Raccomandazione. Clientelism and Connections in Italy

200 Pages·02.225 MB·English

by  Dorothy Louise Zinn

Raccomandazione
European Anthropology in Translation
Published in Association with the Society for the Anthropology of Europe (AAA)
General Editor: Nicolette Makovicky, Oxford School of Global and Area Studies
This series introduces English-language versions of significant works on the Anthropology of Europe
that were originally published in other languages. These include books produced recently by a new
generation of scholars as well as older works that have not previously appeared in English.
Volume 7
Raccomandazione: Clientelism and Connections in Italy
Dorothy Louise Zinn
Volume 6
Hunters, Gatherers, and Practitioners of Powerlessness: An Ethnography of the Degraded in
Postsocialist Poland
Tomasz Rakowski
Volume 5
Two Sides of One River: Nationalism and Ethnography in Galicia and Portugal
António Medeiros
Volume 4
The Colours of Empire: Racialized Representations during Portuguese Colonialism
Patrícia Ferraz de Matos
Volume 3
Developing Skill, Developing Vision: Practices of Locality at the Foot of the Alps
Cristina Grasseni
Volume 2
Strangers Either Way: The Lives of Croatian Refugees in Their New Home
Jasna Čapo Žmegač
Volume 1
Disenchantment with Market Economics: East Germans and Western Capitalism
Birgit Müller
Raccomandazione
Clientelism and Connections in Italy
Dorothy Louise Zinn
Translated from the Italian by the author
Published in 2019 by
Berghahn Books
www.berghahnbooks.com
English-language edition
© 2019 Berghahn Books
Italian-language edition
© 2001 Donzelli Editore
Originally published by Donzelli Editore as
La raccomandazione. Clientelismo vecchio e nuovo
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be
reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any informationw storage and
retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Zinn, Dorothy Louise, author.
Title: Raccomandazione: Clientelism and Connections in Italy / Dorothy Louise Zinn.
Other titles: Raccomandazione. English
Description: New York: Berghahn Books, 2019. | Series: European Anthropology in Translation; Volume 7 | Translation of: La
raccomandazione: clientelismo vecchio e nuovo. Roma: Donzelli, 2001. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018059389 (print) | LCCN 2018059946 (ebook) | ISBN 9781789201987 (ebook) | ISBN 9781789201970 (hardback:
alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Patron and client—Italy, Southern. | Patronage, Political—Italy, Southern. | Italy, Southern—Politics and government.
Italy, Southern—Social conditions.
Classification: LCC DG442 (ebook) | LCC DG442 .Z5613 2019 (print) | DDC 306.20945/7—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018059389
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78920-197-0 hardback
ISBN 978-1-78920-198-7 ebook
For Odile and Pauline
Italy is a country which is willing to submit itself to the worst governments. It is, as we know, a
country ruled by disorder, cynicism, incompetence and confusion. Nevertheless, we are aware of
intelligence circulating in the streets like a vivid bloodstream.
This is an intelligence which is clearly useless. It is not used to benefit any institution that might to
some extent improve the human condition. All the same, it warms and consoles the heart, even if this
is an illusory comfort and perhaps a foolish one.
—Natalia Ginzburg, The Little Virtues
You can say, “In Italy, you enter knocking with your feet, because your hands are full.” You can sum it
all up like this.
—Gilda, Bernaldese friend and raccomandazione artist
Contents
Preface to the English Edition
Acknowledgments
Introduction. The Art of Raccomandazione
Chapter 1. The Ethnographic Setting
Chapter 2. Patronage/Clientelism: Some Theoretical Considerations
Chapter 3. Toward a Poetics of Patronage
Chapter 4. Raccomandazione, Tangente, and Mafia: An “Amoral” Family of Genres
Chapter 5. Raccomandazione, Class Relations, and the Southern Question
Chapter 6. Employing the “Little Shove”: Raccomandazione and Work
Chapter 7. “We’re Not Uganda, but Almost”: Raccomandazione and Southern Italian Identity
Conclusion. Raccomandazione and the Bourgeois-Liberal World Order
Epilogue. What Happened When They Read What I Wrote: Mediterranean Clientelism and Corruption
Revisited
Glossary
Bibliography
Index