessione sulle responsabilità dei clienti nel mondo digitale (“Reflecting on the responsibilities of customers in the digital world”)

Renato Fiocca, Ivo Ferrario

Micro & Macro Marketing, 2/2021, August

An anthology collecting contributions on what shape the future may take is helpful to better understand what happened before and what we can expect later on.

Facing the future. An optional exercise for some and a mandatory one for others – a duty for many, however. Especially for those who deal with organisations in need of planning, scheduling, alertness in taking the next steps. Moreover, looking to the future is something inherent to those who – due to their nature or role – have a vision to be fulfilled. Reading Il futuro. Storia di un’idea (The future. Story of an idea), an anthology collecting several authors’ contributions on this very topic, is something that everyone – or almost everyone – will experience not only as a stimulating, useful intellectual adventure, but also as a fascinating journey throughout centuries of human activity and thought on what might be in store for humankind.

The book is based on the presupposition that human beings always tried to imagine what the future might bring, with a mixture of hope and fear, unleashing their imagination through stories, utopias and projects. Traces of these ideas about the future can be found in the most disparate human works: from ancient tragedies to sci-fi novels, from philosophical works to political manifestos, but also in cinema and theatre, architecture, painting and music, and up to TV series. The future narrated in this book, just short of 400 pages, is open, and open to anyone, and the book’s structure is rather original: page after page, intellectuals and interpreters of our times trace the story of the future travelling back through works that have built our current culture and that, to some extent, are connected to this concept. As such, they explore Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus, The city of God by Augustine, Leonardo da Vinci’s flight drawings, On the origin of species by Darwin, and of course From the Earth to the Moon by Verne, The Futurist Manifesto by Marinetti, and then also the theory of relativity, Modern Times, and The end of eternity by Asimov, Imagine by John Lennon, All brothers by Pope Francis, and many more.

Hence, this is not a book to be avidly read all at once, but to be slowly perused, paying the attention it deserves and frequently going back to it.

The brief Editor’s Note concludes with a fine sentence, also placed at the beginning: “To know about yesterday’s future might perhaps help us think about today’s future”. And the quote by children’s author Gianni Rodari, might seem childish but it actually is crucial: “I know very well that the future won’t always be as beautiful as a tale. But this is not what matters. In the meantime, children need to stock up on the optimism and confidence needed to challenge life. Moreover, let’s not neglect the educational value of utopias. If, despite everything, we didn’t hope for a better world, why would we even go to the dentist?”.

Il futuro. Storia di un’idea (The future. Story of an idea)

Various authors.

Laterza, 2021

Faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been able to discover, trial, produce and administer effective vaccines to hundreds of millions of people in a very short time – an immense scientific, medical, financial and business endeavour, in terms of logistics, politics and policies, too. And also substantial evidence of the positive impact that international collaboration and an approach to science and health conceived as global “common goods” can have. This is a path we should keep on following.

Of course, it’s been a difficult, controversial process, rife with contradictions, dark undertones, conflicts involving different political and economic interests. Yet, despite all this, we can now acknowledge – with some satisfaction – a series of accomplishments: in many countries, the infection has been drastically slowed down and the number of deaths has significantly decreased (though not the sorrow felt for the five millions’ deaths worldwide and for the regions where the virus continues to claim victims). Moreover, trials for drugs able to fight the most harmful and painful effects of Coronavirus continue.

Essentially, the health crisis has been adequately tackled. It has highlighted the tragic vulnerabilities of our human and social condition, but now we can hope to have learned how to better cope with the next crisis. A crisis that will come for sure – we might not know when and how it will hit, yet we all feel that this is not an irrational fear.

From this overall picture, an initial basic consideration arises: we were able to make vaccines thanks to key scientific genetic research, which had been pursued for quite some time. In other words, thanks to the existence of a sound, substantial amount of “pure research”, whose results were then swiftly applied to a concrete problem – the pandemic.

The spotlight, then, is back on a particular issue: the need for a major, long-term commitment and investment – mainly from public sources, but also from some private ones – in so-called “pure research”, or, “basic research”. Research that is not focused on specific goals and whose only purpose is to investigate the mysteries surrounding nature and the human mind, the meaning of life and the choices we make, the strategies and languages people adopt to build relationships with each other, the values of our social and civic coexistence. The complexity that is inherent to us all, human beings living on this Earth, in an infinitesimal part of a space that is still largely undiscovered, incomprehensible, untold (astrophysicists, the most emblematic figures of “pure research”, would have a lot to tell us).

These themes were also revived by a recent document “for a Pure Science Project”, published by the Aspen Institute USA and shared for discussion with all the 14 countries where Aspen has a presence (Italy at the forefront), with a dual aim: to explore, more in depth and in a public forum, issues such as the value of science and research and to stimulate political decision-makers in investing more, and better.

The document explains how making progress in pure science is, in itself, a beneficial thing, as it moves us along one of the fundamental paths for civilisation: the one leading towards the full understanding of who we are and of the physical and biological characteristics of the world in which we live. These are strong values, reiterates the Aspen document, that also have an impact on our material progress and quality of life. If we had not discovered thermodynamics, relativity and quantum physics, the theory of evolution and theoretical chemistry – to mention just a few scientific findings – we would lead a much more impoverished and less interesting life.

Unfortunately, Aspen remarks, support for basic scientific research is decreasing everywhere, as also shown by the latest UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030 (https://en.unesco.org/unescosciencereport).

This, then, is the reason why such a debate needs to be rekindled. We need to apportion a larger part of funding to basic research and measure its outcome according to criteria that go well beyond the mere achievement of immediate results. This is the responsibility of major international bodies and governments or, at least, of those where liberal democracy thrives (the Aspen document also reminds us of the link between freedom of research and democratic liberties). But it’s also a matter for the most forward-looking and sensible public opinions, those aware of the links between knowledge, environmental and social sustainability (i.e. the fight against inequalities), innovation, quality of life (good health is an essential part of it) – those who have trust and confidence in our younger generations’ future.

It’s also an essential task from an economic standpoint, whereby we need to “go beyond the GDP” – which only quantifies produced wealth – in order to investigate the environmental and social dimensions of phenomena, the cost caused by environmental damage and the depletion of resources, but also widening disparities (the age gap, the gender gap, social and geographic gaps) and the crisis affecting opportunities for improvement. What we need, then, is to define and implement a “Better Life Index”, in order to evaluate the increase in well-being. And to focus on the assumptions surrounding a “circular” and “civic” economy, in order to improve people’s lives and prospects, not just on increasing productivity and competitiveness. We need, therefore, to undertake “pure research” on the key aspects of our fragile human condition (on this, Misurare ciò che conta (Measuring what counts) by Joseph E. Stiglitz, Jean-Paul Fitoussi and Martine Durand, recently published by Einaudi, makes for a very useful read).

Applied research on individual issues will then follow naturally, as part of the collaboration between public powers and legitimate private interests, public funds and fiscal stimuli, and corporate investments.

The EU Recovery Fund, based on a green and digital economy and aimed at opening up opportunities for the “Next Generation” – as well as at redefining the EU budget for the coming years – needs to move in this direction showing a clearer insight and with greater resources at its disposal.

The issues concerning pure research raised in the Aspen document also pertain to the worlds of education and culture, to reiterate some points we’ve already mentioned several times in this blog: the need for a “polytechnic culture” where humanities interbreed with sciences; different disciplines intersect; engineers and philosophers, medical practitioners and persons of letters, physicists and experts in neuroscience, chemists and sociologists, technicians and psychologists, legal experts and economists end up studying, researching, working and producing together.

In this period, defined by the knowledge economy and the evolution of artificial intelligence, this is what a balanced field of development should look like. And without a focus on basic research, with all that it entails, we won’t be able to make some major headway towards a better, more fulfilling and balanced life.

The new edition of Archivi Aperti (“Open Archives”) is set to run from 15 to 24 October 2021. The event is promoted by Rete Fotografia and this year examines the theme of the land and landscape, and the relationship with society in photography. A multi-view, collective discussion on the role of photography as part of a new model of sustainable development. We shall be taking part again this year, offering exclusive guided tours of the exhibition Skyscraper Stories: The Pirellone and a Sixty-year Celebration of Corporate Culture and the Regional Government of Lombardy, curated by our Foundation with the architect Alessandro Colombo. Through photographs, illustrations and archive footage, mostly from the Pirelli Historical Archive, the exhibition, which is promoted by the Pirelli Foundation and the Lombardy Region, Government and Council, tells the story of the building, which began as the headquarters of Pirelli and then became the seat and symbol of the regional institution.

The exhibition on the 26th floor of the Pirellone (with a catalogue published by Marsilio and a dedicated website 60grattacielopirelli.org), opens with a model of the building from the Gio Ponti Archives and is divided into five “movements”, from the construction of the tower to the present day. A timeline shows the most significant events in Italian and world history from 1956 to the present day. Photographs and top-name reportages, including works by Paolo Monti and the famous series by the Dutchman Arno Hammacher of 1959, which show how the building progressed, to a design by the Ponti-Fornaroli-Rosselli and Valtolina-Dell’Orto studios and the engineers Pier Luigi Nervi and Arturo Danusso. Tales of life in the building and descriptions of the interiors, design and work, are seen through the eyes of great photographers such as De Paoli, Aldo Ballo, Calcagni, and Dino Sala and of historic agencies such as Publifoto. During the years of the economic boom, the tower was the star in photo reports and fashion shoots by masters such as Ugo Mulas, and became a set for the new Italian cinema with directors such as Luchino Visconti, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Carlo Lizzani.

In 1968 Uliano Lucas immortalised an immigrant in front of the tower: a powerful, iconic shot that the photographer himself talks about in one of the video installations that accompany the visitor on this long journey, through the voices of those for whom the building became part of their lives. It is an opportunity to explore the architectural history of Milan and admire the city from on high.

Guided tours will be held on Wednesday 20 October and Thursday 21 October 2021, with three slots (2.30, 4 and 5.30 p.m.), and a special tour for families with children aged 6 to 10 in the 5.30 slot. Admission is free, subject to booking. Please write to visite@fondazionepirelli.org..

Come and see us!

The path towards a balanced and sustainable development, improving conditions and lasting over time, includes unprecedented concepts that blend together wealth building and social cohesion, productivity and solidarity. Here we find the true political, agenda-setting value of that “recovery agreement” announced by Prime Minister Mario Draghi at the Confindustria Assembly, taking his cue from the speech delivered by Carlo Bonomi, president of the entrepreneurs association. We need positive industrial relationships, built on dialogue rather than on ideological clashes and prejudices. Arrangements concerning work and incomes. Agreements that promote investments, innovation, competitiveness, the inclusion of women and young people in production processes, but also the appreciation of older employees’ know-how and skills, which should certainly not be scrapped.

Draghi’s request, addressed not only to industrialists and trade unions but also to party leaders, is crystal clear: though fierce at present, the current economic recovery trend remains fragile (Italy’s GDP rose by 6% this year, and is expected to grow by 4% in 2022), it’s just a “rebound” marking a recovery from the disastrous losses experienced during the long COVID-19 season. And as such, it needs to be consolidated: through investments, innovation, the creation of steadfast employment opportunities.

In fact, the most dynamic Italian enterprises, the manufacturers with a presence on the international markets and with well-established competitive practices, have been investing, emphasising quality, growing, for a long time. Yet, it’s the whole country that needs to grow, from its services to its public authorities, in order to recover its productive power and so avoid plunging back down into a stagnant economy. Moreover, we also need to pay back the huge public debt Italy has racked up to tackle the economic and health emergency.

The funds (i.e. mainly loans that will have to be repaid) provided by the PNRR (Piano nazionale di resilienza e ripresa), the Italian recovery and resilience plan, are an extraordinary asset and should be ultimately devoted to the innovation and development of Italy, to investments in the environment and in the digital transformation, and to the generation of quality. Thus, they need to be spent quickly and wisely, and they should also be accompanied by key reforms (affecting public authorities, laws, the job market, training and education, etc.).

Hence, we need positive industrial relationships involving social stakeholders, entrepreneurs associations and trade unions, in order to have an open, well-reasoned conversation that acknowledges the value development can bring and that doesn’t wear itself out in biased, one-sided disagreements. The challenge posed by sustainable development is too significant, the future of our children and grandchildren is too fragile – in terms of environmental safety and opportunities for a better life – for us to let this opportunity go to waste.

Indeed, crucial moments in our republican history readily come to mind – times when social forces, properly motivated by institutions and policies, succeeded in identifying and pursue a future for the greater good.

Without a doubt, when times are uncertain is worth remembering the core values that underlie politics and economics and, above all, re-reading article 1 of the Italian Constitution: “Italy is a democratic Republic founded on labour”, where “labour” is meant to represent the essence of personal and civic identity, of freedom, of individual and social fulfilment, rather than the mere trade of goods and services for remuneration – labour understood within a context of rights and duties, and as a lever for development.

During those hard post-war years, when Italy was on its knees, the agreement struck by Confindustria, led by Angelo Costa, with the CGIL (Italian General Confederation of Labour), headed by Giuseppe di Vittorio, promptly and quickly identified common priorities: “First the factories, then the houses”. And over time, when confronted by crucial crises, social forces have always managed to reach a selfless and responsible understanding and take charge of the common good. The fight against terrorism and the response to the economic crisis in the 1970s were, in fact, the results of another agreement between Confindustria, headed by Gianni Agnelli, and the trade unions unified under the leadership of Luciano Lama, CGIL secretary. And let’s not forget the concerted action instigated by Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, first minister of Finance and subsequently Prime Minister, who led Italy out of the crisis in the early 1990s and onto the path towards the euro and European integration.

These were key periods in Italian history. Periods in which Italy knew how to well manage itself, showing its colours as a forward-looking, selfless nation, proactive and inclusive, able to define and pursue a proper shared commitment.

And today, we are facing a new blank chapter – we need to overcome this long stagnating period, defeat the pandemic crisis, be the protagonists in our age defined by the knowledge economy and sustainability.

Once more, “labour” is taking centre stage – not in the form of small, short-term jobs or endless subsidies, but rather as a fine prospect, the means to take on the transformation brought about by digital technologies and global markets. And, therefore, as a vehicle for the integration of training and education, qualified expertise, productive innovation, flexibility, creativity (note that the “quota 100” pension scheme or the “citizenship income” – the welfare allowance dependant on income and citizenship – are not part of this future). And, of course, for the enhancement of occupational health and safety, as the current number of accidents and deaths in the workplace is entirely unacceptable.

The challenge involves business and education, the job market (to resolve this absurd issue whereby, in Italy, there are millions of unemployed and under-employed people while companies – rightfully – complain they can’t find suitable staff), and entails a welfare system that can act as a suitable cushion when people switch jobs.

When referring to the “recovery agreement”, the Draghi government seems to see such a future very clearly, and it’s indeed getting the right tools to tackle it. Companies (as exemplified by Confindustria) are also ready to play their part and the trade unions are displaying a responsible willingness to discuss matters. Growth, then, can take a step forward.

A recently published book offers a viable path for its achievement

Organisational culture as corporate driver, placing human beings first and global well-being before mere profit. These concepts are becoming increasingly integrated within organisations of production, yet they need to be fully comprehended before they can be applied in real terms. This is why reading Comportamento Organizzativo: cultura organizzativa (Organizational behavior. Organizational culture) by Jesus Reyes can be useful – it is a kind of “manual” collecting good organisational practices that place people at the centre.

The book revolves around the possibility that the conditions whereby the human component, i.e. the “elemental part”, within the internal dynamics of a company is neglected could be the result of changes occurring within corporate organisations. In other words, the human capital – the part of the organisation that moves the entire organisational team – might end up taking the back seat. This basically means underestimating the importance of managing human talent, something that can happen when companies are overwhelmed by change.

Reyes, then, guides the reader through the following chapters, which are oriented towards a series of changes in corporate culture and organisational behaviour. The new “management of human talent”, he explains, must take place through the generation of habits and values embedded in people’s proactive behaviours and attitudes. Only then roles and functions undertaken within interpersonal relations can change – for the better. An objective that is certainly not easy to achieve, though the only objective possible within a phase of major change in economic and social systems, and subsequently in the way that organisations of productions, expected to reconcile efficiency and effectiveness, are planned and realised.

To achieve change, to be the first, to build a new organisational image – Reyes tells us – we simply need to break with traditional schemes and incorporate new case studies and models for value generation.

Comportamento Organizzativo: cultura organizzativa (Organizational behavior. Organizational culture) 

Jesus Reyes

Edizioni Sapienza, 2021

How human resources and their role in organisations should be viewed

Resources almost comparable to other raw materials in the productive cycle, or women and men committed to achieve a common goal? The role of human beings within organisations (and production, too), has always been a topic for discussion, and continues to be seriously debated today, as so-called “human resources” need to get to grips with the work reorganisation demanded by digitalisation.

As such, the management of human resources becomes a crucial factor in the transition experienced by any productive organisation, as well as an element that characterises any culture of production.

Giovanni Masino’s contribution in Humans, resources, or what else? eBook of the research program “The organization workshop (a collection of research studies curated by Massimo Neri), centres around this “misleading dichotomy” between resources and people.

Masino starts from an observation: “The so-called ‘management of human resources’ and, more broadly, the study of the relationship between people and organisations, is an issue that relevant literature discusses using, intentionally, terms such as ‘resources’ and ‘human’. These are terms that embody a certain conceptual premise and that, indirectly, lead towards different ways to study and interpret organisational undertakings and how they are planned, transformed and managed.” A company’s raw materials, then, or its vital part?

Masino continues by scrutinising the importance of “human deliberateness” as a feature of “human resources” and thus the significance that goals set to organisations, and therefore to people, acquire. This is where, according to Masino, the targets that managers establish for themselves within a company, as well as its working methods, come into play. “It is a matter,” writes Masino, “of changing the way we think when we set objectives.” Sharing and contribution, then, as elements that are increasingly gaining a foothold in modern and engaging corporate cultures.

Risorse o persone? Una dicotomia fuorviante  (People or things? Una dicotomia fuorviante” (People or things? A misleading dichotomy)

Giovanni Masino, University of Ferrara

in Humans, resources, or what else? eBook of the research program “The organization workshop, Massimo Neri (curated by), University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 2021

It was back in 1971 when Maestro Accardo, just thirty years old and already considered to be one of the world’s greatest violinists, was invited by Pirelli to take part in the 6th Music Festival at the Pirelli Cultural Centre. On 24 November, in the great Auditorium of the Pirellone in Piazza Duca d’Aosta in Milan, the company’s headquarters at the time, the Maestro, together with the pianist Lodovico Lessona, performed a programme that included music by Petrassi, Webern, Ravel, Mozart and Beethoven, displaying the full potential of the violin, from the classical era to the contemporary.

The bond between Pirelli and Maestro Salvatore Accardo, who in 1996 founded the Orchestra da Camera Italiana with students and former students of the Accademia Walter Stauffer in Cremona, has been renewed in more recent times. In 2012 the maestro and the musicians of the Orchestra were invited to the Pirelli Auditorium – but this time in the new company headquarters designed by Vittorio Gregotti in Milano Bicocca – to work on and try out a new musical programme to be performed during the concert season later that year. The company’s employees and their families also took part in the dress rehearsals.

Pirelli has always been committed to promoting culture in the workplace, and from that moment on it has renewed its bond with the Maestro each year. It has given its support to the orchestra, making the company premises available for rehearsals and having the musicians interact with the employees’ children in corporate welfare activities.

In 2017 the Maestro and his orchestra were involved in a new musical project to create an original work that gave a voice to the contemporary factory – the light-filled, sustainable and “beautiful” Pirelli Industrial Centre in Settimo Torinese. The sounds and rhythms of production inspired Il Canto della Fabbrica, a piece commissioned by the Pirelli Foundation from the composer and violist Francesco Fiore and specially written to be performed by Salvatore Accardo’s violin.

The world premiere of this musical composition was performed in front of more than a thousand people, including numerous Pirelli employees, as part of the MITO SettembreMusica Festival inside the Settimo Torinese plant, the factory that inspired the work.

A thesis discussed at the University of Padua sheds light on the links between these two key aspects of business management

The circular economy seen as the cutting-edge version of an economy more attentive to the impact it has on environment and society. The kind of economy that also affects business management – not only its production profile, but its social aspects, too.

Giorgia Masconale’s thesis, recently discussed as part of the Master’s in Economics programme offered by the M. Fanno Department of Economics and Business Sciences at the University of Padua, revolves around just such themes. The thesis is entitled “L’implementazione dell’economia circolare nelle aziende: la gestione sostenibile delle risorse umane” (“Implementing the circular economy in businesses: the sustainable management of human resources”), and its premise is that “the circular economy has a strategic impact on company’s human resources functions whose role, therefore, becomes more significant in the achievement of sustainable development and of a competitive advantage.” Hence, Masconale starts her argument by investigating the “roots of the circular economy”, and then swiftly moves on to an in-depth exploration of corporate models and structures needing to adapt to the principles of an economy that has changed and that, in some way, has become more pervasive than the previous, traditional one. The author goes on to delve into aspects such as recovery and recycling, extending the useful life of a product, and the concept of product as a service, and after having contextualised these business management elements, she proceeds to scrutinise the relationships between human resources management and the circular economy.

A culture open to innovation, incorporating reactive leadership, transparent communications and a flexible structure facilitates the achievement of environmental sustainability, and all business functions within a corporate organisation can bring a tangible contribution towards the attainment of set sustainable goals.

Giorgia Masconale concludes, “HR functions play a very deft role, as they oversee the point of intersection between the organisation and the people who will become its social fabric. Moreover, by managing processes and behaviours, HR functions are in charge of implementing change, and therefore of the development and dissemination of a new culture of responsibility.” She adds that, “Traditional functions acquire new life as they are reinterpreted in terms of sustainable development, becoming key factors in the transformation of plain organisations into responsible organisations: entities in tune with an evolving world, able to show resilience and, with it, new opportunities for competitiveness.”

Giorgia Masconale’s thesis is a valuable read, providing an honest and concise overview of the relationships between two major, complex themes of corporate culture and business management.

“L’implementazione dell’economia circolare nelle aziende: la gestione sostenibile delle risorse umane” (“Implementing the circular economy in businesses: the sustainable management of human resources”)

Giorgia Masconale

Thesis, University of Padua, M. Fanno Department of Economics and Business Sciences, Master’s in Economics programme, 2021

Human history and business practices can be unravelled through the history of materials, too.

Making. Planning. Devising. Building. Progressing. The development of human societies moved through these stages, too, and indeed keeps on doing so. The ability to think, then, but also to give shape and material form to useful objects – tools for living, travelling, communicating. Factories and manufacturers. Materials, then, as the key elements of development, yesterday as today. And also the founding elements of a corporate culture that, over time, developed and evolved, in line with the evolution of materials. This is what we learn by reading Il segreto delle cose. Storie di uomini e materiali (The secret of things. Stories of individuals and materials), by Silvano Fuso, a recently published book whose narration takes us through the stories of some of the most important materials in history.

The book takes its cue from an observation: the availability of new materials has always had an impact on the development of human societies. It’s not a coincidence that the prehistoric ages are identified with the name of the material that was increasingly being used: stone, bronze (and copper), and iron. Nowadays, too, materials accompany our social and economic progress: new metal alloys, plastics, semiconductor materials, new ceramic, magnetic, electric, optical materials, up to the so-called smart materials and nanomaterials. All sectors are dependant on them: construction, technology, logistics, medicine, communications, but also the arts, architecture, design.

On the strength of these premises, Fuso has written 14 chapters, dedicated to 14 materials and their uses – from the humblest and simplest to the most complex – smartly summarising the subject we now call “materials science” but that, after all, is no less than a journey through the history of manufacture, which is also the history of humankind.

Il segreto delle cose. Storie di uomini e materiali (The secret of things. Stories of individuals and materials)

Silvano Fuso

Carocci editore, 2021