La conoscenza in azione

[Autom. eng. transl.] This first issue of the Contributions of Psychology has as its object the value of social research in generating knowledge in professional and organizational contexts, and the relationship between construction and use of knowledge, ie the theme of applying in psychology. Starting from reflections and analysis of interventions in the field, four courses are proposed linked to the processes of knowledge generation in organizational and work contexts. The first strand concerns the action research, that is the construction of knowledge with people, within local contexts, around a problem, represented as shareable, or as treatable: we examine, for example, the problem of integrating vulnerable groups into labor market and the network of services for the trafficking of women victims of trafficking. The second area deals with organizational change, with the observation of scenarios related to the changed internal and external conditions of work and the changes in the 'stay inside' professional organizations (work and social coexistence, organizational flexibility, perception of change in the contexts of work, leadership and organizational boundaries in corporate restructuring). The third section presents some paradigms related to the construction and use of knowledge in applied psychological and social contexts, such as emergency and knowledge management technologies. Finally, in the 'training-research' strand we illustrate some training devices that allow the development, analysis and reconstruction of meaning on professional issues that simultaneously involve the level of identity and the organizational level (for example, the malaise of teachers, the role of cultural mediators, managerial training). With this volume we inaugurate the new series - the third - of the Contributions of Psychology, founded by Father Gemelli in 1925. In resuming its publication, a form was chosen - that of a monographic volume edited by the Department of Psychology Catholic University of Milan - allowing on the one hand to reserve a distinctive channel of communication for the scientific production of the Catholic psychology teachers, and on the other to bring out the research lines developed by the Department. The series will therefore consist of thematic volumes, which can also be consulted online, in which, around some focal topics, the commitment and scientific interests of several researchers are organized. The volumes, published annually, will make available to the national scientific community the results achieved in specific research areas by the Department and, at the same time, will be useful tools for university teaching, for training and for professional updating for extra university.