Gini’s thoughts on eugenics

March 2019

Corrado Gini (1884 – 1965) was an Italian statistician, demographer and sociologist best known for the Gini coefficient – a measure of the income inequality in a society.  However, Gini was also a supporter of fascism and eugenics.

The paper A laboratory for Latin eugenics: the Italian Committee for the Study of Population Problems and the international circulation of eugenic knowledge, 1920s-1940s (HCS-Manguinhos vol.23  supl.1 Rio de Janeiro dez. 2016)  sheds light on the rise to international prominence of  Corrado Gini and his appointment as the inaugural president of the Latin International Federation of Eugenic Societies in October 1935.

Luc André Berlivet (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris) explores the still little known investigations carried out by Gini. After outlining Gini’s professional and political trajectory, the article focuses on the scientific expeditions launched by the Italian Committee for the Study of Population Problems between 1933 and 1940 under his rule.

Read about eugenics in HCS-Manguinhos:

Berlivet, Luc André. A laboratory for Latin eugenics: the Italian Committee for the Study of Population Problems and the international circulation of eugenic knowledge, 1920s-1940s. Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos, Dec 2016, vol.23, suppl.1,

See Latin Eugenics in a Transnational Context. Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos vol.23  supl.1 Rio de Janeiro Dec. 2016