Italian universities,Fascism and the promotion of corporative studies

This article deals with a specific aspect of the development of corporativism as ‘unofficial’ doctrine of Fascist Italy: its presence in Italian universities. It argues that corporatist schools followed the fortune of the ideals they were called to represent, which were definitely eclipsed by the mid-1930s, when the economic crisis called for more direct and effective forms of state intervention in economic life. In the universities, the rise of corporativism as a specific field of study, and the broader project of creating an ideologically educated future ruling class, challenged the domination exercised by the powerful faculties of law in particular, which traditionally were the key paths for access to the legal profession and the civil service. The resistance of the conservative university establishment meant that the plans to promote corporatist curricula had failed well before the fall of the regime, but many of those appointed to teach Corporative Studies under Fascism maintained their academic positions in Italy's ‘de-Fascistized’ post-war law faculties, and made innovative contributions to Italian social and economic thought.     

Learning from L'Aquila: grassroots mobilization in post-earthquake Emilia-Romagna

In this article I analyse how a number of Italian, left-wing youth groups (centri sociali) reacted to the earthquake that struck the Emilia-Romagna region in 2012, forcing thousands of people to relocate into the tendopoli camps run by the Italian Civil Protection (Protezione Civile). The centri sociali promoted an alternative, grassroots project of emergency management which built both on a negative, collective memory of the problematic reconstruction process following the 2009 earthquake in L'Aquila, and on the role model of the No Tav protest movement in Piedmont. This led the centri sociali to move away from the urban territory and from the global battles that have long marked radical left-wing political activism, engaging instead in a more locally rooted project that clashes with the die-hard image of left-wing antagonism. Why have these groups taken their battle into the country side? Are we witnessing a (re)turn to a more local protest culture?     

Obsidian source characterization in the Cordillera Real and eastern piedmont of the north Ecuadorian Andes

Recent research in the Quijos and Cosanga valleys of the eastern piedmont of Ecuador’s Cordillera Real has revealed and substantiated previous knowledge of obsidian sources that are unrelated to obsidian flow systems in the Sierra de Guamaní, Ecuador. Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) and X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) were carried out on 47 obsidian source samples collected from several contexts in and adjacent to the study area. From samples within the study area three distinct obsidians were characterized: Cosanga A, Cosanga B, and Bermejo. These obsidians originate from a number of obsidian-bearing rhyolitic domes recently identified in the hills west of the Río Cosanga. Extensive survey of these dome localities has identified obsidian cobbles large enough for formal and informal tool manufacture. Beyond the study area, samples were collected and analyzed from the El Tablón source in the Sierra de Guamaní, providing much needed data on this poorly understood source. In addition, a sample from the newly identified Conda Dome source, near the Cotopaxi volcano, was characterized with XRF. All samples were then compared to 57 pre-existing samples from the Mullumica–Callejones, Yanaurco–Quiscatola and Carboncillo sources in the Ecuadoran Cordillera Real, as well as to artifacts from the Sumaco area in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Results of the elemental characterization indicate that the Cosanga Valley, El Tablón and Conda Dome obsidians are chemically distinct. Further, visual characteristics of Cosanga Valley obsidian types are useful in source attribution for the large artifact samples from the region. Finally, obsidian collected from the El Tablón flow suggests that this source may have produced obsidian suitable for tool manufacture.