Re: your mail

Mon, 17 Jul 1995 12:46:42 -0400 (EDT)
Bill Haller (wxhst3+@pitt.edu)

On Mon, 17 Jul 1995, Enzo Mingione wrote:

> Date: Mon, 17 Jul 1995 13:51:56 +0000
> From: Enzo Mingione <mingione+@icil64.cilea.it>
> To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
> Subject:
>
> Dear collegues,
> I'm a young scholar working in the Department of Sociology of the
> University of Milan (Italy) and the Fondazione Bignaschi.
> I have been working for a long time on poverty and welfare systems,
> from a comparative perspective too. On these themes I published
> a few articles in books and review (in Italian, French and English).
> Now, with a collegue of mine (Simone Ghezzi, who is going to attend a
> master on Social Anthropology at the University of Toronto), I'm
> studying the effects of the processes of globalization on the urban
> structure of Milan, with a soecific focus on small firms and the
> formation of the identities of the entrepreneur.
> It could be very useful for my researches to receive any suggestion,
> bibliografy and so on, mainly about the formation of identities in a
> global market.
> Hearing from you soon, all the best.
> David Benassi

Dear David and Enzo,

The first items I would suggest are __Global Cities__, by Saskia Sassen
and __The Informational City__ by Manuell Castells. Those should help on
globalization and urban structure. Regarding the formation of identities
of entreprenuers, the only work I can think of at the moment that *might*
help is __Urban Fortunes:the Political Economy of Place__ by John Logan
and Harvey Molotch. Logan and Molotch discuss different types of
entreprenuers, but emphasize linkages to real estate more than linkages
to economic globalization. __Technopoles of the World__ by Manuel
Castells and Peter Hall could prove very helpful, but the regional focus
of this work seems to be on R & D centers above and beyond cities (and
their surrounding [sub-, ex-] urbanized regions) more generally. There's
a whole sub-area of urban semiotics which could be relevant. You could
get some leads on this through Mark Gottdiener's (1994, 1st edition)
text, __The New Urban Sociology__, but this sub-area seems to hinge on
notions of "space" in urban political economy which, in my opinion, is
fraught with serious conceptual difficulties. I want to take this
opportunity to thank Enzo Mingione for his recent book, __Fragmenting
Societies__. I found it very useful in formulating my thoughts on
restructuring and socioeconomic change. I hope these few leads I've
provided will help.

Sincerely,

Bill Haller

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bill Haller \/ University Center for Social
Department of Sociology /\ and Urban Research (UCSUR)
University of Pittsburgh \/ 121 University Place, 6th floor
email: wxhst3+@pitt.edu /\ Pittsburgh, PA 15213-9972
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