Professor Italo Pardo, is a British-trained social anthropologist based at the University of Kent, U.K. Having obtained his Laurea Cum Laude in Sociology from the University of Naples ‘Federico II’ in 1980, he was awarded his MSc (1983) and a PhD (1988) in Social Anthropology from the University of London. He has developed his academic career mostly in the UK at University College London, London School of Economics and Political Science and University of Kent, where he is Professor of Social Anthropology (Hon)(previously Reader in the same subject) and a Fellow of Eliot College.
He has been a Visiting Professor at several European and US universities. He has taught at Universities in Naples, Florence, Bergamo, Pisa, Tirana, Fribourg, Cornell and CUNY.
His empirical and theoretical work has significantly contributed to worldwide debate and reflection on urban life, entrepreneurialism, the relationship between the formal and the informal, systems of thought, morality, legitimacy, corruption, rationality and power.
A committed advocate of the contribution that scientific research and intellectual reflection can make to the betterment of society, he has stimulated epistemological interdisciplinary reflection on the place, role and significance of the anthropological paradigm in the development of the social sciences and in the policy and practice that matter to people’s lives and to the future of humanity. His on-going work actively involves anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists, jurists, economists, human geographers, architects and philosophers at various stages of their careers, also in this context paying special attention to the training and intellectual involvement of younger scholars.
He is:
– Funding member and President of the non-profit association International Urban Symposium – IUS: http://www.internationalurbansymposium.com.
– Co-founder and Co-Editor of the journal Urbanities-Journal of Urban Ethnography: http://www.anthrojournal-urbanities.com
– Co-founder and Co-Editor of the Series Palgrave Studies in Urban Anthropology: https://www.palgrave.com/us/series/14573
– Founder and Co-editor of the Series Urban Anthropology, (Ashgate, 2007-2013, now Routledge): https://www.routledge.com/series/ASHSER1320
– Long-standing member of the Association of Social Anthropologists of the Commonwealth, of the European Association of Social Anthropologists, of the British Sociological Association, of the Commission on Urban Anthropology and of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences.
Professor Pardo has engaged in major disciplinary and interdisciplinary discussions through chairing sessions and presenting numerous papers, distinguished lectures and key note addresses at international symposia and seminars. He has stimulated debate on mainstream issues in contemporary social theory convening and organizing interdisciplinary seminars, round tables and conferences in Britain and abroad on informality, legitimacy, governance and urban issues.
He has conducted historical research (also through archival work), extended field research in urban and rural England and Italy and comparative projects in collaboration with fellow anthropologists and with specialists in other disciplines. Research interests include work, morality and thought, legitimacy and governance, organization, power, hunting with hounds. Since 1990, he has carried out research among the Italian elites and is currently engaged in a research project on the relationship between legality and illegality, and legitimacy.
Italo Pardo has shared his research findings through peer-reviewed outlets and media comments and interviews. Since 1981, he has published extensively in sociological and anthropological journals of international standing. He has authored several anthropological monographs and edited volumes and has published articles and comments in quality papers and periodicals. His work has appeared mainly in English, but also in Italian, French, Greek, Russian and Chinese.
Italo Pardo 