In my work on broadcasters, I am often critical of lottizzazione. Today, I read a paragraph which made me realise I come from an institute which practices it. Philip Schlesinger, writing in a 1991 book on Culture, Identity & Broadcasting in Ireland (p. 43):
[On] the question of identity in Europe… my interest was first seriously aroused… when working at the European University Institute, housed in the Badia Fiesolana, a former abbey which overlooks Florence… In this idyllic setting (replete with plots and sub-plots enough to keep Umberto Eco busy on a further large work of fiction) there was a great deal of integrationist Euro-babble (the official ideology), alongside a painstaking and precise division of academic and administrative jobs by nationality. The German-speaking world calls it Proporz and the Italians call it Lottizzazione, we might simply call it a carve-up… As a flawed attempt at producing a Euro-intelligentsia, this was certainly an interesting set-up.
Post a Comment