This is a CTP of initiative: Slow Food Italy
This critical turning point relates with the celebration of the 8th Slow Food Italy National Congress in the city of Riva del Garda (from 9th to 11th of May, 2014). The meeting gathered a total of 750 delegates represented the 45,000 members and 280 local chapters that Slow Food Italy had in that moment. One of the main points of the conference was the election of the new president of Slow Food Italy, including the new board committee that will be responsible for guiding the association over the next four years. Two candidates decided to present their projects in order to be elected the following president of the Italian association: Cinzia Scaffidi and Gaetano Pascale. The interviewee described the event as a critical turning due to the fact that:
It was the first time in the history of Slow Food Italy that Italian associates were asked to choose between two candidates. Our first president was Carlo Petrini, the founder of the Slow Food movement and later, when Carlo finished the second mandate, Roberto Burdese was the only candidate, he meant the continuity to Petrini and it was fine
Both candidates had large experience as convivium leader (Pascale) or due to their responsibilities within the Slow Food movement (Scaffidi) and were very well-known for the Italian associates. However, their projects represented two different visions for the future of the organization. The proposal presented by Gaetano Pascale represented the most pragmatic vision, despite Cinzia Scaffidi planned to introduce a cultural change within the Italian association that contemplates also a political perspective.
However, many people within the association were not happy with the need of choosing between to colleagues, and preferred only one candidate They were afraid that this process could divide the organization or create unnecessary differences. The interviewee, who was involved in one of the candidatures, received many pressures in order not to run or to reach to an agreement with the “rival”. Finally, both contested the elections and the Slow Food delegates had to vote for one of them.
I think that, from my point of view, 2014 was very important for Slow Food Italy timeline. Not only for the Conference and the election between two candidates, but because they were very different from each other. The current president, Nono Pascale, had a strong focus on operational things, do things, projects, etc. The project we presented was more focused on the political dimension. We would like to introduce a necessary cultural change within the organization. And the delegates chose between one option and another. The majority (about 60%) preferred the first one, the most pragmatically. I remember one delegate who made a speech at the Congress saying that Slow Food Italy had to choose between the hoe and the book, and finally we have chosen the hoe. We represented the book and the other candidate was the hoe. I was very impressed with this comparison. Anyway, in that moment the association preferred a very operative organization, focused on more specific topics. I do not know the specific reasons they reject our ambitious cultural project
Before the vote the whole congress decided to approve a motion which said that one person of the loosing team would anyway enter in the board with the role of vice-president. The two teams were formed by a president, 3 vice-president and a general secretary. After this decision the board would have been composed by the president, Four vice-president and the general secretary Gaetano Pascale was selected to be the new President of Slow Food Italy, and the other candidate, Cinzia Scaffidi, entered as vice-president in the national board:
The point was, again, to avoid any fracture in the association and sharing the responsibility of a common work
REFERENCES
[1] Info in press release: http://www.slowfood.com/familiar-faces-new-responsibilities
The particular circumstances that made the CTP happened were related to the final of a period within the timeline of Slow Food Italy. After almost 28 years since the foundation of the ArciGola association in 1986 (the first denomination that Slow Food receives in Italy), the national association of Slow Food Italy celebrates its 8th congress with the responsibility of election of the new president and his/her executive committee but also to discuss what kind of organization Slow Food Italy wanted to build and what was the central mission to be pursued in the future of Slow Food and the Terra Madre network in Italy.
People involved in this critical turning point were mainly the two candidates (and their teams) who run to the elections to be the president of the Italian association during the period 2014-2018: Cinzia Scaffidi and Gaetano Pascale. Both candidates had to present their candidature, with a proposal of team for executive committee and a project that contains the strategic lines for the future of the Italian association.
“Roberto Burdese ends in 2014 his second mandate. A new Congress brings us the possibility to present our candidature and people could choose between several alternatives. We presented an alternative project, more provocative, that wanted to change the current vision of the association”.
It should be mentioned that the task of leading Slow Food Italy involves a big responsibility. The Italian national association is the bigger national branch of the network with 45.000 associates (the Slow Food has 100.000 members in total). Besides, Slow Food Italy is the founder and responsible of the University of Gastronomic Sciences (created in 2004) and co-organizes the Terra Madre and Salone del Gusto international events. [1]
Profiles of both candidates also represent different positions within the organization. Cinzia Scaffidi had been more involved in the International Network, with previous experience in the area of international cooperation. Iin 2000, she was in charge of the Slow Food Award for the Defence of Biodiversity and, since 2004, she has been one of the coordinators of the Terra Madre meeting. Such experience leaves her to launch a contestant project – titled “relationships that change the world”[2]- that encourage the association “to open up horizons” and “deepening the relationship between the food and the world of politics, economy, health and legality”. She also claimed that the organization needs to create new synergies with young commitment people, immigrants who live in Italy or food industry companies.
On the contrary, Gaetano Pascale has been more involved with the Italian association for many years, leading the convivium of Valle Telesina. Later he was the President of Slow Food Campania and Basilicata. He was also a member of the National Council and National Secretariat of Slow Food Italia. His program (“sow the future cultivating the present”[3]) was more focused on reinforcing the organizational structure of Slow Food Italy, providing technical support to the political bodies, achieving the association's economic self-sufficiency and increasing the number of members. At the political level, Pascale pursues the strength of relations with the institutions “and the cornerstone of Slow Food projects: from education on Earth Markets, the Presidia to the initiatives to be pursued in big cities, involving all sections of the population”.
RERFERENCES
[1] Information retrieved from: http://www.slowfood.it/chi-siamo/viii-congresso-di-slow-food-italia
[2] The proposal is published in the website: http://www.slowfood.it/wp-content/uploads/blu_facebook_uploads/2014/10/Relazioni_che_cambiano_il_mondo.pdf
[3] The proposal is published in the website: http://www.slowfood.it/wp-content/uploads/blu_facebook_uploads/2014/10/Seminiamo_il_futuro.pdf
The interviewee remembers the previous periods of Slow Food Italy in terms of leadership and evolution of the structure of the organization. At the beginning, Slow Food Italy was almost a network of people, friends and food activists, which joined the movement and started to support the association conducting a number of innovative projects and educative activities in the local context.
The charismatic leadership of the first president, Carlo Petrini, made the movement quite popular in Italy but the International network become bigger. In 2006, Petrini finalizes his second mandate and focuses on leading the International Association. Despite the legacy of Carlo Petrini is always present in the Italian organization, the leadership of Roberto Burdese since 2006 to 2014 was more oriented to build a strong organization in terms of structure, gaining in formality, approving internal regulations and becoming a more “classical” association. According to the interviewee this “formalization” has bright and dark sides as she explains:
“In 2006, Carlo Petrini is no longer the president of Slow Food Italy. I remember that moment like “to lose the father”. Then, a new generation of leaders began to run Slow Food Italy. After Petrini, the new president for two terms, from 2006 to 2014, was Roberto Burdese. He made a big change within the whole structure of our association. Slow Food Italy becomes more informal. Carlo is very charismatic, very intellectual, very inspiring, but he was not interested at all in the formal part of the association. I mean, internal regulations and this kind of things. Roberto, tries to give us a structure. The association becomes more formal, in order, what is good in many ways. Some of them also connected to the legal aspect, which is important. Hence, the order can be good, but can also be less inspiring”.
According to the interviewee, in the last decade, Italian associates get used to have an organized structure, with rules and project to lead and conduct but new solutions are needed for the current global problems. She observes that innovations -social innovations too- come from people who are willing to break the rules. In the future, Slow Food need to approach to and be attract to new people, young people with innovative ideas and other ways of thinking, as she advances:
I think is that rules are very useful, but if all you have to do is follow the rules, new solutions are no longer needed. No need to turn the brain and we live in a time that needs new ideas. The old proposals we were told to be the only possibility, certainly they were not the unique, but they have done infinite damage. Surely, after 200 years of liberal, capitalist system, we are very good at complying with market rules, but these rules do not work, they are not good, and we need to propose new models, being free for that. Currently, some people are trying to do new things that are bordering on illegality. And this will surely not be faster. It's a very interesting topic. We surely develop them in college. The new economic and legal models we need in order to talk about sustainability without thinking in something utopian or marginal”.
The preparation of the 8th national congress of Slow Food Italy brought the election of the new board in charge of the association. Although seven conferences preceded the national congress, this was the first time the first time that delegates were asked to choose between two candidate teams. However, opposition rose against the idea of confronting candidates and proposals. This situation was perceived by part of the delegates as a risk. They fear that arising dissent could be perceived by affiliates as something negative, creating a bad atmosphere during the conference. At least one of the candidates received many pressures in order not to run:
“(The election) means a small scandal within the association, because people thought we were going to create fractures. We were pushing people to choose (between both of us) and it was horrible! I did not understand this position. If presenting an alternative is no possible, so why do you organize the elections? Finally, we run, although the organization chose the other candidate.
The interviewee explains that some colleagues tried to blame her for creating this supposed negative climate within the organization. However, she considers that dissent can be positive for the maturity of the organization, in terms that people should feel responsible, in certain level, for the decisions of their leaders, especially when social initiatives grow up:
“I am totally impermeable to the guilt they tried to throw me out when I presented myself as a candidate. I was told that if I run I would cause a fracture in the association. Well, no, we are adults, we are not so fragile. We will debate and finally we will vote. It was something disturbing but, at the end, I think it was the best way. Eventually, nothing was broken. Of course Slow Food is growing and growing well”.
Finally, the interviewee suggests that a gender bias might be involved in the mentioned contestation, due to the fact that Italy is still a sexist country and the idea of a woman leading the organization could be controverted:
“I think there was also a question of gender (bias). Slow Food has always been run by a man. The idea of a woman president was rare. But the support for both candidates was highly balanced. We received the votes from the 40% of delegates, which was very good. Finally, someone has to lose”.
The interviewee considers that, in her personal opinion, the conference meant a critical moment for the initiative although she is not sure whether the rest of the organization agrees. Despite the internal crisis that both candidates could have provoked -if the sense of the discussions have caused strong tensions within the initiative-, finally the delegates elect the current president and, apparently, no more dissent arise. Besides, the event was held one year ago and might be too early for people to understand this recent moment as identified a critical turning point.
“I believe that, at this time, the organization went through a moment of collective growth. We had lost “the father” (Carlo Petrini) and now we don’t have the person that continued his legacy, who was Roberto. But, eventually, we are adults to confront each other, putting ourselves in the dilemma of election. And when we choose, we have to hold the responsibility for what is happening, because if you cannot choose, you have no responsibilities for anything”.
The opinion that 2014 conference could be a significant event in the history of Slow Food Italy was also shared by the former president of the Italian initiative, Roberto Burdese [1]. In his speech the declares that Slow Food Italy “faced a historic Congress” due to the fact that “for the first time there are two candidate lists in competition with each other that involves great responsibility”. He firmly posits that “I am sure that at the end of the Congress we can say that this is one stage of our evolution”.
REFERENCES
[1] Declarations retrieved from the Web https://slowfoodpalermo.com/2014/05/10/il-congresso-di-riva-del-garda-9-11-maggio-le-info
Learnings arisen from the experiences lived in the 8th conference of Slow Food Italy relate indirectly to the process of maturity of the organization and the demonstrated capacity of the different leaders to present and discuss different pathways for the future of the organization in the short and medium term. Besides, associates also learnt that and dissent could be also positive or, at least, confrontations do not need to involve ruptures or internal crisis for the group.
Secondly, as the interviewee affirms, people need to take responsibility on the direction of the organization. Being or feeling part of the decision-making processes, as any democratic organization involves:
I think we learnt the dynamics of the responsibility of active participation. Once you have chosen a president, you are also responsible of whatt this person does. And either you have not chosen him or her, at the end, you have participated in an exercise of democracy that have elected a person to be the leader of the organization. So, you must participate in collective decisions, you cannot just demand (from others). This is an important growth within the associative politics
The interviewee also reflects, on the role that norms and strong structures have in the institutions and that could constrain the capacity of people to innovate or create new models of organizing or relating. Institutions are more rigid and reject disturbance so, in consequence, they are less active, more conservative. She concerns about the future of Slow Food Italy if the association actuates like the institutions they try to change or transform:
As a Slow Food member, I want an organization with fewer rules, lighter. Rules can be useful but also restrictive. I think it's not a risk we are running now but it could be a risk in the future if we do not control the situation appropriately. We could turn into a hierarchical system, which internally adopt behaviours that we do not like in political parties. And the great opportunity that Slow Food represents is our possibility of inventing new models, in all sectors. In the market, in the labour organization. Building alternative models of civil coexistence, conviability. In my opinion, in order a group of people, no matter how big or small it is, can invent new models of relationships, the group has to be free. I am thinking in our new associates, which are always more multidisciplinary
Besides, the interviewee explains further this idea of freedom referring to an article published in the Slow magazine titled “complexity, chaos and love”, “that creates the adequate conditions for social reaction, when new ideas and new solutions emerge” (Scaffidi, 2006:43-44).
REFERENCES
Scaffidi, Cinzia (2006). Complexity, Chaos and Love. Slow. 55: 38–45.
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