EUROPEAN AMALFI PRIZE FOR SOCIAL SCIENCES (1988 – 2015)

The European Amalfi Prize for Sociology and Social Sciences is a prestigious Italian award in the Social Sciences. It has been established in 1987 on the initiative of the Sociological Theories and Social Transformations Section of the Italian Sociological Association (AIS) and the Department of Political Studies (now Department of Political Sciences).

The Prize is awarded every year to the essay (book or article), published in an European country during the former two years, which has brought an important contribution to the development of the discipline and of European culture.

The objective of the Prize is to raise both the scientific and the humanistic character of Sociology, to remind the Classical and European traditions of the discipline, to further a more profitable debate and a deeper exchange of views and ideas between scholars of Social Sciences.

Why Amalfi?

The choice of Amalfi as location and entitling for the Prize wishes to underline how, in the spirit of this Maritime Republic flourished especially during the 10th and 11th century, it is possible to spot the origins of modern Europe and its desire for innovation: in Amalfi commerces, in one of the first European currency (the Tarì), in the scientific ad humanistic spirit that characterized the Salerno Medical School and the first expression of a modern culture, the first early stage of a University Community.