Via verde e via d'oro. Le politiche open access dell'Università di Firenze addresses the multifaceted issue of free and open access to knowledge. Open access is a movement born in the last century with the aim of improving the dissemination of scientific knowledge. Over the last ten years, the movement has experienced a growth of interest due to the positions taken by the most important research institutes of the world, and to the legislative interventions of political and academic bodies. This publication analyses the reality of open access from the different points of view of the people who bring it to life: authors, publishers, academic world, legislators, users of knowledge, etc. The University of Florence, which is among the major players in the promotion of open access in Italy, has long been following the march in favour of open access, through the use of the green road with FLORE, its institutional repository, and of the gold road with Firenze University Press (FUP), whose publications have been available through open access since the early 2000s.
On 17 July 2012, the European Commission outlined measures to improve access to scientific information produced in Europe in two distinct documents: a Communication and a Recommendation to the Member States. Recent Commission public consultations show that researchers, libraries, research funders and businesses believe that there is a problem with access to scientific information and that this is a key barrier to the optimal circulation of knowledge in Europe, affecting both academic research and industrial uptake of research results. Since 2006 the European Commission has been developing policy and measures on open access for a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy. In August 2008, the European Commission launched the Open Access Pilot in the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). Now the Commission has announced its intention to make open access all research findings funded by "Horizon 2020", its enormous (€ 80-billion / US$ 98-billion) research-funding programme for 2014– 20. "Horizon 2020" strategy – which will include both "Green" and "Gold" open access measures – underlines the central role of Open Access knowledge as innovation engine in generating growth.
Our project aims to create, implement and deploy a platform based on a decision support system for gathering eyewitness reports to improve the situation-awareness in the aftermath of an emergency, focusing in particular on earthquakes. While doing so, we would like to find out if an approach combining opportunistic and participatory sensing methods is possible. Our system, in fact, focuses on detecting eyewitnesses with an opportunistic approach and then aims to transform these potential eyewitnesses into volunteers willing to share information. The platform retrieves earthquake notifications from an official channel and, immediately after, exploits the messages shared on Twitter for a fixed time-slot. In doing so, we collect messages posted by potential eyewitnesses. Data mining and natural language processing techniques are performed in order to select meaningful and comprehensive sets of tweets. We then concentrate on the filtered tweets in order to try to engage with their authors and enhance situation awareness. Information retrieved by our system can be extremely useful to all the government agencies interested in mitigating the impact of earthquakes, as well as news agencies looking for new information to publish.
The memory of the Great War in the official speeches at the Redipuglia Shrine. From the postwar reconstruction period to the Italian economic miracle. The Redipuglia shrine is the most important WWI Italian mausoleum, containing more than 100.000 corpses. It is located on the former eastern Italian front, in the multiethnic Julian march region. It was built under fascism in 1938, but the alliance with Nazi Germany and the coming war, led the regime to not perform any commemoration after the opening ceremony. The golden age of the Redipuglia Shrine in Italian national public discourse was after WWII, and continued to grasp public attention until the 1960s. Tensions between Italy and Yugoslavia for the sovereignty of the Julian march and the massive participation of living Great War veterans made Redipuglia a perfect stage for Italian government politicians, such as De Gasperi and Moro. In this impressive memorial, authorities could deliver speeches in which they were able to integrate WWI into Republican national identity, choosing the memories of the Great War that fitted best with their political agenda. Based on historical newspaper and scientific literature, the article describes the relationship among the Italian state, the public memory of WWI and the Redipuglia shrine from the 1940s to the 1960s.
Taking into consideration the data provided by the 1871 census, the first implemented by the Reign of Italy, the A. underlines that, if under certain aspects (infant mortality rate, illiteracy, life expectancy at birth) the Centre-South of Italy appeared backward in comparison with the North, such a difference was not so deep in the economic field. The heavy public debt, which weighed the new state, was due for 64% to the Reign of Sardinia and to Lombardy. The financial resources, necessary to the new state, were thanks to the gold belonging to the Reign of Naples, the strong increase of the fiscal pressure introduced by the Piedmontese administration, the selling of State and Church properties, new issues of paper currencies. Economic policies that, together with the dismissal of the protectionist policy granted to the industries of the Reign of Naples, damaged the South. making the industrial activities to close down and reducing activity just to agriculture. Thus the difference North-South grew increasingly, being attributed to the Italian politicians, who did not let the South time enough to cope with the new realities. Adapted from the source document.
"Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1966. The play belongs to the post Osborne and Beckett theatrical generation in which authors could no longer be pigeonholed neither from the political nor from the stylistic point of view. Stoppard later transformed the play into a film script which won the Golden Lion at the XLVIII Venice International Film Festival in 1990. The reason behind the success of this tragedy is the popularity of "Hamlet". Written during the last years of the Elizabethan era, it shows the gradual dissolving of its core values: the fact that nothing seems to have sense any more is deeply rooted into the Shakespearean tragic hero, and his dilemma mirrors the fear of the modern man of losing his own role and, with it, his own identity. Stoppard re-writes the Shakespearian drama not by altering the plot, but by presenting it through the eyes of two minor characters, thus by performing a 'poetical misunderstanding' of Hamlet – a device that, with its discussion, parody, ridicule, and, sometimes, celebration of the typical values of traditional culture, belongs to the common practices of postmodern authors in their depiction of reality.
In the coastal area of Benin, the vodu is a widespread religious practice. In the last years, a vodu cult, called tron kpeto deka, has achieved an outstanding success. Its leaders and adepts define it a "modern" vodu, because it appears suitable to cope with the contemporary society dynamics: it is clean, tidy, its rituality is more simple, speedy and efficient. This vodu elaborates its own discourse of modernity that, in the local sense, speaks of desire of social progress and of confidence in a future of success and wellbeing. The history of tron kpeto deka started in Gold Coast, during the period of the anti witchcraft cults' widespread. During its geographical and historical path, that brought it from the Northern savannah region to the coastal area, the cult embedded signs, practices, symbols and objects evoking the universal religions and a vague and unpredictable idea of North. The post colonial Benin and the ambivalent relationship between politics and vodu, that was developed in that period, contributed to build a favourable ground for the tron kpeto deka. Its modernity and alien origins cope with the demands for a renewal of local religions: people who are no more comfortable with "archaic" vodu practices, who are more involved with contemporary dynamics and look at the universal religions as means to "enter the world", seem to find in the tron kpeto deka a suitable religious alternative. ; In the coastal area of Benin, the vodu is a widespread religious practice. In the last years, a vodu cult, called tron kpeto deka, has achieved an outstanding success. Its leaders and adepts define it a "modern" vodu, because it appears suitable to cope with the contemporary society dynamics: it is clean, tidy, its rituality is more simple, speedy and efficient. This vodu elaborates its own discourse of modernity that, in the local sense, speaks of desire of social progress and of confidence in a future of success and wellbeing. The history of tron kpeto deka started in Gold Coast, during the period of the anti witchcraft cults' widespread. During its geographical and historical path, that brought it from the Northern savannah region to the coastal area, the cult embedded signs, practices, symbols and objects evoking the universal religions and a vague and unpredictable idea of North. The post colonial Benin and the ambivalent relationship between politics and vodu, that was developed in that period, contributed to build a favourable ground for the tron kpeto deka. Its modernity and alien origins cope with the demands for a renewal of local religions: people who are no more comfortable with "archaic" vodu practices, who are more involved with contemporary dynamics and look at the universal religions as means to "enter the world", seem to find in the tron kpeto deka a suitable religious alternative.
Riassunto: A partire dagli studi di danza relativi ai processi di rappresentazione del corpo danzante e alla memoria culturale - che rielaborano l'immaginazione storiografica, con l'intento di superare il mito della tradizione vivente del repertorio coreografico danese - l'articolo contestualizza e analizza la creazione del balletto romantico Valdemar di August Bournonville (Copenaghen 1835) nella temperie storico-culturale dell'Età d'oro danese. Lo scopo sarà di verificare se una rappresentazione stratificata come il balletto risulta in grado di far convergere idee, sentimenti, comportamenti, progetti e speranze, aderendo all'elaborazione del romanticismo storico europeo.Parole chiave: balletto romantico danese, August Bournonville, storiografia danese, danza e politicaAbstract: Starting from the dance studies related to the processes of representation of the dancing body and to cultural memory - which re-elaborate the historiographical imagination, with the aim of overcoming the myth of the living tradition of the Danish choreographic repertoire - the article contextualizes and analyzes the creation of the romantic ballet Valdemar by August Bournonville (Copenhagen 1835) in the historical-cultural climate of the Danish Golden Age. The purpose will be to test whether a stratified representation such as ballet is able to bring together ideas, feelings, behaviours, projects and hopes, in keeping with the elaboration of European historical Romanticism.Key words: Danish Romantic Ballet, August Bournonville, Danish Historiography, Dance and Politics
The market-oriented Private Military Companies (PMC) are said to be a new tool for post-Cold War-peacekeeping in war-torn environments: actually, private security is strongly embedded in the so called "new wars", and derives from the retrenchment of the state in response to the globalisation. The study compares two different kinds of peacekeeping strategies: private security and regional peacekeeping are analysed in the context of Sierra Leone, an African country shocked by a savage civil war in the 90's. The first case describes the intervention of Executive Outcomes (EO) - a former and controversial South African PMC - in Sierra Leone (1995): EO provided only a short-lived frame of security which was instrumental to business interest of major international mining corporations. The second case is multilateral peacekeeping on a regional basis: ECOWAS Cease-fire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) intervention in Sierra Leone (1997-2000) was the first case of sub-regional peacekeeping in Africa: despite its difficulties due to political ambiguity, financial capacity and logistical obstacles, this intervention put in place a more legitimate peacekeeping strategy. A full understanding of modern privatised security shows its inadequacy for successful peaceful conflict transformations. Additionally, regional-based peacekeeping strategies, albeit more legitimate than private security, needs to be deeply refined in terms of training, funding and political will, in order to be successful.
The decree, dating to the summer of 337 B.C., establishes on the one hand the granting of gold crowns and citizenship to two Akarnanians brothers, Phormion and Karphinas, commanders of an Akarnanian military contingent that apparently supported Athens in the battle of Chaironeia, on the other the recognition of a series of honours to the Akarnanians who followed them and constituted evidently the nerve of this contingent. The honorary decree is extremely interesting for the reconstruction of the Athenian situation immediately after the battle of Chaironeia, when Athens – apparently pro-Macedonian – seemed to carry on its resistance against Philip II by granting asylum to those who had supported the city in the military clash against Macedonia and were persecuted for this reason. The decree, then, explicitly remembers that the grandfather of the two honorands, Phormion, had in turn been beneficiary in 400 BC ca. of the granting of Athenian citizenship: the mention of this previous action creates a strong link, with evident propagandistic implications, between the moments following the battle of Chaironeia and those following the end of the Peloponnesian war. Finally, the decree may also be considered as a valid source for the study of the concession of the isoteleia, in this specific case granted in its widest form (exemption from the metoikion, right of enktesis, guarantee of legal protections, right to pay eisphorai with citizens) and not to individuals, but to a group of political exiles.
2011 has been a "rose" year for Open Access all over the world, as both the green and the gold ways met with great successes. Due to its social pervasiveness, Open Access is gaining ground within alternative economies and is opening new paths inside the social environment. In 2011 it was increasingly used for support and humanitarian aids worldwide, and acting as a real catalyst for information it involved people and cultures within the social media and the social networks. Its current ramifications are having great impact in the evolution of other open movements like the Open- Data movement, the e-Science's communities, the Open Education Resources (OER) and of newest and fascinating models of modern pedagogy like the so-called Massively Open Courses (MOOC), open online online university courses focused on open access and targeted to the masses. Nevertheless, due to the way scientific communication used to work until a few years ago, there are still a few critical points like the necessity to identify sustainable economic models for scientific publishing, and to find a proper rights' management model together with the consequent allocation of profits within the value chain. Thus, the projects of the Digital Innovation and the policy choices within the research programs of the Commission and the European Union will be strategic in promoting open access in the sense of open innovation, and in working out several critical issues.
The subject around which the contributions in this volume gravitate is the creation of a higher institute of engineering studies in Florence in the late nineteenth-century. On the eve of the unification of Italy, Florence was a promising centre for a Polytechnic, in view of the experience of the Corpo di Ingegneri di Acque e Strade, the precocious railway building, the importance of the mining sector and the solidity of the Istituto Tecnico Toscano. Despite this, unlike what took place in Milan and in Turin, the Istituto Tecnico Toscano was not transformed into a Polytechnic for the training of engineers. The reasons for this non-development can be traced to the lack of "industrialist" propensities in the managerial group that emerged victorious from the "peaceful revolution" of 1859, to a desire for independence from the national academic system built on the Casati law, and to a local demand for engineering skills that was less dynamic than expected. Consequently, the prevailing winds were those of "normalisation" blowing from the government, the universities and the most prestigious Colleges of Engineers. Nevertheless, Florence continued to represent an important technological centre, especially in relation to railway infrastructures, public works, and the mechanical engineering industries (for example Pignone and Galileo). In the end it was not until one hundred years after unification that the city finally became the seat of a Faculty of Engineering.
One of the works that close the golden age of the Attic tragedy, Euripides' Bacchae, has been studied by scholars interested in showing how tragic theatre derives from religious ritual. Among others, Cambridge Ritualists and Karl Kerényi saw in the sacrifice of Pentheus/Dionysus the mise-en-scène of the primary homicide that founds both the ritual sacrifice and the order of tragic representation. The true subject of Euripides' tragedy is nevertheless violence, whose religious legitimitation comes before the political system. The sense of the "Theban anomaly" – that can later be seen in the events involving the Labdacides and Oedipus – lies in this legitimation of the violence that founds the political system. In the mortal combat between Pentheus, the regent, and Dionysus, the demigod whose birth is directly related to the vicissitudes of the family that reigns in Thebes, the conflict between religion and politics comes to light. That conflict recalls the myth of the foundation of the town. Thebes is founded by Cadmus, who, after killing the dragon, sows his teeth. From these rise the Spartoi, violent warriors that, immediately after coming to life, kill each other. As witnessed by Pentheus and Oedipus, the violence of the origins extends to the following events of the town. From this point of view the Bacchae can be of great importance to understand the connection between religion, violence and politics. This connection doesn't escape Nietzsche's notice. In aphorism 472 (Religion and government) of Human, All-Too-Human, a small but meaningful hint to the background of Euripides's tragedy can be found. ; One of the works that close the golden age of the Attic tragedy, Euripides' Bacchae, has been studied by scholars interested in showing how tragic theatre derives from religious ritual. Among others, Cambridge Ritualists and Karl Kerényi saw in the sacrifice of Pentheus/Dionysus the mise-en-scène of the primary homicide that founds both the ritual sacrifice and the order of tragic representation. The true subject of Euripides' tragedy is nevertheless violence, whose religious legitimitation comes before the political system. The sense of the "Theban anomaly" – that can later be seen in the events involving the Labdacides and Oedipus – lies in this legitimation of the violence that founds the political system. In the mortal combat between Pentheus, the regent, and Dionysus, the demigod whose birth is directly related to the vicissitudes of the family that reigns in Thebes, the conflict between religion and politics comes to light. That conflict recalls the myth of the foundation of the town. Thebes is founded by Cadmus, who, after killing the dragon, sows his teeth. From these rise the Spartoi, violent warriors that, immediately after coming to life, kill each other. As witnessed by Pentheus and Oedipus, the violence of the origins extends to the following events of the town. From this point of view the Bacchae can be of great importance to understand the connection between religion, violence and politics. This connection doesn't escape Nietzsche's notice. In aphorism 472 (Religion and government) of Human, All-Too-Human, a small but meaningful hint to the background of Euripides's tragedy can be found.
Between the late '80s and the mid-90s of last century Paul Q. Hirst tried to draw up a proposal for a "third way" different from the one which made the political fortune of Tony Blair. Associative Democracy isn't a systematic political theory. Rather it's a set of institutional proposals inspired by two linked principles, pluralism and autonomy. The first part of the article analyses the pars destruens of Hirst's work. Before the fall of the Wall Hirst stressed either the structural defects of Soviet socialism or the tendency of capitalism to centralize economic power in the hands of a few at the expense of the most. At the same time, the end of the "golden years" made the social-democratic "recipe" unsustainable and inefficient in a Western world economically less affluent, politically unstable, and socially more complex. In the face of these great changes, Hirst proposed to tackle new times using old ideas. According to the forgotten lesson of the English pluralist thought dating back to the beginning of the nineteenth century, Hirst considered association the core institution for contemporary society. Regarding the pars construens of the Associative Democracy, the author tries to critically evaluate the ways Hirst suggested combining traditional representative institutions and intermediate corporate bodies. In Hirst's opinion, the functional and pluralistic criteria should be applied in several fields including local political decision processes, decentralized welfare services, industrial policy. It's an appealing and problematic vision at the same time.
The pamphlets all were published at Rome, [1]-[15] and [20] by Clemente Puccinelli, [16] by Benedetto Zampi, [17] by Tip. delle scienze, [18] by Tip. Menicanti. These all appeared in 1846, as apparently did [19], which has no imprint. [20] presumably appeared early in 1847, as it includes a sonnet composed on the evening of Dec. 31, 1846. ; 20 pamphlets describing celebrations in various Italian cities on the occasion of Pius IX's pardon of political prisoners and exiles on July 16, 1846. [1]-[16] and [20] are excerpts from the Giornale romano la Pallade (nos. 17-32 and 40-41, anno primo). Included are verses and public inscriptions written for the various celebrations. A number of the pamphlets are wholly or in part by Filippo Maria Gerardi, and others are by Giuseppe Checchetelli. [1] reproduces the text of Pius's proclamation. [5] includes canzoni by Caterina Franceschi Ferrucci. Tipped in before [7] is a folded etching depicting a jubilant crowd before a triumphal arch inscribed to Pius IX. [16] repeats Gerardi's account of the festivities in Rome already given with additional matter in [1]. [19] consists entirely of a Canto on the subject of the pardon. ; Mode of access: Internet. ; Pamphlets numbered 1-20 in pencil at upper right-hand corners of title pages. ; Binding: orange paper over pasteboard, half vellum. The spine is tooled in gold and has 2 brown leather labels with "Perdono 1846" and "F.M. Gerardi". Edges sprinkled in red and blue.
