Research Institute on Population and Social Policies

Article on the medium-term perceived effects of forced work from home

A research conducted among the staff of the National Research Council (CNR) on the perceived medium-term effects of forced work from home (WFH) on life and profession has been published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health: The medium-term perceived impact of work from home on life and work domains of knowledge workers during COVID-19 pandemic: A survey at the National Research Council of Italy.

More than 95% of the 748 respondents report that at least one area of ​​personal life has changed, a percentage that reaches 97% for perceived changes in at least one area of ​​professional life. These are mostly positive repercussions according to the participants.

The objective of the study - conducted in early 2022 by researchers from four CNR institutes in collaboration with the University of Genoa - was to evaluate how knowledge workers experienced the changes to their working habits after 18 months since the start of the restrictive measures related to the pandemic. The survey is part of the research, launched all over the world especially during the first lockdowns, on the well-being of workers.

How smart has working from home been during the pandemic?

The research was carried out through an online questionnaire. Among other things, CNR staff were asked to rate the impact of working from home on various areas from 1 (very negative) to 5 (very positive).

With respect to personal life, the quality of interpersonal relationships in the family and the lifestyle in general (including eating habits and health) benefited the most from working from home with 60% and 58% of responses being "very positive" or "positive". However, working from home does not seem to have had an impact on the quality of sleep and friendships (48% and 55% answer "none" respectively). The most frequent negative impact (20%) is instead recorded in relation to the psychological state. (Details of the answers in figure n.1)

Figure n.1: Responses relating to the impact of working from home on five areas of personal life.
We report the percentages without decimals to make reading more usable, the sum of the reported values ​​does not always add up to 100% due to rounding.

Professional level, ie respondents benefited from working from home in particular with respect to flexibility (organisation of personal workspace and personal workspace and working time management), initiative taking and quality of work. Three areas in which positive perceptions prevailed over both negative ones and lack of impact.

The participatory and relational aspects are those in which the perception of absence of impact prevails. At the same time, however, relationships with colleagues and participation in the work context are those that seem to have been most affected by the different working conditions and that have collected the largest number of negative responses (27% and 25%, respectively).

Figure n.2: Responses relating to the impact of working from home on seven areas of professional life.
We report the percentages without decimals to make reading more usable, the sum of the reported values ​​does not always add up to 100% due to rounding.

This perception was influenced by personal and organizational factors. In particular, the reduced number of days of face-to-face work and a longer commute time from home to work are associated with a positive perception of the impact of working from home on personal life. Even those who reduced their sedentary lifestyles rated the impact of working from home on all areas of their personal lives as positive. On the other hand, a negative perception is favored by having abandoned one's hobbies and having had to share the room used for work with other inhabitants of the house.

As the writer of the article points out, the results obtained suggest that measures to promote the physical and mental health of employees, strengthen inclusion and maintain a sense of community are needed for improve workers' health and prevent isolation perceived in research activities when recourse to working from home is envisaged, especially where work-life balance policies are lacking.

Read the full article.

Curated by Monia Torre with the scientific contribution of Pierpaolo Mincarone.

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Discriminations and inequalities

There is a close relationship between inequality and discrimination. As Therborn points out: “Inequality always means excluding some people from something. When it does not literally kill people or block their lives, inequality means exclusion: excluding people from the possibilities produced by human development” (Therborn, 2013: 21).

And unjustified exclusion is a form of discrimination which, if systematically exercised against minorities, leads to real forms of racial segregation. Particularly heinous forms of discrimination on the basis of "race" by political, economic or legal institutions and systems have occurred both in formally democratic political systems and in relatively recent times.

In the Southern United States, Jim Crow laws and legal racial segregation in public facilities existed from the late 1991th century until the XNUMXs; while in South Africa, the abolition of the main segregationist laws was ratified in XNUMX, bringing about the end of apartheid.

However, according to some authors (Bartoli, 2012), not even democratic societies governed by institutions based on the principles of equality and justice are exempt from forms of "systemic racism" (or "democratic"), which especially affect certain types of people (for example immigrants, Roma or even the extremely poor). 

In the Italian case, legal forms of exclusion derive to a significant extent from the way in which the country has faced the migration problem, referring it above all to a problem of public order. This approach has also had effects on the administrative practices (often rejections) of local administrations in terms of registry registration, - and consequently access to municipal welfare services - for certain categories of people in conditions of administrative irregularity, because they do not have registered residence and therefore of identification document.

This condition particularly characterizes the Bosnian component of the Roma population (who fled the war in the Balkans in the 90s), present in Rome.

Many families have no documents (they are de facto stateless), and have been living for a long time in camps that have been declared to be closed by the Capitoline administration. Their children, born and raised in Italy, must apply for a residence permit when they come of age to remain in the country. This request, however, often encounters obstacles at the immigration offices due to the lack of the requirement of the registered residence of the family; residence that is not granted by the registry offices if you live in camps officially declared to be closed. As third sector operators working with Roma underline:

“Those who have not yet gone out but would like to do so find themselves entangled in a vicious circle that is difficult to break”.

It is appropriate to underline how this situation has paradoxical consequences: if, on the one hand, it excludes this component of the population present from integration into the territorial community; on the other, it makes it permanently assisted, constantly exposing Roma to social stigma.

In any case, the difficulty of regularizing one's personal position is not only a problem of Roma: even immigrants who, due to the high cost of rents, decide to live in occupied buildings are unable to fix their registered residence.

In fact, article 5 of law 23 May 2014 n. 80 - containing "Urgent measures for the housing emergency, for the construction market and for Expo 2015" - the so-called Lupi law, prevents service companies from activating utilities in illegally occupied buildings, and therefore forbids establishing residence in those stable. Consequently, it does not allow the issuance of identity documents to homeless people.

(In this regard, precisely to allow people in conditions of fragility and housing precariousness to be able to register residence in occupied buildings, in Rome the mayor - who, it should be remembered, as a government official can promote administrative regularization as he has the obligation to correctly keep personal data records - has recently issued a directive aimed at allowing the administration to act in derogation of article 5 of the Lupi law. On this directive, however, the prefect of Rome has requested the establishment of a technical table for further information on its application.)

These cases, rather than describing forms of "systemic racism", highlight the limits of national migration policy, strongly conditioned by the declarations of migratory emergency and by the need to control entry flows. This situation has created a problem of implementation deficit (Macioti, Pugliese, 2005) that is to say poor implementation of integration policies for immigrants, even though they are formally envisaged by the consolidated text on immigration. This meant that migrants' rights – as Lydia Morris observes – “are no longer self-evident or absolute but are closely associated with control and are located on slippery ground subject to political negotiation” (cited in Macioti Pugliese, 20053rd ed.: 107). This means - as Pugliese underlines - that "if a more restrictive law - or simply a circular - is promulgated (which makes it more difficult to remain in a condition of regularity or which simply imposes new conditions and new documentation for access to a benefit ), immigrants can lose an already acquired right” (Macioti, Pugliese, 2005: 107).

Therefore, this situation determines conditions of discrimination for those categories (migrants, but not only) that are ill-suited to the conditions of merit set from time to time by governments.

Contribution by Dante Sabatino, on the occasion of the World Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination 2023.

REFERENCES

C. Bartoli, Racists by law. The Italy that discriminates, Editori Laterza, Rome-Bari 2012
MI Macioti, E. Pugliese, The migratory experience. Immigrants and refugees in Italy, Editori Laterza, Rome-Bari 20053rd ed.
G. Therborn, The Killing Fields of Inequality, Polity Press, Cambridge UK 2013

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Welfare and Ergonomics: call for papers

Magazine Welfare&Ergonomics opened the call for papers n.2, 2023 "Young people beyond stereotypes".

The changes that have characterized the last decades le western companies helped create a world in continuous and very rapid evolution in which generations constantly modify living conditions, needs, motivations. In particular, it was above all the young population that showed the most visible evolutionary trends compared to the past from a demographic, economic, social and cultural point of view. In the first three areas there are many studies that have highlighted the repercussions on the new generations; in the fourth, i.e. that which concerns the cultural aspects, the analyzes have instead often stopped at the description of the phenomena, but the attempts at critical reflection on youth culture, as an effect of structural or social transformations, are rather lacking and it is on these last aspects that the call intends to answer.

Potential authors of this issue of Welfare and Ergonomics are invited to submit an abstract of approximately 12 characters by 2023 April 3000.

For more information:

Welfare and Ergonomics – call Italian; call English .

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gEneSys – Public event and Kick off meeting

gEneSys (Transforming Gendered Interrelations of Power and Inequalities in Transition Pathways to Sustainable Energy Systems) is a Research and Innovation project (RIA) funded under the Horizon Europe Framework Programme (Cluster 2: Culture, creativity and inclusive society).

The project aims to contribute to the construction of more equitable, just and inclusive energy systems, with a focus on gender inequalities.

Project activities will officially begin on March 7 with thand kick-off meetings of project partners in Rome.

On March 8, 2023, the CNR Institute for Research on Population and Social Policies, together with project partners, is organizing a public event, open to all interested stakeholders (media, institutions, scientists, general public).

gEneSys is coordinated by the Institute for Research on Population and Social Policies – National Research Council of Italy (IRPPS-CNR), and has as partners: Venice International University (VIU), Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine (IC), Uniwersytet Jagiellonski (UJ), National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Forderung der Anegenwandten Forschung Ev (IAO), African Institute for Mathematical Science (AIMS), Portia GGMBH.

Read the full event programme.

Register for the public event by filling out the form.


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The role of post-normal science in contemporary society

What role does science play in the face of uncertain scientific facts, urgent decisions, high stakes and unshared values?
These questions will be at the center of the reflection of men and women scholars in the first meeting of the Workshop project of 2023.

The meeting is held on 21 February at the Faculty of Sociology of the University of Tor Vergata at 11.00.
It will be possible to follow the live streaming at the link bit.ly/3S52qgn.

Will intervene Silvio Funtowicz, a philosopher who developed – together with Jerry Ravetz – the concept of post-normal science, which proposes a new model of scientific investigation and science-society-political decision-makers relationship in situations characterized by uncertainty and urgency.

Speakers will also be: Bruna DeMarchi, expert in risk sociology; Valentina Tudisca e Claudia Pennacchiotti, IRPPS researchers; And Michela Mayer, of the Italian Association for Sustainability Science.

The scholars will moderate Claudia Hassan, University of Tor Vergata e Adriana Valente, IRPPS, and the meeting will be preceded by greetings from the IRPPS Director, Mario Paolucci and by the Director of the SPFS Department, Lucia Ceci.

Download program.

Follow the direct.

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Ar.Pa Project

Tiziana Tesauro, researcher of the IRPPS in Fisciano, participated today in the presentation of the project "Ar.Pa- Arte, Partecipazione, Abitanza", born from the collaboration between CNR-IRPPS of Fisciano, Ecosmed, the Cospecs department of the University of Messina and the coop. Giolli of Parma.

With the "theater of the oppressed" and "participated documentary" workshops, Ar.PA intends to continue and consolidate the processes of regeneration of the urban space and cultural participation that accompanied the birth of the "Giardino delle Zagare" in Fondo Saccà, today headquarters of the socio-educational center "Il Melograno".

Today's meeting, face to face with citizens and inhabitants, was the first step in continuing to design the social space together through art and social research.

Thu the laboratory brochure.

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