Search

Recensione di Massimiliano Mollona, Cristina Papa, Veronica Redini, Valeria Siniscalchi, Antropologia delle imprese: Lavoro, reti, merci, Roma, Carocci, 2021, pp. 220.

This article analyzes the transformations in tourism sector and in the workforce composition. Based on a research carried out in the hotel and tourism sector in Rimini through in-depth and semi-structured interviews, we argue that the forms of severe exploitation are related to both the recruitment and the reproduction process that occur mainly in the same place in which they perform their work, namely in hotels. In the last few years some of the hotel enterprises of the Rimini Riviera have turned to international manpower recruitment agencies. These workers often live in the same place where they work experimenting forms of social isolation. Despite these constraints, some migrant workers after suffering forms of severe abuse can be able, through social networks and unions, to rebuild own strategies of job and geographical mobility. The crucial element for the start of emancipatory processes, that can enable the enjoyment of certain citizenship rights seems to be the knowledge of the social environment and the availability of institutions and association in solidarity to support workers.

We report the case of a child with Noonan syndrome affected by hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and severe obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. The patient was born at 35 weeks gestational age (birth weight 3,340 g) and required mechanical ventilation. At the age of 4 years and 2 months, he was referred to our center for sleep cardiorespiratory polygraphy. His parents reported frequent obstructive sleep apnea, noisy respiration and snoring, oral breathing and falling asleep during the day. They were anxious that the child could die from asphyxiation during sleep. After the polygraph study had started, the patient began napping and immediately the polygraph showed several bouts of obstructive apnea and oxygen desaturation. He was referred for urgent adenotomy. At the age of 4 years and 5 months (3 months after surgery), the symptomatology and repeat sleep polygraph study showed a marked improvement. In conclusion, obstructive sleep apnea is a very hazardous condition for children with Noonan syndrome. They are a population at risk because of facial problems and cardiopathy. The real global incidence of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome in these children is unknown.

Not available.

In its long development the Italian cooperative movement went through slow and steady transformations, that have generally sheltered it from radical discontinuities. The different trends and political traditions that have become intertwined with the history of the cooperative movement highlight the flexibility of the cooperative principles which have been adapted on the basis of different situations, without being modified in their abstract outlines. In this paper we argue that the Italian cooperative movement on the one hand seems to have absorbed the principles of market economy through the adoption of organization of productions and functional structures similar to those of many capitalist companies. On the other hand Italian cooperative movement have developed a peculiar form of social action based on the institutionalization of postulates such as the mutual aid and solidarity.In short the cooperative form has historically constituted and continues to be shaped as a peculiar pattern in which undercapitalization requires a wider-ranging fluidity of the working relationships. These have been raised to the ranks of moral values in social action.

This article analyses the multidimensional and interrelated impacts of outsourcing on labour. Outsourcing has experienced a strong diffusion in the last decades, spreading across various areas, firms and sectors. Its ability to adapt to different social and regulatory situations has made it one of the main instruments of production restructuring, leading some researchers to consider it a paradigmatic form of the organisation of contemporary capitalism. Although much of the emphasis in the sociological literature on the implications of outsourcing has been placed upon the transformation of employment regimes, the worsening of working conditions and challenges to workers' representation, we find that other dimensions of labour relations are also generally impacted, including the labour process, wage determination, workplace politics and the social composition of the workforce. By reviewing and combining some strands of literature, we argue that the paradigmatic character of outsourcing, in addition to its great widespread at the global level, must be found in its ability to trigger multiple and chained processes of transformation that deeply modify the employment relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]