A tale of two cities: an experiment on inequality and preferences

Theory and Decision - The existence of a strong link between socio-economic background and individual preferences has been documented among both children and grown-ups. Here, we study whether such...     

Networks of Contention: The Shape of Online Transnationalism in Early Twenty-First Century Social Movement Coalitions

The study of new media use by transnational social movements is central to contemporary investigations of social contention. In order to shed light on the terrain in which the most recent examples of online mobilization have grown and developed, this paper combines the interest in the transnational dynamics of social contention and the exploration of the use of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) for protest action. In specific terms, the study investigates how early twenty-first century social movement coalitions used Internet tools to build symbolically transnational collective identities. By applying a hyperlink network analysis approach, the study focuses on a website network generated by local chapters of the World Social Forum (WSF), one of the earliest social movement coalitions for global justice. The sample network, selected through snowball sampling, is composed of 222 social forum websites from around the world. The study specifically looks at hyperlinks among social forum websites as signs of belonging and potential means of alliance. The analysis uses network measures, namely of cohesion, centrality, structural equivalence and homophily, to test dynamics of symbolic collective identification underlying the WSF coalition. The findings show that in early twenty-first century transnational contention, culture and place still played a central role in the emergence of transnational movement networks.     

Intercultural Education in Initial and Field Training

In Italy teachers for nursery and primary schools are trained in many ways. Although in this complex system numerous initiatives regarding the implementation of intercultural education have been taken by the Ministry of Education, practice is still inconsistent and a great deal is left to the initiative of individual teachers, principals and schools. The Teachers Centre of Democratic Initiative (CIDI) realised two projects in the field of language education. The basic idea was to ascertain to what extent the language used in school may pose an obstacle for children whose mother tongue is not the school language. The follow‐up was a field training course on intercultural issues. The objectives were to identify didactic instruments and procedures designed to transform the way in which a foreign child would be viewed from being a “problem” to being appreciated and valued. The paper closes with a list of elements that may be viewed as cornerstones of training activity in an intercultural framework.     

Stigma toward internalizing and externalizing disorders: How do adolescents perceive their peers? A network analysis approach

This study's first aim was to explore whether stigma's facets differ between internalizing and externalizing disorders in adolescence. The second aim was to compare the relationships among stigma's facets toward these disorders. Two vignettes depicting a peer with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) or Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) were used with 616 adolescents in Italy. A Repeated measure MANOVA showed biogenetic causes, social distancing, and discomfort were more attributed to depression, while dangerousness to ADHD. Furthermore, a Psychometric Network Analysis showed no differences between these disorders in the relations among stigma's components. However, dangerousness seemed to be among the nodes with the highest levels of “strength,” confirming previous literature that shows that dangerousness plays a major role in stigma.