1,721,107 research outputs found
Media Practices and Protest Politics: How precarious workers mobilise
No full textHow do precarious workers employed in call-centres, universities, the fashion industry and many other labour markets organise, struggle and communicate to become recognised, influential political subjects? "Media Practices and Protest Politics: How Precarious Workers Organise" reveals the process by which individuals at the margins of the labour market and excluded from the welfare state communicate and struggle outside the realm of institutional politics to gain recognition in the political sphere. In this important and thought provoking work, Alice Mattoni suggests an all-encompassing approach to understanding grassroots political communication in contemporary societies. Using original examples from precarious workers mobilizations in Italy, she explores a range of activist media practices and compares different categories of media technologies, organizations and outlets from the printed press to web application and from mainstream to alternative media. Explaining how activists perceive and understand the media environment in which they are embedded, the book discusses how they must interact with a diverse range of media professionals and technologies and considers how mainstream, radical left-wing and alternative media represent protests. "Media Practices and Protest Politics" offers important insights for understanding mechanisms and patterns of visibility in struggles for recognition and redistribution in post-democratic societies and provides a valuable contribution to the field of political communication and social movement studies.--Preface;
--Introduction;
--Theoretical reflections on the study of grassroots political communication;
--The discursive context and contentious field of precarity in Italy;
--The construction of precarious subjects in mobilisations against precarity;
--Reflections in the mirror: media knowledge practices;
--Surfing media diversity: relational media practices;
--The construction of public identities: media representations of protest;
--Conclusions: the circuit of grassroots political communication;
--Methodological appendix; References;
--Index.Published version of EUI PhD thesis, 200
Hybrid perovskites for photovoltaics: Insights from first principles
No full textThe methylammonium lead iodide perovskites at the core of recently proposed solar cells with exceptionally large quantum conversion efficiency are studied by first-principles methods. Large absorption coefficients (0.03-0.04 nm-1 for wavelength ∼500 nm) and small effective masses suited for both n-type and p-type transport are obtained as a consequence of their peculiar structural and electronic characteristics. In particular, the presence of a direct gap between highly dispersed Pb(6s)-I(5p) valence bands and Pb(6p) conduction bands is the key ingredient at the basis of their excellent performance in photovoltaic applications. © 2014 American Physical Society
Atomistic investigation of the solubility of 3-alkylthiophene polymers in tetrahydrofuran solvent
No full textWe study the solubility properties of regioregular oligo(3-alkylthiophene)s in tetrahydrofuran solvent as a function of their alkyl chains length by an atomistic investigation based on model potential molecular dynamics. We make use of the Flory-Huggins theory that is typically used to study the miscibility of macromolecules and that is here applied for the first time to study the solubility of conjugated conducting polymers in a typical organic solvent. The properties of the isolated solvent and polymer are correctly reproduced, and the calculated solubilities of the oligo(3-alkylthiophene)s in tetrahydrofuran as a function of their side chains lengths are in agreement with available experimental data. Present investigation shows that the atomistic approach based on molecular dynamics is a powerful tool to study the solubility of alkylthiophenes in molecular solvents
Tra consenso e conflitto. Pratiche mediali nei movimenti italiani contro la precarietà del lavoro
No full textThis article is available on the website of the old publisher Franco Angeli ( http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/sommario.asp?IDRivista=152 )<br/
Book Review: The Logic of Connective Action: Digital Media and the Personalization of Contentious Politics
No full textnon disponibil
Organization, mobilization, identity. National and transnational grassroots campaigns between face-to-face and computer-mediated-communication
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Atomistic Simulations of P(NDI2OD-T2) Morphologies: From Single Chain to Condensed Phases
Full text linkWe investigate theoretically the structure, crystallinity, and solubility of a high-mobility n-type semiconducting copolymer, P(NDI2OD-T2), and we propose a set of new force field parameters. The force field is reparametrized against density functional theory (DFT) calculations, with the aim to reproduce the correct torsional angles that govern the polymer chain flexibility and morphology. We simulate P(NDI2OD-T2) oligomers in different environments, namely, in vacuo, in the bulk phase, and in liquid toluene and chloronaphthalene solution. The choice of these solvents is motivated by the fact that they induce different kinds of molecular preaggregates during the casting procedures, resulting in variable device performances. Our results are in good agreement with the available experimental data; the polymer bulk structure, in which the chains are quite planar, is correcly reproduced, yet the isolated chains are flexible enough to fold in vacuo. We also calculate the solubility of P(NDI2OD-T2) in toluene and chloronaphthalene, predicting a much better solubility of the polymer in the latter, also in accordance to experimental observations. Different morphologies and dynamics of the oligomers in the two solvents have been observed. The proposed parameters make it possible to obtain the description of P(NDI2OD-T2) in different environments and can serve as a basis for extensive studies of this polymer semiconductor, such as, for example, the dynamics of aggregation in solvent
Comparing hybrid media systems in the digital age: A theoretical framework for analysis
No full textThe relationship between media and politics today is deeply entrenched in the wide use of information and communication technologies to the point that scholars speak about the emergence of hybrid media systems in which older and newer media logics combine. However, it is still unclear how the configuration of hybrid media systems changes across countries today, especially with regard to the interconnection between media and politics. In the article, we aim to develop a theoretical framework to capture such national differences. In so doing, we want to develop a heuristic device to understand whether the transformations brought about by information and communication technologies in the media and political realm also contribute to reshaping national media systems and to what extent. After outlining the main scope of the article in the ‘Introduction’ section, we discuss the theoretical framework that Hallin and Mancini developed to compare media systems across countries, and we present this framework’s main strengths and weaknesses when used as a tool for understanding the relationship between media and politics in the digital era. We then argue for the need for an updated and expanded version of such a theoretical framework: first, we update its four original dimensions (structure of media market, political parallelism, state intervention and journalistic professionalism) transversely including information and communication technologies–related indicators; second, we expand the original theoretical framework with one new dimension (grassroots participation) and the related indicators. In the ‘Conclusion’ section, we summarize our theoretical proposal and present some indicators and potential comparative data sources to assess similarities and differences of national media systems across countries. Finally, we also note two limitations of the article
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