Unpacking the Complexities of Civicness through Data on Volunteering. Some Possible “Glocal” Lessons from the Italian Mezzogiorno

• In Event: Quantitative perspectives on Volunteering

Abstract

After Banfield (1958) and Almond, Verba (1963), the Italian Mezzogiorno (South) has become a global archetype of “un-civicness”, that of particularistic societies shaped by pre-modern forces of family and religion, economically under-developed, civically void and institutionally weak. As stated by its most renowned interpreter, Robert D. Putnam (1993:183), Italy is “a lesson for the third world”.

In this paper, we critically revise this influential representation with the aim to advance the studies of territorial civic divides. To do it, we develop a cross-regional analysis of the levels, forms and evolutions of Italian volunteering – one of the most recognized forms of civicness – over a twenty-years period and we use the results as a possible lesson for future studies about the complex geographies of civicness.

In theoretical terms, we adopt the basic assumption of the social embeddedness theory, according to which volunteering is a context-dependent phenomenon, and we develop it by considering:
a) the debate about (under)development, modernization and tradition (Agnew 2002; Tarrow 1996);
b) the ecological predictors of volunteering (Guidi et al. 2021);
c) the literature about the forms of volunteering in late modernity (Hustinx et al. 2010; Guidi 2021), Italian regions (La Valle 2006; Rossi, Zamagni 2011; Guidi et al. 2016) and the Global South (Butcher, Einolf 2017; Kaloudis 2021; Mendonça, Grandé 2023);
d) the pressure of multiple crises on societies (Beck 1992; Martinelli 2005) and volunteering response (Kinsbergen et al. 2022; Garcia et al. 2023).

On this theoretical basis, we address two sets of research questions:
1. Is the Mezzogiorno really a homogeneous and (arche)typical territory in civic terms? How the diverse forms of Mezzogiorno volunteering differ from each other and how they relate to those of other Italian macro-regions?
2. Have the internal differentiations of Mezzogiorno shown consistency over time? How different forms of volunteering have evolved during and after Covid-19 pandemics?

We address these questions by capitalizing on the National Statistical Institute (Istat) yearly survey “Aspects of everyday life” (25,000 households in 800 municipalities, since 1993) and the ILO module data on voluntary work implemented by Istat in 2013. In the paper, the methodologies of data collection and technicalities of NUTS-2 level analyses are illustrated.

Results of our cross-regional comparative analysis show that the Italian South is not a homogeneous area (Fonović 2021; Cappadozzi 2023). Local differences are related to both the levels and forms of volunteers’ engagement. Recent evolutions show that some allegedly pre-modern forces like religion have sometimes led resilience during and after the pandemics. The reference to the ecological predictors of volunteering well fits.

This helps address both Italian Mezzogiorno and volunteering in a more nuanced way than Putnam’s thesis and conventional studies of volunteering, and it serves as a basis to understand the intricacy of relationships between the historically determined heterogeneities of territorial contexts and the diversified patterns of volunteering – a useful reference for global comparability. In conclusion, we propose further in depth and comparative studies of the varieties of volunteering as embedded in territorial contexts.

References

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Authors

• Ksenija Fonovic, Charles University - CSV Lazio

• Tania Cappadozzi, Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT)

• Ricardo Guidi, University of Florence