Edited by Antonietta Mazzette

FrancoAngeli 2023 Ed.

How does one become a drug dealer? Who are they? How do their actions affect the places, societies and the economy in Sardinia? Are the policies to combat the phenomenon truly effective? These and more seemingly simple questions are the ones at the base of the latest work by the OSCRIM, focused on both the collection and the systematisation of drug dealing statistics in the Sardinian territory within the timeframe 2017/2022, and also on the interviews of the healthcare professionals, public security officers, and representatives of the neighbourhood committees, namely all those professionals who deal with the negative effects of drug dealing on a daily basis.

The present volume represents the last part of the Social Observatory on Development and Crime in Sardinia (OSCRIM) series of books on the last decades Sardinian drug trafficking. While in the previous two books – “Droghe e organizzazioni criminali in Sardegna” (Drugs and criminal organisations in Sardinia) (2021) and “L’Isola sotterranea” (The Subterranean Island) (2022) – the OSCRIM research highlighted how the drug trafficking has represented an essential turning point in the transformation of Sardinian crime, on the other hand, in “Happiness is no longer here” (2023), drug trafficking has become the result of a widespread malaise undergoing society and involving many young people.

Drug trafficking is mainly based on two pillars: money and unhappiness. Firstly, money is both a regulative principle of drug trafficking and an integral part of the overall illegal market. Secondly, unhappiness in an etymological sense, is the main ingredient on which drug trafficking eats. These and more are the topics addressed by  the OSCRIM team both from a sociological point of view (Giampiero Branca, Romina Deriu, Antonietta Mazzette, Daniele Pulino e Sara Spanu) and from the economics disciplines perspective (Domenica Dettori, Maria Gabriela Ladu e Manuela Pulina).

Index:

Antonietta Mazzette, Carriere morali e pervasività dello spaccio. Un'introduzione
(Prologo; Chi spaccia?; Il narco-mercato in Sardegna: una trilogia; Epilogo; Riferimenti bibliografici)
Romina Deriu,Il denaro, l'anima e la merce: dalle reti del narcotraffico allo spaccio locale. Percorsi di ricerca
(Introduzione; Il denaro, l'anima e la merce: una proposta di lettura; Dal macro al micro e viceversa: reti e reticoli nel traffico di droga; Dal narcotraffico internazionale allo spaccio locale: le ricerche; Note conclusive; Riferimenti bibliografici)
Antonietta Mazzette, Daniele Pulino, Sara Spanu, Lo spaccio in azione. I numeri, le dinamiche, i protagonisti, i luoghi
(Premessa; Organizzazione sociale dello spaccio; Profili sociali degli spacciatori; Dimensione spaziale dello spaccio e caratteristiche socio-economiche dei territori; Città e micro luoghi urbani; Conclusioni; Riferimenti bibliografici)
Domenica Dettori, Maria Gabriela Ladu, Manuela Pulina, I tentacoli dello spaccio nei sistemi locali del lavoro
(Introduzione; Contestualizzazione del fenomeno; Aspetti metodologici; Evoluzione e dinamiche nei sistemi locali del lavoro; Discussione; Note conclusive; Riferimenti bibliografici)
Sara Spanu, "Occhio che piove!": le piazze di spaccio in alcuni quartieri di Cagliari, Sassari e Olbia
(Introduzione; Contesti di indagine: Cagliari, Sassari, Olbia; Le piazze di spaccio; Intorno alle piazze di spaccio; Conclusioni; Riferimenti bibliografici)
Daniele Pulino, Un'azione pubblica "ai margini". Il nodo delle politiche di intervento sulla domanda di droga
(Premesse; L'istituzionalizzazione dell'azione pubblica; Attori pubblici e attori privati; Nodi critici; Note conclusive; Riferimenti bibliografici)
Giampiero Branca, "Affari di famiglia". Legami parentali e cultura criminale nello spaccio di stupefacenti
(Introduzione; La subcultura criminale nelle reti famigliari; I legami famigliari attraverso le ricostruzioni giornalistiche; "I market della droga": cronache di spaccio a conduzione famigliare; Riflessioni conclusive e prospettive di ricerca; Riferimenti bibliografici).

(Cities and territories in times of pandemic. Insecurity and fear, trust and social relations)

Edited by Antonietta Mazzette, Daniele Pulino, Sara Spanu

Franco Angeli, 2021

Millions of people’s scenarios of daily life suffered sudden and profound changes with the spread of the Sars-CoV-2 virus. Nevertheless, the fight against the pandemic is concise, by means of restrictions on freedom of movement, on everyday activities and economic life. Among the western countries, Italy was one of the first ones to register cases of contagion and to introduce quarantine and insulation measures at national level. After a brief period of return to normality during summer, the situation changed again into a state of health emergency marked by alternating and ‘peculiar’ stop and go, depending on the severity of the circumstances and the trend of the number of cases of contagion.

The considerations included in this volume originate exactly from this turning point through a research that started in the aftermath of the declaration of the emergency state and was developed by way of three specific web surveys in 2020. The book is divided in three chapters, each of which addressing various issues concerning the health crisis: the change in the link between social backgrounds and urban spaces; the new experienced insecurity condition and the alteration of the trust levels; socio-spatial dynamics with regard to the forced cohabitation. 

In conclusion, in the postface Giovanni Meloni considers the phenomenon of the underestimation of the current emergency, revealing reflections, which will be the subjects of the next project.

(Sardinian dualism. The crime case)

Edited by Antonietta Mazzette

FrancoAngeli, 2019

As regards crime, Sardinia may not be considered as a region ‘at risk’, except for some specific types of crime, such as murders (attempted and committed), attacks (non-technical ones) and illegal cultivation of cannabis. Nevertheless, crime has not the same impact on the entire territory. As a matter of fact, there is a part of Sardinia where historically detected violence still persists. This area is the Zona Centro Orientale (ZCO, the central-eastern area), which is homogeneous in terms of its socio-cultural profile and it includes the Sassari, Gallura, Nuoro, Oristano and Ogliastra territories. This same area was once the scene of forms of traditional crime, which have characterised and made known the Sardinian banditry, a flourishing theme in the Barbaricino System literature with Antonio Pigliaru as a primary source of inspiration. 

The persistence of this violent feature represents the distinctive trait of the Sardinian Dualism with regards to the island crime is concerned, ultimately adding up to the other economic and territorial forms of dualism. 

However, the book does not claim to have the answers on the persistent existence in the ZCO of these violent forms of crime, but it is developed through a series of approximations, taking into account: the effect that the regulations have on crime (Gianni Caria); critical reflections on the community (Romina Deriu); the evaluation of the costs of crime, in particular the drug-related one (Manuela Pulina, Domenica Dettori, Gabriela Ladu); the anticipation of the link between the embryonic forms of baby gang crime and the next face of a still violent Sardinian criminality (Laura Dessantis, Sara Spanu); the creation of the typical set place of all the extreme acts of violence, such as murders (Daniele Pulino). 

Antonietta Mazzette is full Professor of Urban Sociology and the OSCRIM Scientific Coordinator. Among her numerous publications are:  Il diritto alla città cinquant'anni dopo: il ruolo della sociologia urbana ("Sociologia urbana e rurale", 115, 2018); "Public Spaces and Urban Changes: the Italian Case", in Bukowski A., Frysztacki K., Smagacz-Poziemska M. (eds.), Re-Imagining the City: Municipality and Urbanity Today from a Sociological Perspective (con S. Spanu, Jagiellonian University Press, 2017); Pratiche sociali di città pubblica (Laterza, 2013).

Index:

Antonietta Mazzette, Il rapporto tra luogo e crimine: saggio introduttivo

Gianni Caria, L'influenza delle norme sull'andamento della criminalità

Romina Deriu, La comunità tra immaginario e conflitto

Domenica Dettori, Maria Gabriela Ladu, Manuela Pulina, Quanto vale il mercato degli stupefacenti in Italia? Un'analisi regionale

Laura Dessantis, Sara Spanu, I nuovi protagonisti: il fenomeno delle "baby gang"

Daniele Pulino, Gli scenari delle interazioni violente. Il caso degli omicidi

(Attacks in Sardinia. Scene and backstory of violence)

Edited by Antonietta Mazzette and Daniele Pulino

(CUEC) May, 2016

Following the string of acts of intimidations against mayors, the phenomenon of attacks has recently acquired a central political and media role. The last acts of violence have led the Sardinia Region and the Anci (National Association of Italian Municipalities) to the identification of intervention policies in order to confront the issue. 

One of the proposals the Ministry of the Interior has taken charge of was the establishing of a political-institutional type of National Observatory. Moreover, the Anci released a document which requests the following interventions: surveillance networks, intelligence activities, law enforcement territorial defence, regulatory changes in order to tighten the penalties with regards to crime against local administrators. 

It is not within the purview of this book to go into details on the role of the Observatory, nor on the Anci proposals. As researchers, the only task is to publish the results of the study. Nevertheless, it is within our beliefs that in order to carry out the research assignment in the most appropriate way, one should fulfil the tasks independently and regardless of politics.  

This volume is the result of several years of research and it is intended as a contribution to the discussion. Nonetheless, it is of the uppermost importance to highlight a crucial aspect: the phenomenon of the attacks in the Sardinian territory must be considered alarming also because it targets a wide rage of social actors, including local administrators which, albeit is important role in terms of democratic defence, it is only a small part of it all. Therefore, each and every intervention cannot be restricted exclusively to support local administrators, but it must take account for the entire society too. 

In this respect, the idea of a video surveillance network and the transformation of Sardinia in some sort of panopticon appears to be rather difficult to implement, especially through the entire territory.

To sum up, this book aims to submit a new reading and contrast method on the phenomenon of the attacks, focusing on ritual acts of violence (in other terms, what the perpetrators of a crime do), in order to assemble a social identity of the prototypical perpetrator (since they are usually unknown). 

Simultaneously, the purpose is also to discuss and study the locations where the attacks take place. This does not mean failing the analysis on the victims; on the other hand, it is the means by which it would be possible to find the answers in order to prevent and precisely protect the victims. 

The Social Observatory on the Development and Crime in Sardinia (OSCRIM) collects real-time data, day-to-day. All this is made possible by the constant support of the Fondazione Sardegna and by the L. r. n. 7, by means of which the “Sistema informativo e governance delle politiche di intervento e contrasto dei fenomeni criminali in Sardegna” study has been successfully carried out and the results of which have been included in spaces and places of the attacks chapter.

Some important acknowledgements are required: Domenica Dettori, for her hard work on data collection and database update on attacks; Giacomo Mameli, Giovanni Meloni and Sara Spanu, for their attentive reading and their fundamental comments and suggestions; lastly, the whole OSCRIM team.