Fondazione Adriano Olivetti

The Adriano Olivetti Foundation promotes the dissemination and valorization, in Italy and abroad, of the thought of Adriano Olivetti (1901-1960), Piedmontese entrepreneur, publisher, politician and urban planner. Innovation, social sciences, constitutional policies, and education have been the leading threads of the reflection that the Foundation has conducted since its establishment (1962) also thanks to collaborations, national and international. In 1966, with the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) in New York and the Ford Foundation, it founded Co.S.Po.S. (Committee for Political and Social Science), through which he gave birth to study centers, schools and institutes (the ISTAO - Adriano Olivetti Institute for Economic Studies in Ancona, directed by Giorgio Fuà; the School of Training in Sociology in Milan, directed by Alessandro Pizzorno; the Center for the Study of Political Science in Turin, directed by Norberto Bobbio; the Experimental Course in Political Science in Florence, directed by Giovanni Sartori; the Center for the Study of the Social Problem of Development, established in Naples with the CNR and FORMEZ; the Institute of International Affairs (IAI), directed by Altiero Spinelli; and the first Advanced Course in Urban Planning, directed by Ludovico Quaroni). During the 1980s the Foundation engaged in research aimed at investigating the impact of information technology on social structure and relations. In the late 1980s, it establishes and directs the Olivetti Historical Archives in Ivrea. In terms of activities, renewed attention is paid to traditional themes (public and institutional policies, social and cultural problems) while continuing a work of continuous enhancement of the archival heritage through the publication of studies of unpublished materials. The Foundation is the repository of a vast archive related to the figure of Adriano Olivetti and his family.