Eccezione e sacrificio. Il destino “federale” del Mezzogiorno nella sociologia di Alfredo Niceforo/Exception and sacrifice. The “federal” destiny of the South in Alfredo Niceforo’s Sociology

Abstract

This paper attempts to explore the historical context in which sociological knowledge of Southern Italy was originally developed, in early-stage of post-unitarian era. Focusing on openly racist theory about southern people inadequacy drafted by positivist Alfredo Niceforo and his proposal to build an authoritarian-shaped Federalism in Italy, the essay presented here allows to be half-seen persistent traces of that old-fashioned mentality as  much in current revival of positivist attitude in social sciences, as in contemporary Italian public debate about “Mezzogiorno” and its social “plagues”.