The citizen-user and the crowd-mediated politics of the Five Star Movement

This thesis described the trajectory of the Italy’s Five Star Movement (M5S, 2005- 2014) from the perspective of the citizens who, as Internet users, participated in in the political enterprise. Citizen-users, enabled and empowered by Internet and mobile technologies, shaped and sustained the identity and evolution of the movement that became the M5S. The case study selected for this research, the M5S, is exceptional due to the magnitude of its success; but its features (Internet-centered and fluid ideology) are becoming more common among political organisations in Western democracies. The goal of the thesis is to assess the impact of the Internet on the political process, through its connecting, mobilising, organising, and to characterise the shape of political talk among citizens. This is achieved by applying quantitative methods, including network analysis and natural language processing, on 10 years of user-generated data collected mainly from four sources: the blog of the Movement’s founder, the M5S official forum, Facebook and Meetup.com. The thesis finds that the online discussion fora fostered diversity without fragmentation, and contributed on at least one occasion to shape the policy agenda of the M5S. Furthermore, the meetups of the Movement maintained their capacity to attract and mobilise users, and their territorial distribution clearly correlate with local results of the M5S in two elections, suggesting a positive impact of Internet-enabled mobilisation. Finally, given the votes received in the 2013 general election, the political communication generated over the Internet offset the low attention dedicated by TV news broadcast to the Movement during the electoral campaign. As Internet and mobile technologies are routinised, it is easy to see how their importance in political organisation and deliberation will grow. By studying the application of ICTs in the case of the M5S, this thesis offers insights into their use in practice, as well as pointing to possible democratic risks if online deliberation is non controlled to guarantee its fairness and openness but instead steered by the leadership, turning a deliberating community of citizen-users into a noisy crowd

Contra la indiferència: catalitzadors de la urbanitat

Peer Reviewe

Seismic design of x-braced frames for light-weight steel structures

The construction of residential buildings with light-weight steel strctures has largely increased in the last years, mainly due to shorter building times and reduction of the costs. The structural characteristics of these buildings greatly differ from the most common constructions, and so will do their dynamic response. Thus, a detailed study on the seismic design should be done, since seismic actions can not be neglected. This study is performed by means of the FEM and the response spectrum analysis, a particular method for seismic calculations. This thesis deals with different structural systems, beginning with cantilever, wich is useful to set the common characteristics of all seismic analyses, and concluding with the design of the x-bracing elements in a complete 3D structure. Middle steps are the analyses of a frame and façade in 2D. Finally, the possible reduction of 3D models to 2D is analysed

Seismic design of x-braced frames for light-weight steel structures

The construction of residential buildings with light-weight steel strctures has largely increased in the last years, mainly due to shorter building times and reduction of the costs. The structural characteristics of these buildings greatly differ from the most common constructions, and so will do their dynamic response. Thus, a detailed study on the seismic design should be done, since seismic actions can not be neglected. This study is performed by means of the FEM and the response spectrum analysis, a particular method for seismic calculations. This thesis deals with different structural systems, beginning with cantilever, wich is useful to set the common characteristics of all seismic analyses, and concluding with the design of the x-bracing elements in a complete 3D structure. Middle steps are the analyses of a frame and façade in 2D. Finally, the possible reduction of 3D models to 2D is analysed

COMMUNICATING ENVIRONMENTAL MIGRATION. Strategic Representations in the Discourse of International Organisations and News Discourse

This thesis is based on a corpus-assisted Ecolinguistic Discourse study and explores the discourse on environmental migration of international organisations and selected newspaper outlets. It is based on the theoretical framework of Critical Discourse Analysis and adopts a socio-cultural approach to the study of discourse and its relationship with socio-cultural behaviour. It has a major focus on representations of the ecological and humanitarian aspects of environmental migration. The study investigates and discusses written representations of environmental migration, migrant and host communities, and the role of the climate and environment in this phenomenon. More specifically, it focuses on representations shaped by authoritative international organisations and newspaper outlets, two \u201cvoices\u201d which are often representative of dominant discourses on this phenomenon. The methodology adopted for the analysis is based on corpus-assisted eco-critical discourse analysis of two specialised self-collected corpora: the International Organisations Corpus (IOC), a collection of open-access publications published by international intergovernmental organisations; and the News Corpus (NC), a corpus of English-language newspaper articles from international media outlets. Corpus-analysis tools are used to interrogate the dataset according to specific criteria and research questions. The study aims at raising awareness on the complexity of communication about environmental migration, and on how the language used by different stakeholders for different publics construes specific viewpoints of this phenomenon and may impact on how it is dealt with. The discourse of international organisations and media discourse instantiate social and power-related variables, promoting specific ideological constructs and value systems. It therefore plays an influential role in knowledge-building and information-delivery processes, and it most likely influences the way environmental migration is understood and approached by either exacerbating xenophobic and intolerant behaviours or promoting partnership-oriented and inclusive reception of migrant people and actions in their favour. The analysis explores the extent to which the discourse of selected newspaper and official international organisations construct similar understandings of environmental migration; these two discourses are very influential and can impact on people\u2019s understanding of this complex and controversial phenomenon. The discourses of the two corpora are multi-faceted and complementary. The discourse on environmental migration of the IOC promotes a proactive attitude towards environmental migration, encouraging practices and behaviours that should grant safety and wellbeing for all; however, these practices are often disregarded and represented as aspiring to. The discourse of the NC, instead, represents the present and future state of affairs as an impending ecological and humanitarian catastrophe. Both discourses evoke problematic future scenarios, but at the same time they do not promote a real transition towards innovative socio-ecological systems of living; rather, they seem to imply the need for preserving an unethical status quo. These representations often contribute to partial or superficial knowledge about migrants and origin communities, rather than promoting their wellbeing. An eco-cultural biocentric framework for understanding and communicating environmental migration in an innovative way is the first step to deal with it with a renewed mind-set that values partnership between communities, and the wellbeing of the eco-system.This thesis is based on a corpus-assisted Ecolinguistic Discourse study and explores the discourse on environmental migration of international organisations and selected newspaper outlets. It is based on the theoretical framework of Critical Discourse Analysis and adopts a socio-cultural approach to the study of discourse and its relationship with socio-cultural behaviour. It has a major focus on representations of the ecological and humanitarian aspects of environmental migration. The study investigates and discusses written representations of environmental migration, migrant and host communities, and the role of the climate and environment in this phenomenon. More specifically, it focuses on representations shaped by authoritative international organisations and newspaper outlets, two \u201cvoices\u201d which are often representative of dominant discourses on this phenomenon. The methodology adopted for the analysis is based on corpus-assisted eco-critical discourse analysis of two specialised self-collected corpora: the International Organisations Corpus (IOC), a collection of open-access publications published by international intergovernmental organisations; and the News Corpus (NC), a corpus of English-language newspaper articles from international media outlets. Corpus-analysis tools are used to interrogate the dataset according to specific criteria and research questions. The study aims at raising awareness on the complexity of communication about environmental migration, and on how the language used by different stakeholders for different publics construes specific viewpoints of this phenomenon and may impact on how it is dealt with. The discourse of international organisations and media discourse instantiate social and power-related variables, promoting specific ideological constructs and value systems. It therefore plays an influential role in knowledge-building and information-delivery processes, and it most likely influences the way environmental migration is understood and approached by either exacerbating xenophobic and intolerant behaviours or promoting partnership-oriented and inclusive reception of migrant people and actions in their favour. The analysis explores the extent to which the discourse of selected newspaper and official international organisations construct similar understandings of environmental migration; these two discourses are very influential and can impact on people\u2019s understanding of this complex and controversial phenomenon. The discourses of the two corpora are multi-faceted and complementary. The discourse on environmental migration of the IOC promotes a proactive attitude towards environmental migration, encouraging practices and behaviours that should grant safety and wellbeing for all; however, these practices are often disregarded and represented as aspiring to. The discourse of the NC, instead, represents the present and future state of affairs as an impending ecological and humanitarian catastrophe. Both discourses evoke problematic future scenarios, but at the same time they do not promote a real transition towards innovative socio-ecological systems of living; rather, they seem to imply the need for preserving an unethical status quo. These representations often contribute to partial or superficial knowledge about migrants and origin communities, rather than promoting their wellbeing. An eco-cultural biocentric framework for understanding and communicating environmental migration in an innovative way is the first step to deal with it with a renewed mind-set that values partnership between communities, and the wellbeing of the eco-system

Exploring the possible application of implementation intention on prospective memory of cancer patients

Prospective memory defines the ability to remember to perform an action related to a specific task planned for the future. Interventions aimed to improve prospective memory have an impact on the patient's quality of life. While most interventions are aimed to improve prospective memory in general, implementation intentions influence specific automatic processes related to prospective memory. The efficacy of this type of intervention has been proven on different samples of patients as well as on lay people. We argue that, while in cancer patients who suffer from perspective memory deficit this particular intervention has not been studied yet, it could be usefully implemented to foster patients' involvement, quality of life and adherence to care

Reseña/Review (Colina, Carlos (Coord.) "Arcoiris mediático. Comunicación, género y disidencia sexual", Madrid: Fragua, ISBN: 9788470744617, 202 págs., 2011)

Reseña/Review (Colina, Carlos (Coord.) "Arcoiris mediático. Comunicación, género y disidencia sexual", Madrid: Fragua, ISBN: 9788470744617, 202 págs., 2011