This research involves two cultural anthropologists from CUNY and Fordham Universities in New York in a study of the local reaction to anti-Mafia activities in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. The researchers will live in a lower-class neighborhood of the city and study the reactions of people to the tension in contemporary Italian society between reformers who wish to change the nature of Sicilian civil society to give less support and encouragement to Mafia activities, and the `Sicilianist` reaction to anti-Mafia activities which defends local identities, language and customs against a `modernist` critique which is seen as disloyal to Sicily. Using techniques of participant observation the anthropologists, both fluent in local languages and very familiar with local cultural and historical issues , will study the successes and failures of the contemporary anti-Mafia movement. This research is important because as the European common market (and other such agreements such as NAFTA) expands to control more cultural and social issues, the tension between democracy movements of restructuring local civil society are being undermined by regional nationalism. Understanding in depth of one case study will illuminate general processes in common with other situations, and aid policy makers in the search for improved democracy which is sensitive to local history and culture.
