Appunti del direttore

2019-06-27 Stefano Basaglia

The First Time Was a Revolt; What Now?

On June 28, 2019 we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the so-called Stonewall revolt that marked the beginning of the “modern” homosexual liberation movement[1]. This, despite the fact that the first public Italian homosexual demonstration was the one against the psychiatric congress on sexual deviations of April 5, 1972. The demonstration was organized by the Fuori! group of Turin, led by Angelo Pezzana. Fifty years on from 1969, and forty-seven years after 1972, there will be as many as 40 parades in Italy from May to September (there were 28 in 2018 and 5 in 2013) celebrating LGBTI ...

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2019-05-30 Zenia Simonella

“Smart Working”: I’d Like to, but Can’t?

Every year, the Diversity, Inclusion & Smart Working (DIS) Observatory of the Sda Bocconi conducts research aiming at analyzing the way organizations conceptualize, implement, and promote “smart working,” highlighting the costs and benefits perceived by the workers and the organization itself. These studies have shown that the practice is still not very widespread, although it’s growing. The companies that adopt it are attentive to the issues of diversity management – at least formally – but their adoption of the practice is often conditioned by a series of restrictions that stiffen ...

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2019-05-09 Stefano Basaglia

When a Joke Becomes Discrimination

Last February, the Court of Cassation[1] rejected the appeal by the pasta company Pastificio Rana of a judgment issued by the Venice Court of Appeals[2]. The Court reaffirmed the conviction against the company for harassing conduct towards a manager who had been fired (the conduct is said to have occurred during 2001 and 2007, the year of the dismissal). Among the elements of this conduct, was that the employee was systematically addressed with the term “fag”. The company criticized the judgment by arguing that the appeals judges had not recognized the playful nature of the epithets, the ...

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