1996 Managing Existence in Naples: Morality, Action, and Structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Italo Pardo has produced a thoughtful and original account of the moral

life of Naples, a city in which the ethics of work, family and neighbourhood

exist in complex relationship with the teachings of the Church and, crucial

to key processes of democracy, with the power and limitations of law,

bureaucracy and government. Dr Pardo identifies the importance of strong

continuous interaction between material and non-material aspects in the

entrepreneurial strategies of ordinary Neapolitans and shows the ways in

which different ethical systems are negotiated in everyday life. Success is

measured not only by material gain, but also by satisfying spiritual obligations

and meeting the claims of intimate loyalties. This is one of the very few

ethnographic studies of a European city; it questions old assumptions and

raises fresh issues in the field of urban studies demonstrating the significance

of empirical analysis to mainstream debates in social theory.