#insideindia

2020-05-18 Gianmarco Ottaviano

We Are Not All in the Same Boat

The COVID-19 pandemic is hitting the economies of every country in the world harshly, provoking an unprecedented employment emergency in many of them. An emblematic case, due to the importance of the country and the speed of the effects, is that of the United States. Before the pandemic, the US economy was on a solid track, with an unemployment rate that had reached a historic low of 3.5 percent in February, when China had already stopped. In March, when Europeans began to hole up at home, the US employment rate had risen to a moderate 4.4 percent. Just one month later, the data for April (the ...

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2020-05-13 Catterina Seia

Culture, Wellbeing, and Health. Towards a Cultural Welfare?

The relationship between culture and health has been the subject of increasing interest in recent years, in particular thanks to the results of scientific research and some interesting experiences. Numerous epidemiological, observational, and longitudinal scientific studies, conducted principally in the English-speaking world and Northern Europe, have made clear that active cultural participation, and the intelligent use of free time more in general, are allies in prolonging life expectancy, active aging, post-operative recovery, and the slower aggravation of degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's ...

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2020-05-07 Andrea Beltratti, Alessia Bezzecchi

The World to Come

In 1963, Charles Eric Maine published The Darkest of Nights, translated into Italian and published in 1973 with the title Il grande contagio. The novel explores the social aspects that emerged due to the spread of a new, highly contagious virus, with a mortality rate of 50 percent, that emerged in Japan and spread throughout China and Russia. Nobody knows how we will manage co-existence with COVID-19 and when a vaccine will be available. What is certain from the start, is that our life will be different, because "health risk" will be a central element in the risk management activities of companies ...

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2020-05-07 Andrea Beltratti, Alessia Bezzecchi

The World to Come

In 1963, Charles Eric Maine published The Darkest of Nights, translated into Italian and published in 1973 with the title Il grande contagio. The novel explores the social aspects that emerged due to the spread of a new, highly contagious virus, with a mortality rate of 50 percent, that emerged in Japan and spread throughout China and Russia. Nobody knows how we will manage co-existence with COVID-19 and when a vaccine will be available. What is certain from the start, is that our life will be different, because "health risk" will be a central element in the risk management activities of companies ...

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2020-05-06 Stefano Basaglia, Fabrizio Perretti

Restaurants “Suspended in Time” during the COVID-19 Crisis

Social distancing is the very ancient technique that has proven effective to face the COVID-19 emergency. While it is true that the measures have had consequences on all sectors, there are some that have suffered more than others, because their businesses based on “sociality,” where being together with others and sharing experiences is the key feature. In both generalist and specialized media, an ample debate has arisen on how restaurants are dealing with the emergency and what their future may look like. The discussion is pervaded by an underlying uncertainty, because the solutions are “all ...

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2020-05-04 Cecilia Attanasio Ghezzi

China’s Difficult Phase 2

For Beijing, announcing the date of the only annual meeting of the National People’s Congress means affirming that the epidemic is under control. So when the date was officially set for May 22, after a delay of two and a half months, for many it was confirmation of a return to normalcy. People have in fact resumed taking public transportation and moving around the country, provided that the health code of the potential travellers - assigned by a complex algorithm that combines the medical history, travel, and contacts of each single citizen - is green. This system functions with at least a hundred ...

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2020-05-04 Cecilia Attanasio Ghezzi

China’s Difficult Phase 2

For Beijing, announcing the date of the only annual meeting of the National People’s Congress means affirming that the epidemic is under control. So when the date was officially set for May 22, after a delay of two and a half months, for many it was confirmation of a return to normalcy. People have in fact resumed taking public transportation and moving around the country, provided that the health code of the potential travellers - assigned by a complex algorithm that combines the medical history, travel, and contacts of each single citizen - is green. This system functions with at least a hundred ...

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2020-05-01 Francesca Grassi

Paolo Grassi: A Cultural Manager Ahead of his Time

In 2020, being a cultural manager is a fashionable profession. Actually, cultural activity in general is appreciated more for its trendiness than its expansion. Paolo Grassi was a cultural manager ahead of his time. He began his activity around the middle of the 1900s, a period when the combination of culture and economics did not yet exist. He broke down the structure of how theaters were organized in his time, which were the children of closed attitudes linked to Fascism, and he built new ones, aimed not only at artistic growth, but economic growth as well. The idea that took hold during his ...

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2020-04-29 Olga Annushkina

Action plans and uncertainty

These days, we are all looking for ways to cope with a future that looks increasingly uncertain. Uncertainty creates fear. Fear blocks energy, proactivity, and rational thinking; it is capable of completely taking over our mind and derailing our thoughts. Many of us respond to fear and uncertainty with optimism. Optimism is an integral part of our nature: research has shown that neuromodulator dopamine enhances people’s ability to think positively about their future. We are more inclined to change our beliefs when presented with positive pieces of information about the future than to review ...

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2020-04-29 Zenia Simonella

Please, Let's Not Call It “Smart Working”

It's already clear. What we are experiencing is not "smart working," as promoted by its supporters and then designed by lawmakers in the law of 2017.[1] We are adopting an "extreme" mode of work (not voluntary, from home, without any spatial-temporal flexibility) that has led to the emergence, and amplification, of the possible risks related to its adoption. First: isolation - we must remember - is not the same for everyone, since some categories of workers suffer more than others ("Isolation [is] a dimension that has a very different impact on different people: I'm thinking of my colleagues with ...

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