1,721,058 research outputs found
Complexity and Psychology
No full textAbstract
Recently the complexity of discursive practices has been widely acknowledged by the humanities and social sciences. In fact, to know anything is to know in terms of one or more discourse. The “discursive turn” in psychology may be considered as a new paradigm oriented to a correct study of (wo)man only if it is able to grasp the semiotical ground of psychic experience both as an “effort after meaning” and as a “struggle over meaning.” In this sense the notion of “diatext” has been proposed as a contribution in working out a psychosemiotical approach to understand how the discursive practices assign subject-positions to the agents of each interlocution scenario
A combined storm overflow structure: design procedure
No full textIn combined sewer systems suitable locations are selected where only a fraction of the maximum discharge is allowed to continue towards the sewage treatment station. To this purpose, overflow structures are used. In this paper a storm overflow structure constituted by a sideweir and a bottom opening is proposed. It is particularly suitable for subcritical approach flows. A hydraulic design procedure is described and, based on systematic observations and by using governing flow equations, the main hydraulic features are specified. The results reveal that the proposed overflow structure has advantageous characteristics with reference to efficiency, reliability, and maintenance
Remediation of contaminated sites in Italy: state of the art of technologies and plannig & design criteria
No full textRemediation of contaminated sites in Italy has been so far governed by the so-called Ronchi Decree (Ministerial Decree 2/97) and by the subsequent Ministerial Decree 471/99, which laid down detailed procedural and technical provisions. Most of the site remediation projects conducted in Italy have fallen under the scope of the above Decrees.
This legislation was recently revised by Legislative Decree no. 152 of 3 Apr. 2006 (hereafter called "Decree 152/2006"), consolidating and superseding all previous laws and regulations on environmental matters (including general legislation on water protection, namely Legislative Decree no. 152 of 11 MayI999). On the other hand, Decree 152/2006, including provisions on remediation of contaminated sites, is already being overhauled. Against this background, it is useful to make a critical analysis of the seven years of application of the prior legislation (Ministerial Decree 471/99), in order to derive suggestions for the more technical aspects of the ongoing revision.
The following analysis considers both remediation and emergency containrnent of contaminated groundwater and soil, focusing on the interaction between the legislative-regulatory framework and the consequent technological choices and, namely, on their planning & design. The analysis is of a merely qualitative nature and hinges on the direct experience of the Authors, acting as remediation specialists and technical and scientific consultants. Therefore, the analysis solely reflects their personal opinions.
Table 1 gives a qualitative overview of the technologies used in Italy for rehabilitating contarninated sites. The Table shows that most of the technological options available in the state of the art have been used.
Largely dominant among them were ex-situ technologies, especially excavation and disposal for soil and Pump & Treat (P&T) for water. These approaches, whose use was at tirnes inevitable, were not particularly effective in terms of environrnental sustainability. Indeed, in both cases, the contarninated resource is not restored to its original or potential uses. Even if encouraging progress has recently been made, the use of in-situ technologies has remained marginal and should thus be intensified. Among the latter technologies, mention is to be made of those largely used in other countries, such as permeable reactive barriers, aerobic and anaerobic bioremediation and in-situ chernical oxidation
Metal partitioning in cyclone and filter ash derived from sludge incineration tests in a pilot circulating fluidized-bed Combustor
No full textLooking at social representations and political psychology: how snapshots in the field of inquiry may orient the discipline towards methodological polytheism
No full textThe aim of this doctoral dissertation is to explore the contribution of the social representations theory within the field of research focused on political psychology. This aim was developed by carrying three different yet coherent studies. The first one presents a general and comprehensive overview of the empirical contributions given by the theory of social representations to this field of research.
Contributions were analyzed in depth using a the detailed grid for meta‐theoretical analysis developed by A.S. de Rosa and last updated in 2014, allowing for producing a mix of quantitative and qualitative data on a large corpus (N=321) of empirical researches, published in the most relevant journals dedicated to issues converging in the area of Politics, Multidimensional Identity, Social Movements and Active Minorities all over the world during a time span ranging from 1980 to 2016. Results have offered have offered an empirical evidence of a sort of “methodological polytheism” (Moscovici, 1988). The methodological geo-mapping of the literature on Social Representations and Politics shows the inclusion of all the approaches (experimental, quasi experimental, field, ethnographic and media studies), but also oppose them in the semantic factorial space. Implications for future directions of researches which advocate for the multi-level concurrent integration (rather than opposition) of the multiple constructs, paradigmatic and methodological approaches will be discussed.
All in all, results of this first study show how the social representation theory, stemming from its European source, had influenced in a very innovative ways the international field of study on political psychology – both for the kind of issues taken into account, and for the original mix of methodological solutions applied to investigate them. Building of these first results, the other two studies wanted to explore how such an innovative contribution of the social representation theory could be traced also in contemporary studies on political psychology, influencing the very recent advances of it. Among them, the phenomenon of self-censorship (Bar-Tal, 2017) has been chosen as the specific issue of the second and third study.
This phenomenon refers to the set of processes that are enacted at a societal level in order to intentionally and voluntary withhold information supposing to threaten the society as a whole. While in the past decades the social representations' theory proved to be particularly important to focus scholars' attention on the role of minorities to influence the majorities, when the problem of societal self-censorship is at stake the social representations' theory may offer very innovative theoretical and methodological contribution for understanding in greater depth how representations of social life could be developed, when basic information is voluntary suppressed. An interesting case study was offered by information on colonial crimes committed by the Italian Army during the colonial invasion of Ethiopia (1935-36). Studies of influential Italian scholars show that a widespread social censorship has silenced this period of the Italian past, withholding information on the serious wrongdoings committed. During the colonial invasion of the African country Italian troops used poison gas against the enemy, despite its prohibition by the Geneva Convention. Moreover, Italian repression of the Ethiopian resistance that continued after the official end of the war was particularly cruel. The most dramatic episode occurred in response to a failed assassination attempt on Governor Graziani in 1937, when some six thousand civilians—according to Western sources—were executed, among them the roughly three hundred monks of Debra Libanos. The second study, having as participants 217 young university students, show how this information on colonial crimes is still lacking in current social representations of Italian colonial past. Moreover, Study 2 shows that the social myth, covering up since recently this lack of information by an illusion on past behaviors of Italian soldiers, depicted as unable of cruelty, is now faded away from young respondents' answers. Being not based on factual information on the past, literally denied in the current social discourse, social representations of colonial past are nevertheless organized as a bricolage of information referred more in general to Fascism, avoiding to consider that Italian colonial attempts started even before this historical period and cannot be explained only as a strategy of Fascist regime to gain and secure consensus. The third study builds up on these results. We take into account that self-censorship on past information cannot extend to the relentless work of cultural objectivation: not only the work of high art, but also posters, postage stamps, costumes, customs (Assman, 1975). To this regard, our attention has been captured by images of confectionery products marketed by some Italian industries. The package of these products, presenting a smiling image of a colonized women/men, during the period of colonial wars could be easily associated with the optimistic declaration of a resurgence of an imperial period of Italian history. After the defeat of Fascism, these contents were self-censored. However, this kind of confectionery products were still sold using the same packaging. Using a quasi-experimental design between subjects, the Study 3 aimed to explore different reactions of 110 young Italian participants invited to evaluate this candy after being exposed to a story either conveying information about the association of packaging with Italian colonial times, or omitting this information. Findings of Study 3 show that the experimental manipulation produced unexpected effects on taste of the product only t(108) = 2.59, p < .05, by making the candy seem more tasty for participants exposed to the experimental condition. Results suggest therefore that making evident the unsaid link between an object easy to find in the everyday social context and its reminders of Italian colonialism is not sufficient for challenging the long-lasting literal social denial affecting Italian colonial violence. All in all, results of the three studies seem to articulate a coherent answer to the general research question inspiring this dissertation. The social representations' theory, originated by the pioneering work of Serge Moscovici, produced in time relevant and original contributions in the field of empirical research on political psychology. The theory dissemination and influence expanded all over the world, adapting cleverly its methodologies to the different needs of many important sources of communication mostly used by this scientific community. Also referring to a specific recent advance of studies on political psychology, the issue of self-censorship, the theory of social representations may offer relevant insights.
Study 2 and 3 tested the theory's capability by applying it to the case of selfcensored colonial crimes committed by the Italian Army during the invasion of Ethiopia. Study 2 shows how a social representation of a difficult past of one's own group may be developed also when basic historical information on this period is lacking. Study 3 explores consequences of making young people aware that some of the objects easy to find in their everyday material world are figures of memory of this self-censored historical period. The unexpected results of this last study suggest that, when a massive self-censorship of the societal discourse keeps on avoiding to remember a past period of violence enacted by one's own group, the simple evidence of a link associating an object of everyday life with this past period, that remains however not explicitly described, may paradoxically add to the object reminding of this violence the fascinating flavor of memorabilia
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe 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
META-THEORY AND THE (COUNTER-) IDEOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY: THE CASE OF SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS THEORY
No full textThe objective of this Dissertation is to contribute to the debate regarding the utility of meta-theoretical investigations for exposing and resolving paradigmatic crises in the social sciences. The meta-theory of Social Representations Theory (SRT) is taken as the central case study of the present work, which forms a part of a wider research program led by de Rosa dedicated to the meta-theoretical analysis of SRT (European/International Joint PhD in S.R & C. Research Centre and Multimedia Lab, Sapienza and funded by the EU FP/2013 PITN-GA-2013-607279).
Drawing on insights from the philosophy, sociology and (social) psychology of knowledge, a conceptual frame is constructed to aid the meta-theoretical analyses over the interplay between ideology and social psychology understood as societal common sense, as well as Social Psychology understood as an academic discipline, as they play out in relation to SRT. It is argued that ideology influences and is influenced by: the paradigmatic choices made; the broader neoliberal academic context; as well as the form and content of knowledge production in social psychology. It is concluded that meta-theoretical insights in SRT if supplemented with closer collaborations with critical approaches, could serve as the basis for a progressive evolution of SRT toward a more critical and ideologically conscious directio
Interplay between culture and the unfolding of a field enquiry: Social Representations consensual and reified universes in Latin America
No full textSocial Representations field of enquiry has inspired a vast corpus of research aimed at an in depth understanding of social-related phenomena and of the dynamics underlying the conditions of emergence, transmission and transformation of social knowledge.
Within the Latin American geo-cultural context, which is the setting adopted for the three studies hereby presented, this theory has flourished deeply embedded in an historical socio-political context that shaped viewpoints and attitudes towards it. Henceforth, it has been assimilated, integrated, adapted and shaped according to specificities of this context, pushing forward a particular anchoring on an ideological defense of research as a medium to a comprehensive understanding of the complex reality and to an actual impact on social change.
The first study conducted is aimed at exploring the interconnection between the confluence of a set of socio-historical factors within Latin America societies and the adoption and growth of Social Representations theory as part of a broader set of streams. These have put forward alternatives to a logical-positivistic model of science, thus bringing into light populations previously ignored from a political, social and economic standpoint.
The second and third study are derived from a broader project aimed at taking stock of the temporal, thematic, methodological and geographical evolution of the Theory of Social Representations through a systematic literature review based on a meta- theoretical analysis of the entire corpus of scientific production published globally (de Rosa, 2013a, 2013b). Considering only the Latin American contributions to this field of enquiry, we intend to convey an empirically-based take on the interplay between the theory and the geo-cultural context.
Respectively, the second study is based on a systematic meta- theoretical analysis of 594 contributions from Latin American authors (including journal articles, book chapters and conference presentations) adopting as interpretative lens the five main axis of the Grid for Meta Theoretical Analysis of the Literature on Social Representations which crosses meta-data (traditional bibliometric variables) with data pertaining to the theoretical, methodological and thematic dimensions of the theory of Social Representations (de Rosa, 2013b). More specifically, we have explored through a Multiple Correspondence Analysis the associations in Latin American literature between variables pertaining to the following sections: “Reference to theoretical constructs specific of Social Representation Theory” (e.g. genesis, processes, functions, structure, dynamics of transmission and transformation): “Reference to other theoretical constructs and/or theories”, “Thematic analysis” and “Methodological profile” (e.g. research design, instruments, techniques and sample characterization, size of sample, unit of analysis). The results show a growing trend of internationalization and empirically corroborate the special feature of Latin America in bridging different perspectives so to better grasp several dimensions of social objects, as evidenced by the wide array of research published in journals from distinct disciplines. Moreover, it shows a complex interaction between the miscellaneous methodological choices and the Specific References to the theory, putting in evidence a wide receptivity of different methods, often combined. This feature may provide a profitable ground for a wider development ofa multi-level, multi-theoretical and multi-methodological coherency as suggested by de Rosa in her modelling approach (e.g. de Rosa, 2013a; 2014). In spite of the major role of two schools of thought- the Anthropological-Ethnographic and the Structural approach- our results show an integration of other theoretical constructs and theories aligned with a specific and fruitful way of this context to adopt external influences without bending to rigid divisions.
The third study focuses specifically on contributions presented by Latin American researchers to scientific events worldwide. A descriptive look of an extensive corpus of abstracts and keywords presented in several types of scientific events was combined with a Hierarchical Descending Cluster Analysis in an attempt to search for the thematic and methodological paths, trends and main clusters evidenced in this dissemination venue. The rationale for this study is related to the nature of scientific events as frequent and periodic thus constituting a proxy for an updated and immediate look into the evolution of specific thematic, theoretical and methodological choices across time. This is even more relevant if one considers the scope of the theory in encompassing social phenomena and issues that contemporary societies reflect upon or show concern with. Given the aforementioned social orientation shared by Latin American researchers, the multitude of themes and sub themes that have been addressed through these venues show two interesting trends: the pervasiveness of concern for critical areas within this context, such as Education, Health and Politics associated with an updated and constant interaction with new issues and problems that arise related to these fields, intertwined with the own dynamic nature of nowadays societies.
The analysed sources were retrieved from the specialized @-library on Social Representations and Communication, within the European/International Joint PhD in Social Representations & Communication– the So.Re.Com. “A.S. de Rosa” @-library for Documentation, Networking, and Training
Variations on the Author
Full text link“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
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