MoMoWo - Women’s Creativity since the Modern Movement: An European Cultural Heritage

Nella prospettiva di svelare quel mondo di donne professioniste del Novecento che hanno avuto un ruolo nell’architettura, nel design e nella costruzione, ma che sono rimaste ‘invisibili’, è nato il progetto “MoMoWo - Women’s Creativity since the Modern Movement (1918-2018)” co-finanziato dall’Unione Europea (coordinatrici: E. Garda e C. Franchini). Il presente volume riflette la struttura metodologico-operativa di tale progetto che ha guidato i ricercatori e le ricercatrici delle diverse università e centri di ricerca partner in Europa. Ciò ha reso possibile la creazione di un database per salvaguardare il patrimonio di informazioni emerso nel corso dei quattro anni del progetto. Nelle descrizioni delle voci del MoMoWo database si palesa l’acuirsi delle specificità della ricerca storica di genere soprattutto negli ambiti dell’architettura e della costruzione che sono stati, e in parte restano, prevalentemente di prerogativa maschile. Tale specificità, che si manifesta anche attraverso ostacoli culturali nell’individuazione e reperimento delle fonti documentarie e archivistiche, prefigura nuove narrazioni a cui aspirare. Il volume è corredato da allegati e casi studio che sono un’applicazione operativa del percorso concettuale che l’arricchimento documentale ha via via prodotto. Da esso, si dischiudono prospettive future per delineare, attraverso la raccolta work-in-progress di dati omogenei, genealogie e crono-geografie che restituirebbero alla Storia dell’architettura, nelle sue declinazioni, quel grado di complessità necessario al riconoscimento del patrimonio materiale e immateriale europeo tramandatoci dalle progettiste

MoMoWo - Women’s Creativity since the Modern Movement: An European Cultural Heritage

This book presents the ‘conceptual architecture’ of the MoMoWo Database for mapping women’s cultural legacy and heritage in Architecture, Construction and Design, and includes annexes on some of the most significant practices, outputs and deliverables so far achieved, resulting from the cooperative research activity between all MoMoWo’s international partners whom we directed at the Polytechnic of Turin (Polito). A collection of case studies enriches the volume by providing the reader with examples of specific thematic approaches at several geographical scales

Empowering vulnerable women by participatory design workshops

This contribution addresses the issue of homeless women’s empowerment through design workshops and according to the capability approach. The paper presents small, ordinary stories of women that experience being designers. Besides the professional label, being a designer means to approach reality from the transformative perspective of pursuing a positive change. It also translates in claiming the space for the expression of a personal vision of the world, within a cooperative environment. It enables to experiment innovative strategies to solve problems and to pursue self-determination in practical activities

The forest in motion : exploratory studies in Western Arnhem Land, Northern Australia

As a contribution to academic debate concerning northern Australian vegetation ecology and history, and as a contribution also to contemporary land management issues in that region, the findings of various biogeographical, ecological and ethnobotanical studies are presented here which, collectively, explore the status of monsoon vine-forest (MVF) vegetation in the western Arnhem Land region of the Northern Territory. Structurally, the thesis comprises five papers presented in the chronological sequence of their completion, and a brief, explanatory introduction. The first paper, written early in the field-work programme and presented at a northern Australian symposium focusing on current ecological research in the region, describes vegetation changes associated with the advent of European ecological influence in western Arnhem Land (i·e. within the last 100 or so years), at Giina, a traditional Aboriginal camp-site on the edge of the South Alligator River. The paper describes the elimination of MVF at Giina, qnd its reduction elsewhere in the local area, within the recent, historical past. The paper concludes that the destruction of such vegetation is attributable to feral animal impact and changes to the burning regime. These themes are developed in subsequent papers. Whilst still on field work, and having been approached to present a position paper on MVF in the Northern Territory, the second paper, co-authored with Clyde Dunlop, attempts "to provide an account of the ecology (so far as is known), the condition and the conservation status of monsoon vine-forests in the Northern Territory". This paper challenges the generally accepted view that the scattered distribution of small, discrete patches of MVF across northern Australia is attributable solely to fragmentation of a former closed forest expanse. On the basis of an ecological survey of MVF patches concentrated on the western Arnhem Land region, but including observations over a wider region of the Northern Territory, it is shown that many MVF patches occur entirely on landforms developed only in the Holocene (i.e. the last 10 000 years) (e.g. coastal riverine floodplain alluvia, coastal beach ridge deposits). Indeed, 70% of the known Northern Territory MVF flora is observed to occur on such landforms. This paper also provides a review of relevant work undertaken on MVF in the Northern Territory at the time of writing, a description of MVF vegetation Habitat Types, an account of the dependent fauna, a checklist of the known flora, and an assessment of the conservation status of MVF in the region. The third paper, completed at the close of 22 months field studies, was prepared as a consultancy report to the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service, Canberra. The report details the status, condition, and immediate threats to MVF ecosystems in the vicinity of Kakadu National Park, in the western Arnhem Land region. Special attention is given to the impacts of feral animals, and contemporary and traditional Aboriginal burning practices. The paper also considers the significance of MVF to traditional Aboriginal economy. The final two papers further develop certain themes outlined in preceding papers. The papers present formal analyses of ecological and biogeographical data, relating the findings to wi1der academic contexts. On the basis of studies concerning the distribution of MVF in the western Arnhem Land region, and the dispersal capacities and biogeographical affinities of component taxa, the fourth paper considers how these observations may contribute usefully to an understanding of the historical status of MVF in that region. The fifth paper is concerned essentially with the current status of MVF, drawing attention to the ecological ramifications of different burning regimes. To place fire in ecological context, this paper first explores the influence of substrate conditions on MVF distribution. These studies indicate that, in the absence of fire impact,seasonally xeric, oligotrophic substrates are unlikely to limit widespread development of closed canopy, MVF vegetation

Behaviour and ecology of grey-cheeked mangabeys (Cercocebus albigena) in the Lope reserve, Gabon

Grey-cheeked mangabeys (Cercocebus albigena) are distributed across Central Africa, but have previously only been studied in detail at the eastern edge of their range in Uganda. Hence, little is known about this species from the western African rain forests, where forest composition and primate species are different from those in eastern Africa. The behaviour and ecology of grey-cheeked mangabeys was studied in the Lope Reserve, Gabon over 18 months, between January 1991- June 1991 and September 1991- August 1992. Systematic data were collected mainly from one habituated group, and data were also collected opportunistically from other groups in the study area. The mangabeys' diet is diverse, with 100 items of plant food from 75 species recorded. Overlap in the mangabey's diet with the seven other diurnal primate species at Lope is high. Sixty-four percent of fruit-pulp, 51% of seed, 38% of leaf, 27% of stem and pith, and 15% of flower species in their diet are also eaten by at least one other species of diurnal primate. Mangabeys spent 36% of their time feeding, eating seeds. This is high, compared to studies in Uganda where seeds were relatively unimportant in the diet of grey-cheeked mangabeys. Seed-eating, may be a result of differences in forest composition, since there are a higher number of species from the family Leguminosae at Lope. Alternatively, seed-eating may be a strategy for competing with sympatric primate species. This is the first time grey-cheeked mangabeys have been studied in areas where they coexist with both gorillas and chimpanzees, which at Lope, both have a large proportion of succulent fruits in their diets. For more than half of the time mangabeys spent eating seeds, the seeds were taken from immature fruit. Mangabeys, therefore, may be eating unripe seeds as a form of exploitation competition. The overall home range size of the main group (18-23 members) was 225 ha, and a second group (18-20 members) had an estimated home range size of 156 ha. Use of different habitats was shown to be related to the availability in time (as assessed by phenological monitoring), and in space (as determined from strip sampling two 1 ha plots in two habitat types: savanna-edge and river-edge forests) of certain plant species. Comparisons with grey-cheeked mangabeys studied in Uganda revealed that home range size varied from about 10% to 200% of the size of those at Lope. Mangabeys spent an average of 80% of the time in association with at least one other primate species. Benefits of the associations are thought to be biased towards the Cercopithecus spp. since they followed mangabeys, but rarely vice versa. These species may benefit from decreased predation rates due to the mangabey's larger body and group size, and because mangabeys more actively defend against predators. Forests at Lope are highly seasonal, with periods of relative fruit scarcity in the long dry season. During this period, mangabeys spent a greater proportion of time feeding, their diet was less diverse consisting almost entirely of seeds, and mangabeys were observed in polyspecific associations less, than during the long rain season when fruit was relatively more abundant. The great variation in behaviour and ecology between the present study, and studies of grey-cheeked mangabeys in Uganda, highlights the ecological flexibility of this species, and emphasises the importance of both forest composition and primate community structure in shaping behaviour

Peopled Landscapes (Terra Australis 34)

This impressive collection celebrates the work of Peter Kershaw, a key figure in the field of Australian palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. Over almost half a century his research helped reconceptualize ecology in Australia, creating a detailed understanding of environmental change in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. Within a biogeographic framework one of his exceptional contributions was to explore the ways that Aboriginal people may have modified the landscape through the effects of anthropogenic burning. These ideas have had significant impacts on thinking within the fields of geomorphology, biogeography, archaeology, anthropology and history. Papers presented here continue to explore the dynamism of landscape change in Australia and the contribution of humans to those transformations. The volume is structured in two sections. The first examines evidence for human engagement with landscape, focusing on Australia and Papua New Guinea but also dealing with the human/environmental histories of Europe and Asia. The second section contains papers that examine palaeoecology and present some of the latest research into environmental change in Australia and New Zealand. Individually these papers, written by many of Australia’s prominent researchers in these fields, are significant contributions to our knowledge of Quaternary landscapes and human land use. But Peopled Landscapes also signifies the disciplinary entanglement that is archaeological and biogeographic research in this region, with archaeologists and environmental scientists contributing to both studies of human land use and palaeoecology. Peopled Landscapes reveals the interdisciplinary richness of Quaternary research in the Australasian region as well as the complexity and richness of the entangled environmental and human pasts of these lands