Where Locals Actually Drink in Bologna – A Night in Piazza San Francesco
Every city now has two versions of itself: the one people live in, and the one that gets recommended. The second version is produced by algorithms, and algorithms optimize for the same things everywhere: volume, turnover, photogenic lighting, a menu in four languages. Ask a search engine or an AI assistant where to go out…
Why Going Out Still Matters – The Frankfurt School on Screens, Bars, and Real Life
Something has changed in the way people spend their evenings. Not dramatically, not all at once, but steadily and in one direction: more time alone with…
The Independent Producer — Who They Are and Why Choosing Them Matters
Every bottle of wine, every can of beer, every wheel of cheese carries within it a set of decisions that were made long before it reached the shelf…
Piazza San Francesco, Bologna — A Space That Resists
Piazza San Francesco is not one of Bologna’s famous squares. It does not appear on most tourist itineraries. It has no fountain, no medieval tower, no café terrace…
The Frankfurt School and Everyday Life — What Critical Theory Looks Like in Practice
The Frankfurt School is usually encountered in universities — in philosophy seminars, in sociology courses, in the footnotes of academic papers about culture and power. It is treated…
Walter Benjamin on the City — Why His Writing Still Matters for Bologna
Walter Benjamin never wrote about Bologna. He wrote about Paris, about Berlin, about Naples — cities he walked through slowly, with the particular attention of someone who understood…
Independent Culture in Bologna — What Survives and Where to Find It
Bologna has always had a reputation for culture. The oldest university in the world, a tradition of left-wing political thought, decades of investment in public arts institutions —…