The third conference of the Telecom Italia School for Industrial Relations was held in Rome today, and focused on how to favour and encourage the comparisons of experiences in the academic, institutional and business sectors.
Speakers at the conference, entitled “Changing society; the aims and governance of change and the role of the intermediary bodies” included Elsa Fornero, who is the Minister of Labour and Social Policy as well as for Equal Opportunities; Telecom Italia CEO Marco Patuano; the sociologist Giuseppe De Rita and academics Giulio Sapelli and Pietro Rescigno.
The speakers discussed the economic changes under way in the West and in Italy, which have a considerable impact on social and economic phenomena, on the future of the professions and on the capacity for technological innovation.
The conference provided an updated panorama of the relationship between the various factors that can interact and in some way guide the processes of change in a society.
The intermediate organisations, i.e. the social and category organisations which in some way represent certain sectors of society, act in the vicinity of or outside of the institutions, and are able to independently create their own networks which can modify or guide social change.
“The aim of the School for Industrial Relations –commented Marco Patuano, Telecom Italia CEO – is to bring the culture of dialogue and participation to the centre of a wider debate, not only within the company. Dialogue and participation have, in fact, been key factors for Telecom Italia in the area of development and work over recent years. Discussion is the only way to identify innovative solutions that can bring about an effective mediation between the goals of corporate competitiveness and the safeguarding of the workers. This is all the more true in a period of great change that we are now undergoing.”
The Telecom Italia School for Industrial Relations is an initiative that started in 2010. Its purpose is to provide a permanent place for discussion between persons involved in industrial relations in the corporate world, the institutions and the category associations, by favouring social dialogue.
The School promotes training initiatives and workshops where employees and company managers, together with representatives of the trade unions and professionals in industrial relations, can discuss and go more deeply into the major topics involving work, sector trends and the development of domestic and international scenarios.
The aim of the conferences is to further enhance discussion and favour the creation of widespread awareness on these topics.
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Curricula of the speakers
Giuseppe De Rita
Giuseppe De Rita got his law degree in 1954 and is one of the most prestigious Italian sociologists. From 1955 to 1963 he was an official in the Svimez (Association for the Development of Southern Italy), where he was head of the sociology section from 1958 to 1963.
In 1964 he was one of the founders of Censis (Centre for the Study of Social Investments), where he was managing director for 10 years and then Secretary General from 1974 up to now. He has written for “Corriere della Sera” and was Chairman of CNEL (National Council for the Economy and Labour) from 1989 to 2000.
He is the author of many books and numerous articles, and in recent years has appeared as a speaker in the most important conferences and debates regarding the conditions and development trends of Italian society.
Pietro Rescigno
Pietro Rescigno (born in Salerno in 1928), a member of the Accademia dei Lincei and Professor Emeritus of Civil Law at the Sapienza University of Rome. He is joint director of one of the oldest Italian legal journals (Rivista di diritto civile since 1957, Giurisprudenza italiana since 1967, Rivista di diritto Commerciale, since 1979).
He got his law degree at the University of Naples in 1948, where he was a pupil of Francesco Santoro-Passarelli and Alessandro Graziani. He became an assistant lecturer in 1951 and in 1953 won the selection for a professorship, and was appointed to the Faculty of Law at the University of Macerata.
In 1958 he transferred to the University of Pavia, in 1960 to Bologna and then in 1970 to the Sapienza University of Rome, where he concluded his academic career as Professor Emeritus in 2003.
In those faculties he lectured on the institutions of private law and civil law, as well as holding courses at schools for specialisation (including the Bocconi University).
He has held courses, conferences and seminars in other Italian and European universities as well as in Latin America . He is the author of three books: Persona e comunità (Mulino and Cedam, 1966, 1987, 1999), L’abuso del diritto (Mulino, 1998), Introd. al codice civile (Laterza, in various editions), Codici, Storia e geografia di un’idea (Laterza 2012, in press).
Giulio Sapelli
Giulio Sapelli got his degree in economic history in 1971 and a specialisation in ergonomics in 1972.
He studied at the ‘Institut fur Weltwirtschaft’ in Kiel and has lectured and conducted research at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences, the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the University of Buenos Aires. He has been Director of Studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. He has conducted research and consultancy for the Onassis, Schlumberger, and Goulbenkian Foundations and for the Eric Remarque Institute. He has been a fellow of the European University of Fiesole and of the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, and visiting professor at the Universities of Prague, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Santiago in Chile, Rosario, Quito, Barcelona, Madrid, Lyon, Vienna, Southern California, Wollongong/Sidney and New York. He is currently Full Professor of Economics at the University of Milan, where he also lectures on the Cultural Analysis of Organisational Processes. He has been Director of the post-graduate course “Economics, enterprises and the humanities between East and West” at the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy at the University of Milan. From 1989 al 2003, he was also the person in charge of the Socrates Erasmus projects in that Faculty.
Rome, 22 May 2012
