Considerations and researches into the first Italian sociology on colonialism, race and racism

In 1897, a year before the publication of Émile Durkheim’s L’Année Sociologique, the Rivista Italiana di Sociologia (Italian Journal of Sociology) was founded by Cognetti de Martiis, Ser- gi, Bosco, Tangorra, Cavaglieri and Tedeschi. It was published without interruption until 1921, in coincidence with the begin- ning of the fascist dictatorship. During those years of colonial imperialism, Italian sociology imposed itself as a science and the Rivista offered a fundamental contribution to it. The years of the journal’s publication, Italy was facing several colonial events and the themes of otherness and race soon became a “scientific responsibility” for sociological research. The Rivista Italiana di Sociologia, welcoming a lively and multidisciplinary debate, be- came one of the main forums for the fulfillment of this responsi- bility (Federici M.C., 1990). The aim of the contribution is to give voice to some consider- ations on the issues of colonialism and race published in the Ital- ian Journal of Sociology, by prominent authors such as Loria, Garofalo, Ferrero, Ferri, Ardigò and Pareto, who developed the topics – covered previously in the journal – in a chapter of his Trattato di Sociologia Generale (Treaty of General Sociology), published in 1916.