The contribution is inserted within that broad family of studies that wants to analyze and thematize the increasingly presence of ethnic and cultural differences within contemporary societies starting from the processes, the dynamics, and the meanings of those who are called to produce and reproduce them on a daily basis. In fact, it is a consolidated data that, under the pressure of migratory flows, multiethnicity has become a structurally incorporated factor in the cultural, social, and economic life of communities. At the local level, the empirical studies that deal with the transformations taking place in urban spaces with a high multiethnic rate return complex and often contradictory scenarios. Reference is made to those contributions that describe dense forms of life in which different perspectives, representations, norms, routines, and practices meet and collide. In this scenario, some places in particular are characterized by specific properties in terms of relational and learning potential. Thus, commercial establishments, are characterized as spaces in which the experience of direct encounter with differences can be detected generating sharing opportunities between different, sometimes unprecedented, ways of structuring life and work practices. Contact within daily trade practices can be structured as a source of informal learning significant or not that by calling into question the transformative perspective can generate both openness and dialogue as well as closure and distancing. The interpretative key offered by the transformative theory allows us to read commercial pluralism, understood as the set of different practices, routines, rules, commercial representations that unite a territory with a high multiethnic rate, as a device capable of stimulating learning through contact. Therefore, through commercial practice it may be possible to shape opportunities for the knowledge of new and different points of view through which individuals can give meaning to their experience, reflect on the ways in which they interpret cultural differences and consequently direct actions. What kinds of learning occur in cities that are transitioning towards experiences of cultural pluralism? What are the meanings attributed to differences by individuals who share spaces and activities? What role do commercial practices play? How do the relationships between traders with different ethnic and cultural backgrounds take shape? These are the questions that have formed the background of an in progress qualitative research that aims to bring together the reflections on the phenomenon of multiculturalization in the commercial sector, on the new urban scenarios that derive from it and on the different learning trajectories linked to these dynamics. The study’s object are the forms of learning encouraged by contact practices that shape relationships, behaviors, and interactions between traders with diversified ethnic and cultural backgrounds, their customers and the organizational actors of the trade associations. Starting from the assumption that fostering opportunities for contact between individuals with different ethnic and cultural backgrounds facilitates the development of a positive climate of pluralism and the acquisition of new meaning perspectives, we conducted ethnographic observations in a highly multiethnic neighborhood of a town in Central Italy and clinical interviews with traders with diversified ethnocultural backgrounds and with organizational actors of representative associations. The informal aggregations of traders, in this case, can be interpreted as systems of experts carrying explicit and implicit knowledge, thus representing a privileged field of detection of the knowledge produced.

Il contributo si inserisce all'interno di quell'ampia famiglia di studi che vuole analizzare e tematizzare la crescente presenza di differenze etniche e culturali all'interno delle società contemporanee a partire dai processi, dalle dinamiche e dai significati di chi è chiamato a produrle e riprodurle quotidianamente. È infatti un dato consolidato che, sotto la spinta dei flussi migratori, la multietnicità sia diventata un fattore strutturalmente incorporato nella vita culturale, sociale ed economica delle comunità (Fabbri, Melacarne, 2020). A livello locale, gli studi empirici che affrontano le trasformazioni in atto negli spazi urbani ad alto tasso di multietnicità restituiscono scenari complessi e spesso contraddittori. Si fa riferimento a quei contributi che descrivono forme di vita dense in cui prospettive, rappresentazioni, norme, routine e pratiche diverse si incontrano e si scontrano. In questo scenario, alcuni luoghi in particolare sono caratterizzati da proprietà specifiche in termini di potenziale relazionale e di apprendimento. Così, gli esercizi commerciali si caratterizzano come spazi in cui l'esperienza dell'incontro diretto con le differenze può essere rilevata generando opportunità di condivisione tra modi diversi, a volte inediti, di strutturare le pratiche di vita e di lavoro. Il contatto all'interno delle pratiche commerciali quotidiane può essere strutturato come fonte di apprendimento informale significativo o meno che, chiamando in causa la prospettiva trasformativa, può generare sia apertura e dialogo sia chiusura e distanziamento. La chiave interpretativa offerta dalla teoria trasformativa ci permette di leggere il pluralismo commerciale, inteso come l'insieme delle diverse pratiche, routine, regole, rappresentazioni commerciali che accomunano un territorio ad alto tasso multietnico, come un dispositivo capace di stimolare l'apprendimento attraverso il contatto. Attraverso le pratiche commerciali, quindi, si possono creare occasioni di conoscenza di nuovi e diversi punti di vista attraverso i quali gli individui possono dare un senso alla loro esperienza, riflettere sui modi in cui interpretano le differenze culturali e di conseguenza orientare le azioni. Quali tipi di apprendimento si verificano nelle città che stanno transitando verso esperienze di pluralismo culturale? Quali sono i significati attribuiti alle differenze dagli individui che condividono spazi e attività? Che ruolo giocano le pratiche commerciali? Come si configurano le relazioni tra commercianti con background etnici e culturali diversi? Queste sono le domande che hanno fatto da sfondo a una ricerca qualitativa in corso che mira a riunire le riflessioni sul fenomeno della multiculturalizzazione nel settore commerciale, sui nuovi scenari urbani che ne derivano e sulle diverse traiettorie di apprendimento legate a queste dinamiche. Oggetto dello studio sono le forme di apprendimento incoraggiate dalle pratiche di contatto che modellano le relazioni, i comportamenti e le interazioni tra i commercianti con background etnico e culturale diversificato, i loro clienti e gli attori organizzativi delle associazioni di categoria. Partendo dal presupposto che favorire le opportunità di contatto tra individui con background etnici e culturali diversi facilita lo sviluppo di un clima positivo di pluralismo e l'acquisizione di nuove prospettive di significato, abbiamo condotto osservazioni etnografiche in un quartiere altamente multietnico di una città dell'Italia centrale e interviste cliniche con commercianti con background etnico-culturali diversificati e con gli attori organizzativi delle associazioni di rappresentanza. Le aggregazioni informali di commercianti, in questo caso, possono essere interpretate come sistemi di esperti portatori di conoscenze esplicite e implicite, rappresentando così un campo privilegiato di rilevazione della conoscenza prodotta.

Capaccioli, M. (2023). La multiculturalizzazione del commercio. Il commercio come arena trasformativa [10.25434/martina-capaccioli_phd2023].

La multiculturalizzazione del commercio. Il commercio come arena trasformativa

Martina Capaccioli
2023-01-01

Abstract

The contribution is inserted within that broad family of studies that wants to analyze and thematize the increasingly presence of ethnic and cultural differences within contemporary societies starting from the processes, the dynamics, and the meanings of those who are called to produce and reproduce them on a daily basis. In fact, it is a consolidated data that, under the pressure of migratory flows, multiethnicity has become a structurally incorporated factor in the cultural, social, and economic life of communities. At the local level, the empirical studies that deal with the transformations taking place in urban spaces with a high multiethnic rate return complex and often contradictory scenarios. Reference is made to those contributions that describe dense forms of life in which different perspectives, representations, norms, routines, and practices meet and collide. In this scenario, some places in particular are characterized by specific properties in terms of relational and learning potential. Thus, commercial establishments, are characterized as spaces in which the experience of direct encounter with differences can be detected generating sharing opportunities between different, sometimes unprecedented, ways of structuring life and work practices. Contact within daily trade practices can be structured as a source of informal learning significant or not that by calling into question the transformative perspective can generate both openness and dialogue as well as closure and distancing. The interpretative key offered by the transformative theory allows us to read commercial pluralism, understood as the set of different practices, routines, rules, commercial representations that unite a territory with a high multiethnic rate, as a device capable of stimulating learning through contact. Therefore, through commercial practice it may be possible to shape opportunities for the knowledge of new and different points of view through which individuals can give meaning to their experience, reflect on the ways in which they interpret cultural differences and consequently direct actions. What kinds of learning occur in cities that are transitioning towards experiences of cultural pluralism? What are the meanings attributed to differences by individuals who share spaces and activities? What role do commercial practices play? How do the relationships between traders with different ethnic and cultural backgrounds take shape? These are the questions that have formed the background of an in progress qualitative research that aims to bring together the reflections on the phenomenon of multiculturalization in the commercial sector, on the new urban scenarios that derive from it and on the different learning trajectories linked to these dynamics. The study’s object are the forms of learning encouraged by contact practices that shape relationships, behaviors, and interactions between traders with diversified ethnic and cultural backgrounds, their customers and the organizational actors of the trade associations. Starting from the assumption that fostering opportunities for contact between individuals with different ethnic and cultural backgrounds facilitates the development of a positive climate of pluralism and the acquisition of new meaning perspectives, we conducted ethnographic observations in a highly multiethnic neighborhood of a town in Central Italy and clinical interviews with traders with diversified ethnocultural backgrounds and with organizational actors of representative associations. The informal aggregations of traders, in this case, can be interpreted as systems of experts carrying explicit and implicit knowledge, thus representing a privileged field of detection of the knowledge produced.
2023
Capaccioli, M. (2023). La multiculturalizzazione del commercio. Il commercio come arena trasformativa [10.25434/martina-capaccioli_phd2023].
Capaccioli, Martina
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11365/1224303