Family Life and Individual Welfare in Post-war Europe, 2007
At a conference on ‘Freedom and secularism’ held in Italy in October 2005, Pope Benedict XVI remi... more At a conference on ‘Freedom and secularism’ held in Italy in October 2005, Pope Benedict XVI reminded his audience that fundamental rights are not created by human laws, but are inherent in the very nature of the human person and have their ultimate source in God. Although the Pope had simply re-asserted a long-standing Catholic principle, his statement made newspapers’ headlines. The Pope chose to make his re-assertion at a conference organised by the then President of the Italian Senate, which had brought together a number of representatives of the centre-right coalition government in power at the time. Moreover, Benedict XVI’s pronouncement fell in the middle of a heated public debate regarding the extent to which it was legitimate for the Italian Catholic Church to intervene in the country’s political life. A national referendum on assisted reproductive technologies held a few months earlier had already raised angry voices about the church’s open advocacy of the restrictive legislation recently adopted by the government. After the Pope’s new declaration, liberal newspapers speculated whether the church was not trying to make sure that ‘Italian laws were compatible with divine projects’.1 The issue was not new to a country where the church had exercised a powerful and long-lasting influence over the regulation of issues connected with family life, sexuality and reproduction.
L’incapacità dell’Italia nel confrontarsi con il proprio declino dovrebbe essere attribuita ad un... more L’incapacità dell’Italia nel confrontarsi con il proprio declino dovrebbe essere attribuita ad una serie di problemi cronici, non solo economici, che non sono mai stati affrontati seriamente dalla società e dalla classe politica. Nonostante una costante presenza di questi temi nel discorso pubblico, la mancanza di un approccio analitico ne ha favorito una trattazione superficiale e retorica. Il tema comune dell’incompiutezza dei tentativi di soluzione unisce i diversi problemi trattati in questa ‘special issue’: dalla riforma federale dello stato alla mancata riconciliazione politica, dai problemi delle regioni meridionali alle politiche della famiglia. Questa ‘special issue’ si propone dunque di analizzare alcuni dei problemi irrisolti pi u critici cercando almeno parzialmente di illuminare le tante ombre che ancora persistono nel paese della dolce vita.
Il numero si chiude con due articoli dedicati al tema delle politiche di natalita in Gran Bretagn... more Il numero si chiude con due articoli dedicati al tema delle politiche di natalita in Gran Bretagna e negli USA. Nel primo, Stefania Bernini si sofferma sulla nascita del Welfare State nel dopoguerra, illustrando il dibattito che ha accompagnato le varie politiche di sostegno alla maternita.
- Family, Sexuality, Reproduction: an Unsolved Puzzle discusses the relationship between family h... more - Family, Sexuality, Reproduction: an Unsolved Puzzle discusses the relationship between family history, gender studies and the studies of sexualities. Its starting point is the consideration that, perhaps surprisingly, disciplines and research interests apparently close have struggled to find a common language and a fruitful cooperation. Moving from a perspective of family history, this article explores causes and consequences of this apparent difficulty in finding a common ground between scholars of family, gender and sexuality and the possibility of overcoming it.Keywords: Family, Sexuality, Reproduction, Gender studies, Historiography, History.Parole chiave: Famiglia, Sessualitŕ, Riproduzione, Studi di genere, Storiografia, Storia.
Family Life and Individual Welfare in Post-war Europe, 2007
For the greater part of the post-war period an overall agreement seemed to exist on what the fami... more For the greater part of the post-war period an overall agreement seemed to exist on what the family is and how it differs from other forms of social arrangements. Recent political discourses and subsequent legislative changes throughout Europe, however, have appeared to have the potential to erode or even break this long-standing consensus.
Summary At the end of the Second World War, politicians and social observers apprehensively consi... more Summary At the end of the Second World War, politicians and social observers apprehensively considered the condition of the family and its destiny and role in post-war Italy. As well as informing political discourses and sociological examinations, the family became a privileged terrain for medical and psychological enquiry, with particular attention given to parenthood and the maternal role of women. The article explores the role played by religious and medical authorities in shaping narratives of parental responsibilities during the post-war years. The interplay of biology and morality in medical discourse and Catholic teaching is discussed in the context of debates about motherhood and the management of childbirth. Particular attention is given to discussions about the use of pain relief in labour and the reception by Italian Catholic gynaecologists of the so-called ‘natural childbirth method’, advocated during the post-war period by a number of European and American practitioners.
Editoriale di Stefano oliviero Educazione, scuola e consumo Stefano oliviero, I consumi e la stor... more Editoriale di Stefano oliviero Educazione, scuola e consumo Stefano oliviero, I consumi e la storia dell'educazione DaviDe Baviello, Storia dell'educazione alimentare in Italia nel Novecento elena MareScotti, Tempo libero e qualità del consumo culturale: aspetti politico-educativi nella Recreational Theory di E.C. Lindeman livia roMano, L'educazione familiare e il consumo del cinema negli anni Cinquanta tra Nord e Sud d'Italia eMiliano Macinai, I diritti dei bambini nella società dei consumi: protezione e partecipazione Juri MeDa, Genesi ed evoluzione dei consumi scolastici in Italia tra XIX e XX secolo Graziano MaMone, La mercificazione dell'infanzia nella Guerra di Libia. 1911-1912 DoMenico franceSco antonio elia, Per una mappatura del consumo degli attrezzi ginnici e sportivi nella scuola italiana: i marchi e i brevetti delle aziende italiane nel Ventennio fascista (1922-1943) Gianluca GaBrielli, La rivoluzione dei consumi vista attraverso i problemi scolastic...
... On De Gasperi's political project in relation to the Catholic Church, see Martina (1977 ... more ... On De Gasperi's political project in relation to the Catholic Church, see Martina (1977 ... legal constraints (such as divorce proceedings or because they are of the same sex), or because of financial considerations; on the changing patterns of cohabitation in Italy, see Zanatta (1997 ...
The Second World War represented a complete collapse of the ethical and moral order upon which mu... more The Second World War represented a complete collapse of the ethical and moral order upon which much of Europe’s narrative had been constructed over time. As well as material and political reconstruction, postwar recovery required the creation of new narratives, able to mend the existential disarray created by the war, and to put forward a vision of a future that would significantly break with the past. The aim of this essay is to explore how references to children contributed to give meaning to a notion of postwar reconstruction that encompassed the material and symbolic realms. The argument is that in the devastated landscape left by the war, references to children were ambivalent and on the one hand stressed vulnerability and guiltlessness, while also underlining children’s threatening otherness. It was an ambiguous fascination that saw in children both the emblem of innocent martyrdom and the personification of a dangerous disorder that had to be overcome. Restoring children to t...
The article explores the relationship between children and consumption in 1960s and 1970s Poland.... more The article explores the relationship between children and consumption in 1960s and 1970s Poland. This is a rich and complex historical context, in which both the notion of childhood and that of consumption carried multiple and contradictory meanings.Based on ordinary people’s life stories, the article explores the different meanings attributed to child consumption, at the crossroad of private and public narratives.It is argued that the question of children’s consumption offers a key perspective for the understanding of the political and social transformations that took place in postwar Poland, and that conversely, the specific framework provided by the People’s Republic forces to rethink some strong assumptions about the nature and meaning of consumption in the postwar era.In particular, I suggest that the issue of children’s consumption highlighted the transformations taking place within Polish families, both in the relationships internal to the household and in those taking place...
Family Life and Individual Welfare in Post-war Europe, 2007
At a conference on ‘Freedom and secularism’ held in Italy in October 2005, Pope Benedict XVI remi... more At a conference on ‘Freedom and secularism’ held in Italy in October 2005, Pope Benedict XVI reminded his audience that fundamental rights are not created by human laws, but are inherent in the very nature of the human person and have their ultimate source in God. Although the Pope had simply re-asserted a long-standing Catholic principle, his statement made newspapers’ headlines. The Pope chose to make his re-assertion at a conference organised by the then President of the Italian Senate, which had brought together a number of representatives of the centre-right coalition government in power at the time. Moreover, Benedict XVI’s pronouncement fell in the middle of a heated public debate regarding the extent to which it was legitimate for the Italian Catholic Church to intervene in the country’s political life. A national referendum on assisted reproductive technologies held a few months earlier had already raised angry voices about the church’s open advocacy of the restrictive legislation recently adopted by the government. After the Pope’s new declaration, liberal newspapers speculated whether the church was not trying to make sure that ‘Italian laws were compatible with divine projects’.1 The issue was not new to a country where the church had exercised a powerful and long-lasting influence over the regulation of issues connected with family life, sexuality and reproduction.
L’incapacità dell’Italia nel confrontarsi con il proprio declino dovrebbe essere attribuita ad un... more L’incapacità dell’Italia nel confrontarsi con il proprio declino dovrebbe essere attribuita ad una serie di problemi cronici, non solo economici, che non sono mai stati affrontati seriamente dalla società e dalla classe politica. Nonostante una costante presenza di questi temi nel discorso pubblico, la mancanza di un approccio analitico ne ha favorito una trattazione superficiale e retorica. Il tema comune dell’incompiutezza dei tentativi di soluzione unisce i diversi problemi trattati in questa ‘special issue’: dalla riforma federale dello stato alla mancata riconciliazione politica, dai problemi delle regioni meridionali alle politiche della famiglia. Questa ‘special issue’ si propone dunque di analizzare alcuni dei problemi irrisolti pi u critici cercando almeno parzialmente di illuminare le tante ombre che ancora persistono nel paese della dolce vita.
Il numero si chiude con due articoli dedicati al tema delle politiche di natalita in Gran Bretagn... more Il numero si chiude con due articoli dedicati al tema delle politiche di natalita in Gran Bretagna e negli USA. Nel primo, Stefania Bernini si sofferma sulla nascita del Welfare State nel dopoguerra, illustrando il dibattito che ha accompagnato le varie politiche di sostegno alla maternita.
- Family, Sexuality, Reproduction: an Unsolved Puzzle discusses the relationship between family h... more - Family, Sexuality, Reproduction: an Unsolved Puzzle discusses the relationship between family history, gender studies and the studies of sexualities. Its starting point is the consideration that, perhaps surprisingly, disciplines and research interests apparently close have struggled to find a common language and a fruitful cooperation. Moving from a perspective of family history, this article explores causes and consequences of this apparent difficulty in finding a common ground between scholars of family, gender and sexuality and the possibility of overcoming it.Keywords: Family, Sexuality, Reproduction, Gender studies, Historiography, History.Parole chiave: Famiglia, Sessualitŕ, Riproduzione, Studi di genere, Storiografia, Storia.
Family Life and Individual Welfare in Post-war Europe, 2007
For the greater part of the post-war period an overall agreement seemed to exist on what the fami... more For the greater part of the post-war period an overall agreement seemed to exist on what the family is and how it differs from other forms of social arrangements. Recent political discourses and subsequent legislative changes throughout Europe, however, have appeared to have the potential to erode or even break this long-standing consensus.
Summary At the end of the Second World War, politicians and social observers apprehensively consi... more Summary At the end of the Second World War, politicians and social observers apprehensively considered the condition of the family and its destiny and role in post-war Italy. As well as informing political discourses and sociological examinations, the family became a privileged terrain for medical and psychological enquiry, with particular attention given to parenthood and the maternal role of women. The article explores the role played by religious and medical authorities in shaping narratives of parental responsibilities during the post-war years. The interplay of biology and morality in medical discourse and Catholic teaching is discussed in the context of debates about motherhood and the management of childbirth. Particular attention is given to discussions about the use of pain relief in labour and the reception by Italian Catholic gynaecologists of the so-called ‘natural childbirth method’, advocated during the post-war period by a number of European and American practitioners.
Editoriale di Stefano oliviero Educazione, scuola e consumo Stefano oliviero, I consumi e la stor... more Editoriale di Stefano oliviero Educazione, scuola e consumo Stefano oliviero, I consumi e la storia dell'educazione DaviDe Baviello, Storia dell'educazione alimentare in Italia nel Novecento elena MareScotti, Tempo libero e qualità del consumo culturale: aspetti politico-educativi nella Recreational Theory di E.C. Lindeman livia roMano, L'educazione familiare e il consumo del cinema negli anni Cinquanta tra Nord e Sud d'Italia eMiliano Macinai, I diritti dei bambini nella società dei consumi: protezione e partecipazione Juri MeDa, Genesi ed evoluzione dei consumi scolastici in Italia tra XIX e XX secolo Graziano MaMone, La mercificazione dell'infanzia nella Guerra di Libia. 1911-1912 DoMenico franceSco antonio elia, Per una mappatura del consumo degli attrezzi ginnici e sportivi nella scuola italiana: i marchi e i brevetti delle aziende italiane nel Ventennio fascista (1922-1943) Gianluca GaBrielli, La rivoluzione dei consumi vista attraverso i problemi scolastic...
... On De Gasperi's political project in relation to the Catholic Church, see Martina (1977 ... more ... On De Gasperi's political project in relation to the Catholic Church, see Martina (1977 ... legal constraints (such as divorce proceedings or because they are of the same sex), or because of financial considerations; on the changing patterns of cohabitation in Italy, see Zanatta (1997 ...
The Second World War represented a complete collapse of the ethical and moral order upon which mu... more The Second World War represented a complete collapse of the ethical and moral order upon which much of Europe’s narrative had been constructed over time. As well as material and political reconstruction, postwar recovery required the creation of new narratives, able to mend the existential disarray created by the war, and to put forward a vision of a future that would significantly break with the past. The aim of this essay is to explore how references to children contributed to give meaning to a notion of postwar reconstruction that encompassed the material and symbolic realms. The argument is that in the devastated landscape left by the war, references to children were ambivalent and on the one hand stressed vulnerability and guiltlessness, while also underlining children’s threatening otherness. It was an ambiguous fascination that saw in children both the emblem of innocent martyrdom and the personification of a dangerous disorder that had to be overcome. Restoring children to t...
The article explores the relationship between children and consumption in 1960s and 1970s Poland.... more The article explores the relationship between children and consumption in 1960s and 1970s Poland. This is a rich and complex historical context, in which both the notion of childhood and that of consumption carried multiple and contradictory meanings.Based on ordinary people’s life stories, the article explores the different meanings attributed to child consumption, at the crossroad of private and public narratives.It is argued that the question of children’s consumption offers a key perspective for the understanding of the political and social transformations that took place in postwar Poland, and that conversely, the specific framework provided by the People’s Republic forces to rethink some strong assumptions about the nature and meaning of consumption in the postwar era.In particular, I suggest that the issue of children’s consumption highlighted the transformations taking place within Polish families, both in the relationships internal to the household and in those taking place...
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