Maleducati e Mal educare

Abstract

This special issue of E/C investigates bad manners and incivility as meaningful social phenomena rather than merely individual deviations from etiquette. From a semiotic perspective, manners are examined as evaluative regimes that involve aesthetic, ethical and political judgments, defining norms, identities, forms of belonging and modes of exclusion. The issue explores how incivility emerges across different contexts, showing that what counts as appropriate or inappropriate behavior is historically, culturally and situationally variable. By analysing the conflicts of value underlying manners, the volume offers bad education as a privileged lens for understanding contemporary social life.