Il segreto dell’altruismo. Il sistema-sangue e le associazioni di volontariato in Italia

The blood donation system in Italy, compared to other European countries, is based on the crucial role of voluntary donor organizations. To understand the working of this system, we should go beyond the traditional positions expressed in anthropological studies. On the one hand, a theory based on the central role of the state, which prevents the market commodification of blood and creates a peculiar space of “moral tension” (R. Tittmuss). On the other hand, the theory (voiced among others by J. Godbout) that opposes the gift to the state, seeing in the bureaucratization of the blood syst em a perversion of the original act of giving. We argue that to understand the Italian blood system and the role of voluntary organizations is necessary to overcome the dichotomies gift-market and gift-state, studying instead the forms of integration of th ese dimensions of economic and social life. The resulting moral space is defined neither in terms of individual choices or institutional rules, but on the relational terrain of civil society