Registrations are now open for gEneSys Autumn School: Gender and Intersectional Inequalities in Energy Transition, which will be held at the Venice International University (SAW) 6 from October to 10 2025.

Registration will be open until March 31, 2025.

The course is aimed at students (Master and PhD), early-stage researchers and post-docs (in STEM and SSH fields), and science communicators. The course aims to explore the social, economic and political dimensions of the energy transition through a gender and intersectional lens, providing tools and insights to integrate these perspectives into research or professional work. Workshops and scenario building sessions are planned in an interdisciplinary and international setting.

There are no participation costs.

All information and registration form are available on VIU website.

Training modules

• Building evidence: What the scientific literature says about the link between gender and energy; a new ontology of energy systems, designed to explore the multidisciplinary nature of this field and the interconnections between its various components; and a gender analysis of the scientific community working on the energy transition, highlighting gender inequalities in researcher participation and knowledge creation.
• Policy and cooperation: Gender and intersectional analysis of EU policies and cooperation agreements between the EU and Africa on green energy and infrastructure.
• Analytical Model: Intersections between socio-economic inequalities in citizens' behaviors and energy use.
• Textbook analysis: Analysis of educational materials on energy transition and gender inequalities in textbooks and curricula.
• Building a credible pathway: How to build alternative and inclusive pathways for the energy transition.

The school is promoted within the Horizon gEneSys Project “Transforming Gendered Interrelations of Power and Inequalities in Transition Pathways to Sustainable Energy Systems”, which sees the coordination of:

• National Institute for Research on Population and Social Policies of the CNR (CNR-IRPPS)

And the participation of:

• National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA)
• Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering, Center for Responsible Research and Innovation (IAO-CeRRI)
• Imperial College
• Jagiellonian University
• Portia
• Venice International University

Since summer 2023, IRPPS-CNR has been operating in the Frentana area with the project Active Citizenship in Europe.

We have immersed ourselves in a context that in the eyes of an observer passes for a best practice, with all its peculiarities. As such, it seemed the territory most likely to receive our objective: to imagine and implement actions to support the inclusive capacities of local systems with regard to the Roma.

Activism and political participation concretely summarize the concept of inclusion that we mean more specifically and qualify our action to contrast theanti-gypsyism. The Abruzzo region between Lanciano and Pescara was in fact chosen for the high level of integration of approximately 9 of the 10 families of Roma origin present in the area. The members of these families are not only well integrated into the social fabric of the city where they reside, but they all have stable and long-standing incomes, with personalities who hold highly specialized and responsible roles within the companies, such as Roberto Spinelli, head of personnel at the D'Orsogna factory, and Moreno di Rocco, chemist responsible for quality control for the DeCecco pasta factory. From this point of view, the existence of a good practice has indeed been found, in the sense that the Roma community in the area does not suffer from a deficit of primary needs and generally has an income from work, but this condition is often paid for at the price of hiding one's Roma identity, when one is not betrayed by one's surname.

In practice, the well-being and potential development of this good practice was ensured by the hidden identity.

Several meetings were held between 2023 and 2024; to understand the material and immaterial needs of the local Roma community, to understand the reasons of the political agents (opinion leaders and stakeholders) what problems they encountered with the community to arrive over time at the construction of a common action plan, with practical actions aimed at improving the socio-cultural conditions of the Frentana Roma community. In these meetings we tried to translate our objectives into concrete actions and measures capable of giving a turning point to this relational status quo in defense of an identity to which the EU, which finances the project, recognizes full citizenship.

We did the same with the so-called local stakeholders, trying to mediate between mutual expectations with Focus Groups focused on Roma activism, providing examples from all over Europe.
The next step was to establish the basis for a shared action plan between the Frentana Roma community and local institutions, through Mutual Learning and Mentoring meetings, where the Roma of the Frentana area also met with the six Roma and Sinti candidates for the last European and administrative elections in June 2024.

The path taken, even if the political plan still needs to be implemented in the various municipalities, is still a success.

Not having imposed the presence of any member of the community and having accompanied the meetings with examples of Roma activism both on a European and Italian level has meant that the participants in the ACE meetings have almost doubled from the first to the last. As Santino Spinelli recalled, the hidden identity, which translates into a passivity in socio-political life in the local context, is a form of resistance and not a weakness. To stem it, the material and immaterial support of the institutions is essential, which must in this sense protect and safeguard those Roma and Romni who already have an income and are well integrated into the majority community and would be ready to claim their ethnicity.

But without the contribution of political decision-makers, it is more likely that the current situation will stagnate and that the inclusive path outlined by the project will not reach its conclusion, also because the institution, with its official communication channels, is the only one capable of fighting fake news or targeted news for instrumental and emergency purposes that the Italian media generally still make about the Roma people.

As a final step, in the final meeting of October 4, 2024, we asked Roma and stakeholders to classify in the order they consider most appropriate "the practical proposals that each of you consider most immediately achievable to stimulate our objectives and help local communities and institutions to promote and renew inclusive and anti-discriminatory paths".
Ratings range from 1 to 7, where 1 means immediately achievable and 7 means unachievable.
The proposals are: 1. Intercultural departments 2. Anti-discrimination councils in the province of Chieti 3. Hiring of a Rom/Romnì in the Municipality or in public offices, or as head of anti-discrimination desks or similar 4. Displaying the Rom flag in the Municipality on significant days of the Romani calendar (2 August, 5 October, 5 November, 8 April, 16 May) 5. Remembering the Rom contribution to the construction of the Italian State in speeches on national holidays (27 January, 25 April, 1 May, 2 June) 6. Communication and promotion campaign of Rom history and culture on institutional channels with videos and small information pages 7. Formal honours in the wake of symbolic citizenships to Rom people who have distinguished themselves in civil society and at work 8. “Open the doors: we are here”: a project for medium/long-term integration that includes Roma-themed days and moments of discussion between the Frentana Rom community, civil society and the institutions that represent both (festivals and musical/gastronomic initiatives).

The proposals that received the most votes 1, i.e. immediately implementable, were:
1. Remember the Roma contribution to the construction of the Italian state in speeches on national holidays (10 votes) 2. Display the Roma flag from the Municipality on significant days of the Romani calendar (9 votes) 3. Formal honors in the wake of symbolic citizenships to Roma people who have distinguished themselves in civil society and at work, “Open the doors”: a long-term project congiornate on inclusion, Department of Interculturality (8 votes).

To learn more about the sociological methodologies used in the meetings, to see the photos and reports of the various activities, please visit the website https://ace-project.eu/

Curated by Enrico Mascilli Migliorini

The CNR-IRPPS researcher, Angela Toffanin, contributed to the entry Gender Discrimination for the XI Appendix of the Italian Encyclopedia of Science, Letters and Arts, published by Treccani.

Toffanin carries out his research in our Institute, collaborating mainly with the Population, Gender and Society research group (Poges).

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

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/.

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.

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.