Cultural expertise in Italy. Some new considerations stemming from fieldwork

A research that Dr. Decarli carried out in 2016 showed the lack of a consistent and standardized involvement of cultural experts in the Italian legal establishment. Three years later the situation is still fragile, however, Giorgia's recent personal cooperation (as anthropologist) with public institutions gave her the opportunity to dig dipper and to propose further considerations. The talk will present Dr. Decarli's activities within three different domains (school, asylum claims and penitentiary) where her role seems to have aligned with Livia Holden’s definition of “cultural expert”, although according to different degrees of intensity. From her experiences it transpired that anthropological sciences still have a low status in the Italian public context but the need for cultural expertise is ever-increasing and the latter is especially requested by militants who are trying to resist a political situation expressly reluctant to intercultural dialogue.