Suchergebnisse

From the point of view of political philosophy, the relationship between literacy and democracy appears quite problematic, if the issue of linguistic diversity is set aside. The debate between equalitarian liberals and multiculturalists emerging with the rise of multiculturalism as a theoretical paradigm has highlighted that the historical affirmation of the Western nation-state has been built upon the negation of internal linguistic diversity, favoring some languages over others, a trend which has not lost its strength with the advent of democracy. However, one of the main results of such debate, largely indebted to the Rawlsian conception of justice, has been seemingly the idea that the extended promotion of plurilingualism (that is, a kind of promotion which does not aim to support second or third language acquisition only for the benefit of the so called 'minority' or 'disadvantaged' groups and languages) could not be a viable alternative for contemporary democratic theory to ameliorate its performance. Drawing upon the field of language policy, this article envisages showing that such a result is tied to a certain number of theoretical assumptions concerning language, which are controversial both in political philosophy and in linguistic theory. In the final section, the article tries to provide some suggestions to develop a reflection more open towards the extended promotion of plurilingualism and to acknowledge the human ability to learn more than one linguistic code.

Questo lavoro si occupa di rintracciare i presupposti sulla natura umana a fondamento delle diverse definizioni elaborate dalla teoria sociale contemporanea relativamente ai concetti di normalizzazione e individualizzazione. Benché la rilevanza attuale di tali concetti appaia largamente connessa con l'emergere di esiti teorici molto contestati quali quelli cui perviene il post-strutturalismo in relazione alla critica del soggetto, le scienze sociali sembrano in qualche modo non comprendere appieno l'enfasi che questa corrente di pensiero pone sulla 'diversità' come punto di partenza di una riflessione che intende mettere in discussione la distinzione tra teoria e prassi, tra conoscenza e azione e, in definitiva, tra soggettività e oggettività. L'ipotesi di fondo del lavoro consiste nell'idea che la critica post-strutturalista del soggetto, in particolare nelle modalità in cui è intesa e sviluppata da un autore fondamentale quale Michel Foucault, costituisca un utile approdo del pensiero occidentale relativo al modo in cui concepire la natura umana. Tale utilità può essere formulata come possibilità di impostare in maniera alternativa alcune delle problematiche che attraversano l'intero campo delle scienze sociali. Un esempio può essere costituito dalla tendenza a costruire una teoria della 'crisi' della società occidentale contemporanea basata sull'esaurimento della portata emancipatrice dell'individualismo che risulta evidente nell'inaspettata coincidenza dei processi di normalizzazione e individualizzazione. Tale approccio conduce a teorizzare come possibile superamento della crisi l'adeguamento delle istituzioni tradizionali a istanze di cambiamento che vengono 'dal basso', alludendo con questa formula alla portata innovatrice di una dimensione fondamentale che coincide, dal punto di vista della società, con la necessaria esistenza di un nucleo originario di valori comuni, e dal punto di vista dell'individuo con un'innata tendenza alla socialità che trova la sua ultima legittimazione nel corpo. La critica del soggetto sollevata dal post-strutturalismo mette in discussione questa interpretazione, individuando al contrario i corpi come portatori di una diversità irriducibile e 'indicibile' nei suoi propri termini. Ciò conduce a un approccio epistemologico in cui le distinzioni concettuali tradizionali tra 'alto' e 'basso' perdono di significato e vengono intese come effetto, piuttosto che causa, delle instabili e variabili relazioni di potere di cui si compone la società. In tal senso, la critica post-strutturalista del soggetto apre la riflessione sul potere, principalmente oggetto della filosofia politica, al contributo del più ampio insieme delle scienze sociali. ; In this work I try to define the implicit assumptions about the human nature moving from which contemporary social theory develops the notions of normalization and individualization. Though the current relevance of such concepts seems to be inevitably connected with the emergence of the largely contested theoretical formulations by post-structuralist philosophy about the infamous 'death of the subject', social theory seems not fully understand the implications of this idea for the study of diversity, for traditional distinctions between theory and practice, and, above all, between subjectivity and objectivity. My main point is that the post-structuralist critique of the subject, in particular as offered by Michel Foucault, constitutes a useful resource for Western thought in relation to the ways it formulates theoretical model of human nature. In this sense, to develop alternative formulations of human nature implies the possibility to re-formulate in an alternative way problems which are the corner-stone of the whole field of social sciences. An example is constituted by the possibility to critically revise a theory of Western society's contemporary crisis emerging from the exhaustion of the emancipatory potential of individualism, which results in the unexpected coincidence between social processes of normalization and individualization. This theoretical trend culminates in the identification of a possible solution to such a crisis through the adjustment of traditional political institutions to instances of change coming 'from the bottom', alluding with this expression to the existence of an original and fundamental innovative nucleus of the human sphere in general. It coincides, when related to society at large, with a nucleus of shared values, and, when related to the single individual, with its innate instinct to sociality, based, at the end of the day, on the physiological and objective structure of the human body. On the contrary, the post-structuralist critique to the subject describes the bodies as carriers of an irreducible diversity, which remains inexpressible in its own terms. Such critique leads to an epistemological approach according to which traditional conceptual distinctions between a 'top' and a 'bottom' lose their meaning, and become an effect, rather than a cause, of the unstable and variable relations of power of which social reality is composed. In this sense, post-structuralist philosophy of the subject opens up the issue of power, a traditionally exclusive domain of political philosophy, to the contribution of the whole of social sciences. ; Dottorato di ricerca in Relazioni e processi interculturali (XXV ciclo)

Atmospheric dust is defined in different ways but the most used classification are "total suspended dust" (T.S.D) and "particulate matter" (P.M.). A further distinction within the T.S.D. is about inhalable and respirable dust. Inhalable dust has an aerodynamic diameter between 5 and 10 m, while respirable dust presents a diameter between 0,5 and 5 m. Beside the dimension, the danger about dust regards other factors, like: concentration, chemical composition, individual absorption characteristics and exposure time. The mechanized harvesting of nuts, like hazelnuts and chestnuts, is carried out with specific machines that can be classified in three different types: pulled vacuum harvesters with aspirating tubes; pulled or tractor mounted harvesters with automatic picking system; self-propelled harvesters (aspirating or picking). In spite of installation of dust limitation devices, some studies have shown that dust concentration is still more elevated (up to 10 times) than the maximum limits indicated by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (A.C.G.I.H.). The objective of the present study is to evaluate the level of risk at which operators, during nut mechanized harvesting and using modern machines, are really exposed. In order to carry out this survey the data have been collected among some farms of the province of Viterbo (Italy); the farms selected have heterogeneous characteristics so that it is possible to obtain representative results for each type of working site and ground.