Program

Annual Academic Meetings of the Social Sciences Division
& the Business, Economics and Law Division
Program (Athens Local Time)
(Note: each presentation includes at least 10 minutes for questions and discussions if available)

Monday 3 May 2021

11.00-12.00
Registration

12.00-12.30
Opening and Welcoming Remarks:

 12.00-14.00
Student poster section is organized in parallel by ATINER & MLC College in Ljubljana.
Program

Time Monday 3rd May Topic
12.00 prof. dr. Srečko Devjak, dean Welcome
  Natja Lavrič Introduction of topics
12:15 Alen Kosi, MLC Ljubljana Future of money and impact of AI forex trading in the banks
12:30 Matej Jugovic, MLC Ljubljana Stressful corporate ratings to recover from the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic
12:45 Diana Sepeta, MLC Ljubljana Quality in web presentation of higher education organizations
13:00 Eduardo Falcao, Andre Raimundo, IPB Braganca Unemployment after COVID: consequence of the cure. The role of CSR and ethics
13:15 Fernando Rodrigues, IPB – Master’s in management of Private Organisations Corporate social responsibility in the Portuguese banking sector: The state of art
13:30 All participants Discussion, Q&A
14:00 Conclusion

 

12.30-13.00
Claudiu Coman, Professor, Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania.
Maria Cristina Bularca, Master Student, Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania.
Title: Symbolic Construction of a University’s Identity. Case Study: Visual Identity of Transilvania University of Brasov

Summary
N/A

13:00-13:30
Denis Bernardeau-Moreau, Professor, University of Lille, France.
Title: Social Representations of Physical Disability in a Professional Environment.

Summary
Our paper focuses on the social construction of disability (Abberley 1987; Conrad and Barker 2010). Exclusion, De Foucault and Piveteau write, is a person being unable to contribute to the common good (1995: 33). It can be due to the disability itself or also and more importantly by the social aspect that disability carries. In this sense, social representations play a vital role in the social construction of disability. As Compte notes (2008: 117), they are at the heart of this construction as the translation of complex real and imagined relationships, objective and symbolic with regard to disability. By questioning disability, we are also questioning difference and acceptance, the real or imagined gap by social norms. Our intention is to analyse the development of representations of disability during social interaction situations, those that, in our opinion, form one of the key concerns stifling or facilitating professional integration of this particular audience. Through these interaction games susceptible to developing prejudices and preconceived ideas, we also wish to investigate the role that public authorities and business can have in facilitating professional integration for disabled people.

13:30-15:30
A Small Symposium on "The Social Dilemma: The Challenges of Doing Research on and with Social Media"
Academic Responsible: Gabriella Punziano, Assistant Professor, University of Naples Federico II, Italy.
    • 13:30-14:00
      Lucia Fortini      , Adjunct Professor, University of Naples Federico II, Italy.
      Domenico Trezza, Research Fellow, University of Naples Federico II, Italy.
      Giuseppe De Luca Picione, Professor, University of Naples Federico II, Italy.
      Title: Towards a New Local Welfare. From Policy Making Tools to the Governance of Regional Social Services. 
      Summary
      The paper aims to explore recent developments related to the change of direction of welfare policies in recent years in Italy – the return of the State as a welfare leader (Ascoli 2011, Gori et al. 2014, Gori 2020) – examining the case of Campania. In the post-Covid-19 scenario of socio-economic emergency, this regional system could represent an innovative model for harmonizing and implementing locally the national guidelines, such as the Regional Plan for the fight against poverty; on the other hand, it could revitalize the service decentralization and the empowerment of local authorities as stated from the 328/00 directive (Ascoli 2011, Fargion e Gualmini 2012, Barberis e Kazepov 2013). This could encourage more strong forms of association among the Municipalities (Agodi et al. 2006, Trapanese 2016). The attempt to implement national guidelines in local actions has allowed the experimentation of interesting forms of local governance. Therefore, we have tried to understand the possible implications on the configuration of the social-assistance offer of local institutional actors, exploring the tools of regional policy making and the possible outcomes on the organization and the proposal of social services.
    • 14:00-14:30
      Domenico Trezza, Research Fellow, University of Naples Federico II, Italy.
      Giuseppe De Luca Picione, Professor, University of Naples Federico II, Italy.
      Title: Parties, Leadership and Consensus Building in Networked Politics. The Digital Storytelling for the 2020 Campania Elections.
      Summary
      New digital media have completely changed political communication by promoting innovative ways of electoral campaigning. Political candidates’ use of social platforms has restructured representation in a personalistic manner, giving rise to electoral marketing strategies that arise predominantly in digital environments (Kahler 2011; Cepernich 2017; Calise, Musella 2019). This paradigm shift is mainly seen at the mainstream level, as on the international (e.g., 2008 Obama and 2016 Trump’s campaigns) and national (the digital governance of M5s italian political movement) scenario. However, what is happening in local election campaigns? What are the main organizational forms and what implications could be hypothesized on electoral results?  This contribute investigates these questions, taking into account the case of the 2020 Campania elections. Digital campaigns has surely increased with Covid-19 emergency, even locally. However, some local context analyses have shown that for several candidates this strategy has not yet been primary (Giordano 2020). The analysis involves the digital profile of candidates elected and non-elected of the Electoral Costituency of Naples in the President’s candidate list. The method applied is that of standard research working with large amounts of data: from electoral data, taken from the databases of the Ministry of the Interior, to digital data, built on the storytelling of the candidates’ web social pages. The work is divided into three empirical phases: the first, contextual, is related to the analysis of the candidate’s socio-demographic, electoral and digital profile (web placement). The second has required the extraction of digital content from the candidates’ public Facebook pages using API strategies. In this phase, textual aspects are taken into account, such as topics, type of language and political communication sentiment, and levels of followers engagement, according to a diachronic perspective. The third phase is related to the spatial analysis of the candidates’ vote in relation to the digital benchmarks previously considered, advancing hypotheses of relationship between the territorial distribution of the votes and the expressed electoral marketing strategies.
    • 14:30-15:00
      Ciro Clemente De Falco, Research Fellow, University of Naples “Federico II”, Italy.
      Gabriella Punziano, Assistant Professor, University of Naples “Federico II”, Italy.
      Domenico Trezza, Research Fellow, University of Naples Federico II, Italy.
      Title: Follow the Geographic Information. The Challenges of Spatial Analysis in Digital Methods. 
      Summary
      In the digital environment, defined as a space with no anchors (Menduni, 2014), the spatial dimension may have a significant role, mostly in relation to Internet or digital studies. Social Media Geographic Information (Campagna et al., 2016) even if limited (mainly due to Privacy matters) can be highly useful to overcome some limitations of social media analysis and user generated content. The dilemma of producing biased results often affects researchers studying web content. The authors aim to demonstrate how the geographical dimension can give an answer to this dilemma, even if a partial one. By shedding light on the conceptual distinction between geolocation and georeferencing, the work aims to identify the geolocated data from a double viewpoint: a) As a highly informative focus of social media studies, identifying traditional geographical areas of ecological analysis, and also testing new geographic categories (central/peripheral, rural/urban, etc.); b) As a potential tool to increase the reliability of geographic information. This would shift the focus to the differences between georeferencing and geolocation of social data. The conclusion of the paper raises a further dilemma: how does the use of geographical data relate to each user’s right to privacy?
    • 15:00-15:30
      Noemi Crescentini, Phd Student, University of Naples Federico II, Italy.
      Giuseppe Michele Padricelli, PhD Student, University of Naples Federico II, Italy.
      Title: The Relevance of Scientific Dissemination During the Vaccine Campaign: The Italian Virologist Communication on Social Media. 
      Summary
      The scientist role has progressively gained an essential relevance all along the 2020 pandemic. The virologists’ exposition  turned out fundamental for the public opinion both for the well informed and not aware people about health, transmission, infection and, today, vaccines program. This paper aims to investigate about the online communication practices addressed by Italian most followed virologist on social media (SM) during the first two months of the vaccine campaign, an unique event in which occur conflicting feedbacks in debate both enthusiastic and skeptical. The arising of digital scenario and the resultant pervasive presence in our daily life of web platforms, such as social media, had revolutionized the nexus between science and society. More scholars (Saracino, 2020; Entradas and Bauer, 2017; Bucchi and Trench, 2014, 2016;), argued about the disintermediated current shape of science communication that connect directly scientist and large publics, driving the sociological debate towards the analysis of the current processes of sense-making construction. On this assumptions we aim to give answer to the following research question: which features underlay virologist social media communication strategies? Which exposition styles they adopt? Which are the main topics’ dimensions they address? To which sources they tap into? How they facilitate the comprehension of public for complex topics such as the vaccines functions? Therefore the empirical part of this paper consists in a data collection phase conducted on the main SM platforms consulted by Italians to inquire about health, starting from December 27th (kick-off day of the vaccine campaign in Italy) to February 27th . The collected SM unit of analysis (author posts/re-posts) will be analyzed by a content analysis in order to shed light about the author intentions, the social accepted practices, the most popular argumentations, cultural sense and iconic. The attended results aim to identify the contradictory or uniformity of disintermediated communication features of the observed SM profiles in order to push and follow, during the ongoing vaccine dosing program, a proactive reflection about the key role of scientific dissemination

15:30-16:00
Gizela Brutovska, Assistant Professor Technical University of Kosice, Slovakia.
Matus Beres, Assistant Professor Technical University of Kosice, Slovakia.
Title: How Revolting Young People Become Radicals The Case of Slovakia. 

Summary
The radicalization of young people is coming slowly step by step. The emptiness in the form of distrust spreads in all areas (work, family, church, etc.) and leads to indifference and passivity. That, connected with the disintegration of a young person in the field of values, norms (so-called disintegration) and social isolation (disorganization), causes a kind of revolt. Gradually, due to the confusion of a young person in several life situations, it leads to anger, which, if left unresolved, gradually grows into aggression and violence. The aim of the paper is to identify and describe the sources of anger and frustration of young radicals in Slovakia. At the same time, we will analyze against whom is aggression most often directed. We will pay specific attention to Slovenskí branci – one of the radical groups in Slovakia. This paramilitary group is considered as the security threat, according to the Slovak Ministry of Defence. Theoretical part of the paper is based on bibliography written by sociologists dealing with indifferent society (Lipovetsky, 2008) and examining the youth integration barriers (Durkheim, 1973). Aggression and violence originating in the anger is described according to Arendt (2004). Empirical part of the contribution is mostly result of qualitative research among young radical people aged 14 to 17 conducted in Slovakia in the form of case studies.

16:00-16:30
Shani Carter, Professor, Wagner College, USA.
Title: Passenger and Freight Railroads in African Countries: Past Difficulties, Recent Expansions, and Future Opportunities.

Summary
There have been freight and passenger railroads in African countries for more than 200 years, with drawings from the early 19th century showing railroads in Senegal, in west Africa, an 1877 map showing planned northern railroads, and a 1908 map showing existing and planned railroads across the continent. These railroads were generally not interconnected across national borders, partially due to political issues and partially due to technology issues, with rail lines in adjoining countries using different track widths, thus making use of trains across national borders technologically impossible. Over the late twentieth century, many of the rail lines deteriorated significantly and became impractical to use due to poor quality or were abandoned. During the last ten years, however, there have been several additions and improvements to the rail infrastructure in several countries, such as Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Kenya in east Africa, with plans to expand these rail lines to connect to Sudan and South Sudan. The new railroad construction within the East African Community, a six-country region (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda) with a population of 168 million people spread over 2,467,202 square kilometers (952,592 square miles) is key to the EAC’s economic growth. Reliable freight rail transportation is critical to the economic success of the EAC, which has several major ports, including: Mombasa, Kenya; Lamu Port, Kenya; and Bagamoyo port, Tanzania. Both Lamu Port and Bagamoyo port are being funded by Chinese investors, indicating global interest in the economic future of the EAC. Further north, in Djibouti, a significant portion of the port is leased to Chinese investors. Elsewhere in Africa, freight rail transportation and ports are recognized as being critical to economic success, and the ports are receiving outside funding. For example, Chinese investors are key for West African ports of Lomé, Togo and Lagos, Nigeria. Nevertheless, there remains no north-south or east-west rail lines, and long-distance ground transportation (via road or rail) remains very difficult across the African continent, which has significant negative effects on global trade and on local economies. While no north-south rail line is planned, an east-west rail line in planned to connect the port of Senegal in West Africa to the port of Djibouti in East Africa, traveling through Mali, Niger, Chad, Sudan, and Ethiopia, a project being partially funded by Chinese investors and which has drawn interest of Russian investors.

16:30-17:00
Victor Kogan, Retired Professor, Saint Martin’s University, USA.
Title: Classics and New Racism 

Summary
1) Ancient Greece and Rome are with us so much that everybody wants to cling to them. Away of hot academic debates on whether ancient Greece received seeds of its culture from Egypt, Asian people, or somebody else, – it is different from parents or grandparents more than similar to them. Regardless of origin, the “product” is completed as something of independent value. Parthenon had been built for life before death, independently from Pyramid of Khufu, built for life after death; and Acropolis is independently great as Giza. And both are great human achievements in their own kind.

2) The wave of the struggle against ‘white privilege’ and ‘systemic racism’ did not pass the field of classics, the study of Ancient Greece and Rome. Critical Race Theory[1] fulfills and extended the 1903 prediction of W.E.B. Du Bois “The Souls of Black Folk” that The Problem of 20th Century is the problem of the color-line.”  Critical Race Theory asserts that racism is a fundamental and integral part of our society and works against people of color to benefit white people.[1] The proponents of this theory commit to working toward Social Justice, reject liberalism with its support of colorblindness, equal opportunity, and meritocracy[2]

(3) They insist that their ideas and programs are irrefutable because disagreement and dissent are just proof of “white fragility”, unconscious biases, or internalized white supremacy. Straight, white, English-speaking, Christian males are members of the oppressors’ class. To them, equality “mere non-discrimination” and provides “camouflage” for white supremacy, patriarchy and oppression[3]  Ibram X. Kendi, Director of the Center for Anti-Racist research has proposed the creation of the Federal Department of Anti-Racism at Boston University with the power to nullify, veto, or abolish any law at any level of government and curtail the speech if the political leader and other who are deemed insufficiently “antiracist.”[4]

4) Critical Race Theory, broadly recognized in American colleges and universities, presents reality in two colors only. It overshadows and even substitutes any merit by the color – white is wrong, non-white is good. This is a blunt contradiction to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1963 famous “I Have a Dream” speech: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” 

This simplistic two-color social structure for everything is enthusiastically supported by young romantics who have never lived in the Soviet Union or Communist China. This is a war against knowledge, which is not new; the German, Austrian and Chinese students burned books, Soviet officials declared genetics a pseudoscience, the Khmer Rouge killed doctors, teachers, and other people who could count to 20, and China’s Red Guard, or Hóng Wèibīng, committed nothing less than Cultural Revolution.

5)Regardless of the intentions of its shakers and movers, Critical Race Theory fails to distinguish truly important differences between individuals and groups. It pretends to help marginalized minorities but harms them by providing a false base for satisfaction. However, this approach is quite convenient for replacing professional knowledge with the loud noise of mind “decolonization,” proponents of which are strengthening in numbers. Critical Race Theory disorients presumed beneficiaries and turns out to be new racism, in this case, aimed as discrimination against whites.

6) The spark of its refreshed prominence in classics and humanities was given by Dan-el Padilla Peralta, Dominican by birth, and a Princeton professor, author of the book “Undocumented: A Dominican Boy’s Odyssey from a Homeless Shelter to the Ivy League” (Penguin Press, 2015). His personal story is charged with symbolism.

He is a black, undocumented immigrant from the Dominican Republic whose mother brought him to New York and had decided to take the adversities of life without English and papers.

He has been supported by white people against the US immigration law all the way up to Princeton, Oxford, and Stanford, some of the best educational institutions, to master Greek and Latin and, finally, teach Classics at Princeton, and, in the pinnacle of that, speak against the historical foundation of this society, what he has understood, is a white man-dominated slaves-holding structure fraught with systemic racism.

Inside the ‘white structure of oppression,’ after graduation from Princeton as a 2006 salutatorian, Dan-El Padilla earned a master’s degree from Oxford and a doctorate from Stanford – all bypassing the US regulation on immigration, thank to the unselfish help of many people.

His personal life story and topic of work, and aim of his intellectual and civic revolt – this is the intersection where current cultural war conflagrations are. Besides, the Russian jokes play well here: in our family, only a computer has memory, and only dogs show gratitude.

7) Positive Discrimination or Affirmative Action programs exist in the USA, India, Malaysia, Nigeria, and other countries as a broadly recognized way to correct historical injustice.  Winners who, in most visible cases, happen to be white, try to pay dues to the retrospective non-white victims of oppression. It is possible to apply Affirmative Action to history classes through acceptance and grading, but not to History itself.  Slavery and the dominance of men, which nullify the value of classics in the eyes of fighters against ‘white supremacy,’ were everywhere, while Democracy was in Athens and Rome only. So, to promote truth and our dignity, classics must stay.

17:00-17:30
Jan Lust, Professor, Ricardo Palma University, Peru.
Title: The Structural Conditions for the Expansion of COVID-19 in Peru. 

Summary
Peru is one of the most affected and infected countries by COVID-19. The expansion of the virus could not be contained by a complete lockdown and a state of emergency. The re-opening of the economy increased the expansion of COVID-19. We argue that the role of Peru in the international division of labor is not only the structural condition for the persistence of labor precariousness in the country, but also the principal cause for the expansion of COVID-19 in Peru. At a more concrete level, labor precariousness and the expansion of COVID-19 are the expressions of the economic and business structure of the country. An economic structure heavily dependent on the non-tradable sectors, a business structure dominated by micro business undertakings characterized by low productivity and low-skilled labor do not permit the eradication of precarious labor conditions as economic growth hinges on economic progress abroad and precariousness is the source of profit of micro companies. The persistence of labor precariousness impedes the containment of COVID-19. Labor precariousness expressed in wages at the subsistence level and the lack of labor stability in the formal sector and the structural character of informality, have been the catalysts for the expansion of the virus. We demonstrate that COVID-19 is not a democratic virus but a class virus. For Metropolitan Lima, districts with a more than average rate of informality have also a more than average rate of COVID-19 infections. The neoliberal development model has been responsible for the incapacity of the government to implement measures according the country’s social and economic structure that might have contained the expansion of COVID-19. This model is the expression of Peru’s function in the globalized world, the relation between this role and the country’s economic and business structure, the functionality of the extractive development model for the Peruvian State, and the correlation of class forces within and outside the state apparatuses.

17:30-18:00
Michael P. Malloy, Distinguished Professor & Scholar, University of the Pacific, USA.
Title: Promises for the Future. 

Summary
This paper examines recent developments in Contract Law that involve the use of the theory of promissory estoppel as a substitute for the traditional basis for formal contract formation. An enforceable contract results from the exchange of mutual obligation on the part of two parties, supported by consideration exchanged between them. This process results in each of the parties taking on an enforceable obligation. As a distinct and independent alternative, the theory of promissory estoppel posits that a person who makes a promise – unsupported by consideration and therefore not a contract – that the promisor should reasonably expert would induce action or forbearance to act on the part of the promisee or a third person and which does induce such action or forbearance, is legally bound by that promise “if injustice can be avoided only by enforcement of the promise.” The resulting remedy granted for a breach of the promise “may be limited as justice requires.” While cases and commentators often appear to conflate contract and promissory estoppel into a general theory of obligation, recent trends in case law suggest that there is a renewed awareness on the part of courts that promissory estoppel is indeed a distinct and independent theory of obligation, and that the extent of enforcement of the promise must be genuinely limited by consideration of what “justice requires” in the circumstances, not simply by the terms of the promise itself.

18:00-18:30
Andrew Perkins, Senior Lecturer, Truman Bodden Law School of The Cayman Islands. Cayman Islands.
Title: The Legal and Economic Questions Posed by the German Constitutional Courts Decision in the Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP) Case. 

Summary
In the week in which countries of the European Union celebrated VE Day, the Bundesverfassungsgericht (the German Constitutional Court) delivered a landmark Judgment in the Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP) Case banning fresh purshases of German Bonds through the European Central Banks Asset Purchase Programme. The decision is potentially a blow to the European Union’s Covid-19 recovery process and raises broader questions as to the ability of nations to challenge the basis of decisions of the Court of Justice for the European Union.

The German Constitutional Court held in a bold judgment “that the Federal Government and the German Bundestag failed to take steps challenging that the ECB, in its decisions on the adoption and implementation of the PSPP, neither assessed nor substantiated that the measures provided for in these decisions satisfy the principle of proportionality.” And therefore set aside a decision of the Court of Justice for the European Union allowing for such purchases to be made on the basis that the German Government and Parliament had a duty to take active steps against Quantitative Easing in the form of PSPP under German Law.

This marks the first occasion that a national Constitutional Court has overruled a decision of the European Court of Justice. However, broader economic and legal issues have been raised by the decision. How does the German Central Bank satisfy the Constitutional Court that proportionality has been applied? When a list of highly political and economic factors are engaged in the activities of the PSPP programme.

In this paper the decision will be examined from three perspectives:-

  1. Firstly, does the German Constitutional Court’s decision effectively insist for the independence for the German Central Bank on bond purchases as well as upon broader financial issues?
  2. Secondly, if this is so could other national courts seek to declare that the PSPP provisions are incompatible with their own national laws?
  3. Thirdly, from the perspective of financial regulation is this a problematic precedent if a central bank needs to persuade a Court of an acceptable proportionality analysis in regulatory economic matters and broader financial issues.

Conclusions will be reached to show that this decision represents a notoriously difficult position to adopt within a monetary union, especially for the German Central Bank which is deemed to have a controlling interest within the EU. Furthermore questions need to be asked as to whether Courts should take such actions as the Judiciary may be ill-equipped to deal with the economic and political framework in which governmental financial and economic decisions take place.

20:30-22:30
Greek Night
(The event did not take place due to the limited number of attendance. Those who paid and were not able to attend will be offered a free voucher according to our policy: https://www.atiner.gr/coronavirus)

Tuesday 4 May 2021

09:00-12:00 Urban Walk
(The event did not take place due to the limited number of attendance. Those who paid and were not able to attend will be offered a free voucher according to our policy: https://www.atiner.gr/coronavirus)

  • 12:00-12:30
    Danijela Brecko    , Assistant Professor, MLC Management and Law College Ljubljana, Slovenia.
    Title:     Distance Leadership and New Leadership Competencies
    Summary
    Leadership is challenging, however distance leadership is even more challenging and complex. Covid-19, which has caused many changes in the way we work almost overnight, also requires the renewal of classic managerial models and the new leadership’s competencies. According to the Gallup survey, made in 2020, successful distance working depends to a large extent, as much as 70 percent, of the commitment of managers and their support to remote employees. In this paper, we will present the specifics of remote work and distance leadership as well as the understanding and importance of lifelong development of leadership competencies. In the target population of managers, we are discovering what new competencies managers need for distance leadership. In the first part of the research, we identify in the focus groups the most common challenges as well as the embarrassments of distance leadership, and on this basis we propose a list of competencies with which managers can successfully address these challenges. The proposed competencies are then critically evaluated on a wider population of managers using a quantitative method – a questionnaire, which we designed specifically for this purpose. We are interested in which competencies managers consider to be the most important for distance leadership; to what extent they have already developed these competencies and to what extent they want to develop them in a period of 12 months. In the following, we also explore the most often used learning strategies for developing those leadership competencies and make some final recommendation for organisation and HR people how to support managers by distance leadership.
 12.00-13.15
Student poster section is organized in parallel by ATINER & MLC College in Ljubljana.
Program

Time Tuesday 4th May Topic
12.00 prof. dr. Tatjana Devjak Welcome
  Natja Lavrič Introduction of topics
12:15 Saša Ristić, MLC Ljubljana Slovenian labour law – termination of employment contract
12:30 Diogo Francisco Monteiro Martins de Jesus, Instituto Politecnico do Porto – ESGT, Law for solicitors – Degree The Portuguese Complaints Book knows where we live!
12:45 Marjanca Scheicher, MLC Ljubljana Tax evasion as a misdemeanor and as a criminal offence
13:00 All participants Discussion, Q&A
13:15 Conclusion

 

12:30-13:00 Break

13:00-13:30
Murat Can Pehlivanoglu, Assistant Professor, Istanbul Kent University, Turkey.
Title: Title of your presentation: Intellectual Property Rights of Motion Pictures and Intangible assets as Capital for Stock Corporations.

Summary
The Directive (EU) 2017/1132 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017 Relating to Certain Aspects of Company Law Article (Art.) 46 provides that a public limited liability company’s subscribed capital may be formed only of assets capable of economic assessment. Likewise, 6102 numbered Turkish Commercial Code Art. 342 articulates that payments in cash, tangible assets and intangible assets may be provided as capital for stock corporations, the Turkish equivalent of public limited liability companies. However, a minimum capital of 50.000, 00 TL shall be subscribed in order for a stock corporation to be incorporated (TCC Art. 332). Accordingly, when an intangible asset is being provided as capital to the stock corporation, appraisal experts appointed by the court shall make the valuation of the pertinent intangible asset (TCC Art. 343). The expert report shall indicate the valuation method, existence of the intangible asset, its validity and compliance with TCC Art. 342, its collectability and exact value, as well as the value and number of shares it corresponds to. In line with these rules and procedures, it appears that a producer may provide the motion picture intellectual property rights she holds as an eligible form of capital for a stock corporation. Still, whether a motion picture intellectual property right would satisfy the TCC Art. 343 criteria shall be analyzed through the principles articulated by the 5846 numbered Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works (LIAW). Official Comment to TCC Art. 343 signals that the expert report should review all legal factors concerning the intellectual property rights based on the applicable legislation. This study evaluates the legal factors which may revoke or adversely affect the eligibility of a motion picture intellectual property right held by a motion picture film producer under the applicable Turkish law, in connection with the Directive, the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, and the International Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations. In particular, the study outlines how the separation between moral rights and economic rights may provide adverse limitations on the eligibility of motion picture intellectual property rights held by motion picture producers, in connection with the rules on stock corporation capital subscription. In particular, it exemplifies such inherent adverse limitations through the lens of copyright registration, rights of the performers and authors of scenarios of motion pictures.

13:30-14:00
Michele Santurro, PhD Student, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.
Title: Measuring Social Cohesion.

Summary
There are different notions of what constitutes a “good life” or a “good society”, correspondingly the well-being of individuals and nations has been conceived in different ways according to several authors and schools of thought. Only a few decades ago, the notion of welfare still used to be synonymous with material wealth and possession, and GDP turned out to be the main criterion for describing the social progress of a nation in a synthetic way. Later on, the concept of quality of life emerged as one of the most prominent and widely used frameworks for analysing the living conditions in a society and changes of welfare across time. In recent years, the concept of social cohesion has received great attention in social sciences as well as in policy circles at the national and supranational level (including the OECD, the European Union and the World Bank). The popularity of the concept is related to the structural consequences of globalization and neo-liberal market-based policies that have posed severe challenge to the traditional welfare state model in many advanced post-industrial countries: public disenchantment with democratic politics, persistent unemployment as a result of economic restructuring, increase in population mobility, new forms of exclusion in the age of information technology and network society, rising income inequality and so on. Hence, social cohesion has gradually become an overarching notion that links up a wide range of elements, from income distribution, employment, housing, universal access to health care and education systems to political and civic participation. This paper aims at proposing a clearer and more rigorous definition of the concept at hand and measuring social cohesion among European countries over the last 15 years through the use of a composite index created with multivariate analysis techniques. The availability of appropriate knowledge on social conditions within and across European societies as provided by social research is of crucial importance to have more concrete debates in sociology and better policies of institutions both national and international.

14:00-14:30
Helene Jeannin, Sociologist, Orange-Department of Humana and Social Sciences, France.
Title: The Rising Tide of AI Ethics in Organizations: Towards ‘Responsible AI’.

Summary
The emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) raises many concerns, fears and myths about its future and its impact: privacy issues, job destruction, potential for algorithmic bias and lack of transparency, loss of control over the machine and dispossession… It is looking alternatively threatening and promising with many believers in AI, enthusiastic people, and media attention given its somewhat sensational materials. As AI extends and when it comes to its acceptance, pressure for ‘Responsible AI’ is being put on tech companies, Governments, institutes (Future of Life Institute), professional associations (IEEE, ACM), territories that design, build, and deploy AI systems … The focus on the downsides and risks of this technology urges them to implement efforts towards Responsible AI. These include: engaging the ethics of data science in practice with training for technologists, toolkits, implementation of ethics committees, advisory panels, governance boards or code of conducts, partnerships between firms and academic research centers, AI research and strategic development plans. Some organizations have started to regroup under a single umbrella (The Partnership on AI, AI for Good, Impact IA)… There seems to be areas of consensus regarding the set of principles they fully endorse, in order to develop the trust needed for widespread adoption. The repercussion that AI now has and may have in the near future on peoples’ lives highlights the importance of having a strong ethical framework surrounding its use. A movement has begun on an international level to take steps towards ethical AI. To get a sense of this ongoing evolution, we propose to describe and discuss this global movement towards Responsible AI.

14:30-15:00
Almudena Moreno, Researcher, Public University of Navarre, Spain.
Lourdes Lostao, Professor, Public University of Navarre, Spain.
Title: Use of Health Services in Spain and Germany: Trends and Equity.

Summary
Background: Following the 2008 economic crisis many countries implemented austerity policies. This paper evaluates the trends and equity in the use of health services during and after that period in Spain – a country with austerity policies – and in Germany – a country without restriction on healthcare spending.

Methods: Data from several National Surveys in Spain and several waves of the Socio-Economic Panel in Germany, carried out between 2009 and 2017, were used. The dependent variables were number of doctor’s consultations and whether or not a hospital admission occurred. The measure of socioeconomic position was education. In each year, the estimates were made for people with and without pre-existing health problems. First, the average number of doctor’s consultations and the percentage of respondents who had had been hospitalized were calculated. Second, the relationship between education and use of those health services was estimated by calculating the difference in consultations using covariance analysis – in the case of number of consultations – and by calculating the percentage ratio using binomial regression – in the case of hospitalization.

Results: The annual mean number of consultations went down in both countries. In Spain, the average was 14.2 in 2009 and 10.4 in 2017 for patients with chronic condition and 6.4 and 5.9 for those without a defined illness. In Germany, the averages were 13.8 (2009) and 12.9 (2017) for the chronic group and 8.7 and 7.5 with no defined illness. The hospitalization frequency also decreased in both countries. The majority of the analyses presented no significant differences in relation to education.

Conclusion: In both Spain and Germany, service use decreased between 2009 and 2017. In the first few years, this reduction coincided with a period of austerity in Spain. In general, we did not find socioeconomic differences in health service use.

15:00-17:00
A Small Symposium on "Emerging Trends in Social Research Methods"
Academics Responsible:
Felice Addeo, Associate Professor, University of Salerno, Italy.
Angela Delli Paoli, Adjunct Professor, University of Salerno, Italy.
    • 15:00-15:30
      Giuseppe Masullo, Associate Professor, University of Salerno, Italy.
      Miriam Matteo, PhD Candidate, University of Salerno, Italy.
      Marianna Coppola, PhD Student, University of Salerno, Italy.
      Title: Male Shaming Processes: Between Heteronormativity and Performing Corporeality. Social Representations and Discrimination of Masculinity.
      Summary
      The shaming process represents the process of marginalization, de-humanization and derision against a person or a group of people for their anthropometric, psychological, social and cultural characteristics (Pacilli, 2014). Over the last few years, scientific literature has developed an interesting production of contributions and research on the analysis and study of shaming processes, focusing in particular on body shaming towards women (Hungerford, 2015; Mustapic, Marchiko, 2016; Glyde , 2016; Kar, 2019; Gam, Singh Kamar, Manar, 2020) This contribution, on the other hand, aims to study the shaming processes in men (male shaming processes), trying to outline the peculiar aspects, the psychological, social and cultural characteristics around the construction of the male identity. The purpose of this research was to analyze the social representations of masculinity and the main discrimination suffered by men within their in-groups, both in development and in adulthood. To this end, we asked ourselves several research questions: – What are the main reasons for discrimination for adolescent males? – Is there continuity and historical evolution of the discrimination suffered in adolescence with any discrimination and shaming processes in adulthood? – What are the main contexts where discrimination and harassment are exercised, what are the protective factors that push the subject to “proactive” responses? In order to answer the questions posed, a mix methods research design was used: an anonymous online questionnaire was administered (with the aim of creating a “mapping” of discrimination and shaming phenomena) to 150 men aged 18 and 45 years old; subsequently a semi-structured biographical interview was constructed with the aim of appreciating and deepening: how the perception of those traits for which one was discriminated against in adolescence has changed over time; what strategies have been put in place to achieve a good image of one’s bodily and social self; how these changes are associated with the idea that they have today of masculinity (if it is taking shape more as hegemon or on the contrary resistant). The interview was submitted to 40 men selected through online questionnaires. The results show, from a quantitative point of view, a photograph of a phenomenon of male shaming with “early” onset as it is more distributed in lower secondary school, concurrently with pubertal development and the discovery of sexual identity. In particular, the two vestments that appear to be the main motivations for evil shaming are: on the one hand, gender identities and non-normative sexual orientations – such are identified and stigmatized throughout school, during adolescence – on the other hand, the second discrimination parameter is represented by anthropometric indices that refer to a conception of corporeality linked to that of masculinity: the body must be performing as an index of the degree of correspondence to hegemonic masculinity (Connell, 1995) As regards, however, the biographical evolution of the discrimination suffered as a result of shaming processes, there is a different discrimination carrer between gender identities and non-conforming sexual orientations compared to shaming processes for anthropometric indices. In fact, while the subjects interviewed who presented anthropomentric indices that were not suitable for the dominant reference group (short stature, overweight) report how the processes of social discrimination decrease or disappear in adulthood thanks to various re-educational and compensatory processes (for example diets , gym and / or social mobility and upward status), for subjects with non-conforming gender identity and sexual orientation there is a continuity in discriminatory phenomena and the only protection strategies lie in the construction of social relationships in others reference groups (for example LGBT social groups or minimal groups where coming out and authenticity processes are possible). Among the central strategies implemented, in this last group, the possibility of the subject to omit his own gender and sexual identity is revealed, especially in the case of a high passing for normals to conform to the identity of hegemonic masculinity (Connell, 2009; Butler, 2004 ; Rinaldi 2016). Finally, the data show a poor correspondence between offline male shaming and male shaming on the web or on social media, as the processes of homologation and / or creation of coherent avatars or of conforming second identity in the virtual have the advantage of immediacy, of gratuitousness and the destructuring of corporeality, elements that constitute important protective factors against haters.
    • 15:30-16:00
      Grazia Moffa, Assistant Professor, University of Salerno, Italy.
      Title:       Italian Migrants in Shanghai: A Skilled Migration?
      Summary
      The new complexity of the geography of migration and the overlapping routes of flows require a new point of observation (Calvanese, 1992; Castles and Miller, 1993). These processes have created new scenarios and different opportunities for social and work integration, raising many questions about the size, nature and characteristics of the so-called new emigrations. The latter is an increasingly recurrent expression among scholars to highlight the quantitative and qualitative changes that have characterised Italian emigration abroad in recent years. The choice to emigrate depends on many aspects and new interpretative approaches are needed (Moffa, 2014; San Filippo, 2017). Field studies are needed to assess the different components of new emigration. In the panorama of international migration statistics there is a progressive growth of registrations of Italian citizens residing abroad. In particular, the steady increase in consular registrations based in the People’s Republic of China is striking. As of 2019, according to data from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, registered Italians amounted to 10,779, noting an increase of 1,417 registrations compared to 2017. Also with reference to 2019, 36% of those registered are registered at the Consulate General of Shanghai. Overall, there are rather significant phenomena that invite us to reflect on which dimensions, more than others, act in the choice to emigrate and which aspects characterise the profile of Italians who decide to undertake an emigration experience in China, albeit temporary. From this point of view, we are still in an unexplored field, as there are no data that allow us to go beyond the quantification of the phenomenon. The very definition of new emigration calls into question aspects of the debate that imply a careful evaluation of the different components that characterise its profile. Which dimensions act in the choice to emigrate and which aspects characterise the profile of Italians who decide to emigrate to China? In 2018, the Documentation Centre on New Migrations Ce.Do.M.-UNISA of the University of Salerno launched a research with qualitative analysis techniques. The reflections are based on fifty-three in-depth interviews and are part of a much broader project aimed at analysing the characteristics and dynamics of the migratory flows that have affected our country since the economic recession of 2008. More specifically, the work follows two specific directions of analysis. The first traces the socio-cultural profile of the subjects interviewed, through the reconstruction of their life, training and work trajectories, family networks and friendships. The second one focuses on the new context of life, on the opportunities it offers or on the criticalities experienced. The paper reports part of the research results, highlighting some aspects of new migrations from Italy: push and pull factors, the presence or absence of a community, the process of work and social integration. Finally, it reports the impact that COVID-19 has had and continues to have on the life projects of the interviewees.
    • 16:00-16:30
      Felice Addeo, Associate Professor, University of Salerno, Italy.
      Valentina D’Auria      , PhD Student, University of Salerno, Italy.
      Vincenzo Esposito, Research fellow, University of Salerno, Italy.
      Title:       Life Behind Walls: A Mixed-Methods Research on Italian Hikikomori.
      Summary
      The aim of the following contribution is to analyze the phenomenon of Hikikomori in Italy. First identified and described in 1998 by Tamaki Saito, the Hikikomori syndrome occurs in the dual condition of prolonged isolation for more than six months and lack of other psychopathologies associated with the person (Li, Wong, 2015). Currently, there is still no unambiguous diagnosis to identify this disorder (Kato et al., 2011), the DSM classified Hikikomori as a “cultural syndrome” in 2018, related exclusively to the Japanese context. During the years, there has been some research in other countries such as Belgium (Vanhalst et al., 2015), Spain (Malagon-Amor et al., 2011) and Italy (Pierdominici, 2009) that have shown that the phenomenon is not unique to Japan. Moreover, these studies showed how the Hikikomori phenomenon has different and distinguishing features in the Western culture. Starting from this consideration, our main research question aims at exploring and describing the Hikikomori disorder in the Italian context, specifically in a southern region, aby applying a Mixed Method approach (Campbell, Fiske, 1959) in order to integrate different perspectives within the same research path. The methods used are the Focus Group (Merton, Kendall, 1946) and the Delphi Survey (Linstone, Turoff, 1975). Results highlights how crucial the role of school and family is in the personal growth of today’s adolescents and traces the Hikikomori phenomenon to what Ian Hacking (2000) called temporary psychopathologies.
    • 16:30-17:00
      Chiara Vassilo, Research Fellow, University of Naples Federico II”, Italy.
      Annarita Sorrentino, Assistant Professor, University of Naples “Parthenope”, Italy.
      Ilaria Tutore, Associate Professor, University of Naples “Parthenope”, Italy.
      Title: Does Green Consumer Behaviour is Affected by COVID Pandemic? A Sociological Analysis in Italy. 
      Summary
      N/A

17:00-17:30
Seher Sen, Lecturer, Izmir University of Economics, Turkey.
Title: Negotiating Boundaries of Identity and Belonging: Feelings of Inclusion and Exclusion.

Summary
Since 1990s Alevis started to re-organize around the Cemevis -places of worship- and Alevi Cultural Centers both in Turkey and in certain European Countries such as Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, France, United Kingdom and Austria. It has been a kind of necessity and reaction to new conditions created by migration process that broken traditionally structured Alevi community ties that gave rise to redefinition of the community identity. If identities are narratives, stories people tell themselves and others about who they are (and who they are not) (Yuval-Davis, 2012), they are not fixed but in constant process of change as a result of negotiations of power relations and changing social locations of groups and individuals. In this process narratives are shaped and reshaped by inclusion and exclusion relations felt and narrated by individuals and groups. This paper aims to understand this process of redefinition of Alevi identity regarding individuals’ feelings of inclusion and exclusion in the case study of Alevi immigrants within the context of Alevi Cultural Centers and Cemevis in the Netherlands. The study is based on the evaluation of the in-depth interviews that are conducted with the members of Alevi Cultural Centers and Cemevis in the Netherlands.

17:30-18:00
Beatriz Acuna, PhD Student, Mexico.
Title: Taste and Class: Wealthy People in Mexico.

Summary
The subject matter of this paper is the way individuals pertaining to the Mexican high class consume, and how their consumption practices and interests are related to their cultural capital, the origin of their wealth and, at the same time, reveal distinctive tastes. Three authors define the core or the theory of the research: Bourdieu, Veblen and Goffman. The aim was then threefold , first, to establish, if any, the resemblance between Bourdieu’s French society cultural capital and the Mexican one. Secondly, if Veblen’s theory -who is considered a complement to Bourdieu’s ideas- of conspicuous consumption as a feature of the leisure class, is still valid and to what extent, for the contemporary high-class individuals in Mexico. And third, regarding Goffman analysis components on the representation of the self, to identify and try to understand how these persons distinguish and express themselves through consumption. To fulfill these objectives and answer the questions, I applied an ethnographic approach through in-depth interviews that were carried out in several cities of the country. The findings point to a cultural capital, understood as an interest and attendance at “fine arts” expressions. There are cases that show a clear analogy among consumption of legitimate culture, refined taste, wealth origin, along with the family evolution, all associated with high cultural capital, close to Bourdieu’s theory, but certainly not conclusive for the Mexican high class as a whole. In addition, different moments and styles of consumption were identified as ways of communicating a place in social space.

20:00-21:30
Dinner
(The event did not take place due to the limited number of attendance. Those who paid and were not able to attend will be offered a free voucher according to our policy: https://www.atiner.gr/coronavirus)

Wednesday 5 May 2021
Educational Islands Cruise

(The event did not take place due to the limited number of attendance. Those who paid and were not able to attend will be offered a free voucher according to our policy: https://www.atiner.gr/coronavirus)

Thursday 6 May 2021
Delphi Tour

(The event did not take place due to the limited number of attendance. Those who paid and were not able to attend will be offered a free voucher according to our policy: https://www.atiner.gr/coronavirus)

As part of the conference a Student Poster Section was organized in collaboration with the MLC College in Ljubljana. The program of the poster presentation is available here.