What lies behind Solidarity? A critical examination of social innovation

In the newly published book of Nicholls and Ziegler “Creating Space for Social Innovation” (Oxford University Press) you can find a chapter on my research on Solidarity Purchasing Groups. The chapter is entitled “Creating alternative economic spaces. The socially innovative practices of solidarity purchasing groups” and it includes an examination of the concept of solidarity and how it is put in practice by the activities of the Solidarity Purchasing Groups.

I start from the theory of Tuomela and I use his classification of the various form of solidarity (I-perspective, I/We perspective, We perspective) to understand the practice of the groups. The chapter shows how social innovations as Solidarity Purchasing Groups only rarely involve in activities acknowledgeable fully as a We perspective solidarity. Their activities are, in fact, mostly favorable to their members or their primary networks.

The article is accessible in DDD UAB, starting from December 2021.

New article on Solidarity Purchasing Groups published on the RES

It is with great pleasure that I announce the publication of the article “Solidarity Purchasing Groups as social innovators: an analysis of alternative food networks in Italy” written with my colleague and friend Davide Arcidiacono.

This article uses the primary data collected within the project CRESSI and explores the role of the marketization of food in the economic marginalization of small farmers in Italy. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative data, it shows how solidarity purchasing groups – as the most important alternative food networks in Italy – are only partially able to tackle the disadvantage suffered by farmers.

The article is published in the open-access journal Revista Espanola de Sociologia and it is freely available for download in the UAB DDD.

About Welfare and Prosumerism

It is with great pleasure that I announce the publication of the special issue entitled “Pro-sumers on the move: overcoming the line between labour and consumption”, co-edited with my colleagues and friends Davide Arcidiacono, Allison Loconto and Antonello Podda. The issue has been published in Sociologia del Lavoro (4/2018), which is the main Italian journal that publish articles on sociology of work.

The special issue offers a wide range of articles from Italian and International scholars that aims at investigating the heuristic capacity of the concept of prosumerism in the analysis of labour, consumption and social protection. In particular, in the introduction I discuss the term in the domain of welfare studies, linking it in particular with studies on social innovation.

The introduction entitled “Introducing the wave of the prosumers in the age of labour market shattering” is available on the Sociologia del Lavoro website.

AFNs and their impact on suppliers’ marginalization

I am delighted to announce my new article on social innovation in agricolture and food, written with Antonello Podda and Toa Giroletti entitled “Solidarity Purchasing Groups in Italy : a critical assessment of their effects on the marginalization of their suppliers“. The article has been published in the International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food, in a special issue coordinated by Allison Loconto and Yuna Chiffoleau entitled “SOCIAL INNOVATION IN AGRICULTURE AND FOOD: OLD WINE IN NEW BOTTLES?“. (more…)