Terrorism as Ritual Process and Cultural Trauma: a Performative Analysis of ISIS\u2019s Attacks in Europe

Sociological reflection on Islamist terrorism focussed itself almost exclusively on the religious aspect of radicalisation of Islam, spending little efforts to widen the analytic perspective to the effects of ISIS actions on the (re)definition of the identity and the collective memory of the targeted nation. This article will offer a different point of view, providing a cultural sociological reading of Paris Attacks, aimed at understanding its performative aspects. We will approach Paris Attacks as an example of social drama (Turner, 1982) and will focus on the ritual efforts spent by France to manage, repair and define the cultural trauma (Alexander et al., 2004) deriving from the attacks. Data will consist of a performative analysis of ISIS\u2019s strategy in Europe and of the counter-terrorist demonstration held in Paris on the 9th of January 2015; and of a frame analysis of the speech pronounced by Francois Hollande on November 16th 2015, after the Paris attacks, and of all the articles published on the main French newspapers during the first week after the events. In the conclusions, we will discuss how those events help to conceive a new kind of cultural trauma that is typical of the age of weak events and of distrust in public institutions

PRAGMATISMO E INTERAZIONISMO SIMBOLICO. Riflessioni epistemologiche

Presenting itself as a theory-method package, symbolic interactionism has always expressed a certain reluctance, if not a real scepticism, with respect to the elaboration of a complex theoretical system (Dingwall, 2001). Moreover, the centrality of data and the so-called interactive determination (Snow 2001) have prompted symbolic interactionists to refuse to develop an explicit and systematic theoretical approach to social life and to fully investigate their theoretical roots. A starting point, in this direction, may be to reflect historically on the development of the perspective, as we will propose in this article and to redefine a new pragmatic epistemology based no longer on the centrality of the actor in social action, but on the event.

Romania: Euro-Atlantic Integration and Economic Reform

The importance of President Clinton\u27s visit to Bucharest goes far beyond the symbolism represented by the first visit of an American president to a free and democratic Romania. Euro-Atlantic integration does not start when a country states its commitment to being a candidate for North Atlantic Treaty Organization (\u27NATO\u27) or European Union (\u27EU\u27) membership and does not end with the moment of accession. Among Central European nations, accession to NATO has enjoyed the greatest public support in Romania. Romania\u27s integration into the European Union is the other foreign policy goal that, together with accession to NATO, is considered indispensable to Romania\u27s development as a stable and prosperous free market democracy. Romania took advantage of the instruments set up by the EU which are meant to assist Central European associated countries in their preparation for accession. Economic integration does not take place overnight; negotiations for accession to the EU of Finland, Sweden and Austria -- prosperous European nations and former European Free Trade Agreement ( EFTA ) members -- lasted for four years. The prospect of EU membership has been a main factor that has enabled Romania to become a member of Central European Free Trade Area ( CEFTA )

Conflicts, integration, hybridization of subcultures: An ecological approach to the case of queercore

This paper investigates the case study of queercore, providing a socio-historical analysis of its subcultural production, in the terms of what Michel Foucault has called archaeology of knowledge (1969). In particular, we will focus on: the self-definition of the movement; the conflicts between the two merged worlds of punk and queer culture; the \u201cinternal-subcultural\u201d conflicts between both queercore and punk, and between queercore and gay\lesbian music culture; the political aspects of differentiation. In the conclusion, we will offer an innovative theoretical proposal about the interpretation of subcultures in ecological and semiotic terms, combining the contribution of the American sociologist Andrew Abbot and of the Russian semiologist Jurij Michajlovi\u10d Lotma

Quantum Gravity and Inflation

We review some perturbative results obtained in quantum gravity in an accelerating cosmological background. We then describe a class of non-local, purely gravitational models which have the correct structure to reproduce the leading infrared logarithms of quantum gravitational back-reaction during the inflationary regime. These models end inflation in a distinctive phase of oscillations with slight and short violations of the weak energy condition and should, when coupled to matter, lead to rapid reheating. By elaborating this class of models we exhibit one that has the same behaviour during inflation, goes quiescent until the onset of matter domination, and induces a small, positive cosmological constant of about the right size thereafter. We also briefly comment on the primordial density perturbations that this class of models predict.Comment: 28 pages, 6 figures, lectures given at the 6th Aegean Summer School in Naxos, Greece, September 12-17, 2011 Version 2 has some typos correcte

THE OPENING OF THE FIRST MICROSOFT INNOVATION CENTER IN ROMANIA WITHIN THE ROMANIAN – AMERICAN UNIVERSITY

On January 30, 2008, at the Romanian-American University, the Microsoft Innovation Center was opened, in the presence of Mr. Szomogy, state secretary at the Telecommunications Ministry, Mr. Silviu Hotăran, general manager of Microsoft Romania, prof. univ. dr. Ion Smedescu, founding rector of the Romanian-American University, teaching staff, students and representatives of prestigious companies in IT. On a global scale, there are, at present, 110 Microsoft Innovation Centers working in 60 countries, Romania joining, now, this network. With this opportunity the Contract of Collaboration between Microsoft Romania and the Romanian-American University was signed, which marked de creation of the first Microsoft Innovation Center in Romania, its goal being the increase of students abilities in business applications.innovation, e-campus platform, quality characteristics, business

General guidelines and specific contributions of Romania's Foreign Policy and Security Policy and the European Security and Defense of the EU in terms of the sustainable development

Efforts aimed Romania convergence guidelines of its foreign policy with the Foreign Policy and Security Policy of the EU (CFSP). Negotiations on Chapter 27 - Foreign Policy and Security Policy (CFSP) were opened, along with the other four chapters, in the initial negotiation package (during the Accession Conference Romania - EU of 15 February 2000) as provisionally closed the first stage of the process of negotiation of the acquis communautaire. Romania has demonstrated that it is an active participant in the political dialogue established by the Association Agreement and has played a constructive role within the CFSP, in line while a constant in common positions and declarations of the EU's CFSP. Romania continued to follow international sanctions and restrictive measures imposed by the EU, UN and OSCE. A special relevance for consistency of policy dialogue EU - Romania had a presence at meetings of political directors, correspondents European Troika and EU candidate countries. Substantive dialogue on all levels has contributed to improving the coordination of the external agenda of Romania to the European Unionthe foreign policy and security policy, the European policy of security and defense of the EU, acquis communautaire

The Common Destiny of Un/common Cultures

A review of Kamala Viswewaran, Un/Common Cultures. Racism and the Rearticulation of Cultural Difference

Computing the Primordial Power Spectra Directly

The tree order power spectra of primordial inflation depend upon the norm-squared of mode functions which oscillate for early times and then freeze in to constant values. We derive simple differential equations for the power spectra, that avoid the need to numerically simulate the physically irrelevant phases of the mode functions. We also derive asymptotic expansions which should be valid until a few e-foldings before first horizon crossing, thereby avoiding the need to evolve mode functions from the ultraviolet over long periods of inflation.Comment: 11 pages, uses LaTex2