Volume 4 (2021): Edition 2 (December 2021)

Article 27 of the Italian Constitution reads as follows: “Criminal responsibility is personal. The accused is not considered guilty until the final sentence. The penalties cannot consist of treatments contrary to the sense of humanity and must aim at the re-education of the offender. The death penalty is not allowed” (our translation).

Fundamentally important is the international legislation on the rights of detained persons, which is based on the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” (1948), stating in Article 5: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. This proposition is the cornerstone that affected all future directives concerning the protection of detained people.

In Italy, the office for external penal execution, as a peripheral branch of the Ministry of Justice, is called to contribute, in addition to social security, to the reintegration and rehabilitation of sentenced persons. Obviously, this can only be possible through collaboration and sharing with the apparatuses and bodies of society, with particular reference to the role of the Third sector.

Therefore, one of the main roles of the social workers of Italian Ministry of Justice is to guatantee the involvement of civil society, the promotion of a culture of solidarity and reintegration within the community to which the detainee belongs, reconstructing a sense of communityship and the broken citizen bond.

Even before the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, the massive use of the digital in everyday life, in the absence of intercultural - media skills, seemed to have fuelled violence, misinformation, ethnocentrisms, prejudices towards the Other (Urry 2000; Appadurai 2005; Couldry 2015; Ziccardi 2016; Europol 2016; SWG 2017, Vox 2018).

However, social and digital technology can also be re-thought as a civic and moral space (Silverstone, 2009) able to overcome conflict and polarisation, as a strategic medium to improve social policies and the management of migration flows, actively involving host institutions and communities (Buoncompagni, D’Ambrosi 2020).

The panorama of humanitarian aid, in particular, i.e. that typology of interventions aimed at helping populations affected by war events or natural disasters, is completely changing in the way of operating within the world of international migration precisely thanks to the digital infrastructure (IOM 2018). Apps, virtual itinerant maps and self-narratives via social networks, sharing GPS coordinates of the safest routes among migrants, increasing numbers of socially engaged indigenous citizens enrolled in online platforms, are just a few examples of how digital media are acquiring a fundamental role within the migration network in hospitality and aid actions (Brunwasser 2015; Buoncompagni 2021. Only by developing the art of solidarity and the ability to communicate and cooperate globally, opening up to the Other, can the “different” relate effectively and productively in digital society (Chen 2005; Bennet 2015).

Pitirim A. Sorokin himself, a still prominent figure of 20th century sociology, stated that historical and techno-cultural changes have not always produced positive results within societies, but at times also negative (or more precisely ‘destructive’) ones: individualism, antagonism, excess of technology and rationality, and in particular the fall of the bonds of solidarity towards the different and the loss of the feeling of belonging (Cimagalli 2010; Marletti 2018; Perrotta 2016).

But the sociologist also stressed how altruism could be one of the indispensable ingredients of social life. No society can exist without an “altruistic and creative love” that has as its aim the “altruisation” of individuals and social institutions: a complex process/project capable of encompassing the emotional, supra-rational and spiritual aspects of human relationships (including online), starting from the idea that all men can recognise themselves in certain moral principles, eternal and universal (Mangone, 2020).

And such a condition could be re-created/supported also through digital tools and exist in online environments, thus trying to extend, on a theoretical level, Sorokin’s attempt to make sociology (also digital, in this case) a “science of altruism” in the post-pandemic era of global interconnectedness.

Environmental migration owes its existence to pull factors, i.e. disastrous environmental factors that push people to migrate to other lands. In this article the definition of environmental migration is reversed, since in Russian internal migration towards the Kuban’ region and, in particular, towards the city of Krasnodar, pull factors are transformed into push factors, giving rise to migration in which the climate is an attractive pole, around which other migratory causes are placed. The migratory flows directed towards the city of Krasnodar are a great resource of demographic rebirth, the motor of regional and city life, the growing stimulus towards rapid urban development and the transformative and generative force of infinite territorial images, endlessly created by each migrant present on the territory under examination.

The pandemic crisis has coincided with a time of global economic crisis. The education system has suffered from this double impact: the simultaneous closure of schools and universities and a significant worsening of the business and productivity system. Digitalisation in the education process started in the far past, but it has become a priority with the pandemic. The use of digital tools in the educational process ensured that the latter did not come to a complete standstill during the pandemic. Although digitalisation is seen as a possible solution to the problems facing schools, it can also be seen as a factor in widening the gap between rich and developing countries. The article proposes a reflection about education during the pandemic and the digitalisation process of schools in all its facets and at alle education level.

This study aims to investigate the historical evolution of the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR), with a particular focus on the main theories and events that led it to no longer be a voluntary choice but a necessity for the company’s long-term survival. The article will first analyze the main definitions in the literature to determine the aspects that characterize it. Subsequently, using a theoretical approach, a literature review will be performed to describe its historical evolution, starting from its birth during the Industrial Revolution period (1760-1840) up to the present day. The analysis results show that, in the scientific debate, the CSR concept was initially focused on the workers’ well-being and, subsequently, it expanded its scope and significance to include all stakeholders’ categories. Furthermore, it emerged that CSR become a necessity for the companies’ long-term survival, especially in the post-pandemic period. For this reason, companies must develop new business models to face sustainability issues and meet social needs.

Through this contribution of a geopolitical approach, the author intends to propose an updated and accurate framework on the relations between China and Africa as well as some critical reflections on various geopolitical and geo-economic aspects concerning the intense development of the diversified economic relations between China and the different African States.

China’s foreign economic policy in Africa has laid solid foundations through the implementation of the various Sino-African Cooperation Forums that have taken place since 2000 and that have seen an increasing involvement of the Chinese government in the process.

This paper intends to make a brief reflection on China’s visible economic and geopolitical interest in the African Continent as a whole. The analysis that follows traces the main stages in the history of relations between China and Africa, emphasizing the increased importance of the Sino-African forums that led to what is now known as Chinese neo-colonization. In addition, the case studies of the Silk Road and the Rare Lands are highlighted. Finally, some of the social impacts of the Chinese presence in Africa are also examined such as the construction of new cities for the Chinese migrant population and the teaching of the Chinese language (Mandarin) in schools in some African Countries.

Life-Long Learning seems to be an all-sides studied model. Globalisation, work-market rapid change, and the free circulation of knowledge let researchers discover that there is a new way of designing the LLL process. The multicultural society is a drive of LLL process optimisation. After the Lisbon strategy and seeing the unstoppable path of lifelong learning stress, the requirements for a profound reflection on the role of citizen’s education. The article aims to analyse the intercultural aspect of LLL and how it can be stretched. Particular attention is dedicated to how the EU and RF reply to society and economic challenges through the implementation of the LLL process. The intercultural aspect will comprise a horizontal intercultural aspect and vertical ones. Will be examined the role of the European Commission as well as a promoter of the idea of an inclusive society and the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world. The intercultural approach will be stressed thanks to examining the Soviet Union and Russian Federation’s LLL process. The used methodology is a review of relevant intervention studies and Political Documents and Financing actions for examining the effectiveness of interventions.

The analysis of two paths of the LLL process’s implementation and promotion; the analysis of two ways of LLL process organisation will permit an expansive view of the LLL process. Furthermore, the parallel analysis of the LLL process permits us to see how the two ways of social development can be reflected through different actions on LLL policy, starting from formal education and ultimate to third Age Education. In final, it permits us to learn more about how LLL can be a solution to avoid social welfare bankruptcy.

The increase in the elderly population is a phenomenon of growing importance with various repercussions on the economic side, both in terms of costs that society has to bear from a social and health care point of view, and in terms of opportunities for the various economic sectors that can see the third age as a possible market. The change in attitudes towards ageing has led to an increase in the proportion of older people who are actively living in the third age. Travelling, visiting new places and/or spending time away from home, even abroad, are activities that are now part of the lives of older people, at least those with an adequate income level. Consequently, the elderly have become potential users of the tourism sector: this article attempts to outline the dimensions and characteristics of this phenomenon.