MATERA: CITY OF NATURE, CITY OF CULTURE, CITY OF REGENERATION. TOWARDS A LANDSCAPE-BASED AND CULTURE-BASED URBAN CIRCULAR ECONOMY.

Each city is a living organism (Geddes, 1915) and it has (like all living organisms) its own dynamics. Cities born, grow, stabilize, become "stagnant", decline, and die. Being as a living system, that is a complex dynamic and adaptive system, they are capable of self-organization/self-management.There are many causes of the decline of cities today (population aging, poverty, unemployment, lack of attractive capacity, etc.). Each of these causes interdepends on the others in continuous retroactive processes.The general proposal of this paper refers to a key word: “regeneration” as a revitalization of the activities in the perspective of the circular economy/city. The aim is to explore, in particular, how an urban circular economy can be implemented through a cultural landscape-based approach, analysing the case study of Matera (Italy) awarded as European Capital of Culture (ECoC) 2019, and assuming interdependence/relationship between a specific landscape and the circular economy/city models: these models reshape the profile of the landscape. Tha aim is to understand how to transform a millennial experience of underdevelopment into a dynamic development perspective, what modernization propsta of the city of Matera and its historic urban landscape in the light of its millenary circular organization

The Angel Controversy: An Archival Perspective

This paper looks at the controversy regarding the decision of the Irish Film Board (IFB) to fund Angel, which tore apart the Irish film industry in 1981-82 and almost made the newly-born Board derail. We rely on documents held in the Irish Film Institute Archive to offer a new, more balanced approach to this well-known issue. More specifically, we first show that it was a lack of quorum that made the decision illegal and expose the lies and half-truths that all the parties involved used to discredit each other’s position in the media. Next, we examine the Association of Independent Producers Ireland-controlled IFB policies for 1982-1983 and argue that many were geared towards making The Outcasts the flagship Irish film at the expense of Angel. We finish by reflecting that, although Angel was the only success of the IFB, it continued supporting films like The Outcasts only until 1987

Density - intensity. Material and immaterial elements in assessing urban quality

The objective of this research is to produce a critical scientific analysis of some aspects related to urban resilience to offer planners and decision-makers a deft intervention tool to mitigate high temperatures in urban areas. Densification, morphology, and materials are used to suggest strategies aimed at improving the quality of life in cities. This point of view analyses climate change and its connection to humans, urban density and its energy value, the evolution of materials, and the management of environmental comfort, considering the horizontal/vertical relationship as one of the morphological parameters capable of determining the connections between density, the form of the spaces, and the urban heat island

Social Farming in Italy. Analysis of an «inclusive model»

The growing understanding of potential role of agricultural and rural resources to enhance the social, physical, mental and economic well-being draw the attention of an increasing range of stakeholders on Social Farming. The contribute discloses the main results of a study focusing Social farming in Italy: actors, activity, networks of relationships within which the initiatives are implemented, agreements among heterogeneous actors, etc. The main aim is to provide a whole analysis of the possible processes of social and working inclusion in agriculture activities, including purposes and methods, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses in the framework of the current welfare and rural development systems

Some Initial Remarks on Non-Prepositional Genitives in the Apulian Variety of San Marco in Lamis

This work aims at an initial description of prepositionless genitives in the Romance variety of San Marco in Lamis, spoken in the Southern Italian region of Apulia. The construction will be compared with other Romance, Semitic, Albanian, and Iranian varieties whereby the expression of possession is connected to the presence of D elements, or to morphology stemming from them. The paper deals, in particular, with the behaviour of the construction with elements such as definite and indefinite articles, demonstratives, proper names, and with how pre-nominal adjectival modification of genitives and post-nominal adjectival modification of heads can only occur in the prepositional kind of the construction. This is also the case with demonstratives preceding heads and genitives in the form raised nominals. It will be seen that genitives are only interpreted as such when they are non-raised, i.e. when they are articled. The pre-genitival article is thus understood to be a pivotal element in the interpretation of the second DP as genitival

Echolalia as a Communicative Strategy: A Kleefstra-syndrome Case Study

Echolalia – immediate or delayed – is the stereotyped and mechanical repetition of words and phrases produced by others. Experts used to view echolalia as a defect to eliminate; however, current research has shown that often imitation may serve a purpose for children with linguistic deficits. This study’s goal is to assess whether echolalia has communicative value; such purpose is achieved through the analysis of spontaneous speech and delayed echoes uttered by a 13- years-old boy officially diagnosed with Kleefstra Syndrome. Since there are no linguistic studies yet regarding this syndrome, this study may shed new light on a specific linguistic strategy that people with this syndrome might use. Based on the functional categories described by Prizant (1983), we analyzed the echolalic speech produced by this teen with the aim of demonstrating the pragmatic value behind those repetitions

The Italian-English “Cocktail” on Italian Social Networks

The article deals with anglicisms (integral or partially adapted) in the language of social network users in Italy. Such anglicisms are divided into computer technicalities, pseudotechnicisms linked to the various social networking platforms, luxury loans and terms that lie somewhere between technicality and jargon; the motivation to their use goes from a real necessity to the reinforcement of a sense of belonging to a community, when not simply to give greater expressivity to the text. Some examples taken from social networks of the ongoing debate on anglicisms are analyzed and, in conclusion, the topic of the general distrust of Italians for anglicisms is discussed

The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (1996) di Nan Goldin e la teoria della rappresentazione di Louis Marin

The essay focuses on Louis Marin’s theory of representation and, in particular, on its duplex nature: transparency and opacity. Some images from The Ballad of Sexual Dependency by Nan Goldin will be analyzed, stressing all those aspects and mechanisms that Marin classifies under the concept of opacity. Showing its own tools, The Ballad becomes a way of representing a world that comes with a fundamental asymmetry in respect to the viewer