Franco Ferrarotti,

OMRI The Order of Merit of the Italian Republic () is the most senior Italian order of merit. It was established in 1951 by the second President of Italy, President of the Italian Republic, Luigi Einaudi. The highest-ranking honour of the Republi ...

(7 April 1926 – 13 November 2024) was an Italian sociologist and a member of the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

, elected with

Adriano Olivetti Adriano Olivetti (11 April 1901 – 27 February 1960) was an Italian engineer, entrepreneur, politician, and industrialist. He was known worldwide during his lifetime as the Italian manufacturer of Olivetti brand typewriters, calculators, and com ...

Community Movement The Community Movement was an Italian political organization founded by Piedmontese progressive entrepreneur Adriano Olivetti in 1947. Olivetti had previously established a cultural group, which only subsequently began a political activity at loc ...

Life and career

Born in

Palazzolo Vercellese Palazzolo Vercellese (''Palasseu'' in Piedmontese) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Vercelli in the Italian region Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business a ...

, Piedmont, on 7 April 1926, Ferrarotti studied at the Universities of Turin, London and Chicago. In 1951, together with

Nicola Abbagnano Nicola Abbagnano (; 15 July 1901 – 9 September 1990) was an Italian existential philosopher. Life Nicola Abbagnano was born in Salerno on 15 July 1901. He was the first-born son of a middle-class professional family. His father was a practic ...

, he founded the ''Quaderni di Sociologia'', which he edited until 1967 when he started ''La Critica Sociologica''. In 1960 he was awarded the first full-time chair of sociology established in the Italian academic system. A prolific writer and a worldwide traveller, he has taught in many universities all over the world, from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

The New School The New School is a Private university, private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for p ...

and the

Graduate Center of the City University of New York The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public research institution and postgraduate university in New York City. Formed in 1961 as Division of Graduate Studies at City University ...

to the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

Tokyo University The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...

Université Laval (; English: ''Laval University)'' is a public research university in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The university traces its roots to the Séminaire de Québec, founded by François de Montmorency-Laval in 1663, making it the oldest institutio ...

in Québec, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona and Université la Sorbonne in Paris. Between 1945 and 1963 he was active in four fields: a) as an editorial consultant and translator for Giulio Einaudi in Turin; b) as a collaborator of

, concerning mostly industrial relations; c) as director of the “Social Factors”, of the OECE in Paris; d) as an independent member of Parliament (1959-1963). In 1963 he did not stand for reelection because the electoral law made it impossible to run as an independent, and more importantly, because he had decided to devote himself completely to teaching and research. In this perspective, he is widely regarded as the founder of postwar Italian sociology. Ferrarotti was awarded the Knight Grand Cross from the

Order of Merit of the Italian Republic The Order of Merit of the Italian Republic () is the most senior Italian order of merit. It was established in 1951 by the second President of Italy, President of the Italian Republic, Luigi Einaudi. The highest-ranking honour of the Republi ...

in 2005. A 2012 journal article referred to Ferrarotti as "the father of Italian sociology." Ferrarotti died in Rome on 13 November 2024, at the age of 98.Franco Ferrarotti è morto. E’ stato il padre della sociologia italiana

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrarotti, Franco 1926 births 2024 deaths Italian sociologists Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic Italian Democratic Socialist Party politicians Deputies of Legislature III of Italy University of Turin alumni People from Palazzolo Vercellese 20th-century Italian social scientists