Alumni

Adolescent pregnancy and early marriage represent two of the most significant hindrances to the empowerment and well-being of young girls globally, especially in developing countries. However, previous research is vaguely opaque as to the relationship between repeated adolescent pregnancy and early marriage occurrence in developing country settings. In this study, I explore the hypothesized positive relationship between repeat adolescent pregnancy and early marriage occurrence in Kenya. Using data from the sampling survey KDHS 2022, the prevalence of repeat pregnancy and rapid repeat pregnancy (within 24 months) among adolescents in Kenya is determined. Multivariable logistic regression is used to explore the socioeconomic and demographic predictors of rapid repeat adolescent pregnancy in Kenya, while Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is performed to analyze the direct relationship between repeat adolescent pregnancy and early marriage occurrence in Kenya. The study sample was women aged 15-24 and considered pregnancies that occurred during adolescence. Repeat adolescent pregnancy prevalence stood at 5% of all adolescent pregnancies, with 20% of these occurring within 24 months of each other. The most significant predictors of rapid repeat adolescent pregnancy among married adolescents in Kenya included wealth status, children born to an adolescent, the age at first birth, and the age at first sex. The SEM model revealed a significant negative relationship between repeat adolescent pregnancy and early marriage occurrence. Early marriage, by itself, was less likely to increase the likelihood of repeat adolescent pregnancy occurrence. However, through higher education, adolescent girls were more likely to avoid early marriage, thus lowering the likelihood of adolescent (and repeat) pregnancy. These findings underscore the importance of understanding the interplay between repeat adolescent pregnancy and early marriage for the improvement of reproductive health outcomes, thus promoting gender equality and sustainable socio-economic development in Kenya. They also serve as a call to action for policymakers and researchers to continue their efforts in this area. 

Since its early configurations human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation has undergone constant transformations, evolving into an increasingly complex and diverse phenomenon. Due to its illegal nature, in fact, it is a phenomenon that is forced to continuously shift in order to survive and that, at the same time, has in recent years been traversed by an event of a pandemic nature that has inevitably undermined its modes of operation. Likewise, the changes that have occurred in migration flows, and especially in a framework of “humanitarian migrations”, have contributed to change the subjects involved, their degree of involvement, their capacity to negotiate within the exploitative relationship, and the modes of offering sexual services, including an increasingly sharp shift towards the indoor and ICT-mediated markets. Within this new landscape, anti-trafficking organizations have had to change their long-established practices and are now trying to adapt to this new reality. Through the adoption of a constructivist and intersectional view on intercultural and gender relations and the use of qualitative methodologies, this research intends to focus on and deepen our understanding of the main transformations that trafficking underwent in light of the structural changes that have taken place in the sex markets, as well as on some of its more under-researched aspects such as the exploitation of trans* women and young men. In doing so, it will explore how anti-trafficking organizations have been trying to adapt their practices to the changed trafficking landscape and how how Article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Immigration has lost its prominence as the primary tool for the protection of trafficking victims. Finally, the thesis will provide some reflections on how Article 18 and the social protection programs connected to it can be revised to make them once again attractive and advantageous for all trafficking victims. 

The project aims to investigate micro-class reproduction and mobility in Italy. More specifically, four research questions will be addressed: 1) is micro- class reproduction the main mechanisms through which classes are inherited? 2) How has micro-class reproduction changed over the 20th century? 3) Given a class of origin and destination, is the micro-class of destination dependent to the micro-class of origin? and 4) Can the differences in class reproduction between Italy, Germany, and the US be explained by variations in micro-class reproduction? The results show that, among men, micro-classes play a crucial role in shap- ing class reproduction and mobility. In contrast, fathers are less likely to pass on their occupation to their daughters, and class resources are more influential than occupation-specific resources in shaping daughters’ mobility. Finally, the difference in class reproduction between Italy and the US can only be partially explained by differences in micro-class dynamics. 

This dissertation provides insights into Social Europe’s "ground floor" by examining the street-level implementation of Italy’s active labour market reform introduced within the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) framework. At the basis of this work is the premise that understanding how supranationally driven reforms like those of the RRF unfold on the ground is crucial. The core proposal of the study is to bring together street-level literature with that on European social governance, analytically connecting the discretionary patterns emerging from the everyday work of welfare organisations to the broader dynamics and mechanisms within European institutional settings. The theoretical and conceptual toolkit supporting this approach is rooted in institutionalist perspectives: historical institutionalism is essential for understanding the macro level, spanning interactions between European and national institutions and within policy and institutional fields. This is complemented by neo-institutional literature focused on organisations and action fields, which helps to explain how macro-level dynamics manifest at the meso level and how organisational actors respond. These institutional lenses enable the study to interpret individual actions – the primary focus of this research – within clear institutional and organisational frameworks. This approach was applied in a comparative analysis of the implementation of the Guaranteed Employability of Workers (Garanzia di Occupabilità dei Lavoratori, GOL) reform across three Italian public employment offices located in different regional contexts: Liguria, Lombardy, and Emilia Romagna. The selected settings capture diverse socio-economic and institutional profiles in Northern Italy. This choice allows for variation in terms of the social demand and the regional context shaping the governance structures surrounding these public employment offices. Following the analytical framework, the research design involved three main stages. The first stage focused on understanding the institutional context through a macro-level analysis of laws, guidelines, and procedures. The second stage centred on collecting empirical material on the reform implementation at the organisational level: interviews and backtalks, as well as documentary analysis, allowed the depiction of organisational characteristics as well as the collection of perspectives of public employment office staff on the organisation of the reform and the relationship with other organisational bodies. The third stage involved organisational ethnographies, conducted over six months of fieldwork, including participant observation and shadowing with operators in the public employment offices. The chapters of the dissertation delve into these empirical levels, uncovering (1) macro-level governance dynamics and institutional changes in European policy, (2) discretionary patterns in the execution of policy tasks during staff-user interactions, some of which are consistent across settings, while others vary significantly, and (3) isomorphic processes in organisational formal components yet varied empirical types of adaptation of reform mandates across the three organisational contexts. These three levels of empirical findings interact within macro-meso-micro mechanisms, aiming to explain the dilemmas, decisions, and actions of street-level bureaucrats in light of the macro-institutional settings and local implementation processes and experiences. By connecting discretionary patterns to European governance dynamics, this study originally contributes to the literature on street-level, particularly within the stream investigating how street-level variables are influenced, directly or indirectly, by macro and meso factors. 

This thesis focuses on depression, examining its clinical representations, treatments, and determinants through a sociological lens, while incorporating concepts from psychiatry. The first part analyses depression prevalence, utilizing data from various global and national sources to highlight its increased diagnosis and explore the term "epidemic." It critically evaluates whether this increase constitutes an actual epidemic, delving into the sociological explanations for the rise in depression, contrasting social change theories with diagnostic practice explanations. It argues that depression's depiction as a widespread issue is influenced by social, historical, and cultural contexts. The second part presents an empirical investigation into depression as a sociological object, using qualitative methods like semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and document analysis in two healthcare settings in Milan, Italy. The study explores both professional and patient perspectives, examining representations of depression among mental health professionals and the social dynamics involved in depressive and anxiety disorders in patients. It also addresses the diagnostic and treatment practices concerning depression, considering the biopsychosocial model. The thesis contributes to understanding the complexity of depression and its treatment in the context of public healthcare systems. 

The coronavirus vaccines played an essential role in ending the global coronavirus pandemic. Their use revealed an overwhelming vaccine hesitancy caused by mistrust in vaccines, government, and health professionals. Vaccine hesitancy is rooted in history and embedded in a broad societal context, its level of hesitancy varies sufficiently among countries and parts of the world. However, even countries with historically high levels of vaccine acceptance demonstrated an increase in hesitancy and vaccine refusal. Political trust has been recently linked to civil engagement, compliance with policies and acceptance of public health interventions. Lack of political trust leads to lower compliance with public policy measures, social distancing guidelines and vaccination guidelines. This study investigates the role of trust in government and health authorities in vaccine acceptance among the European Union members. The research is based on a pooled cross-section dataset from the Eurobarometer survey, collected in 2021, covering 27 EU nations on various socio-economic and political questions. Our variables of interest are - vaccine hesitancy, political trust, socio-economic characteristics, internet use, political preferences and government performance approval. To assess how individual-level and country-level trust in health professionals relates to vaccine hesitancy, we fit 2-level proportional odds regression models, including trust on individual and country levels. Hypotheses about cross-level effects between trust, information use, and political placement are tested. The results confirm hypotheses about the positive and robust link between trust in health professionals and vaccination acceptance on individual and country levels. It also supports the proposition about the positive link between trust in government and vaccination acceptance. This work is one of the rare examples demonstrating that higher levels of political trust are connected to higher levels of vaccine acceptance. For policymakers, these results signal the importance of building stable, competent, reliable public health systems to maintain people's trust in health professionals and facilitate higher civil engagement and cooperation. 

Since the inception of videogames, the appropriateness of their content has always been a debated issue. Controversies have often revolved around the use of explicit language, violent and sexual contents in games. However, while the concerns of misinformed politicians do not seem to change, during the last few decades videogames have evolved not only from a technological point of view but also regarding the depth of the proposed narrations and themes. In this research I take into account the complexity of this medium’s effects on the audience by analyzing them through the lens of Cultivation Theory (Gerbner 1969). The aim is contributing to the growing amount of works which are attempting to expand the scope of this theory to the analysis of media different from television (Potter 2014, Morgan et al. 2015). Following the classical Cultivation Theory research design, this study attempts to obtain a broader perspective regarding how a developer studio contributes to shaping the player’s beliefs regarding gender relationships and violence across the long term with a case study on the company Naughty Dog. The research design is based on a mixed-methods two-step analysis plan. The first step (Message-system analysis) aims to conduct a thorough content analysis regarding how the aforementioned issues are represented by the selected developer by employing both qualitative and quantitative techniques. The analyzed games are Uncharted 2 (2009), The Last of Us (2013), Uncharted Lost Legacy (2017) and The Last of Us Part 2 (2020); this selection allows to understand how the developers’ take regarding violence and gender relationship representation evolved across thirteen years of videogames. The second step (Cultivation Analysis) develops the results of the first one by attempting to understand whether and how the analyzed games’ representations influence players’ ideas and beliefs. From an operative point of view the second step consists in a quasi-experiment with non-equivalent control group (Campbell and Stanley 1966). Participants in the treatment group play two sequences of The last of Us where violent interaction is shown; conversely, the members of the control group try the beginning of Journey (Thatgamecompany 2012) where no violent content is shown. The participants are drafted according to the “maximum variation sample” technique, proposed by Flick (2007) and applied to the field of videogames by de Wildt and Aupers (2019). This technique aims to include case that are purposefully as different from each other as possible regarding selected characteristics (in this case gender, frequency of play and acceptance of antisocial behaviors) in order to consider a significative part of the range of differentiations in the field.

Scholarship on Romanì activism in Italy is still in its infancy. Most of the works on Romanì communities in Italy focuses on their marginalization and exclusion. Very little attention has been paid to their strategies of resistance and collective action. The scarcity of research on the engagement in collective action of Romanì subgroups, such as Romanì women and Romanì youth, is even more pronounced. A growing body of work underlines the additional challenges experienced by Romanì women activists resulting from living and operating in contexts characterized by the entanglement of anti-Gypsyism and sexism, as well as on the specific activist efforts they carry out moving from their specific positionality. On the whole, however, this body of work is still limited and mostly focused on Central and Eastern European countries and Spain, overlooking the developments in this sense in the Italian context. Moreover, the literature focusing on Romanì younger generations point to differences compared to older generations of activists in the ways they organize, the repertoires of action they adopt, and the actions they see as constituting activism. However, also in this case, the body of work is limited and has so far focused on (mostly transnational) Romanì youth networks, overlooking the experiences of engagement of younger activists in national mobilizations, and even more so in areas of mobilization not primarily targeting Romanì youth, and the processes of change they have sparked. The present work aims to contribute to filling these gaps by exploring how different systems of oppression, and particularly those based on anti-Gypsyism, classism and sexism, together with differences in terms of generational belonging, shape the Romanì ethnic mobilization in Italy and the activist trajectories of Romanì people engaged in it. By adopting an intersectional and generational perspective, it aims at contributing to shedding light on the internal processes of change that have taken place since the inception of the Romanì ethnic mobilization in Italy and on its internal diversity and complexity. My fieldwork was carried out throughout the Italian territory from June 2021 to February 2023. It involved participant observation during protests, flashmobs and picket lines, art exhibitions, theater plays, conferences, book launches, training courses for teachers and social workers and internal training courses for Romanì activists organized by Romanì-led organizations, networks and informal groups, and single Romanì activists, operating in the Italian context. I also carried out semi-structured interviews with Roma and Sinti women and men activists of different ages and who started their activist paths at different points in time in the last three decades. Finally, I consulted documents produced by Romanì and pro-Romanì organizations and individual Romanì activists, reports, minutes of meetings, press, etc., and I also monitored the social media pages and websites of organizations, networks and individual activists. Through the exploration of the research questions and the research process just described, more broadly, this dissertation also seeks to contribute to exploring the fruitfulness of adopting an intersectional and generational perspective to the study of collective action, and especially that of racialized and essentialized minorities. Furthermore, it engages with the debate on the borders of political agency and aims at enlarging the scope of what constitutes political action in academic research/debate, by also including less blatant forms of activism. This effort is particularly relevant when discussing the political agency of racialized groups, such as Romanì communities, because the social and political marginalization to which they are subjected often prevents more visible, institutionalized, and massive forms of participation.

The theme of family is a pervasive topic in scientific communities and society, known for its inclusivity as most individuals can relate to belonging to a familiar group. However, defining what constitutes a family proves challenging amid contemporary social changes, leading to diverse family structures. In a context where life cycles evolve, marriage deinstitutionalizes, separations and re-partnering increase, and relationships move beyond heteronormative ideals, traditional criteria like consanguinity, cohabitation, and affinity become progressively inadequate. This dissertation begins by exploring the evolution of the family theme from the 19th century through classic sociological theorists, culminating in the establishment of family sociology. It scrutinizes how the concept of family varies across periods, paving the way for an in-depth investigation into separation, divorce, and re-partnering. This exploration sets the stage for the primary focus—blended families. Blended families, characterized by at least one partner having children from prior relationships, are on the rise, demonstrating structural and relational complexity. Despite their relevance, these families are predominantly studied in psychology, emphasizing dysfunctional aspects. Sociology has shown minimal interest, both quantitatively and qualitatively. This thesis addresses this gap by qualitatively exploring blended family dynamics in Milan through narrative interviews with the research participants. Guided by Morgan's 'doing family,' Jamieson's intimacy conceptualization, and new sociology of childhood perspectives, the research aims to understand the heterogeneity and complexity of these family structures, considering family members' viewpoints. The empirical findings, transcribed and analyzed using Grounded Theory methodology, reveal eight blending levels, serving as ideal-types. These levels inform how re-composition processes differ, influenced by integrating parenting practices and intimacy levels between step-siblings or half-siblings. Various family meshwork visual tools support the investigation, offering insights into the intricate dynamics within these blended families. Special attention is given to the perspectives of young individuals (12-19 years), often overlooked in an adult-centric approach.