Fabio Giusberti has been Dean of the Faculty of Political Science
of the Bologna University since November 2006. He studied in the
same university where he graduated at the start of the 1970s. He
commenced his activities as an assistant in History of Economics
and his career in the Faculty evolved until he was nominated
Professor. With these qualifications he taught in Messina for some
years after which he was reassigned to Bologna.
He undertook his first research activities under the supervision of
Carlo Poni, perfecting his experience by participating in highly
specialized courses in History of Economics at the Istituto
Internazionale “Francesco Datini” of Prato. He dealt on diverse
topics such as economics and its technical and social aspects in
the 16th to the 18th century. He is an expert on archival research
and this passion played an important role in determining his career
path in the field of research.
His first work was a study (financed by the Einaudi Foundation)
based on a series of hospital registers. The novelty of this work
consisted in an analysis of organizational evolutions related to
sanitary services of a health institution during the past
government system. During the 1980s, this work led to the
development of other research works dedicated to the origin of
institutions and of welfare policies. In the 1990s his works
shifted to the area of production and commercial activities. The
study focused on various aspects of the textile sector from the
viewpoint of both production organization and the structure of
demand. Particular
attention was given to the study of ancient findings of textiles,
discovered among the letters of a mercantile archive, and to the
analysis of penal processes related to the defense of technological
secrets. Secrecy as a social capital is the theme of this current
work.
Widening out from historically supported concepts to objects and
the urban fabric, he dedicated himself to technical-scientific
museology, devising new languages and expository methods. He has
covered scientific and operational positions in the Associazione
Museo della Civiltà Contadina, (Museum Association for Rural
Civilization) formed by local associations and private
institutions. He held the position of Director from 1986 to 1992, he has taken care of scientific research and the preparation of various exhibitions (The craft of the Carradore, The family and the farm, Brothers of milk and country servants).
He has organized diverse international congresses on
the History of Economics (Buenos Aires, Madrid, Helsinki,
Tours). He was also the editor of some international magazines, and
edited a recent volume “Annali della Storia d'Italia” (Annals of
Italian History) published by Einaudi, and was a visiting professor
of the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Paris. He
is a member of the national and international scientific
associations of the History of Economics sector and was a member of
the Italian Association of Historical Demography.
