“Italy Today” – 16/10 Den Haag
“Italy Today”. Urgent matters for Discussion: Economic Growth, Populism and Migrations.
Concept and organization of “Italy today”
The convention on “Italy Today” is commissioned by the Dutch Ministry for Foreign affairs, and is organized by the Department of Italian Studies of Leiden University. The idea of this meeting is to provide an overview of the current political and socio-economic situation of Italy nowadays, starting from a set of urgent issues and canonical narratives which the country is associated with and bring them to the table for discussion. Is the brain drain amongst unemployed youngsters still going on? What about the everlasting differences between North and South? How is Italy contributing to Europe’s migration management? Can we speak about the Rise (and failure) of populism? These extremely delicate issues will be framed and nuanced by professionals and specialists in the field. The convention will consist of a morning session with a series of four short presentations (15-20 minutes each), divided into two panels (on “politics” and on “migrations”).
Speakers
The first speaker of the day, Davide Vampa (Aston University) expert in multi-level party politics and public policy, opens the panel on Italian politics with a short talk on The upswing of populist parties in Italy. Dutch correspondent at De Volkskrant, Jarl Van der Ploeg, has been following the latest developments in Italian politics very closely and will share with us his personal impressions. The panel is chaired by history professor Henk te Velde.
A second panel focuses on the socio-economic situation of Italy today, with emphasis on what has been called the “European migration crisis”. Eugenio Cusumano and Stefano Bellucci of the International Studies Programme at Leiden University will enter into a dialogue on European and Italian migration management. Chairman professor Hoppenbrouwers will open and close this panel with some thought provoking claims. In conclusion, all experts and chairs will debate the key issues in a round table discussion challenging each other’s views.
This event is free of charge, but please register for the event via the link below. For questions, please contact Carmen van den Bergh (c.van.den.bergh@hum.leidenuniv.nl).