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Copyright of Il Capitale Culturale: Studies on the Value of Cultural Heritage is the property of Il Capitale Culturale Studies on the Value of Cultural Heritage and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Benefits and well-being perceived by green spaces users during heat waves. In urban environments, green spaces have proven to act as ameliorating factors of some climatic features related to heat stress, reducing their effects and providing comfortable outdoor settings for people. In addition, green spaces have demonstrated greater capacity, compared with built-up areas, for promoting human health and well-being. In this paper, we present results of a study conducted in Italy with the general goal to contribute to the theoretical and empirical rationale for linking green spaces with well-being in urban environments. Specifically, the study focused on the physical and psychological benefits and the general well-being associated with the use of green spaces on people when heat stress episodes are more likely to occur. A questionnaire was set up and administered to users of selected green spaces in Italy (metropolitan area of Milan and Bari - n=400). Results indicate that longer and frequent visits of green spaces generate significant improvements of the perceived benefits and well-being among users. These results are consistent with the idea that the use of green spaces could alleviate the perception of thermal discomfort during periods of heat stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the elements on which the success of the cognitive-cultural economy in the Milan metropolitan area is based, focusing in particular on the importance of interactions and social networks. We present the relationship between social capital and local development with respect to the social transformations characteristic of the post-Fordist economy; the objective is to determine to what extent traditional research concepts and hypotheses are still capable of serving as effective instruments for the analysis of contemporary society. We thus investigate the most innovative and representative segment of the contemporary urban economy, in particular its relational elements, in order to understand how the city sustains (or hinders) the emergence or development of the local economy. The analysis of social relations within communities proves to be a key element in the effort to construct an image of the complexity of urban development in the post-Fordist economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sociologia del Lavoro is the property of FrancoAngeli srl and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article discusses the future of the second and third generations in Italy by developing a generational perspective. Through the adoption of a constructionist theoretical approach, informed by works on globalization and the new social movements, it tries to advance beyond the limits of theories and observations at time of fordism, based on concepts of either assimilation or integration. The paper presents an on-going research on students of foreign origins who attend high schools in Milan. By doing so, it focuses on the specificity of the Italian situation and it highlights new and innovative forms of identification, as they are changing alongside current ideas of belonging, membership, citizenship and difference. Hence, the actual experience of the second and third generations, and their new forms of identification, emerge as a useful starting point to understand some peculiarities of the contemporary world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the active role of the baby consumer with in places of consumption, through the first results of an ethnographic study conducted with 60 children in various Milan clothing stores. The analyses focused on how baby consumers were able to subvert the ordinary meanings of spaces, products and exhibition structures through a number of practices that have been labeled as playful re-appropriation of spaces and goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper relays the results of an empirical study investigating the way in which consumers the public areas with a suburban shopping complex in Milan. By using a dual perspective of analysis, semiotics and ethno graphics. A side from this the efficiently organizing the space of these micro areas and inscribed logic of fruition, which tries to trace the use of these spaces effectively, with the aid of this empirical study beyond presupposed strategies. The aim of this survey is achieve an understanding of the complexed process of negotiations involving the planning for a commercial shopping centre and the practical process to which consumers attach meaning and value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses intercultural miscommunication from a micro-sociological perspective. Drawing on an empirical research that was done in some public services for foreign immigrants in Milan, it starts introducing the main perspectives from which the relations between miscommunication and cultural diversity are usually studied. Then it focuses on how the perception of heterogeneous language competences, background commonsense knowledge and cultural traits can stress the taken for granted assumptions which assure shared meanings and common understanding in ordinary everyday interactions. Putting into brackets the relevance per se of cultural differences as a good explanation for intercultural miscommunications, it investigates how people who experience it accounts for misunderstanding. Particular attention is devoted to incongruent definitions of situations and their management, as well as to difficulties to attach social attributes to people, when language competences are difficult to evaluate, shared communication schemata can not be assumed as resources at hand and cultural differences are supposed to shape social action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on a research conducted in order to determine the integration of immigrated women with the existent socio-economic structure in Milan, Italy. The research is meant to demonstrate how the institutional factors can influence on the processes of economic integration of immigrants. It also aims to demonstrate the relation between the economic and social integration of immigrants. In the corporative welfare systems, job is regarded as the principal instrument of social inclusion of immigrants that results in social disparity.