Italo Pardo has produced a thoughtful and original account of the moral life of Naples, a city in which the ethics of work, family and neighbourhood exist in complex relationship with the teachings of the church and, crucial to key processes of democracy, with the power and limitations of law, bureaucracy and government. Dr Pardo identifies the importance of strong continuous interaction between material and non-material aspects in the entrepreneurial strategies of the ordinary Neapolitan and shows the ways in which different ethical systems are negotiated in everyday life. Success is measured not only by material gain, but also by satisfying spiritual obligations and meeting the claims of intimate loyalties. This is one of the very few ethnographic studies of a European city; it questions old assumptions and raises fresh issues in the field of urban studies, demonstrating the significance of empirical analysis to mainstream debates in social theory.
Italo Pardo has produced a thoughtful and original account of the moral life of Naples, a city in which the ethics of work, family and neighbourhood exist in complex relationship with the teachings of the church and, crucial to key processes of democracy, with the power and limitations of law, bureaucracy and government. Dr Pardo identifies the importance of strong continuous interaction between material and non-material aspects in the entrepreneurial strategies of the ordinary Neapolitan and shows the ways in which different ethical systems are negotiated in everyday life. Success is measured not only by material gain, but also by satisfying spiritual obligations and meeting the claims of intimate loyalties. This is one of the very few ethnographic studies of a European city; it questions old assumptions and raises fresh issues in the field of urban studies, demonstrating the significance of empirical analysis to mainstream debates in social theory.
Editor Pardo (social anthropology, U. of Kent) notes that abuses of power, including corruption, are present in nearly all systems in which there are marked asymmetries, a notion born out in nine ethn
With half of humanity already living in towns and cities and that proportion expected to increase in the coming decades, society - both Western and non-Western - is fast becoming urban and even mega-u
Global in scope, this original and thought-provoking collection applies new theory on legitimacy and legitimation to urban life. An informed reflection on this comparatively new topic in anthropology
These ethnographically-based studies of diverse urban experiences across the world present cutting edge research and stimulate an empirically-grounded theoretical reconceptualization. The essays ident
Against the background of unease at the increasingly loose and conflictual relationship between citizenship and governance, this book brings together rich, ethnographic studies from EU member states a
