14 research outputs found
Taking Quantitative Evaluation of Intellectual Labour Seriously: A Debate about Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra’s The Quantified Scholar (CUP, 2022)
No full textThe rise of quantitative research evaluation has changed not only the way knowledge is rated and ranked, but the way scientific knowledge is produced. This Focus discusses the outcomes of Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra’s research on the transformation of the British social sciences. While pushing social scientists to adapt to the new canons of evaluation, research assessment frameworks have increased disciplinary homogeneity at the detriment of diversity. Moving beyond the specificity of the British case, the comments that follow critically engage with the perspectives and proposals advanced by the author
Techno-economic feasibility of a biomass-to-X plant: Fischer-Tropsch wax synthesis from digestate gasification
No full textA techno-economic analysis is performed, assessing the production costs of Fischer-Tropsch syncrudeand waxes of carbon number C20þ. The products are obtained from the gasification of digestate fromanaerobic digestion inside a dualfluidized bed gasifier (3.11 MWth). The results are compared against thesame system fed with lignocellulosic biomass. The syngas is cleaned from impurities and conditioned toreach the desired H2/CO molar ratio of 1.8 at the inlet of the Fischer-Tropsch reactor. The Fischer-Tropschproducts distribution is based on experimental data of a cobalt-based catalyst. Two process configura-tions are studied: (1) the Fischer-Tropsch off-gas are employed to produce electricity; (2) the off-gas arerecirculated to the gasifier for enhanced wax production. Co-production of steam is also investigated. Theresults show an advantageous production of Fischer-Tropsch compounds utilizing digestate over woodbiomass. The highest plant efficiency (i.e., biomass-to-liquid fuel) of 56.3% is reached with digestatefeedstock and off-gas recirculation, outputting 61.5 kgwax/tdig. The minimum wax production cost is of3.04V/kgwax, assuming 7.5% discount rate and 25-years plant operatio
The Contentious Politics of Expertise. Experts, Activism and Grassroots Environmentalism
No full textBased on mixed-methods research and ethnographic fieldwork at various sites in Italy, this book examines the relationship between expertise and activism in grassroots environmentalism. Presenting interviews with citizens, activists and experts, it considers activism surrounding infrastructure in urban areas, in connection with water management, transport, tour- ism and waste disposal. Through comparisons between different political environments, the author analyses the ways in which citizens, political activists and technical experts participate in using expertise, shedding light on the effects of this on the structure and composition of social movements, as well as the implications for the mechanisms of participation and the formation of alliances. Bridging the sociology of expertise and contentious politics, this study of the relationship between contentious expertise and democratic accountability shows how conflict transforms, rather than inhibits, expertise production into a ‘contentious politics by other means’. As such, it will appeal to social scientists with interests in social movements, environmental sociology, science and technology studies, and the sociology of knowledge
Riconoscere, identificare, spiegare. L'arte di teorizzare e la sociologia di Alessandro Pizzorno
No full textThis essay draws a profile of Alessandro Pizzorno, one of the most prominent sociologists of postwar Europe. It focuses on the foundations of his theory which covers a broad set of sociological and political issues that go well beyond disciplines’ boundaries. The author traces a genealogy of Pizzorno’s theory of recognition from its inception with the early anthropological study on the mask to its more recent and complex sociological elaboration. While criticising the paradigms of rational choice Pizzorno founded his theory of recognition on a sustained dialogue with the social theories of Hegel and Hobbes. The explanatory role of sociology is therefore defined by a thorough and novel reconsideration of the relations between the theorist and the agent. From this perspective, the process of knowing is defined as a process of unveiling a foreign social reality where social life is considered through the metaphor of the stranger, expressing the foundational relation between the Self and the Other. In the author’s view, «theoretical pluralism» is what best describes Alessandro Pizzorno’s approach
Sociology as a Vocation and a Collective Entreprise: Remembering Michael Burawoy
No full textMichael Burawoy has been one of the most influential contemporary sociologists. The author of a scholarly output developed over fifty years, Burawoy innovated in ways of theorizing, field research methods, and tackling the most varied objects of study: forms of consensus in labor processes, class and race relations, major political-economic transitions, and finally modes of knowledge production. This essay is both a tribute to his great scientific testimony and an essential portrait of his sociological style, which conceives scientific work as an authentic Weberian public vocation, strongly linked to reflexivity and pluralism in the way of theorizing, capable of revising its paradigms thanks to comparative empiri-cal research in time and space. A scientific and critical enterprise that is capable of being global, enriched by a diversity of contexts and by dialogue with critiques, a sociology that, in order to account for the complexity of the real, has proposed itself on many occasions as a collective work
Exploring the role of multimedia in enhancing social presence in an asynchronous online course
No full textThe demand for online education is growing and with it there is a growing concern about the quality of online education. One of the major shortcomings of online education is the experienced social isolation. To minimize this feeling of isolation, research in the past recommends focusing on strategies that enhance social presence in an online course. However, there are many challenges to creating an online learning experience where learners experience a high degree of social presence. This is may be because the nature of the social presence construct is ambiguous and most of the research in past has measured social presence through self-report surveys. The purpose of this study was to examine the growth of social presence in a multimodal discussion forum, and understand how multimedia supports the development of social presence in an asynchronous online course. Additionally, the aim was to know the views of students and the instructor about using multimedia in an online course for various purposes. Through mixed method exploratory case study method, this study explored the role of multimedia in enhancing social presence in an online course. The study made use of three different frameworks i.e. Social constructivism, Community of Inquiry, and Social Network Analysis to understand the use of multimedia and the pattern of development of social presence. The study demonstrated various ways in which multimedia could enhance social presence in an online learning community. The findings indicated the even though some multimodal tools like VoiceThread increased the amount of interaction but it did not result in the increase of social presence. Additionally, the study revealed the inability of the social presence coding protocol developed by Rourke et al. (2001) to capture certain social presence indicators in a multimodal discussion forum. Several conjectures were developed in this study to understand the popularity of a student within a learning network.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Chesta Khuran
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The contentious politics of expertise ::experts, activism and grassroots environmentalism /
No full text"Based on mixed-methods research and ethnographic fieldwork at various sites in Italy, this book examines the relationship between expertise and activism in grassroots environmentalism. Presenting interviews with citizens, activists and experts, it considers activism surrounding infrastructure in urban areas, in connection with water management, transport, tourism and waste disposal. Through comparisons between different political environments, the author analyses the ways in which citizens, political activists and technical experts participate in using expertise, shedding light on the effects of this on the structure and composition of social movements, as well as the implications for the mechanisms of participation and the formation of alliances. Bridging the sociology of expertise and contentious politics, this study of the relationship between contentious expertise and democratic accountability shows how conflict transforms, rather than inhibits, expertise production into a 'contentious politics by other means'. As such, it will appeal to social scientists with interests in social movements, environmental sociology, science and technology studies, and the sociology of knowledge"-
Current and Future Challenges of Software Engineering for Services and Applications
No full textAbstractICT (Information and Communication Technology) and, in particular, software is more and more pervasive and it cannot be considered anymore as a minor element of a complex systems. In domains like cloud, big data, IoT (Internet of Things), CPS (Cyber-Physical Systems) it is the core element. We need to consolidate the software engineering discipline, which, despite the impressive achievements in the area of software technology, is probably one of the youngest scientific and technological disciplines with about 60 years of history. This paper summarizes the challenges that the Software Engineering for Services and Applications (SE4SA) cluster is considering as relevant
Contentious politics of expertise : experts, activism and grassroots environmentalism
No full textBased on mixed-methods research and ethnographic fieldwork at various sites in Italy, this book examines the relationship between expertise and activism in grassroots environmentalism. Presenting interviews with citizens, activists and experts, it considers activism surrounding infrastructure in urban areas, in connection with water management, transport, tour- ism and waste disposal. Through comparisons between different political environments, the author analyses the ways in which citizens, political activists and technical experts participate in using expertise, shedding light on the effects of this on the structure and composition of social movements, as well as the implications for the mechanisms of participation and the formation of alliances. Bridging the sociology of expertise and contentious politics, this study of the relationship between contentious expertise and democratic accountability shows how conflict transforms, rather than inhibits, expertise production into a ‘contentious politics by other means’. As such, it will appeal to social scientists with interests in social movements, environmental sociology, science and technology studies, and the sociology of knowledge.-- Introduction : speaking truth to society? The contentious politics of expertise-- Part 1. Grassroots expertise and local environmental mobilizations -- Part 2. The Venetian lagoon between prophecies and interests: expertise and civil society mobilizations against the MOSE project -- Part 3. Experts and activists in the "Florentine Node": citizens expertise in the conflict over the Tunnel–TAV in Florence -- Part 4. Experts, citizens and activists in the "No Cruise ships" movement in Venice -- Part 5. Expertise and activism in the "Stalingrad of incinerators": the mobilization against the waste incinerator in Florence -- Part 6. Conclusions: the contentious politics by other means – grassroots environmentalism and the politics of expertise -- Methodological appendix: notes on contentious fieldwork -- Appendix: intensive fieldwork and source listPublished version of EUI PhD thesis, 201
