Abstract
Policies that encourage local entrepreneurialism, urban regeneration and the efficient overall management of immigration from outside the EU are seen to be critical to southern Italian society. Anthropological fieldwork in Naples and its region, suggests that this requirement is not met in today’s scenario, which is marred by stereotype and bad governance. Pardo shows that ordinary Neapolitans’ entrepreneurialism is both strong and frustrated on the one hand by normative complication and distorted policies, particularly regarding access to credit and therefore capital and, on the other hand, by the double standards applied by a local governance that panders to the selective interests—via small but vociferous lobbies—of their constituency. In democracy, rulers’ recognition—in policy and legislation—of the structural value of grassroots culture and actions qualifies both participation and representation. As these two fundamentals remain unfulfilled in this ethnography, the gap between governance and citizenship appears to have become unbridgeable.
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- 1.
As an example of the politicking that feeds on this stereotype, see the recent remarks made by Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Dutch Finance Minister and President of the Eurogroup, in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) and reported internationally (Financial Times of 21 March, and El País and Corriere della Sera of 22 March).
- 2.
When possible, and within ethical limits, s/he will also build a visual and aural ethnographic record of the most significant processes.
- 3.
Naturally we cannot disengage from our personal experiences and personalities. However, as a Neapolitan doing research in Naples , I have found that this need not inhibit our sense of the problematic. On the contrary, an informed management of this aspect may well help us to fulfil the basic requirement of achieving an empathic grasp of the situation.
- 4.
This issue is well addressed by protecting the identity of my informants when necessary, through controlled scrambling of identities and situations.
- 5.
Pardo and Prato (2011, 3–9) have deconstructed this Lombrosian view, offering an analysis of the critical literature.
- 6.
Elsewhere, I have developed a detailed analysis of that affair and of the ratio between the many who were investigated—and publicly disgraced—and the relatively few who were convicted (see also Cionti 2015).
- 7.
The nature of the informal ‘sector’ makes a quantitative assessment extremely difficult. In 2010, roughly 6 million southerners of working age were estimated to be involved in the informal ‘sector’ of the economy (SVIMEZ 2010, 8). A 2011 Parliamentary Inquiry (available at: http://www.parlamento.it/documenti/repository/commissioni/bicamerali/antimafiaXVI/Relazione-Doc.%20XXIII%20n.%04/Relazione%20DEFINITIVA.pdf) confirmed these data and pointed out that the informal ‘sector’ is larger in the centre-north.
- 8.
I have explained that here criminals are disliked and generally avoided (Pardo 1996, Chaps. 2 and 3). The size of criminal employment is highly debatable and, in my view, far from justifying the overinflated headlines that sell books, newspapers and television programmes.
- 9.
Popolino is what ordinary Italians are often called. My informants traditionally described themselves thus, rejecting the word’s derogative meaning (see later and Pardo 1996). Now, having learned of their stereotype through the media , they say they proudly identify as popolino.
- 10.
Gramsci’s ideas (1971) on the role of the ‘organic intellectual’ in establishing hegemony of his or her party (political and otherwise) in key domains of power and culture have been influential across the Italian political spectrum.
- 11.
- 12.
Later, he opened a shop in his wife’s name (Pardo 1996, Chap. 2).
- 13.
- 14.
- 15.
- 16.
Some bank officials refer unsuccessful applicants to private credit agencies that grant credit easily and at high interest (Pardo 2000a). Informants describe official attempts to address this situation as weak.
- 17.
Some banks and other financial institutions practise more or less ‘hidden’ forms of usury (Bortoletto 2015). Officials of the Monte dei Paschi di Siena, a northern-based bank, and of the southern Banca della Campania, are on trial charged with the crime of ‘banking usury’ (Law 108/96, art. 44). They are accused of imposing usurious interest rates in the south (Il Giornale, 22 March 2017; Corriere del Mezzogiorno, 22 March 2017).
- 18.
Italy , traditionally a country of emigration, is experiencing ever-growing immigration.
- 19.
He and his wife and children do not own property and cannot provide the guarantees demanded by the banks.
- 20.
The large number of Chinese enterprises is obvious. According to the Association of Chinese Commerce, around 15,000 Chinese people are active in Naples , of which 3000 operate in the centre and a similar number trade wholesale at the immediate periphery. Resonating with central themes in the literature (Harrel 1985), the rest operate in workshops located in the province. Many of these workshops are illegal.
- 21.
Like other entrepreneurs, Lello has this merchandise modified in a local workshop in order to meet customers’ tastes.
- 22.
As, of course, most prominent people are networked nationally and internationally, my ethnography expanded accordingly.
- 23.
I studied relevant speeches, historical documents, briefs, media and judicial files, as well as unpublished material, such as research reports and private archives.
- 24.
This included demographic and other statistical data, census returns and surveys.
- 25.
Informants’ concern with confidentiality found a satisfactory answer in my promise (and proven practice) to use fictitious names and, when necessary, controlled scrambling of the most recognizable situations.
- 26.
In 2016, the Corte dei Conti (Auditing Office, Report No. 13 February 2016) found substantial irregularities in the official financial accounts of the Naples municipality, which is assessed to be close to default (Il Denaro, 25 March 2017, p. 9).
- 27.
While ad hoc changes in rules and regulations are legal, the arbitrary allocation of public premises to friendly groups and the political manipulation of public contracts are the object of indictments across Italy . For a current case in Naples , see Corriere del Mezzogiorno (24 March 2017) and Festa (2017).
- 28.
In many cases, these illegal occupants do not pay rent or utility bills.
- 29.
Since the electoral campaign of 2010–2011, Naples has experienced claims that it enjoys an ‘orange revolution’, the scope and aims of which remain interestingly elusive (Chiocci and Simone 2013).
- 30.
Some of these associations stand accused of misappropriating public money for private gain (see Corriere del Mezzogiorno, 23 May 2015, and Il Mattino, 24 May 2015).
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Pardo, I. (2018). Between Stereotype and Bad Governance: An Italian Ethnography. In: Pardo, I., Prato, G. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Urban Ethnography. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64289-5_3
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