Cristian Vaccari is research fellow at the Department of Political Science of the University of Bologna. His research and teaching focus mostly on political communication in comparative perspective, particularly with respect to the new media.
In 2006, he completed her Ph.D. in “Communication and New Technologies” at the IULM University (Milan) with a dissertation on the transformation of political communication in the United States, with particular reference to the 2004 Presidential elections. In 2007, the Italian Society for Electoral Studies (SISE) awarded his dissertation the “Premio Celso Ghini” for the best graduate dissertation on electoral studies in the 2005-2006 biennium. He has presented his work at various international conferences, including the annual meetings of APSA, ECPR, and ICA.
He has been a visiting scholar at the Department of Political Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA) and at the School of Public Affairs at American University (Washington, DC).
His current research focuses on the role of the internet in election campaigns in comparative perspective.

Books
La comunicazione politica negli USA. Roma: Carocci, 2007.
with Roberto Grandi, Elementi di comunicazione politica: Marketing elettorale e strumenti per la cittadinanza. Roma: Carocci, 2007.

Book Chapters
Cani da guardia o da salotto? I media statunitensi e la guerra al terrore. In C. Demaria, R. Grandi (Eds.), Marketing e rappresentazione dei conflitti: Media, opinione pubblica e costruzione del consenso. Bologna: Bononia University Press, 2008, 113-130.
Meet ‘Silvio’ and ‘Romano’: Political Communication as Personal Storytellin”. In J. O. Frosini, G. Pasquino (Eds.), For a Fistful of Votes: The 2006 Italian Elections. Bologna: CLUEB, 2006, 75-101.

Journal Articles
Surfing to the Élysée: The Internet in the 2007 French Elections. French Politics, 6, 1, 2008, 1-22.
Research Note: Italian Parties’ Web Sites in the 2006 Elections. European Journal of Communication, 23, 1, 2008, 69-77.

ALESSIA VATTA is researcher in Political Science at the University of Trieste, where she teaches Comparative Politics and European Public Policy. She is member of the International Political Science Association, of the European Consortium for Political Research and of the European Sociological Association (in the Research Network on Industrial Relations, Labour Market Institutions and Employment, of which she was vice-coordinator between 1999 and 2002).
She has been research fellow at the European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research (Vienna) and at the University of Vienna (Institut für Staatswissenschaft und vergleichende Gesellschaftswissenschaft, Abteilung für Wirtschaftssoziologie).
Her publications include journal articles and book chapters on concertation, employers’ organizations, and interest representation. Her recent research interests also focus on the political role of trade unions.

Books
Gli imprenditori e la concertazione in Europa. Un’analisi comparata, Roma, Edizioni Lavoro, 2001.

Book Chapters
Italy, in F. Traxler, G. Huemer (eds), Handbook of Business Interest Associations, Firm Size and Governance. A comparative analytical approach, Abingdon and New York, Routledge, 2007.
Lo sviluppo della società civile, in L. Mattina (a cura di), La sfida dell’allargamento. L’Unione Europea e la democratizzazione dell’Europa centro-orientale, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2004.

Journal Articles
Concertation and Employers’Organizations in Italy: The case of Confindustria, in South European Society and Politics, 6, 3, 2001, 103-122.
L’allargamento dell’Unione Europea e lo sviluppo delle organizzazioni imprenditoriali nei paesi dell’Europa centro-orientale, in Rivista Italiana di Politiche Pubbliche, 2-3, 2003, 175-200.

Sofia Ventura ha conseguito il dottorato in Scienza Politica presso la Facoltà di Scienze Politiche “Cesare Alfieri”, Università di Firenze. E’ Professore associato presso l’Università di Bologna, dove insegna Scienza Politica e Sistemi federali comparati. I suoi principali interessi di ricerca sono: il federalismo, le istituzioni federali nei sistemi politici multinazionali, il sistema di governo francese. Ha svolto soggiorni di studio all’estero presso l’IEP di Parigi. E’ membro della redazione della Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica.

Books
a cura di, Da Stato unitario a Stato federale, Territorializzazione della politica, processi devolutivi e adattamento istituzionale in Europa, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2007.
Il federalismo, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2002.

Book Chapters
a cura di Sofia Ventura, Introduzione, in Carl J. Friedrich, L’uomo, la comunità, l’ordine politico, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2002, VII-CIII.

Journal Articles
Le premesse del processo di federalizzazione in Belgio: le leggi linguistiche degli anni Trenta e Sessanta, in Quaderni di scienza politica, a. V, n. 1, 2006.
con Brunetta Baldi, Transizione dal centralismo alle autonomie e poteri in campo fiscale: i casi della Spagna e del Belgio, in Confronti. Autonomia lombarda, n.1., 2006, 89-106.
Il processo di nation-building fiammingo e la trasformazione del Belgio da stato unitario a stato federale, in Confronti. Autonomia Lombarda, n. 3, 2005, 125-141.
Federalismo e nazionalismo: il federalismo asimmetrico, in Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica, v. XXXIV, n.3, 2004, 405-432.
Federalismo, in Enciclopedia del Novecento. Supplemento III, Roma, Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana, 2004, 469-476.
Bicameralismo, camere alte federali e dominio dell’esecutivo, in Quaderni di Scienza Politica, v. IX, n. 2, 2002, 307-332.
Le Istituzioni del federalismo: le diverse interpretazioni della teoria della scelta razionale, in Quaderni di Scienza Politica, v. VIII, n. 2, 2001, 325-358.
Cultura politica e istituzioni. Il caso delle istituzioni federali, in Scienza & Politica, v. XXV, 2001, 53-67.

Fulvio Venturino is Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Cagliari. He received a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Florence and spent some terms in Usa and Uk.
Although not omniscient, he teaches Political Science, Comparative Political Systems, Italian Politics, and Public Administration.
He is member of the Società Italiana di Scienza Politica, and participates two standing groups on “Public Opinion and Political Behavior” and “Regionalism and Federalism”. He is associate of the Società Italiana di Studi Elettorali, and also a member of the Scientific Board for the period 2005-2010. He has published books, journal articles and newspaper columns concerning elections and party politics.
His recent interests focus on personal parties and primary elections in Italy. On this topic, he coordinates PrimES (PRIMary Electoral Studies), an informal group of committed researchers.
He is currently editing with Gianfranco Pasquino a book on Italian primary elections at municipal level.

Books
Riforma elettorale e cambiamento partitico, Milano, Angeli, 2004.

Book Chapters
Atteggiamenti e comportamenti politici nelle elezioni politiche del 2006 in Italia: le differenze di genere, in C. Novelli (ed.), Nel segno dell’empowerment femminile, Cagliari, Aipsa, 2007.
Le elezioni primarie comunali in Italia, 2004-2007, in G. Pasquino e F. Venturino (eds.), Le elezioni primarie comunali in Italia, Bologna, il Mulino, forthcoming.

Journal Articles
with M. Morini e L. Orzati, Elettori e partecipazione nelle elezioni primarie del 16 ottobre 2005. Un’analisi descrittiva basata su dati di survey, Quaderni dell’Osservatorio Elettorale, 2006, LV, 195-217.
Le primarie nazionali dell’Unione: un’analisi della partecipazione con dati aggregati, Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica, 2007, XXXVII, 3, 435-457.

Matteo Verda (1982) is a Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Pavia.
He completed his undergraduate studies in Multimedia Publishing and Communication at the University of Pavia in 2006, with a thesis in International Relations on Security and Defense of European Union. He is teaching assistant for the courses of Political Science and International Relations at University of Pavia.
His fields of research focus on International Relations and energy policies.

Luca verzichelli is Professor of Political Science, University of Siena. BA in social sciences (Siena 1988), PhD in Political Science (Florence, 1995), he has studied also at the University of Heidelberg and at the Columbia University of New York. He has taught at the University of Bologna (1999-2001) and, as visiting professor, at the universities of Jena, Granada, Oxford and at the Max-Plank Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung of Cologne.
He has served as secretary of the Centre for Political Change at the University of Siena and of the Italian Political Science Association. He is currently the Director of the Master programme Politics in Europe, at the University of Siena, member of the editorial board of the Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica and of the yearbook Politica in Italia/Italian Politics.
He has published in different areas: budgetary politics, comparative legislatures, political institutions in Italy and political elites. He is currently running a research on changing modes of political careers in Europe.

Books
with Alfio Mastropaolo, Il Parlamento. I legislativi nelle democrazie contemporanee, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2006
co-editor with Grant Amyot, Italian Politics ’05. The end of the Berlusconi era?, New York, Berghahn, 2006.
with Maurizio Cotta, Political institutions in Italy, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2007.
with Maurizio Cotta, Il sistema politico italiano. Bologna, Il Mulino, 2008.

Book Chapters
Christian Democratic Parliamentarians: From a Century of Multifaceted Recruitment to the Convergence within a ‘Larger Family’? in M. Cotta e H. Best (eds.), Democratic Representation in Europe. Diversity, Change and Convergence, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2007.
Portfolio allocation, in K. Strøm, W. Müller e T. Bergman (eds.), Cabinets and Coalition Bargaining: The Democratic Life Cycle in Western Europe, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2008.

Journal Articles
with Guido Legnante, Collegio, parlamento e comunicazione. I luoghi della rappresentanza negli orientamenti dell’élite parlamentare italiana all’epoca del (quasi-) maggioritario, in Rivista Italiana di Politiche pubbliche, n. 3/2005.
La classe politica italiana dalla crisi all’adattamento: accesso, circolazione e carriera dal 1994 al 2006, in Rivista Italia di Scienza Politica, XXXVI, n. 3, 2006.
with Elisabetta De Giorgi, Still a difficult budgetary process? The government, the legislature and the financial bill, in South European Society and Politic”, Vol. 13, No. 1, March 2008.

PATRIK VESAN is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Valle d’Aosta. He took a PhD in Political Science at the University of Pavia (Dissertation topic: “Learning to change. Industrial restructuring and the politics of local development policies: the experiences of Sesto San Giovanni and Arese”. Supervisor: Prof. Maurizio Ferrera) and a Master in European Studies (Cycle supérieur d’études éuropéennes), Intitut d’Etudes Politiques, Paris (Master Academic Coordinator: Prof. Renaud Dehousse).
He is also Associate Research fellow at the Research Unit on European Governance, URGE – Collegio Carlo Alberto, Moncalieri (director: prof. Maurizio Ferrera, http://www.urge.it), and at the Centre for Regulatory Governance , University of Exeter (director : prof. Claudio Radaelli; http://www.huss.ex.ac.uk/politics/research/crg/index.htm).
His recent interests focus on the governance of Italian and European employment policy and on territorial politics and policy in multi-level governance contexts. He is currently writing a book on the institutionalisation of local development partnership (FrancoAngeli, forthcoming) and he is contributing chapters to a book on flexicurity and atypical workers in Italy (Mulino, forthcoming).

Books
Imparare a rinnovarsi. L’apprendimento nei percorsi di ristrutturazione industriale, Milano: Cuesp, 2006.

Book Chapters
Conoscenza e apprendimento nel sistema di governance europeo, in M. Ferrera, M. Giuliani (eds.), Le politiche pubbliche nel sistema di governance dell’Unione Europea, Bologna: Il Mulino, 2008.
Le politiche del lavoro in Italia, in M. Ferrera, Le politiche sociali. L’Italia in prospettiva comparata, Bologna: Il Mulino, 2006.

Journal Articles
with Pacelli et al., Working conditions, employment security and employability, report for the European Foundation of Living and Working Conditions, 2007 .
con Graziano at al., Local partnership consolidation in Italy, report for the European project “NewGov-new modes of governance”, August 2007.
L’istituzionalizzazione dei partenariati per lo sviluppo locale, working paper URGE 3/2007.
Active labour policies and precariousness, in the research report: New forms of labour in Italy and Piedmont: new opportunities or discrimination? Labour market aspects and implications for social protection, governance and social relations, commissioned by the Cassa di Risparmio di Torino Foundation, August 2007.

TOMMASO VITALE, M.A. in Political Sciences (1999) and Ph.D. in Sociology at the Università degli Studi di Milano (2002), Certificate of Achievement awarded in the Program for Advanced Study in Comparative Institutional Analysis and Design at the Indiana University, Bloomington, USA (2004). He is Associate Professor of Sociology at Sciences Po (Paris, France), where he is the scientific director of the biannual master “Governing the Large Metropolis” and member of the Centre d’études européennes (CEE) and of the research program “Cities are back in town”. He has been Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Social Research of the Università degli Studi di Milano–Bicocca; and Visiting Professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris, 2006), and at the Institut National de la Recherche Pédagogique (Lyon, 2007). 
He is a member of the Editorial Board of Partecipazione e conflitto. Rivista itlaliana di studi politici e sociali, of the Editorial Board of Participations. Revue de sciences sociales sur la démocratie et la citoyennete (De Boeck) and of the Scientific Committee of the Book Series Globalizzazione, partecipazione, movimenti and Transizioni e politiche pubbliche (FrancoAngeli); he is in the Comité Científico of the of the Colombian Review Universitas Humanística, and the Italian correspondent of the Journal Mouvements.
 He has published in several areas including Political Sociology (States, Parties and Social Movements; Political and Associative Participation; Urban Movements and Local Conflicts; Peace and Anti Racist Mobilizations, Ethno-Regionalist Parties) and Public Policy (Learning and Innovation in Social Policy; Social Planning; Local Development). He is currently working on a book with a historical and comparative approach on Local Policies for Roma and Sinti in Europe.

Books
Piccolo Nord. Scelte pubbliche e interessi privati nell’Alto milanese [Small North. Public Choices and Private Interests in Northern Milanese Area]. Bruno Mondadori, Milano, 304 p. (with S. Tosi). ISBN: 978-8861595293.
Dalla proposta alla protesta, e ritorno. Conflitti locali e innovazione politica [From Proposal to Protest, and Back Again. Local Contention and Political Innovation], Bruno Mondadori, Milano, p. 256 (with N. Podestà). ISBN: 978-88-615-9528-6.

Book Chapters
2010. “Not Always the Same Old Story: Spatial Segregation and Feelings of Dislike against Roma and Sinti in Large Cities and Medium-size Towns in Italy”, in Michael Stewart, Márton Rövid (eds), Multi-Disciplinary Approaches to Romany Studies, CEU Press, Budapest, pp. 228-53 (with E. Claps). ISBN: 978-963-9776-76-0.
2010. “Building a Shared Interest. Olinda, Milan: Social Innovation between Strategy and Organizational Learning”, in F. Moulaert, E. Swyngedouw, F. Martinelli, S. González (eds), Can Neighbourhoods Save the City? Community Development and Social Innovation, London, Routledge, pp 81-92. ISBN: 978-0-415-48588-3.

Journal Articles
2010. “Regulation by Incentives, Regulation of the Incentives in Urban Policies”, in Transnational Corporations Review, vol. 2, n. 2, pp. 58-68. ISSN: 1918-6444. DOI: 10.5148/tncr.2010.1044.
2009. “Explaining How Political Culture Changes: Catholic activism and the secular left in Italian peace movements”, in Social Movements Studies, vol. 8, n. 2, pp. 131-47 (with Simone Tosi). ISSN: 1474-2837.