GRINS – Growing Resilient, INclusive and Sustainable Working Pakage 8.2: Social & Cultural Participation and Digitalization Research Group: Social Capital, Social Cohesion & Social Sustainability

Principal Investigator:

Project Leader: Matteo Cervellati;

Spoke Leader: Roberto Cellini;

Local group leader: Paola Bordandini

Our research group, titled Social Capital, Social Cohesion & Social Sustainability, focuses on exploring the interplay between social participation, civic culture, and sustainability in the digital era. As part of the broader GRINS (Growing Resilient, INclusive and Sustainable) research initiative, we contribute to the development of AMELIA (dAta platforM for the transfer of knowLedge and statistIcal Analysis), an open data platform designed to support policymakers, economists, and scientists in conducting territorial analyses, shaping public policies, and designing interventions at both local and national levels. AMELIA integrates geo-referenced and heterogeneous datasets to analyze socioeconomic, environmental, health, and financial trends affecting Italy’s State, households, and companies, while also facilitating knowledge transfer, academic research, and professional training. GRINS involves 350 researchers, including 318 from academia and 32 from private institutions, organized into eight thematic “Spokes” addressing key aspects of economic and financial sustainability, alongside a central Spoke 0. Our group contributes to Spoke 8, which focuses on Social Sustainability, specifically within Work Package 8.2, dedicated to studying the impact of cultural and social participation on economic inclusion and social sustainability in the digital age. The team aims to enrich AMELIA with provincial-level data reflecting the geography of civic culture in Italy, focusing on three research activities: collecting territorial indicators of social capital and designing a survey to capture subjective data. The first activity involves compiling provincial-level data on political and social participation, including newspaper circulation, electoral turnout, recycling rates, sports associations, blood donations, union memberships, and music band prevalence, across five time points (2003, 2008, 2013, 2018, 2021/22). Balanced panel datasets will allow the tracking of changes over time in a general social capital index and its sub-components. Based on these data, the team is preparing a book titled Resilient, Sustainable, and Inclusive? A New Geography of Social Capital in Italy, currently under review for open-access publication by FrancoAngeli. Additionally, recognizing the limitations of secondary data for measuring bonding and network social capital, the team has designed a survey with seven sections, inspired by the World Bank’s framework on social capital and cohesion, covering topics such as political participation, cultural engagement, trust, informal sociality, individual networks, community belonging, and social media’s role in social capital. The research combines a theoretical framework that examines bridging social capital (Putnam, 1993), bonding social capital (Putnam, 2000), and network social capital (Bourdieu, 1980), contributing to a nuanced understanding of social capital’s role in fostering sustainability and resilience. The results will be made available to AMELIA users and Spoke 8 participants, supporting further studies and initiatives.  

Website: https://grins.it/spoke/spoke-8/wp-82 

Members of the Department

• Paola Bordandini

• Luca Bortolotti

• Nicola De Luigi

• Riccardo Prandini 

• Marialuisa Villani

Other members

Publications

• Bardazzi, Rossella; Bortolotti, Luca; Pazienza, Maria Grazia, Are they Twins or Only Friends? The Redundancy and Complementarity of Energy Poverty Indicators in Italy, «ITALIAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL», 2023, 1, pp. 1 - 39 [articolo] 

• Bordandini, Paola; Maltagliati, Mauro; Bellanca Nicolò; & Cartocci, Roberto; Disgruntled Italians – social capital and civic culture in Italy, «JOURNAL OF MODERN ITALIAN STUDIES», 2024, 29, pp. 206 - 231 [articolo] 

• Prandini, Riccardo; Villani, Marialuisa, CAPITALE SOCIALE E PARTECIPAZIONE, in: Sangalli, Carlo; Trabucchi, Marco, Partecipazione, fondamento per il benessere e la coesione sociale, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2024, pp. 99 - 121 [capitolo di libro] 

• Volturo Stella, Povertà. Tra disuguaglianze ambientali e sociali, in: Transizioni sociali e cambiamento climatico: prospettive sociologiche, Milano, Franco Angeli, 2024, pp. 251 - 261 [capitolo di libro] 

Conferences, lectures and talks

• The third edition of the International Conference of the journal “Scuola Democratica”, 2024 June 3-6, University of Cagliari 

• In Uncertain Times: Economic Development, (De)Globalization and Vulnerability, 2024 June 13-14, University of Verona 

• Manifesto and research frontiers for a Renaissance in Economics, 2024 June 20-21, University of Perugia 

• WAPOR 77th and WAPOR Asia Pacific 7th Joint Annual Conference, 2024 July 28-31, Sungkyunkwan University - Seoul 

• International Conference of the European Sociological Association, 2024 August 27-30, Porto
• Dar conto delle disuguaglianze e riconfigurare le politiche sociali, 2024 September 4-6, University of Naples 
• XXI Workshop Annuale CiMET "Il futuro presente: Sostenibilità e progresso civile", 2024 September 18-24, Kore University - Enna