Social Movements and Social Change in Sicily

这项研究涉及纽约市立大学和福特汉姆大学的两位文化人类学家，他们研究了意大利西西里岛巴勒莫当地对反黑手党活动的反应。研究人员将住在城市的一个下层社区，研究人们对当代意大利社会紧张局势的反应，改革者希望改变西西里公民社会的性质，减少对黑手党活动的支持和鼓励，而“西西里主义者”对反黑手党活动的反应，这些活动捍卫了当地的身份，语言和习俗，反对被视为对西西里不忠的“现代主义”批评。这些精通当地语言、熟悉当地文化和历史问题的人类学家将采用参与式观察的方法，研究当代反黑手党运动的成功与失败。这项研究很重要，因为随着欧洲共同市场（以及其他类似的协议，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地区民族主义所破坏。深入了解一个案例研究将阐明与其他情况共同的一般过程，并帮助决策者寻求改善对当地历史和文化敏感的民主。

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.