It was with deep sadness that I learned of the passing away yesterday at the age of 85 of Professor Domenico De Masi. As his fellow Neapolitan citizen, as well as an admirer of his thoughts, I feel a void that is difficult to fill. The news hit me like a punch in the stomach: just a few days ago I wrote about the importance of the figure of the digital sociologist, inspired by his words.
Domenico De Masi, Professor De Masi, was a man who knew how to listen, understand and share. A person who, with every word, reminded us of the importance of being human in an increasingly technological world. For me he was not only a great sociologist and scholar of international stature. He was a master of life, capable of combining an uncommon intellectual rigor with a rare humanity. From my first encounters with the thought of him, two things struck me: his innate curiosity towards others and society, and his elegant and Neapolitan way of proceeding.
My, our city has always maintained a close link with his feelings, even when his academic career took him to Rome, where he was professor emeritus of Sociology of Work at Sapienza University. Naples was the lifeblood that nourished his sensitivity to social inequalities and civil passion.
Domenico De Masi, father of a more humane future
The professor began analyzing the effects of technological innovations on society before I was born, highlighting their contradictions and potential. I took practically everything from him: my vision of the future largely matched his. Domenico De Masi saw the dangers inherent in an uncritical dependence on technology, which risks dehumanizing social relations. At the same time, he glimpsed the liberating possibilities of time to fully experience one's humanity.
All his intuitions, born 50 years ago, and still shockingly relevant today. Even in the face of the most recent challenges, such as the emergence of smartworking accelerated by Covid or the advent of artificial intelligence, has warned us against the risk of losing our most profoundly human dimension. You defended to the end the importance of education, not only technical but humanistic, to form aware and perhaps happier citizens.
What remains
I had the privilege of knowing Professor Domenico De Masi not only as an intellectual, but also as a genuine and passionate man. His curiosity was inexhaustible, as was his desire to interact with the new generations, to understand the changes taking place without prejudice.
Even in recent years, which had not affected his brilliant creativity in the slightest, he continued to study, write and speak with unchanged enthusiasm. That light that lit up in his eyes when he discussed topics dear to him will forever remain imprinted in me and in all those who knew him.
Hi Domenico, hi Maestro. Naples and Italy lose a great intellectual, I lose an essential human and cultural reference. Your legacy is a message that is valid, and which invites us to live as aware and human people in a changing world. Statt good.
