We live in a time where the walls of suspicion towards
everything new, technology, industry, are being thrown
down, at last. The peculiarity of the Eighties and Nineties
was an anti-industrial and anti-technological culture,
which was often based on falsely environmentalist or hygienist
criteria.
There is nowadays a new attitude of
the "man of the street", who is less and less
conditioned by cultural mediations; he/she does not accept
somebody else thinking on his/her behalf, anymore. Nevertheless,
there is much to do: to fight the general attitude, full
of anti-technological and anti-industrial prejudices,
people must become aware of the importance that research
and technology have in the civil and economic development
of our society.
In other words, in our advanced
society the citizen faces more and more frequently various
choices which require a good ability of self-orientation.
The spread of scientific culture therefore becomes an
instrument which guarantees the real assertion of democratic
rights.
The Pirelli Group is strongly committed to the diffusion
of scientific and technological culture worldwide: the
Pirelli Internetional Award wants to be the first real
initiative towards this aim. Other initiatives are under
consideration to get involved governments, companies,
schools and other
