Managing Existence in Naples Morality, Action and Structure

Italo Pardo has produced a thoughtful and original account of the moral life of Naples, a city in which the ethics of work, family and neighbourhood exist in complex relationship with the teachings of the church and, crucial to key processes of democracy, with the power and limitations of law, bureaucracy and government. Dr Pardo identifies the importance of strong continuous interaction between material and non-material aspects in the entrepreneurial strategies of the ordinary Neapolitan and shows the ways in which different ethical systems are negotiated in everyday life. Success is measured not only by material gain, but also by satisfying spiritual obligations and meeting the claims of intimate loyalties. This is one of the very few ethnographic studies of a European city; it questions old assumptions and raises fresh issues in the field of urban studies, demonstrating the significance of empirical analysis to mainstream debates in social theory.

1. Issues of anthropological research in urban Europe; 2. Beyond unemployment: work, morality and entrepreneurship; 3. Entrepreneurial morality and ethics among the young: changing social and cultural relations; 4. Acceptance vs discernment: the morals of family, kinship and neighbourhood as resource options; 5. Transgression, control and exchange: the rationality of the ambiguous and the liminal in life and death; 6. The mass diffusion of contacts: redefined power relations, values of representation; 7. The relation of agency to organisation and structure: deconstructed polarizations at the grass roots of democracy.

Italo Pardo has produced a thoughtful and original account of the moral life of Naples, showing how ethical issues are addressed in everyday life. One of the very few ethnographic studies of a European city, Managing Existence in Naples questions old assumptions and raises fresh issues in the field of urban studies.