Social Movements and Social Change in Sicily

这项研究涉及两个文化人类学家从城市大学和福德姆大学在纽约在当地的反应反黑手党活动的研究在巴勒莫，西西里，意大利。 研究人员将居住在城市的一个下层社区，研究人们对当代意大利社会中的紧张局势的反应，这些紧张局势发生在希望改变西西里民间社会性质以减少对黑手党活动的支持和鼓励的改革者与捍卫地方身份的反黑手党活动的“西西里主义者”之间，语言和习俗，反对被视为不忠于西西里的“现代主义”批评。 使用参与观察的技术，人类学家，既流利的当地语言和非常熟悉当地的文化和历史问题，将研究当代反黑手党运动的成功和失败。 这项研究是重要的，因为随着欧洲共同市场（和其他类似的协议，如北美自由贸易协定）扩大到控制更多的文化和社会问题，重建当地公民社会的民主运动之间的紧张关系正在被破坏的区域民族主义。 深入了解一个案例研究将阐明与其他情况相同的一般过程，并帮助决策者寻求对当地历史和文化敏感的改进民主。

This research involves two cultural anthropologists from CUNY and Fordham Universities in New York in a study of the local reaction to anti-Mafia activities in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. The researchers will live in a lower-class neighborhood of the city and study the reactions of people to the tension in contemporary Italian society between reformers who wish to change the nature of Sicilian civil society to give less support and encouragement to Mafia activities, and the `Sicilianist` reaction to anti-Mafia activities which defends local identities, language and customs against a `modernist` critique which is seen as disloyal to Sicily. Using techniques of participant observation the anthropologists, both fluent in local languages and very familiar with local cultural and historical issues , will study the successes and failures of the contemporary anti-Mafia movement. This research is important because as the European common market (and other such agreements such as NAFTA) expands to control more cultural and social issues, the tension between democracy movements of restructuring local civil society are being undermined by regional nationalism. Understanding in depth of one case study will illuminate general processes in common with other situations, and aid policy makers in the search for improved democracy which is sensitive to local history and culture.