Darko Bratina
Encyclopedia
Darko Bratina was an Italian
sociologist, film theorist and politician
of Slovene ethnicity. Between 1992 and 1997, he served as member of the Italian Senate
.
, Italy
. Because of the Fascist Italianization laws, his parents could not baptise him with a Slovene name, so he was named Diodato Bratina, which remained his official name throughout his life. His Slovene name was Božidar, but mostly used his nickname
Darko.
He attended Slovene language elementary and middle high school in Gorizia, before enrolling at the University of Trieste
, where he studied civil engineering
. During the stay in Trieste
, he became interested in social sciences
and philosophy
. He left the study of engineering, and enrolled to the University of Trento
where he studied study sociology
at the prestigious High Institute of Social Sciences (Istituto Superiore di Scienze Sociali), where he met his eventual wife, with whom he had three children. He graduated with a thesis on the comparative social structure of ethnic minorities in Europe. He continued as a lecturer at FIAT
Industrial Administrative School. During his stay in Turin
, he became influenced by the thought of the Christian left
intellectual Felice Balbo who sought to combine Marxist activism and the Catholic doctrines of faith.
In the same years, Bratina became interested in film theory.He organized several regional film festivals throughout northern Italy
(especially in Veneto
, Trentino, and his native Friuli
). Among other, he translated the Sociology of Film of the Canadian
sociologist Ian Jarvie
from English to Italian
.
Starting from mid '70s, he lectured social theory
at the University of Trieste
, and later on he also collaborated in several research projects with the Slovene Research Institute (SLORI), which he directed in the '80s. After the decomposition of former Yugoslavia
and Soviet Union
in 1991, he was a fervent supporter of the integration of new member states into the European Union
. On the local level, he proposed the gradual administrative and infrastructural unification of the Italian town of Gorizia
with the bordering Slovenian towns of Nova Gorica
and Šempeter
, thus establishing a transnational metropolitan area
.
as an independent candidate within the list of Italian Communist Party
(PCI) with the support of the Slovene Union
. Although he was not elected, his candidature was a success, as he received the highest number of preferential votes in the whole Friuli-Venezia Giulia
. In 1991, he joined the Democratic Party of the Left
. In the parliamentary elections of 1992
, he ran successfully for the Italian Senate
, despite not being supported by the Slovene Union this time. He was re-elected twice, in the elections of 1994
and again in 1996
. From November 1996 until his death in September 1997, he also served as member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
.
He died of heart attack during a visit to Obernai, France
, near Strasbourg
, where he had just had a speech at the Council of Europe
in the same morning. After a by-election
, Demetrio Volcic
replaced him in the Italian Senate.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
sociologist, film theorist and politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
of Slovene ethnicity. Between 1992 and 1997, he served as member of the Italian Senate
Italian Senate
The Senate of the Republic is the upper house of the Italian Parliament. It was established in its current form on 8 May 1948, but previously existed during the Kingdom of Italy as Senato del Regno , itself a continuation of the Senato Subalpino of Sardinia-Piedmont established on 8 May 1848...
.
Early life and intellectual endeavours
He was born to a Slovene-speaking family in GoriziaGorizia
Gorizia is a town and comune in northeastern Italy, in the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. It is located at the foot of the Julian Alps, bordering Slovenia. It is the capital of the Province of Gorizia, and it is a local center of tourism, industry, and commerce. Since 1947, a twin...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. Because of the Fascist Italianization laws, his parents could not baptise him with a Slovene name, so he was named Diodato Bratina, which remained his official name throughout his life. His Slovene name was Božidar, but mostly used his nickname
Nickname
A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....
Darko.
He attended Slovene language elementary and middle high school in Gorizia, before enrolling at the University of Trieste
University of Trieste
The University of Trieste is a medium-sized university in Trieste in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy. The university consists of 12 faculties, boasts a wide and almost complete range of university courses and currently has about 23,000 students enrolled and 1,000 professors...
, where he studied civil engineering
Civil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings...
. During the stay in Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
, he became interested in social sciences
Social sciences
Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...
and philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
. He left the study of engineering, and enrolled to the University of Trento
University of Trento
The University of Trento is an Italian university located in the cities of Trento and Rovereto. It has been able to achieve considerable results in didactics, research and international relations, as shown by Censis University Guide and by the Italian Ministry of...
where he studied study sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
at the prestigious High Institute of Social Sciences (Istituto Superiore di Scienze Sociali), where he met his eventual wife, with whom he had three children. He graduated with a thesis on the comparative social structure of ethnic minorities in Europe. He continued as a lecturer at FIAT
Fiat
FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...
Industrial Administrative School. During his stay in Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
, he became influenced by the thought of the Christian left
Christian left
The Christian left is a term originating in the United States, used to describe a spectrum of left-wing Christian political and social movements which largely embraces social justice....
intellectual Felice Balbo who sought to combine Marxist activism and the Catholic doctrines of faith.
In the same years, Bratina became interested in film theory.He organized several regional film festivals throughout northern Italy
Northern Italy
Northern Italy is a wide cultural, historical and geographical definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the northern part of the Italian state, also referred as Settentrione or Alta Italia...
(especially in Veneto
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
, Trentino, and his native Friuli
Friuli
Friuli is an area of northeastern Italy with its own particular cultural and historical identity. It comprises the major part of the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, i.e. the province of Udine, Pordenone, Gorizia, excluding Trieste...
). Among other, he translated the Sociology of Film of the Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
sociologist Ian Jarvie
Ian Jarvie
Ian Charles Jarvie is a philosopher trained in England, long resident in Canada. Jarvie studied at the London School of Economics under Karl Popper. He is a member of the Royal Society of Canada and managing editor of the journal Philosophy of the Social Sciences.The philosophy of social science...
from English to Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
.
Starting from mid '70s, he lectured social theory
Social theory
Social theories are theoretical frameworks which are used to study and interpret social phenomena within a particular school of thought. An essential tool used by social scientists, theories relate to historical debates over the most valid and reliable methodologies , as well as the primacy of...
at the University of Trieste
University of Trieste
The University of Trieste is a medium-sized university in Trieste in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy. The university consists of 12 faculties, boasts a wide and almost complete range of university courses and currently has about 23,000 students enrolled and 1,000 professors...
, and later on he also collaborated in several research projects with the Slovene Research Institute (SLORI), which he directed in the '80s. After the decomposition of former Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
and Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
in 1991, he was a fervent supporter of the integration of new member states into the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
. On the local level, he proposed the gradual administrative and infrastructural unification of the Italian town of Gorizia
Gorizia
Gorizia is a town and comune in northeastern Italy, in the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. It is located at the foot of the Julian Alps, bordering Slovenia. It is the capital of the Province of Gorizia, and it is a local center of tourism, industry, and commerce. Since 1947, a twin...
with the bordering Slovenian towns of Nova Gorica
Nova Gorica
Nova Gorica ; 21,082 ; 31,000 ) is a town and a municipality in western Slovenia, on the border with Italy...
and Šempeter
Šempeter-Vrtojba
Šempeter-Vrtojba is a municipality in Slovenia. The municipality comprises the town of Šempeter pri Gorici and the adjacent village of Vrtojba....
, thus establishing a transnational metropolitan area
Metropolitan area
The term metropolitan area refers to a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories, sharing industry, infrastructure, and housing. A metropolitan area usually encompasses multiple jurisdictions and municipalities: neighborhoods, townships,...
.
Political career
Bratina first entered politics in 1984, when he ran for the European ParliamentEuropean Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
as an independent candidate within the list of Italian Communist Party
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party was a communist political party in Italy.The PCI was founded as Communist Party of Italy on 21 January 1921 in Livorno, by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party . Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci led the split. Outlawed during the Fascist regime, the party played...
(PCI) with the support of the Slovene Union
Slovene Union
The Slovene Union is a centrist Italian political party representing the Slovene minority in Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Its name in Slovene means literally "The Slovene Community", but the denomination "Slovene Union" is used in other languages....
. Although he was not elected, his candidature was a success, as he received the highest number of preferential votes in the whole Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Friuli–Venezia Giulia is one of the twenty regions of Italy, and one of five autonomous regions with special statute. The capital is Trieste. It has an area of 7,858 km² and about 1.2 million inhabitants. A natural opening to the sea for many Central European countries, the region is...
. In 1991, he joined the Democratic Party of the Left
Democratic Party of the Left
The Democratic Party of the Left was a post-communist, democratic socialist political party in Italy.-History:...
. In the parliamentary elections of 1992
Italian general election, 1992
The Italian general elections of 1992 were held on the 5 April 1992.The 1992 elections were the first without the traditionally second most important political force in Italy, the Italian Communist Party , which had been disbanded in 1991...
, he ran successfully for the Italian Senate
Italian Senate
The Senate of the Republic is the upper house of the Italian Parliament. It was established in its current form on 8 May 1948, but previously existed during the Kingdom of Italy as Senato del Regno , itself a continuation of the Senato Subalpino of Sardinia-Piedmont established on 8 May 1848...
, despite not being supported by the Slovene Union this time. He was re-elected twice, in the elections of 1994
Italian general election, 1994
An early national general election was held in Italy on March 27, 1994 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right alliance won handily the election for the Chamber and only narrowly lost that for the Senate....
and again in 1996
Italian general election, 1996
An early national general election was held in Italy on 21 April, 1996 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic...
. From November 1996 until his death in September 1997, he also served as member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe , which held its first session in Strasbourg on 10 August 1949, can be considered the oldest international parliamentary assembly with a pluralistic composition of democratically elected members of parliament established on the basis of an...
.
He died of heart attack during a visit to Obernai, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, near Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
, where he had just had a speech at the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
in the same morning. After a by-election
By-election
A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....
, Demetrio Volcic
Demetrio Volcic
Demetrio Volcic, also known in Slovene as Mitja Volčič is an Italian journalist, author, and politician of Slovenian descent. He rose to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s as foreign correspondent for the Italian television RAI...
replaced him in the Italian Senate.