Citizenship and Belonging: The Case of the Italian Vote Abroad

The ease in which people are able to travel and communicate with one another across national boundaries is challenging the way in which we identify ourselves and define our place in the world. In an increasingly globalized world the very concept of a national identity is itself being redefined as multiple identities and dual citizenships have become more common than ever. This process of global interconnectedness has progressed so rapidly in the past few years that many are beginning to question how we define national models. The European Union, NAFTA, MERCOSUR, multi-national corporate affiliations, and virtual communities over the internet are all fast creating new collective forms of identity filling a role traditionally associated with the nation-state. These new realities test the limits of traditional citizenship models and challenge us to rethink national identities that transcend borders

The Imagined Histories and Futures of the Past: WWI and the Cultural Imagination

In this paper, I look at various modes of imagining the futures incarnated by the First World War, beginning with artists and writers, like Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Erich Maria Remarque, who experienced and depicted the war from a firsthand point of view. From here, I expand that framework to include J.R.R. Tolkien, whose masterpiece Lord of the Rings may owe no small debt to his wartime experiences. I consider the Doctor Who episodes, “Human Nature” and “Family of Blood,” as contemporary attempts to reinsert WWI into the cultural consciousness. Finally, I look at the two versions of War Horse and consider how their change in narrative style and structure impacts audiences’ understanding of the significance of the presented events. I argue that WWI, while often overlooked in popular culture production, actually offers a fascinating lens to making sense of how we became modern and thus how we understand ourselves as human. Therefore, retelling stories of the Great War provides an opportunity to consider the reflexivity of that understanding of our humanity: how we capture and represent who we were can tell us a great deal about who we actually are

Ridiculous Geographies: Mapping the Theatre of the Ridiculous as Radical Aesthetic

This dissertation is a comprehensive study of the artists associated with the Theatre of the Ridiculous. The discussion begins with Charles Ludlam, the most famous practitioner of the form and then extends to artists with whom he collaborated, including Jack Smith, the Play-House of the Ridiculous, Ethyl Eichelberger, and Charles Busch. The argument traces the overlapping aesthetic qualities of all of these theatre practitioners; they all shared a reverence for popular culture of the twentieth century; they all blended references from high and low culture in their dramaturgy; and they all created performances that took a unique approach to cross-dressed performance. The objective of this project is to map the Theatre of the Ridiculous in order to display that it was a coherent and cohesive theatrical movement that contained a radical, queer quality. To do this, this dissertation engages Ludlam as a kind of apotheosis of Ridiculous play making, displaying how his works exemplified all three of these key aesthetic elements. Then, the discussion turns to Ludlam\u27s inspiration, experimental artist Jack Smith, who was preoccupied to the point of obsession with twentieth-century cinema. I then look at the Play-House of the Ridiculous, headed by director John Vaccaro and playwrights Ronald Tavel and Kenneth Bernard, as the site for the genesis of Ridiculous Theatre. Here, I highlight a preoccupation with textual collaging, or remixing, in playwriting, especially insofar as it valued popular references alongside of or even over highbrow ones. I then study gender performance in the Ridiculous, looking at the mashed up performances of Ethyl Eichelberger, which create identities that defy gender categorization. Finally, I consider the legacy of the Ridiculous, tracing both direct inheritors of the form as well as those whose more contemporary work appears to be influenced by it

European environmental policy and climate benchmarks: What happens to my money?

Climate change raised the interest in how the regulatory policy affects investor portfolios. The aim of this study is to analyze whether a new policy framework, that is the new European Climate Benchmark, negatively impacts the risk-return performance when investments are directed into stocks with specific emission-oriented criteria. By using a dataset of company Emission Score and recursive portfolio methodology, this article analyses the performance of High and Low Emission Stocks in European region. The study focuses on stocks listed on the Eurostoxx600 Benchmark, during the period 2006-2020. By implementing a variety of portfolio screens, our analysis provides the following insights. First, active selection of high-rated stocks does not provide inferior performance in comparison to low-rated stocks. Second, investors preferring stocks with low carbon footprints (good portfolio) and high carbon footprints (bad portfolio) still observe a performance similar to the broad market in terms of overall riskiness, while showing a U-shaped relationship between riskiness and Emission level. Moreover, investing in best Emission score stocks led investors to greater overall returns in the most turmoil periods, providing the insurance-like protection attribute associated with ethical investments. Therefore, there is no incompatibility between pursuing higher sustainable values as well as greater financial performances from investments

Volatility and liquidity in Eastern Europe financial markets under efficiency and transparency conditions

ABSTRACT. Following the consequences of the global financial crises, transparency and efficiency conditions of a local economic system have become important remedies for restoring of financial markets. This study provides measure of transparency and efficiency with correlation to liquidity and volatility and is taking into account the stock price reaction of emerging financial stock markets of Eastern Europe area and Turkey. We find that observed countries don't fully answer the expected sign of transparency, liquidity and risk measure, which meets the innovation from previous works (Berglof, Pajuste, 2005). It raises doubts concerning functioning of legal basement in these countries and affects the decisions about investments. In line with previous research (Ivanov, Lomev and Bogdanova, 2012) our findings show that these countries don't prove to have certain transparency expectations, which could result in a limited access to market information and in a decrease of market efficiency.Keywords: Financial Crisis, Risk, Liquidity, Volatility, Emerging Market, Eastern Europe.JEL Classification : G010, G23, G24(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)IntroductionCountries with emerging markets are trying to rebuild their economies according to developed market models and are becoming more attractive for investing and trading. According to Miyajima and Shim (2014) the total amount of Asset Under Management (AUM) by the largest 500 AMCs doubled from $35 trillion in 2002 to almost$70 trillion in 2012, more specifically, after Leham Brothers, the total AUM of EME equity and bond dedicated funds increased from $900 billion in October 2007 to$1.4 trillion in May 2014. However, emerging markets of Eastern Europe experienced influences of financial crises dramatically. Injured by consequences of financial crises then others. According to ECB (2010) in Europe, the impact of the crisis varied across the countries (also varied the speed and the timing at which countries were affected) and coming from domestic demand, dependence from FDI, fiscal policy and external imbalances. Among the Eastern Europe countries, Poland has weathered the crisis relatively well, unlike the Baltic countries, Romania and Bulgaria.When talking about the GDP growth (annual %), all observed countries showed a sharp reduction of this index in 2009, especially Ukraine, Turkey, Romania and Lithuania. In the end of the second wave of financial crises (2012), such countries like Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania demonstrated the highest GDP growth among the observed group. However, there are negative meanings of GDP growth in Czech Republic and Hungary, while other countries reduced their GDP down to the minimum but still positive meaning. Moreover, it led to a limited role of local firms in the efficient resource allocation in these countries. It is worth of saying that Eastern European emerging markets are very young and weak, hence, they are still trying to reach a decent level of efficiency, which is a key factor for investor's decisions. Eastern European markets are well-known for their lack of transparency and high level of corruption. However, exactly better transparency increases investor's desire to work with a certain country.According to recent studies (Barth (2013), Francis and Huang (2009), Lang (2012), Jahanshad (2013)), transparency is meant to improve liquidity which in turn is crucial to deal with large quantities of securities very fast and with minimum costs. Moreover, timing of liquidity of Eastern European markets is very important due to possible illiquidity of stocks where they can become expensive to sell at the exact time suitable for investor. Liquidity uncertainty reflects in liquidity volatility, liquidity skewness, and extreme liquidity events which bring a negative image of a company and it reflects also on the whole local financial markets (Barth (2013), Lang (2011), Lang (2012)).We agree with previous studies (Ang, Ciccone (2000), Lin (2014), Millar (2005)), that transparency is a timely and reliable increase of certain information which is open for investors.

Generalized Kinetic Theory of Electrons and Phonons: Models, Equilibrium, Stability

In the present paper our aim is to introduce some models for the generalization of the kinetic theory of electrons and phonons (KTEP), as well as to study equilibrium solutions and their stability for the generalized KTEP (GKTEP) equations. We consider a couple of models, relevant to non standard quantum statistics, which give rise to inverse power law decays of the distribution function with respect to energy. In the case of electrons in a phonon background, equilibrium and stability are investigated by means of Lyapounov theory. Connections with thermodynamics are pointed out.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, (RevTeX4), to appear in Physica B (2003

“Omnivorous” taste, personal projects and new femininities: an exploration from the case of an amateur to the music

El artículo reconstruye la trayectoria musical de una aficionada a la música, que orienta sus escuchas hacia el rock, aunque presenta rasgos de un gusto “omnívoro”. A partir de un análisis en profundidad de este caso desde una perspectiva cualitativa, el artículo tiene dos objetivos. Por un lado, explorar en los procesos por los cuales se forma el gusto musical contemporáneamente. Para ello se reconstruyen las instancias en las que, diacrónicamente, se elaboran disposiciones específicas hacia la escucha. Complementariamente, propone analizar la articulación entre gusto y relaciones de género, tanto para dar cuenta de la incorporación de esquemas de evaluación y clasificación musical, como para analizar instancias de agenciamiento. El análisis muestra, como resultado, la emergencia de nuevas femineidades en trayectorias de clases medias y destaca el carácter procesual de la construcción de formas de agenciamiento femenino.This article reconstructs the musical trajectory of a music lover, who can be characterized as representative of an omnivorous taste. Thus, making a deep analysis of this case from a qualitative perspective, the article has two objectives. On the one hand, to explore the processes in which the musical taste is formed contemporaneously. For this, we reconstruct the instances in which, diachronically, specific dispositions are developed towards listening. On the other hand, the article analyzes the articulation between taste and gender relations. With this, it seeks to account for the incorporation of musical evaluation and classification schemes and instances of agency. The analysis shows, as a result, the emergence of new femininities in middle class trajectories and highlights the processual nature of the construction of forms of female agency.Fil: Aliano, Nicolás. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Altos Estudios Sociales; Argentin

The Impact of the Financial and the Health Crisis on Listed Hotel Stocks

Travel and tourism represent one of the largest industries in the world as far as percentages of GDP and occupation are concerned, consequently, asset managers could be interested to select listed hotel stocks in their portfolios. The hotel industry has shown some difficulties not only in periods of financial, but also during the health crisis (Covid-19), when global and local restrictions on travel and tourism had a negative effect on the hotel sector. This study aims to analyze how listed hotel stocks could improve their contribution to portfolio diversification in different stages of the market. First, we use a constraint mean-variance approach to analyze the effect of diversification, and then we study the difference in the performance of the hotel sector by using the Risk-Adjusted Performance (RAP) measure. We analyze three sample periods: a) the whole sample (01/2000-09/2021); b) the Financial Crisis sample (06/2007-06/2012) and c) the COVID sample (02/2021-09/2021). Our findings contribute to a good understanding of financial patterns in the hotel industry as an asset class at different stages and support our hypothesis of its possible positive contribution in terms of diversification and performanc

De la inquietud al habito: música, sociabilidad y afición

Este artículo sistematiza el proceso de afiliación a una práctica cultural concreta en el mundo popular contemporáneo de Argentina. Partiendo de los “relatos de iniciación” de los fans de un músico de rock, se caracteriza este proceso a partir de tres fases sucesivas: la iniciación, la habituación y la transmisión de la afición, y se destacan las especificidades del mismo en contraste con otros casos. Con ello, el artículo pretende otorgar elementos para una comprensión más profunda del modo en el que las preferencias culturales se elaboran como prácticas en el mundo popular.This article systematizes the process of affiliation to a particular cultural practice in the contemporary popular world of Argentina. From the description of “initiation narratives” of fans of a rock musician, this process is divided into three successive stages: initiation, habituation and transmission of the passion, and shows the specifics of the process in contrast to other cases. The article seeks to provide elements for a deeper understanding of the way cultural “preferences” are shaped as practices in the popular world.Fil: Aliano, Nicolás. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Altos Estudios Sociales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin