Nonviolence as Impure Praxis – Reconstructing the Concept with Aldo Capitini

This thesis aims to ‘reconstruct’ the concept of nonviolence, offering a new unifying and pluralistic definition, which rejects recent worrying uses of the term, and is able to deal with the crisis of democracy and the construction of a post-secular society. Currently nonviolence is split in two between principled and pragmatic nonviolence. This division has been successful, but it is now a problem: it divides means and ends, politics and morality, religion and politics. In order to find a way out we will turn to the Italian philosopher Aldo Capitini. He interpreted nonviolence as a tension, a praxis of liberation from the chains of reality and openness to the existent. This approach includes a pragmatic dimension, which is a logic reinterpreting current practices and inventing new ones to build up via facti a new society (omnicracy); and a principled dimension, which is a craft of integrating reality with values, reaching its peak in the connection with everybody in an action of value (compresence). This approach offers actions of protest-to-project to overcome the division between means and ends; a political approach between ‘realism and serenity’ to overcome the division between politics and morality; an open religion which can work at the centre of society and politics. Finally, we will extend Capitini’s reflection claiming that nonviolence as praxis is a non-systematic revolutionary approach aiming at freedom and plurality. We will add that this praxis is impure, because made of less than perfect actions performed in a very imperfect environment by imperfect human beings. Reconceiving nonviolence as impure praxis will allow us to reunite principled and pragmatic nonviolence, reinterpreting the former as actualisation of a public principle and the latter as a phronesis. This interpretation will offer an interesting form of transformative realism, which enriches via facti any democratic order with life, and show the way to overcome the secular divisions towards a post-secular society centred on the Assisi presumption

Studio e modellazione della biomeccanica della propulsione nell'Octopus vulgaris e realizzazione di un prototipo robotico che ne sfrutta il principio di funzionamento

Il presente lavoro di tesi è mirato alla realizzazione di un robot fedelmente ispirato alle caratteristiche funzionali e strutturali dei cefalopodi, in particolare dell’Octopus vulgaris; il robot ottenuto è infatti in grado di muoversi in ambiente acquatico sfruttando le strategie di tale specie animale. Inoltre, sempre secondo l’analogia con i cefalopodi, il robot realizzato è completamente soft, fatta eccezione per il meccanismo attuativo. A seguito di un’analisi accurata delle caratteristiche fluidodinamiche della propulsione a getto pulsato nel contesto biologico ed in quello dei robot sottomarini attualmente esistenti, sono stati realizzati sia un modello della biomeccanica della propulsione di un cefalopode, sia dell’equivalente meccanismo attuativo da implementare nel robot. In funzione dei risultati ottenuti sono state selezionate le scelte attuative e di design più funzionali per sviluppare il robot secondo i principi biomimetici e si è giunti infine alla produzione di un manufatto le cui performances sono state testate tramite esperimenti in acqua. Il lavoro dà dunque risalto a due temi salienti della robotica attuale, la soft robotics e la bioispirazione, dando luogo ad un prototipo che si pone come primo esempio di robot soft sottomarino con propulsione bioispirata

What's nonviolence to do with the European Union?

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from UACES via the link in this record.Nonviolence has an established tradition in several disciplines, including political theory, international relations and political science. We explore the potential of nonviolence as analytical and normative framework for the study of European integration and European Union (EU) politics. At the outset, we introduce the basics of nonviolence and define our approach to this concept. We then apply it to three critical issues concerning the nature of EU power, the democratic deficit and the narrative of integration. We find that our framework re-defines the core dimensions of the problems of power and democracy, assists in imagining the EU in non state-morphic ways, and provides innovative ways to put praxis at the roots of the integration process and its narrative

Unity in fragility: Nonviolence and COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic witnessed extreme forms of biopolitics, as well as the urgency to reconsider our relationship with the planet. Although biopolitics draws attention to the technologies of domination by public authorities, we cast the concepts of bios and politics in the wider framework of nonviolence. In this framework, bios is the set of practices (praxis) of ordinary citizens. And politics is power created by harm reduction, or actions in daily life that testimony the desire not to harm others or the planet. We leverage nonviolence at three levels, scaling up from the individual to social behaviour and to the planet. The first level concerns nonviolence as self-sufferance and as praxis to claim back the sovereignty of the body. In the second level, nonviolence is collective mobilization - building social capital, self-governance, and solidarity. The third level provides the vision of a diverse ecological citizenship with a sustainable relationship between human beings and the planet

New synthesis of benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene (BDT)

Thiophene-containing polycondensed aromatic compounds are important source of functional organic materials for different applications. Within this class of molecules, benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b\u2032]dithiophene (BDT, figure 1) is recognized as one of the most successful building blocks in the synthesis of highly efficient photovoltaic and semiconducting materials.1 In fact the rigid and planar conjugated structure of BDT makes it attractive for achieving highly tunable molecular energy levels and optical band gaps as well as high hole mobilities. In recent years, benzannulation and thieannulation approaches, involving several steps, have been applied to the synthesis of BDT and of \uf070-extended thienoacenes,2 but the search of alternative easy access to this class of heterocycles is always a valuable synthetic target. We present here a new two-step synthesis of BDT, starting from 3-thiophene carbaldehyde as unique thiophene precursor. Although the second step of the synthesis needs to be optimized, this new methodology is certainly competitive to the classical approach3 which involves four steps, more expensive reagents and gives a comparable overall yield. In addition, the use of different hetero/aromatic aldehydes in the reaction with intermediate 2 gives access to a series of thiophene benzocondensed heterocycles

Music in the first days of life

In adults, specific neural systems with right-hemispheric weighting are necessary to process pitch, melody and harmony, as well as structure and meaning emerging from musical sequences. To which extent does this neural specialization result from exposure to music or from neurobiological predispositions? We used fMRI to measure brain activity in 1 to 3 days old newborns while listening to Western tonal music, and to the same excerpts altered, so as to include tonal violations or dissonance. Music caused predominant right hemisphere activations in primary and higher-order auditory cortex. For altered music, activations were seen in the left inferior frontal cortex and limbic structures. Thus, the newborn's brain is able to plenty receive music and to figure out even small perceptual and structural differences in the music sequences. This neural architecture present at birth provides us the potential to process basic and complex aspects of music, a uniquely human capacity

Fascist Italy’s Aerial Defense in the Second World War

This article focuses on Fascist Italy's active air defenses during the Second World War. It analyzes a number of crucial factors: mass production of antiaircraft weapons and fighters; detection of enemy aircraft by deploying radar; coordination between the Air Ministry and the other ministries involved, as well as between the Air Force and the other armed services. The relationship between the government and industrialists, as well as that between the regime and its German ally, are also crucial elements of the story. The article argues that the history of Italian air defenses reflected many of the failures of the Fascist regime itself. Mussolini's strategy forced Italy to assume military responsibilities and economic commitments which it could not hope to meet. Moreover, industrial self-interest and inter-service rivalry combined to inhibit even more the efforts of the regime to protect its population, maintain adequate armaments output, and compete in technical terms with the Allies

SHAPING A COLLABORATION: THE SPITZENKANDIDATEN PROCEDURE AS A TRANSPARENT BEST PRACTICE

Presentation on department page: http://www.uia.no/no/portaler/om_universitetet/oekonomi_og_samfunnsvitenskap/statsvitenskap_og_ledelsesfag/ forskning_isl/isl_working_papers_seriesABSTRACT: The spitzenkandidaten procedure has been described as a coup d’état of the parliament against the council; a counter-revolution of the S&D against the PPE; something short of an illegal move against the treaties. This paper addresses these concerns in the following way. Firstly, a description of the origins and the development of the spitzenkandidaten procedure will be provided. A closer look at the process leading to this procedure will help to better understand its nature. The new procedure for the election of the president is neither a coup d’état of the parliament, nor a counter-revolution of the socialists; it is not opposed to the treaties, and it is not irreversible. To the contrary, the spitzenkandidaten procedure enhances article 17(7). It represents the institutionalisation of a ‘best practice’, which was partially already there in the past, and it can still be overcome in extreme cases

Italian fascism in Britain: the Fasci Italiani all'Estero, the Ttalian communities, and fascist sympathisers during Grandi Era (1932-1939).

The activity of the Italian Fasci Abroad provides a new perspective on the nature of both Italian and European fascism, as well as on Italy's foreign policy during the 1930s. This thesis focuses on the means employed by the Fasci in the transformation of Italian communities in Great Britain into 'little Fascist Italies'. It argues that fascistisation of Italian emigrants became effective from 1932 and seemed to succeed in creating a corporativist and totalitarian community from 1935-36, until the international crisis of 1938-39 brought that Fascist dream to an end. The Ethiopian war and Italy's alliance with Germany were the most crucial events in the development of the Fasci in their relationship with both the Italian communities and the British government. The thesis also concentrates on the relationship between Italian and British fascism. Until the end of 1934 both the Fasci and the embassy established regular contacts with the British Union of Fascists; in the same period, BUF propaganda reflected the belief that British fascism was part of universal fascism, and that Rome was its origin. BUF's shift from Italophilia to admiration for National Socialism in 1935, and the contemporary unleashing of an aggressive anti-British propaganda in Italy coincided with a worsening in Anglo-Italian fascist relations. Consequently, the Italian Ambassador to London Dino Grandi strengthened his collaboration with British Conservative Italophiles, who worked with the Italian embassy in an attempt to support the cause of Italy and to improve Anglo-Italian relations. The divergence between Grandi's and the Italophiles' beliefs on the one hand and Italy's anti-British propaganda and foreign policy on the other were evident especially from 1938. The attitude of the Fasci Abroad reflected this divergence. Despite the increased centralisation of the Fasci under the control of the foreign ministry from 1938 onward, the Fasci in Britain continued to share Grandi's views on Italian foreign policy. The Fascist press in Britain, strongly anti-British during the Ethiopian war, became pro-British at the beginning of 1938. Grandi saw himself as the man who could prevent war, until Mussolini declared his mission in London at an end in July 1939

La noviolencia como liberación y apertura en el pensamiento de Aldo Capitini

Este artículo intenta presentar la idea de noviolencia del filósofo Italiano Aldo Capitini. Él descubre la noviolencia de Gandhi en los años 30. La noviolencia para Capitini es una praxis de liberación de la necesidad y crueldad de la naturaleza, y también la apertura al existente. La noviolencia integra la realidad con acciones de apertura a todos, creando una realidad diferente, que Capitini llama ‘realidad de todos’. La noviolencia entra en la religión y la política. En cuanto a la religión, desarrolla el concepto de compresenza, que cambia la idea de fe, es la base para las actividades del profeta y quiere un cambio en la estructura de las religiones, proponiendo una diferente idea de comandos y diferentes modelos de acciones.  La noviolencia cambia también la política. Capitini ha propuesto la teoría de las dos fases del poder. La primera fase es la de ‘poder sin gobierno’, donde el pueblo aprende a tener mucho poder. Este trabajo conduce a una segunda fase, llamada por Capitini omnicracia, el poder de todos, donde las instituciones no serán necesarias