1,354,416 research outputs found
Be Your Selfie: Identity, Aesthetics and Power in Digital Self-Representation
No full textNetworking Knowledge 8(6)Special Issue: Be Your SelfieNovember 20151IntroductionBe Your Selfie: Identity, Aesthetics and Power in Digital Self-RepresentationDR LAURA BUSETTA, Sapienza University of Romeand DR VALERIO COLADONATO, SapienzaUniversity of RomeThis issue ofNetworking Knowledgeinvestigates the practice of the “selfie”, one of the most significant phenomena in the current mediascape. Selfies are a notable example of how the interaction between social networking and recent forms of visual self-representation is reshaping traditional notions such as subjectivity, privacy, and celebrity, among others. As part of the contemporary diffusion of amateur visual culture via personal devices –among which, mobile integrated cameras are arguably the most relevant –selfies contribute to the global circulation of personal images. Their popularity can be related to other trends dating back to the last decades of the twentieth century, such as the rise of artists and photographers who focused their work mostly on self-portraiture. As far as amateur production is concerned, personal images used to circulate among the relatively homogeneous community of the author's (digital) friends in social networking websites, but since selfies have turned into an object of global public consumption, the ideological mechanisms of celebrity culture have been activated. Thus, selfies have also become a recognizable item in the self-branding activities carried out by public figures: they are a well-integrated part of the media strategy of political leaders and entertainment personalities. This issue aims to contribute to the analysis of such phenomena by adopting two different, yet auxiliary, perspectives: on one hand, the debate on self-representation developed in the tradition of visual studies, and in relation to the history of the arts and photography; on the other hand, an approach based on cultural studies, which aims to highlight how power relations and socially sanctioned forms of “identity” are inscribed in the production and circulation of selfies
Foreigners in Italy: Economic living conditions and unmet medical needs
No full textForeigners in Italy experience specific inequalities in health and in access to health care that overlap with existing geographical disparities. In this study we aim to compare the effects of living conditions on self-perceived unmet medical needs among foreigners living in Italy. In particular, we test several measures of living conditions, and assess whether these measures affect foreigners differently depending on their nationality. The data used for the analysis are from the Italian Special Survey of Income and Living Conditions carried out on households with foreigners in 2009
Health and living conditions of refugees and asylum-seekers: A survey of informal settlements in Italy
No full textNewspapers and humanitarian organisations have long shown that many asylumseekers and other beneficiaries of international protection are forced to live for months or even years in precarious settlements that have sprung up spontaneously throughout Italy. However, there are no official statistics on how many asylum-seekers and refugees in Italy live this way. Our survey, carried out in 2015, is the first national survey of foreign nationals living in these makeshift camps. It aims to build a complete list of informal settlements in Italy and provide an estimate of the population size, characteristics, and living conditions of these settlements, with a focus on health conditions. The conditions of settlements are often very poor with deficiencies in basic supplies (water, electricity, and/or shelter). The survey reveals that, despite their generally young age, more than 50 per cent of the foreign nationals living in informal settlements have had health problems recently. Binomial logit analysis, using two different health outcomes, reveals that health conditions are associated with both personal and settlement characteristics. The poor living conditions of these foreign nationals, their unsatisfied medical needs, and the precariousness of their housing all demonstrate how the Italian reception system is creaking under the growing volume of migrants
LOW FERTILITY AND POLICY RESPONSES IN SOME DEVELOPED COUNTRIES WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO EUROPE
No full textWith A Little Help From A Friend: Applying Overhearing To Teamwork
No full textSoftware agents must have some degree of autonomy in order to be able to adjust to changing and sometimes unpredictable situations due to communication problems. Introducing so-called "overhearers" for monitoring team activities and helping recovery from failures seems to be a very promising approach. In this paper, we claim that having a "global" representation of the interaction protocol can be useful to monitor team communication. Moreover, using this global description of group interactions, overhearers can monitor activities without requiring a priori, precise knowledge of which and how many agents are involved. We show how, given a global description of a protocol in terms of involved roles rather than agents, it is possible for an overhearer to monitor its evolution and detect, and recover from, certain types of failures. We evaluated an implementation of the overhearer monitoring a group of agents executing a Contract-Net Protoco
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