1,721,003 research outputs found
From an Idea to a Scalable Working Model: Merging Economic Benefits with Social Values in Sardex
Get PDFLa recente diffusione delle monete complementari richiede un'analisi sociologica che si è concretizzata nell'analisi di Sardex, quale caso di sistema di credito mutuo di successo sviluppatosi in Sardegna negli ultimi sette anni. In questo articolo, si analizzano le fasi temporali attraverso le quali Sardex si è trasformato, mettendo in evidenza quali processi operativi ha dovuto affrontare (difficoltà tecniche e di ideazione). Inoltre, si studiano le caratteristiche sociali della comunità che utilizza questo sistema di mutuo credito. Ciò ha messo in evidenza come la fiducia e il senso di identità locale abbiano giocato un ruolo fondamentale nella creazione e istituzionalizzazione di un circuito economico, come lo definisce Viviana Zelizer.The remarkable growth of Sardex as a local currency throughout the island of Sardinia over the past seven years motivated an in-depth look at its starting assumptions, design and operational principles, and socio-economic context. The paper looks at Sardex as a social innovation start-up, a medium of exchange and unit of account, an online and offline mutual credit system, and a closed economic community or ‘circuit’. The analysis relies on semi-structured in-depth interviews of circuit members and benefits from the reflexive point of view of one of its founders. The main findings are that trust was and continues to be fundamentally important for the creation and operation of mutual credit systems and that Sardex encompasses and mediates both economic and social values. Compared to other mutual credit systems, in addition to its unique design features Sardex is distinguished by its federated model of expansion and its strong commitment to keeping a balance between the economic and social aspects. In Sardex, money’s fungibility is defined by market utility and social values at the same time
ICT ownership and the right to the hybrid city
No full textThe core premise of this work is that for information and communication technologies (ICTs) to fulfil their promises for increased self-organization, civic engagement, and participation in planning, among others, they must be owned by the parties involved and customized according to their needs, values and objectives through a dynamic social learning process. The ownership of an ICT framework could range from its social software, to the storage and management of all content and information produced, all the way to the underlying network infrastructure. For example, by choosing a customizable ICT system built according to the FOSS (free and open source software) paradigm, a local community can define itself the rules that shape the communication between the inhabitants of the produced hybrid space at the city or neighbourhood level. If additionally there is the option to deploy user-owned wireless technology as in wireless community networks, one can further ensure the de facto physical proximity, grant easy access for everyone, and allow the choice of the desired level of anonymity. In this paper I will review existing platforms encouraging information flows between citizens and governments, and between people residing in physical proximity, as a function of their ownership structure and discuss the corresponding trade-offs. I will then describe a very simple information sharing game and its variations subject to different framing, ownership and design options. I will argue that there are many crucial details that can play a decisive role in shaping the behaviour of the participants and reaching the agreed upon social objectives. Finally, combining concepts and knowledge from the fields of computer science, behavioural economics, and urban planning, I will propose a bottom-up social learning methodology for allowing local communities to define their own hybrid space, exchange experiences and knowledge, and compete with global corporations such as Google and Facebook for the “right to the hybrid city”
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Local networks for local interactions: Four reasons why and a way forward
No full textThis paper frames the role of community (wireless) networks, and other forms of grassroots DIY networking models, as complementary to the Internet communication infrastructures hosting local services for facilitating local interactions, as drivers for a more convivial and sustainable life in the city. Today, only a few Internet-based global corporations mediate our everyday online interactions, without respecting our rights to privacy, freedom of expression and self-determination; they depend for their own sustainability on the exploitation of the immense collected information and design power toward private, commercial and political objectives. But when communication is meant to take place between people in physical proximity, local community networks can provide an alternative infrastructure owned and designed by those concerned. The paper analyses four key reasons, practical, social, political, and scientific, why such DIY networks should be considered as a viable complementary infrastructure for local communications even when Internet access is available. Through analogies with other relevant domains of local action, namely complementary currencies and cooperative housing, I conclude by addressing the dichotomy between local action and global coordination. I advocate for the co-creation of convivial ICT tools for building local communities, or better hybrid spaces of local cooperation, which are larger in size than the small in “small is beautiful” and smaller, but in many cases more diverse, than recent imaginaries of the “multitude”
The Organic Internet: Building Communications Networks from the Grassroots
No full textPublication of the netCommons and MAZI project
Chapter 16 The organic Internet as a resilient practice
Get PDFThe idea that digital and physical space are increasingly interconnected, and that
architecture and urban design should be conceptualised beyond buildings, streets
and so on, is rather old and well understood. What is less clear is the fact that
digital space is socially and politically ‘produced’ in similarly complex ways to the
physical. It is thus subject to power structures, manipulation tactics, fundamental
rights, borders and constraints, despite its perceived ‘infiniteness’
Chapter 16 The organic Internet as a resilient practice
Get PDFThe idea that digital and physical space are increasingly interconnected, and that
architecture and urban design should be conceptualised beyond buildings, streets
and so on, is rather old and well understood. What is less clear is the fact that
digital space is socially and politically ‘produced’ in similarly complex ways to the
physical. It is thus subject to power structures, manipulation tactics, fundamental
rights, borders and constraints, despite its perceived ‘infiniteness’
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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