Research Institute on Population and Social Policies

A science for peace

World Science Day for Peace and Development, celebrated on November 10, invites us to focus our attention on the possible meanings and contents of the relationship between science, society and peace.

If starting from the 600th century science opened up to society, freeing itself to a large extent from the paradigm of secrecy, it is above all in the last century that – following the creation and use of the atomic bomb – new, serious questions emerged on the relationship between science and society and on the contribution of science to the constitution of peaceful societies.

Of course, it is not an easy or univocal discussion, yet it is first and foremost the scientific community that is questioning itself. To a scientist like Edward Teller, considered the father of the atomic bomb, we can contrast Jozef Roblatt, one of the ten physicists who signed the 1955 Russell-Einstein Manifesto against the proliferation of atomic weapons, which will help create the theoretical basis for a series of other important treaties limiting and even prohibiting nuclear weapons – the latter, which came into force in 2021, has not been signed by states that possess atomic weapons or that are part of military alliances based on nuclear deterrence.

If exponents of science and philosophy have long been working towards the creation of a European cultural space, modern science is also witness to the need of human collaboration: science is a highly interconnected global activity that lends itself well to building bonds and bridges, underlining what unites human beings beyond nationalisms.

Some examples: CERN, the world's most important research laboratory in the field of particle physics, was founded in 1954 by twelve European countries, a good three years before the Treaty of Rome, the birth certificate of the great European family, as Giorgio Parisi proudly noted.

Subsequently, in 2017, the Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory for the Middle East (SESAME) was inaugurated in Jordan – imagined years ago by the Pakistani Abdus Salam – in which scientists from warring countries work not only together, but for a common project, which benefits everyone.

Recently, the 2024 UN General Assembly resolution, Pact for the Future, while recognizing that advances in knowledge, science, technology and innovation could lead to a breakthrough towards a better and more sustainable future for all, nevertheless warns: the choice is ours.

In this perspective, the Department of Human and Social Sciences, Cultural Heritage of the CNR has established the Science and Dialogue Laboratory for Peace, which interprets the will of the scientific community to put its studies at the service of dialogue for peace and which is based on the awareness that science as a whole is a driving force of knowledge and that dialogue is central to the processes of building peaceful societies.

Some of the foundations of scientific practice such as collaboration, sharing of ideas and critical reflection are precious tools for managing conflicts and for warding off the outbreak of hatred, the transformation of the enemy into a criminal and similar aberrations that Morin defines as war hysteria.

Peace, John Galtung, founder of peace studies, reminded us, is not only the absence of war; the concept of peace includes everything that, oriented towards the prevention of war, is aimed at building peaceful societies, which includes a variety of factors, including the promotion of social justice and labor policies, freedom of expression, respect for gender identities, education, the fight against poverty, human and minors' rights, sustainable development.

At the same time, in order for scientific innovation processes to be aligned with the values, needs and expectations of society, it is necessary for society as a whole to be able to understand and deal with the scope of scientific innovation in all its aspects, promoting a cultural emancipation that allows the transition from users of innovative products to people able to make informed choices regarding their individual and social sphere. The relationship between science and society cannot be based only on scientific information and dissemination, but on the conscious use of scientific knowledge in order to implement an informed exercise of citizenship rights, as Pietro Greco indicated.

For this reason, an attitude of trust in a science perceived not as magical, but profane, tangible is increasingly necessary; it is this that is related to educational and knowledge levels, as we have indicated in the CNR Report on the state of research in Italy (Valente, Tudisca, Pennacchiotti https://www.dsu.cnr.it/relazione-sulla-ricerca-e-linnovazione-in-italia/ ). This is a more mature vision of science, more closely linked to an active and proactive attitude on the part of civil society.

Adriana Valente

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Genera 2025 Competition

The competition “Beyond gender stereotypes and towards the professions of the future: women and research in physics” is now open for students of secondary schools and organized by CNR – IRPPS and INFN – National Institute of Nuclear Physics with the support of the Mind the Geps project, to raise awareness on gender issues and the opportunities offered by the study of Physics through both basic research and its countless applications in the technological, medical, cultural, financial fields etc.

Participants, individually or in groups and with the coordination of the teacher, will have to develop a short video on one of the following topics: Women and Science, Between Stereotypes and Prejudices o Scientists who change the world for the two-year period, and Gender Bias in Innovation o Gender, Science and Media for the three-year period.

Deadline to join: January 31, 2025
Project Submission Deadline: March 10, 2025

The complete announcement with the indications on how to participate, technical requirements of the videos and description of the themes is available on the website: https://genera.sites.lngs.infn.it/ .

In order to offer an opportunity to delve deeper into the topics covered by the call, the GENERA NETWORK group is organising a free online teacher training course by Title STEM disciplines: between professions of the future and gender gap. Participation in the course and the competition will allow you to obtain certification for a training activity of at least 24 hours. More details on the course, which will take place between December 2024 and January 2025, will soon be available on the website: https://genera.sites.lngs.infn.it/.

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Presentation of the book “First to the Italians”

Thursday 14th November, 14.30pm

G. Marconi Library – CNR, Piazzale Aldo Moro 7, Rome

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Changing School Through Theatre

To celebrate the World Teachers' Day, researcher Tiziana Tesauro talks to us about the ways in which the school space, the teaching and learning processes, the role and relationship of teachers and students can be rethought thanks to theatre.

In the contribution, Changing School Through Theatre. Non-school and Arrevuoto, written for the magazine “Scuola Democratica”, Tiziana Tesauro and Alfonso Amendola, analyze the cases of two theater companies, Teatro delle Albe and Punta Corsara, empirically showing how theater carries out its educational function precisely by subverting the order of discourses, the logic of power and the routines of school practices. In this performative process there is no knowledge to transmit but an experience to do and, in this way, the school space can be rethought through the theater space.

To celebrate the World Teachers' Day, researcher Tiziana Tesauro talks to us about the ways in which the school space, the teaching and learning processes, the role and relationship of teachers and students can be rethought thanks to theatre.

In the contribution, Changing School Through Theatre. Non-school and Arrevuoto, written for the magazine “Scuola Democratica”, Tiziana Tesauro and Alfonso Amendola, analyze the cases of two theater companies, Teatro delle Albe and Punta Corsara, empirically showing how theater carries out its educational function precisely by subverting the order of discourses, the logic of power and the routines of school practices. In this performative process there is no knowledge to transmit but an experience to do and, in this way, the school space can be rethought through the theater space.

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Labor exploitation, rights and health in contemporary society

Welfare & Ergonomics Issue 1/2024
edited by Marco Omizzolo

The monographic issue of the magazine Welfare & Ergonomic spaces and furniture 1/2024 dedicated to “Labor exploitation, rights and health in contemporary society” (Franco Angeli), offers reflections on the labor market and its evolution in contemporary forms of exploitation and marginalization.

The 10 contributions proposed allow us to frame this phenomenon in terms of a restructuring of Western society itself, of the social pact that constitutes and gives it shape and of the specific type of capitalism that organizes it. As the editor of the volume, Marco Omizzolo, underlines, the exploitation of labor can no longer be considered exceptional, "that is, as a short circuit of a labor market that actually works. No, on the contrary, all the analyses that embrace different sectors of the labor market, from logistics to agricultural work to domestic care work, reflect also starting from life stories on working conditions systematically based on marginality, vulnerability, blackmail and that also embrace from a quantitative point of view a dramatically growing number of people, male and female workers".

How to quote

Marco Omizzolo (edited by), 2024. “WELFARE AND ERGONOMICS” 1/2024, Milan: Franco Angeli, DOI: 10.3280/WE2024-001003

The following are proposed: LONG ABSTRACT in English language of the articles. La full-length magazine It can be purchased on the publisher Franco Angeli's website.

Open section

The complete magazine is available on the website Franco Angeli

This monographic issue also marked an important passage for the life of the magazine Welfare & Ergonomia, whose direction has passed from the founder Antonella CiociaPietro Demurtas e Anna Millione (CNR-IRPPS) who will continue to share it with Mara Tognetti (Catholic University of Milan), and which has become part of the editorial projects financed by CNR-DSU. These innovations were presented on September 27, 2024, at the Marconi Hall of the CNR.

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Hyperconnection in Adolescence – Audio Abstract

The study analyzes data from two representative cross-sectional surveys conducted among Italian adolescents in 2019 and 2022, as part of the Youth Trends Observatory. The study examines changes in time spent on social media screens, identifies the main socio-demographic predictors of hyperconnectivity, and explores its effects on young people's relational and psychological well-being.

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Presentation of the book “Against illiberal democracy”

Wednesday 25th September, 11.30am – 13.00pm

Europe Hall – CNR-IRPPS

The author, Alexander Mulieri, will dialogue with Daniele Archibugi, Gianni Cuperlo, Maria Grasso e Tommaso Visone.

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Labor exploitation, rights and health in contemporary society

27 September 2024

h. 09.30pm – 13.00pm

Aula Marconi, CNR headquarters, Rome

Among the interventions there will be that of Marco Omizzolo who edited the issue, of Anna Milione, Pietro Demurtas and Mara Tognetti who co-direct the magazine, and of Salvatore Capasso, director of the CNR-DSU.

Welfare & Ergonomics, recognized as an A Anvur magazine, was born as an IRPPS editorial project and is published by FrancoAngeli.

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Call for papers – 1/2025 – Welfare & Ergonomics

The call for contributions to the next issue of the magazine is now open Welfare & Ergonomics, dedicated to “Social agriculture between new and old social work practices, theoretical perspectives and policy innovations”, edited by Angela Genova and Tiziana Tarsia.

The issue will collect theoretical contributions and empirical research (both subject to peer review) related to:

  • case studies at local, national and international level capable of producing critical reflections that highlight the challenges in the implementation of social agriculture, with a multidisciplinary approach
  • study of policies and their effects with a specific focus on national and regional regulatory contexts and practices that connect some emerging themes such as innovation processes in the primary sector and the differentiation of agricultural activities, the energy transition, the return to agricultural activities of young people, attention to well-being and the environment in a one health perspective
  • analysis of the results of social research evaluating the experiences of social agriculture as a device for rehabilitation processes and social participation of disadvantaged people, but also for the promotion of community activities and social cohesion.

Potential authors of this issue of Welfare & Ergonomics are invited to submit an abstract of approximately 25 characters by September 2024, 3000, and, if accepted, the full contribution by 20 January 2025.

Read full call (English).

Born from a CNR-IRPPS project, Welfare & Ergonomics It is a biannual magazine published by Franco Angeli and recognized in 2017 in class A of ANVUR for the field of Political and Social Sciences.

For information and contacts: welfarergonomia.rel@irpps.cnr.it.

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FOSSR – PNRR Market Exploratory Survey

CNR-IRPPS is proceeding with a'exploratory market research aimed at collecting informal estimates, to identify an economic operator to whom to possibly entrust the supply of a service for the acquisition of lists of names of the Italian population through electoral lists and vaccination centers.

This service is part of the project "FOSSR – Fostering Open Science in Social Science Research”, funded under the NATIONAL RECOVERY AND RESILIENCE PLAN (PNRR) MISSION 4, “EDUCATION AND RESEARCH” – COMPONENT 2, “FROM RESEARCH TO BUSINESS” – INVESTMENT LINE 3.1, “FUND FOR THE CREATION OF AN INTEGRATED SYSTEM OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION INFRASTRUCTURES”, FINANCED BY THE EUROPEAN UNION – NEXTGENERATIONEU FOSSR PROJECT.

The object of the service is the provision of lists of names and related contact addresses necessary for the implementation of 4 surveys, foreseen by WP4 of the FOSSR project.

The deadline for submitting the estimate is September 16th.

Read thefull notice

Go to CNR URP page.

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