Ordinary Academicians

Fabio Ferrucci

Prof.

Fabio Ferrucci

Date of birth 25 October 1963

Place Mirano, Venice, Italy (Europe)

Nomination 09 February 2021

Field Sociology

Title Head of Department of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, University of Molise, Italy

  • Biography
  • Publications
  • Self-Presentation

Most important awards, prizes and academies
Full Professor of the Sociology of Cultural and Communication Processes, University of Molise. Member of the Ph.D. Board of the international programme in “Social Work and Personal Social Services”, Catholic University of Milan. Member of the Scientific Committee of the Research Centre for Inland Areas and the Apennines, University of Molise. Rector’s delegate for Disability, Student Conditions, and the Right to Study, University of Molise. Member of the Executive Board of the National University Conference of Delegates for Disabilities (CNUDD). 
Ph.D. in Sociology and Social Policy, University of Bologna (1994).
Secretary of the Social Policy section of the Italian Sociological Association (2006-09). Founding member of the Italian Scientific Society of Sociology, Culture, and Communication (since 2017). Member of the editorial boards of scientific journals and book series.

Summary of scientific research
Ferrucci’s research covers the sociology of disability, family and childhood, health, social policies, and the third sector. The sociology of disability is his main research area, focusing on social inclusion policies in employment, university studies, and independent living. He is currently the director of research projects with applications in promoting physical, sensory, and cognitive accessibility to cultural institutions. His research in the sociology of the family and childhood has focused on the culture of childhood and the conceptions of children’s rights held by the actors involved in the educational process (children, parents, and teachers). He has also worked on policies for combating poverty and providing economic support to families (also from a comparative perspective). In the sociology of health, he investigated the spread of HIV in Western societies from a socio-cultural perspective, with a focus on the social construction of the disease, cultures of risk in different social groups, and health education strategies for prevention. Research on the third sector has concentrated on Social Foundations, highlighting the culture that characterises some of these organisations as mechanisms for generating trust and reciprocity. Specifically, he has worked both theoretically and empirically on the emergence and development of Community Foundations in Italy and their role in generating and enhancing social capital in local communities.

Main publications
Books: Presentation of the Italian edition of T. Shakespeare, Disabilità e società. Diritti, falsi miti, percezioni sociali [Disability rights and wrongs revisited, Second editionedited by F. Ferrucci (2017); Capitale sociale e partnership tra pubblico, privato e terzo settore. Il caso delle fondazioni comunitarie (2010)La disabilità come relazione sociale. Gli approcci sociologici tra natura e cultura (2004); Fondazioni bancarie e volontariato (1999); Vivere con l'AIDS. Introduzione all'analisi sociologica (1997); (with P. Donati), Verso una nuova cittadinanza della famiglia in Europa (1994). Articles and book chapters: L’esperienza didattica universitaria degli studenti con disabilità e con DSA, (2021); Les politiques d’insertion professionnelle pour les personnes en situation d’handicap en Italie : de l’emploi obligatoire à l’emploi ciblé (2020); Le handicap en tant que relation sociale : un nouveau paradigme sociologique pour les politiques d’inclusion (2020), The social and cultural integration of disabled people (2018); The enigma of social relations in post-moderno society (2017); (with C. Tomassini, G. Pistacchio), Individui, famiglie e comunità. Quale future demografico per le aree interne? (2017); Welfare locale, dopo di noi e ciclo di vita familiare delle persone adulte con disabilità: una prospettiva sociologica, in “NonProfit”, 2-3, (2016); (with M. Cortini), Social representations and inclusive practices for disabled students in Italian higher education: A mixed-method analysis of multiple perspectives (2015); Disability and work inclusion in Italy: Between unfulfilled promises and new disability culture, in “Modern Italy”, vol. 19, n. 2, (2014); Famiglia e politiche sociali in Italia (2012); Partnership sociali e fondazioni di comunità in Lombardia. Due studi di caso: la sovvenzione globale CRES e il progetto “Intessere” (2010); Capire la differenza: culture della disabilità (2009); Lo sterminio dei disabili. Come e perché noi tracciamo i confini dell’umano, in «Quis ut Deus», n.1, (2009); «The fastest thing on no legs». Il caso Pistorius (2009); Cultura dell’infanzia e culture dei bambini. Identità e processi di socializzazione nella società contemporanea (2008); Differentiation of the Philanthropic Cultures in Italian Foundations (2008); La promozione del welfare societario a livello locale: il ruolo delle fondazioni comunitarie (2008); Come pensano (e agiscono) le fondazioni italiane? Morfogenesi e morfostasi delle culture filantropiche, in «Politiche sociali e servizi», anno IX, n. 1, (2007); (with G.M. Grasso, G. Ripabelli, M. Sammarco), Sources of information, knowledge and sexual behavior related to HIV/AIDS among university students in an inland territory in central Italy, in «Italian Journal of Public Health», vol. 4, n. 1 (2007); (with F. Casas, A. Saporiti, M. Gonzales, C. Figuer, C. Rostan, M. Sadurnì, C. Alsinet, M. Gusò, D. Grignoli, A. Mancini, M. Rago), Children’s Rights From the Point of View of Children, their Parents and their Teachers: A Comparative Study between Catalonia (Spain) and Molise (Italy), in «The International Journal of Children’s Rights», 14, (2006); Le fondazioni comunitarie in Italia/Die Burgerstiftungen in Italien (2006); (with S. Stanzani), La valorizzazione del capitale sociale nelle istituzioni di alta formazione: il caso dei collegi universitari italiani (2006); La disabilità: differenza e alterità tra natura e cultura (2006); Disabilità e politiche sociali. La prospettiva sociologica del paradigma relazionale (2005); (with A. Saporiti, F. Casas, C. Alsinet, C. Figuer, M. Gonzales, M. Gusò, C. Rostan, M. Sadurnì, D. Grignoli, A. Mancini, M. Rago), Tres mirades a los derechos de la infancia. Estudio comparativo entre Cataluña (España) y Molise (Italia) (2005); (with A. Saporiti, F. Casas, D. Grignoli, A. Mancini, M. Rago, C. Alsinet, C. Figuer, M. Gonzales, M. Gusò, C. Rostan, M. Sadurnì), Children’s Views on Children’s Rights. A Comparative Study in Catalonia (Spain) and Molise (Italy), in «Sociological Studies of Children and Youth», vol. 10, (2005); (with S. Stanzani), Le fondazioni sociali (2004); Le nuove generazioni tra inclusione ed esclusione sociale. Prospettive sociologiche di analisi e di intervento (2004); Le community foundations in Italia: esperienze e prospettive (2001); Gli orientamenti delle politiche familiari in Italia alla fine degli anni ‘90, in «Sociologia e politiche sociali» (1998); Approccio sociologico alla trasmissione del virus HIV (1998); Le fondazioni bancarie (1996); Politica sociale, povertà e precarietà sociale: il reddito minimo garantito (1993); Le proposte di legge sul reddito minimo garantito in Italia: una prima valutazione (1992).

Dear President, dear Chancellor and Academicians,

I am very honored and deeply grateful to have been called to be part of this Pontifical Academy and to have been able to participate in the Plenary Session dedicated to the “Family as a relational good”, in the wake traced by the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia.

Talking about family, I wish to recall mine. I have been married for 30 years. My wife’s name is Fiorella and she is a doctor of infectious diseases. We have a son, Paolo, and two daughters, Francesca and Elena.

I studied and graduated in Political Science at the University of Perugia where I met my wife. In 1994 I obtained a Ph.D. in Sociology and Social Policy from the University of Bologna. Since 2006, I have been a full professor of Sociology of Cultural Processes at the University of Molise. In this University, from 2009 to 2014, I coordinated the Ph.D. in Intercultural Relations and Processes and since 2020 I have been directing the Department of Humanities, Social and Education Sciences. Since 2013 I am the Delegate of the Rector for Disabilities. I am a member of the International Doctoral College in Social Work and Personal Social Services at the Catholic University of Milan. Since 2018, I have been a member of the Board of Directors of the National University Conference of Rectors’ Delegates for Disability.

My research covers the sociology of disability, family and childhood, health, social policies, and the third sector. My research in the sociology of the family and childhood has focused on the culture of childhood and the conceptions of children’s rights held by the actors involved in the educational process.

In the sociology of health, I investigated the spread of HIV in Western societies from a socio-cultural perspective, with a focus on the social construction of the disease, cultures of risk in different social groups, and health education strategies for prevention.

Research on the third sector has concentrated on social foundations, highlighting the culture that characterizes some of these organizations as mechanisms for generating trust and reciprocity. Specifically, I worked on the development of community foundations in Italy and their role in generating and enhancing social capital in local communities.

Currently, the sociology of disability is my main research area, focusing on social inclusion policies in higher education, employment, and independent living. I am director of several research projects with applications in promoting physical, sensory, and cognitive accessibility to cultural heritage.

A few months ago Pope Francis, recalled that the Church’s social doctrine, “sees the human person, naturally open to relationships, as the summit of creation and the centre of the social, economic and political order”. And that from the social doctrine flows a “concern for human beings and sensitivity to concrete historical process” and the commitment to “be vigilant in upholding respect for the human person and his or her freedom, and in safeguarding his or her inviolable dignity”.

I wish to assure my commitment to the service of the Academy, contributing with the disciplinary competences at my disposal to nourish and promote that “appropriate dialogue” – recalled by the Statute – with which to offer the Church useful elements to develop its social doctrine and to enhance those “forms of new life” that spring from it. New forms of life that – in dramatic times like the ones we are living in – keep alive the hope of a world that is more supportive, more just and more equitable.

1 Address of His Holiness Pope Francis to participants in the International Convention of the “Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice” Foundation, 23 October 2021.

Professional Address

Università del Molise
Dipartimento di Scienze Umanistiche, Sociali e della Formazione
Via F. De Sanctis, snc
86100 Campobasso, Italy