Interview to Nadia Urbinati

Today, you can find on the Italian magazine 'L'Espresso' an interesting interview to Nadia Urbinati of the Columbia University about the moral status of the Democratic Party (PD) in Italy.
There some interesting parts, in particular those on the status of the 'Mezzogiorno'.

The text is in Italian and can be found here. (But Google translate might do the trick)

How the book was born

There is one remarkable thing about Italy Today: it's really the outcome of one of the phenomena described in the book.

I met Andrea when we were both kids, in remote village in Calabria. We both had one of our parents coming from there and therefore it was common to spend some summer time in this village. However, we were not living far, in two different cities not far from there.

We lost contact during college years for quite some time to randomly meet during summer when both would spend some time in Calabria. Then I moved to London and he moved to Leeds, we were both in UK but none of us were aware of that. Thanks to our parents, we discovered our common emigration in UK and started a contact. I don't remember actually how.

A couple of years after, during we were both busy in our PhDs, we had a chance to seldom met during summers for a pizza or a dinner to discuss of our experience in UK and chat about Italian Affairs.
Discussing about Italy, we were deeply shocked of what was happening in our country. Having the particular perspective given by being expatriates, we amazed of the lack of discussing that affected many of the country's problems.
The political discourse was the routinely flow of insults and superficial slogans expressed by an immutable political class. We were worried.
Every meeting was the occasion of heated political discussions. Berlusconi was in full swing and future looked gloom. International newspapers and magazines started to have interested in the Italian crisis.
Living away, we felt powerless. As PhD student, the only tool at our disposal was academic work.
It all started having the opportunity of being guest editors for a special issue of the Journal of Modern Italian Studies. We dedicated much time in trying to have a holistic view of the Italian crisis. We were convinced that Italy was living a structural crisis in which many unsolved old issues were become chronic and entwined with new problems of Italian society.
It was not only Berlusconi. Italy's problems were much deeper and profound.

About the book

This volume represents one of the most comprehensive analyses of contemporary Italy. It is a provocative and an innovative collection of essays that aims to highlight the current 'crisis' of the country through an analysis of several different 'dark shadows' of contemporary Italian society.

From the new emerging mafias to the predicaments of the political system, from the ongoing presence of Fascism to the failed reconciliation of the years of terrorism, from the missed opportunity of the EU funding to the increasing regional economic gap: these are only a few of the critical issues that affect the country of la dolce vita and that have been here analyzed in an unprecedented effort. Italy already had a long history of 'unsolved' issues, several chronic problems and contradictions that have been ignored for a very long time, during which they have assumed dramatic proportions and gravity. The peninsula has henceforth become the 'Sick Man of Europe', a country facing a veritable decline also caused by apparent incapacity and difficulties of the ruling economic, political and social elites.

Welcome to Italy Today: the sick man of Europe Blog ! !

Work in progress