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Iter Iaponicum: ripresa post pandemica del Censimento dei manoscritti e delle edizioni antiche in italiano conservate in Giappone. Primi sondaggi sul Petrarca volgare
No full textThis essay reports the resumption of the census of early books in Italian language held in Japan, interrupted during the pandemic. Here, the first outcome of the research is anticipated, focusing on the manuscripts and 16th century editions of Petrarch’s works consulted at university libraries. A sample of the information on provenance, circulation, use and owners is offered. The survey also highlights some of the key figures of the Japanese cultural reform who, between the 19th and 20th centuries, opened up to Western culture and contributed significantly to the diffusion of Italian texts in Japan.Il presente studio comunica la ripresa del censimento dei libri antichi in lingua italiana conservati in Giappone, interrotto durante la pandemia. In questa sede si anticipano i primi risultati delle indagini, focalizzando l’attenzione sugli esemplari - manoscritti e cinquecentine - delle opere di Petrarca consultati presso le biblioteche universitarie, e si offre un saggio delle informazioni su provenienza, circolazione, utilizzo e possessori. L’indagine, inoltre, mette in rilievo alcune delle figure cardine della riforma culturale giapponese che, tra Otto e Novecento, aprirono alla cultura occidentale e contribuirono significativamente alla diffusione dei testi italiani in Giappone
Epopea della normalità e nostalgia mediale in Hanno ucciso l’uomo ragno (2024-). Forme di visibilità audiovisiva, transmediale e seriale del biopic musicale pop italiano
No full textWithin the renaissance of the pop music biopic, a phenomenon that has been manifesting itself in Italy for over a decade, the recent highlight has been Hanno ucciso l'uomo ragno (S. Sibilla, 2024-), a series produced by Sky and dedicated to the pop duo of 883 (Max Pezzali and Mauro Repetto). This product is characterized by offering a specific form of reconfiguration of the Sky model and the biopic genre through different narrative elements, like the recourse to a totalizing internal focus of Pezzali's point of view, the use of the song not as a performative or musical element, but as a cultural and unveiling narrative device, and the link with a broader transmedial ecosystem. In this way, it contributes to 883's great transmedial history by feeding on a shared memory in the cognitive heritage of the spectators, and at the same time helping to create it from scratch in nostalgic-media terms. The result is the construction of a specific epic of normality in which the two performers place themselves at the crossroads of individual and collective instances that allowed them to firmly imprint themselves in the Italian cultural and medial panorama of the 1990s and 2000s.All’interno della rinascita del biopic musicale pop, un fenomeno che in Italia si manifesta da oltre un decennio, si è recentemente distinta Hanno ucciso l’uomo ragno (S. Sibilla, 2024-), serie prodotta da Sky e dedicata al duo pop degli 883 (Max Pezzali e Mauro Repetto). Questo prodotto si caratterizza per offrire una specifica forma di riconfigurazione del modello Sky e del genere del biopic tramite elementi narrativi differenti, tra cui il ricorso a una focalizzazione interna totalizzante del punto di vista di Pezzali, l’utilizzo della canzone non come elemento performativo o musicale, ma come dispositivo narrativo culturale e disvelativo, e il legame con un ecosistema transmediale più ampio. In questo modo essa contribuisce al grande racconto transmediale degli 883 alimentandosi di una memoria condivisa nel patrimonio cognitivo degli spettatori, e nello stesso tempo contribuendo a crearla ex-novo in termini nostalgico-mediali. Emerge così la costruzione di una specifica epopea della normalità, in cui i due performer si pongono al crocevia di istanze individuali e collettive che hanno permesso di imprimerli in modo saldo nel panorama culturale e mediale italiano degli anni Novanta e degli anni Duemila
Sparire, tornare, assentarsi: movimenti fantasmatici della visualità e del Sé digitali
No full textFrom ghost imaging in scientific research to the phantasmatic images produced by artificial intelligence, the metaphor of the ghost – along with related notions such as apparition, disappearance, trace, spectralization, and evanescence – offers a crucial interpretive framework for understanding digital culture. This metaphor is especially relevant in the visual and communicative domains, where the idea of apparition is increasingly replacing that of representation. This shift updates a long tradition of visual theory, from ancient distinctions like eidolon and phantasma to the postmodern revival of the simulacrum. The ghost becomes a productive figure through which to rethink the nature and status of digital images: unstable, fleeting, and often uncanny. The essay explores how contemporary media practices – especially on social platforms – mobilize ghost-like dynamics: ghosting, automated memory, the return of inactive profiles, and the persistence of digital traces. These phenomena blur conventional boundaries between analog and digital, real and virtual, presence and absence. By approaching images as spectral entities, the digital can be seen not simply as a space of virtualization, but as a site of phantasmatisation – where images no longer just represent, but haunt, reappear, and resist clear definition
Separation of Powers and Climate Litigation: International Law as a Guide Between Judicial Activism and Legislative Prerogatives
No full textThis article examines the principle of separation of powers in the context of climate litigation, asking whether and to what extent courts may legitimately intervene when political authorities fail to act on climate change. Starting from the premise that separation of powers is historically and contextually relative, the article shows how this relativity is reflected in judicial practice on climate change. Notably, a comparative analysis of domestic and international case law identifies three distinct approaches: strict deference to political institutions, moderate review, and active intervention, illustrating how different legal systems draw the boundary between law and politics in climate matters. In light of this variability, the article argues that international law can offer a unifying normative framework by constraining political discretion and supporting judicial scrutiny: through binding obligations under climate and human rights law, as well as norms on access to justice, international law enables a functional understanding of the separation of powers in which courts legitimately uphold legal commitments in response to political inaction
Fortuny, estetica dell’atmosfera e biofilia della moda: pigmenti, morfologie e aura d’inizio Novecento
No full textThis article places the historical-critical reflection on the work of the artist, inventor and designer Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo (Granada 1871 – Venice 1949) and of his closest collaborator, his wife Adèle Henriette Nigrin (Fontainebleau 1877 – Venice 1965), within the framework of recent studies on the biophilia of fashion. In the last decade, an initial analysis has been undertaken to link Fortuny’s experiments with light–in painting, textiles, photography and set design–to the concept of atmosphere elaborated in philosophy by Gernot Böhme and Tonino Griffero. However, a study of Fortuny and Nigrin’s proto-ecological sensibility with respect to such a concept of atmosphere is lacking. Delving into the field of textile and clothing design that they developed in the early 20th century, the article focuses on three interconnected atmospheric aspects: the aura radiated by the clouds, skyes, and water of the Venice lagoon; the relationship between fashion, bodies and vegetable morphology in the Art Nouveau; and the materiality of the pigments and fibers adopted. The article aims to demonstrate how Fortuny-Nigrin’s environmental thinking and their aesthetics of atmosphere participate fully to the idea of Total Work of Art.Questo contributo colloca la riflessione storico-critica sul lavoro dell’artista, inventore e designer Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo (Granada 1871 – Venezia 1949) e dalla sua più stretta collaboratrice, la moglie Adèle Henriette Nigrin (Fontainebleau 1877 – Venezia 1965), nel quadro dei recenti studi sulla biofilia della moda. Nell’ultimo decennio, è stata avviata una prima analisi volta a collegare le sperimentazioni realizzate da Fortuny sulla luce – in ambito pittorico, tessile, fotografico e scenografico – al concetto di atmosfera elaborato in ambito filosofico da Gernot Böhme e Tonino Griffero. Tuttavia, manca uno studio sulla sensibilità proto-ecologica di Fortuny e Nigrin, rispetto a tale concetto di atmosfera. Approfondendo l’ambito della progettazione tessile e d’abbigliamento da loro sviluppata all’inizio del XX secolo, l’articolo si sofferma su tre aspetti atmosferici interconnessi: l’aura irradiata dalle nuvole, dai cieli e dall’acqua della laguna Venezia; il rapporto tra moda, forme del corpo e morfologie vegetali nell’Art Nouveau; la materialità dei pigmenti e delle fibre utilizzati. L’articolo intende dimostrare come il pensiero ambientale di Fortuny-Nigrin e la loro estetica dell'atmosfera partecipino a pieno titolo all'idea di Arte totale
From Pollution to Parable: The Green/Blue Aesthetics of Textile Production in a Changing Climate
No full textThe environmental impact of the textile industry extends far beyond immediate pollution, affecting ecosystems in lasting and complex ways. This research investigates the intricate relationship between textile production, environmental degradation, and the development of new aesthetic paradigms in response to climate change. Drawing on Jed Rasula’s concept of “cultural ecology” and Stacy Alaimo’s “trans-corporeality”, the study examines how marine environments impacted by textile production inspire the shift toward raw clothes — natural, decorative forms created by marine ecosystems. Jason deCaires Taylor’s underwater sculptures serve as a central case study, illustrating the potential for ecological regeneration and the creation of new aesthetic forms. These artworks highlight the cyclical exchange of materials between human and nonhuman worlds, emphasizing the interconnectedness of all life. The research proposes that the pronounced “green/blue turn” in textile aesthetics signifies a shift in perceptions of clothing and materiality, advocating for a sustainable and regenerative model of fashion. By integrating natural processes into textile manufacturing, the industry can align with the rhythms of the natural world, offering insights into the sustainable evolution of textile production and consumption. This study enriches the field of environmental humanities, contributing to the literature on green/blue aesthetics
Indifferent, Dogmatic or Pragmatic: A Multi-Country Analysis of How Scientists View the Public and Public Engagement
No full textHow do scientists view the public and think about public engagement? In this article, we analyze interview data from 205 scientists in the fields of biology and physics from four countries — India, Italy, UK, and the USA — to show that scientists do not perceive the public as a monolithic entity. Three distinct kinds of publics were described by scientists, which we analytically characterize as “indifferent”, “dogmatic”, and “pragmatic”, and discuss in relation to major trends in extant literature. Our analysis showed that the respondents in our sample represented advanced and nuanced understandings of the public. Even though the deficit model still persists, and the preferred mode of public engagement remains science education and mostly (one-way) science communication, the purpose and focus of education and communication differ according to scientists’ orientations. We also identify discipline- and country-specific variations that warrant further investigation
Feminist Theories of Agency and Emotion in Academia: A Feminist Historical Materialist Reading
No full textHigher education, academic work, and gender relations in academia have, as a result of higher education reforms over the past three decades, become increasingly defined by capitalist logics and purposes. My empirical investigations of gender in academia for the past decade have, to a large extent, drawn on Institutional Ethnography, a method-of-inquiry developed by Marxist feminist sociologist, Dorothy Smith. This method-of-inquiry has largely oriented me towards the language-driven social coordination of academic work as this has been shaped in the context of academic capitalism and neoliberal higher education reforms. However, these explorations revealed complexities in the dynamics of compliance, buying into and resisting the social organisation of academia, which called for a theorisation of emotion. This essay, starting from an account of my historical materialist ontological and epistemological premises, explores and evaluates three approaches to agency and emotion: (1) Feminist Governmentality, (2) Feminist New Materialism, and (3) Feminist Practice Theory. I argue that a feminist practice theoretical conception of agency and emotion is most coherent with the historical materialist premises and the anti-ideological purposes of Institutional Ethnography
The Disruption Delusion: Machines, Networks, and the Platformization of Industrial Production
No full text“Disruption!” — eulogized the business literature and heralded yet another epochal shift in capitalist development: the relational governance that had given shape to the network society was dethroned by a novel mode of algorithmic governance that ushered in the new phase of platform capitalism. These sweeping generalizations, however, stand in stark contrast to the selectivity of the research on which these claims are based. Celebrating Uber and Airbnb as standard bearers of this new epoch, pertinent research primarily focused on the consumer- and communication-based internet — at least, so far. This paper seeks to contribute to the ever-growing body of research that accumulates compelling evidence for the distinctive realities of platforms in the realm of production. Rather than by a new breed of digital-native disruptors (that rapidly scale to monopolists), the development of platforms in the industrial realm is driven by incumbent manufacturing oligopolists. By engaging with the key tenets of consumer platform research (asset-light business model; network effects; frictionless scalability; algorithmic governance), the transformation of John Deere (the leading manufacturer of agricultural equipment) shall reveal this: instead of a categorical shift to a sharply delineated novel form, the trajectory from the provider of stand-alone physical products to the orchestrator of a digital-physical ecosystem amounts to a messy and tenacious process of variation and hybridization
Ideas, in Motion: Twenty-five Years of Rethinking Relations and Knowledge at the COI
No full textThe Center on Organizational Innovation (COI) at Columbia University celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary, and this essay reviews this quarter of a century of conceptual and methodological innovations at COI in the area of networks, communication, and knowledge. The content of these concepts has changed markedly, partly due to advances within interdisciplinary encounters, and partly due to fundamental changes in underlying social phenomena. COI scholars strived to understand such novel phenomena by methodological innovation with conceptual richness, engaging with temptations to adopt simplistic and atavistic imageries of sociation and agency in interdisciplinary fields. The fields of network science, knowledge networks, and online communications are three areas where COI research brought novel insights, that challenged dominant perspectives, marrying an ethnographer’s mindset with a broad range of quantitative methods. In addition to reviewing COI research achievements, I also outline key contemporary empirical puzzles, where perspectives from COI remain relevant and fruitful