Mario Borrelli bibliography explained

Mario Borrelli (19September 192213February 2007) was a Neapolitan priest, sociologist and educationist.

Mario Borrelli received the attention of press and television for decades, overseas more than in Italy, his own country. The popularity of his social undertakings is demonstrated by hundreds of publications presently in the phase of being catalogued.Mario Borrelli fits with the definition of organic intellectual according to Gramsci’s terminology: his historical and social studies mark the most significant stages of his life but especially his work in society.Editor and Director of Lo Scugnizzo, media outlet of La Casa dello Scugnizzo (The House of the Urchins), he harboured multiple interests other than that for the social sciences. He was author of autobiographies, poems, scripts and educational projects until the 1980s when he principally narrowed down his interests to peace research and education.His works still remain partly unpublished.The documents and articles indicated below can only partly be found in Italian and foreign libraries, while the entire collection of publications is stored in his private archive of the Borrelli-West family, which continues to spend time and dedication to the catalogueing of Mario Borrelli’s main biographies and especially of his rich historical and critical production.It should be stressed that the list of documents and publications indicated below, although representative of Mario Borrelli’s works, is by no means complete.

Autobiographies

Mario Borrelli was already popular in Anglophile countries since the 1950s thanks to the biographical novel Children of the Sun written by Morris West, in which his undertakings as priest-street urchin had been celebrated as an example of heroism and Christianity.When, in 1963, he wrote together with A. Thorne his first autobiography, A Street Lamp and the Stars, it was with the aim to share with his trustees, around the world, both the story behind the foundation of the Casa dello Scugnizzo (House of the Urchins) and the spirit with which he continued to welcome and raise so many maladapted children.In 1967, Un Prete nelle Baracche, was inspired by the diary he had kept between 1962–63, the first years he had spent in the slums of Naples, where the street urchins most commonly came from.

Books

Historical-archival research

Archivist paleographer in education and researcher at the Archive of the Padri Girolamini Library in Naples, Mario Borrelli produced several bibliographic works.From 1961, he published essays and articles of social and humanitary relevance such as L’Archivio del Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù Cristo (details below).The volumes dedicated to the Cardinal Cesare Baronio and to the Neapolitan Oratory gave a significant contribution to the Neapolitan studies of the 15th century.

Books

Publications in magazines and journals

Works on social administration

The works on social administration are the result of the years M. Borrelli spent at the London School of Economics to obtain a Master in Social Administration.From the socio-political analysis of the sub-proletarian reality of Naples (1973) to the basic concepts for a community action on the urban underclass (1974) we find the basic principles, which inspired M. Borrelli in all his activities at the Materdei Community Centre.In addition, between 1969 and 1978, his idea of a participative democracy was a guideline for all his actions of social intervention among the people of the lower classes of the Neapolitan population: the CCM (Materdei Community Centre) worked for the awareness of the underclass taking inspiration from the method of Paulo Freire.Extremely interesting are the essays focused on the relationship between school and capitalistic development in Italy (1972) e Italian compulsory schooling and mental retardation (1978).

Grey literature

Peace research and education

In 1977, Mario Borrelli was among the founders of IPRI (Italian Peace Research Institute) and soon afterwards became a member of PEC, Peace Education Commission, within IPRA (International Peace Research Association).His essays on peace education were aimed at finding a paradigm that would consider peace education an autonomous science in the same way as peace research.His most famous essay was Integration Between Peace Research, Peace Education and Peace Action, which was presented at the IPRA General Conference that took place in Oaxtapec, Mexico in 1977, a milestone for many researchers interested in peace education.

Books

Grey literature

Other works on Mario Borrelli

Outside of the body of works by Mario Borrelli is a list of the most important contributions (biographies, essays, magazine articles) written by others on the life and work of Mario Borrelli.

Books

Grey literature

References