The Inter-University Centre for Research on the Sociology of Law, Information and Legal Institutions (CIRSDIG), directed by prof. Alberto Febbrajo, is the result of an agreement, made in 1988, between the Universities of Macerata and Messina. The Centre aims:

- to promote and to coordinate teaching and research activities in the sociology of law and studies on legal institutions, with particular focus on the aspects of communication and information law;

- to train researchers through the promotion of Ph.D. courses, awards and scholarships. CIRSDIG has in fact contributed to the creation of the following Ph.D. courses: "Analysis and Theory of Political Institutions, Social and Communicative Changes" (University of Messina), “Sociology of Legal and Political Institutions and Analysis of Administrative processes” and “Theory of Information and Communication” (University of Macerata);

- to promote the exchange of information and materials among researchers in a framework of cooperation with Institutes and Departments of various universities, and with public and private institutions;

- to stimulate interdisciplinary approaches and cooperation;

- to increase the number of external institutions and subjects that might be interested in using the competences of the Centre by activities of scientific communication, congresses, symposiums, and cooperation in research activities.

Over the years, CIRSDIG has conducted a vast number of scientific research projects and organized several seminars and meetings. The studies conducted on the topics of law, information, legal institutions, and communication have resulted in the production of several publications. Since 2006 the Center has created a Scientific Board composed of Professors Roque Carriòn-Wam, Domenico Carzo, Alberto Febbrajo, Mauricio Garcia-Villegas Mario Morcellini, Edgar Morin,Valerio Pocar, Marcello Strazzeri.

Specifically, the Centre has observed the relationship between law and communicative processes by means of empirical studies that have been conducted by Italian and foreign scholars, as well as by a number of students who had the opportunity to use the Centre in order to make their first steps in the field of scientific research.

In addition to the research on law and society, the Centre has developed studies on journalism and communication, the journalistic construction of electoral campaigns, deviance, youth and immigration.

By the year 2000, the activities of the Centre, both in Messina and Macerata, had become more intense and interdisciplinary. In fact, after the publication of research into electoral reform and media-representation of electoral campaigns, CIRSDIG organized, in May 2001, an international conference on the new communicative and social codes at the University of Messina. Several European and Southern American scholars, in the fields of the sociology of law, communication and general sociology, participated in the meeting. Were included, among others, Michel Maffesoli, Eric Landowski, Oscar Correas, and Roque Carrion-Wam. Presented papers were later published in two volumes. In 2004 the Centre has organized a conference on “Youth, Values and Liquid Society”, with participants coming from various Italian universities: Mario Morcellini (University of Rome “La Sapienza”), Valerio Pocar (University of Milan-Bicocca), Antonio La Spina (University of Palermo), and Domenico Carzo (University of Messina).

CIRSDIG’s work has provided an important contribution to academic debate, particularly by involving public opinion in a successful attempt to raise issues and shed light on aspects of the local reality that had not been carefully observed by the political and scientific worlds. In 2005, for example, an important research project was carried out on the subject of usury in the city of Messina – a study that raised the interest of the national press. Beyond that, the Centre has always focused  on the notion of “social change” in its most general and complex articulations, as is shown by the vast number of publications on sensitive topics such as new media or multiculturalism in Italy and elsewhere.

 In 2011, in cooperation with Aracne Publishing house, it has been created a new peer-reviewed series (Collana del Cirsdig) in order to host broader studies, either empirical or theoretical, devoted to the analysis of the normative and communicative processes operating in the contemporary world and, in general,  the aspects of gender, race and inequality present in such processes. The series is open to all the scholars working on the issues addressed by the Center, and the submission of short proposals is encouraged.

 

Local Branch
The Director of the Messina local section is Prof. Domenico Carzo. The Research Team at the University of Messina (Department of Economics, Statistics, Mathematics and Sociology “V. Pareto”) is composed of: Marco Centorrino, Antonia Cava, Pietro Saitta, Mariagrazia Salvo.
 

Contacts
C.I.R.S.D.I.G.
c/o Dipartimento di Economia, Statistica, Matematica ed Economia “V. Pareto”
Via Tommaso Cannizzaro 278
98122 Messina
Italy
Tel. (+39) 090/6411070
Fax (+39) 090/6416275
cirsdig@gmail.com