219 research outputs found
Il riequilibrio della finanza pubblica negli anni Novanta
Gli anni novanta sono caratterizzati dal riequilibrio della finanza pubblica: lâindebitamento netto delle Amministrazioni pubbliche che nel 1990 era pari allâ11,8 per cento del PIL scende nel 1999 allâ1,8 per cento. Gli anni ottanta possono essere giudicati ex post un periodo nel quale è tardato il riconoscimento della necessitĂ del rigore fiscale, con un indebitamento netto mediamente pari al 10,8 del PIL e pressochĂŠ costante nel periodo.
Questa caratterizzazione valevole per lâintero decennio, può essere meglio precisata. Ad esempio, lâanno 1991 (e non solo il 1990) può essere collegato a quelli del quinquennio precedente, che è stato definito, giustamente, come quello del ârisanamento mancatoâ ; il 1992 è lâanno della âsvoltaâ ; il 1997 lâanno in cui il riequilibrio, con gran prontezza, è stato colto con âastuzia e virtĂšâ.
Tuttavia, secondo gli autori di questa nota, sarebbe erronea una suddivisione del decennio in alcuni episodi di manovre di finanza pubblica, ora fallite ora riuscite, come alcune volte sono stati presentati nella letteratura; il processo di riequilibrio è stato un percorso continuo, ancor piĂš di quanto appaia nei dati grezzi dellâindebitamento netto e dellâavanzo primario, sia nella programmazione e nella attuazione delle manovre fiscali, sia per la continuitĂ dei risultati. Ovviamente alcuni momenti del processo sono stati molto qualificanti, e saranno posti in rilievo nellâanalisi.
Il successo della politica fiscale perseguita nel decennio, non esime comunque dal porsi e risolvere ulteriori problemi, derivanti nel medio periodo dalle pressioni demografiche, da possibili riforme istituzionali e dallâintensificarsi della competitivitĂ tra i vari sistemi - paese
Architects of time: Labouring on digital futures
Drawing on critical analyses of the internet inspired by Gilles Deleuze and the Marxist autonomia movement, this paper suggests a way of understanding the impact of the internet and digital culture on identity and social forms through a consideration of the relationship between controls exercised through the internet, new subjectivities constituted through its use and new labour practices enabled by it. Following Castells, we can see that the distinction between user, consumer and producer is becoming blurred and free labour is being provided by users to corporations. The relationship between digital technologies and sense of community, through their relationship to the future, is considered for its dangers and potentials. It is proposed that the internet may be a useful tool for highlighting and enabling social connections if certain dangers can be traversed. Notably, current remedies for the lack of trust on the internet are questioned with an alternative, drawing on Zygmunt Bauman and Georg Simmel, proposed which is built on community through a vision of a âshared networkâ
USE OF CAGED MUSSEL MYTILUS GALLOPROVINCIALIS IN AN ECOTOXICOLOGICAL APPROACH TO ASSESS ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT IN OFF-SHORE ACTIVITIES
Abstract Mediterranean mussels, Mytilus galloprovincialis, are well recognized bioindicator organisms which can be easily caged in investigated areas to assess the impact of anthropogenic activities. In this work a monitoring protocol was developed for off-shore installations in the Adriatic sea. Integration of chemical analyses with a wide range of biomarkers analysed in mussels caged at 2 platforms, allowed to evaluate the biological disturbance and confirmed the utility of the ecotoxicological approach for monitoring off-shore activities. Keywords : Bio-indicators, Adriatic Sea. Several environmental issues are associated with the off-shore oil and gas industry, from the impact caused during installation to various form of disturbance related to daily ship traffic, extraction activities, maintenance of structures and, finally, decommissioning of old platforms. During the last year a monitoring protocol with caged mussels, Mytilus galloprovincialis, has been developed, to evaluate the potential ecotoxicological effects caused from the off-shore platform "Giovanna" in the Adriatic sea. Obtained results allowed to exclude marked biological disturbance and demonstrated the suitability of this approach. In this respect considering "Giovanna" as model platform, the monitoring protocol with caged mussel has been extended including also another off-shore installation, the "Emilio" platform. In this work native mussels were collected on a seasonal basis from a reference site on the Adriatic coast (Portonovo, Ancona) and transplanted for 4-6 weeks in both the sampling area and to the investigated platform "Giovanna" (42 ⢠46' 060N, 14 ⢠27' 750E) and Emilio (42 ⢠56' 305 N; 14 ⢠13' 915 E). After the translocation period, mussels were recovered dissected tissues frozen in liquid nitrogen and maintained at -80 ⢠C until analyses. Chemical analyses on trace metals (arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, iron, mercury, manganese, nickel, lead, zinc) in mussels tissues An overall evaluation of results confirmed the absence of marked biological effects caused by the activities of "Giovanna" platform, as already demonstrated during the previous monitoring project. More variations were observed in mussels translocated to "Emilio", i.e. higher activities of glutathione S-transferases, catalase and peroxisomal proliferation decrease of oxyradical scavenging capacity toward hydroxyl and peroxyl radicals and lysosomal destabilization (inhibition of neutral red retention time), indicating an onset of impairment condition in the organisms. Compared to mussels transplanted at the reference site, those from "Emilio" platform did not exhibit more elevated concentrations for the various metals and only for zinc and cadmium an higher bioavailability was detected close to the platform, suggesting the influence of galvanic anodes for cathodic protection. The overall results of this work confirmed the utility of using caged mussels as an additional contribution for monitoring off-shore activities and provided an ecotoxicological protocol based on cellular biomarkers for the early detection of biological disturbance
The Information Economy and the Labor Theory of Value
This article discusses aspects of the labor theory of value in the context of the information industries. First, taking the Temporal Single-System Interpretation (TSSI) of Marxâs labor theory of value as methodology, the paper calculates economic demographics at the level of socially necessary labor time and prices of an example case.
Second, the paper questions the assumption that the labor theory of value cannot be applied to the information industries. This paper tests this hypothesis with an analysis of the development of labor productivity in six countries.
The paper concludes that the labor theory of value is an important tool for understanding the information economy and the peculiarities of the information commodity
âHacking multitudeâ and Big Data: Some insights from the Turkish âdigital coupâ
The paper presents my first findings and reflections on how ordinary people may opportunistically and unpredictably respond to Internet censorship and tracking. I try to capture this process with the concept of âhacking multitude'. Working on a case study of the Turkish government's block of the social media platform Twitter (March 2014), I argue that during systemic data choke-points, a multitude of users might acquire a certain degree of reflexivity over ubiquitous software of advanced techno-capitalism. Resisting naĂŻve parallels between urban streets and virtual global streets, the article draws on Fuller's âmedia ecologies' to make sense of complex and dynamic interactions between processes and materialities, strategies of communication and mundane practices. Such a dense space is mostly invisible to network and traffic analysis, although it comes alive under the magnifying lens of digital ethnography. As the Turkish government tried to stop protesters on both the urban and the Twitter spheres, alternative material configurations and new hybrid formations and practices emerged. I try to bring this process alive following the traces â that is, a combination of digital data and materialities â of a social space between the protest for Twitter access, the âdigital coup' and the interactions that this situation determined. In the final section, I briefly explore two research trajectories which can further develop my initial formulation of a âhacking multitude'. I argue that a generalisation of hacking/multitude is problematic for the political, cultural or economic processes more directly associated with Big Data
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(Im)possibilities of Autonomy:? Social Movements In and Beyond Capital, the State and Development
In this paper we interrogate the demand and practice of autonomy in social movements. We begin by identifying three main conceptions of autonomy: (1) autonomous practices vis-Ă -vis capital; (2) self-determination and independence from the state; and (3) alternatives to hegemonic discourses of development. We then point to limits associated with autonomy and discuss how demands for autonomy are tied up with contemporary re-organizations of: (1) the capitalist workplace, characterized by discourses of autonomy, creativity and self-management; (2) the state, which increasingly outsources public services to independent, autonomous providers, which often have a more radical, social movement history; and (3) regimes of development, which today often emphasize local practices, participation and self-determination. This capturing of autonomy reminds us that autonomy can never be fixed. Instead, social movements' demands for autonomy are embedded in specific social, economic, political and cultural contexts, giving rise to possibilities as well as impossibilities of autonomous practices
Expressive free speech, the state, and the public sphere: A BakhtinianâDeleuzian analysis of âpublic addressâ at Hyde Park
This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2008 Taylor & Francis.In this paper I explore how struggles around free speech between social movements and the state are often underpinned by a deeper struggle around expressive images of what counts as either âdecentâ or âindecentâ discussion. These points are developed by exploring what is arguably the most famous populist place for free speech in Britain, namely Hyde Park. In 1872 the state introduced the Parks Regulation Act in order to regulate, amongst other things, populist uses of free speech at Hyde Park. However, although the 1872 Act designated a site in Hyde Park for public meetings, it did not mention âfree speechâ. Rather, the 1872 Act legally enforced the liberty to make a âpublic addressâ and this was implicitly contrasted by the state of an expressive image of âindecentâ speakers exercising their ârightâ of free speech at Hyde Park. Once constructed, the humiliating image of âindecentâ free speech could then be used by the state to regulate actual utterances of public speakers at Hyde Park. But the paper shows how in the years immediately following 1872 a battle was fought out in Hyde Park over the expressive image of public address between the state and regulars using Hyde Park as a public sphere to exercise free speech. For its part the state had to engage in meaningful deliberative forms of discussion within its own regulatory framework and with the public sphere at Hyde Park in order to maintain the legal form, content and expression of the 1872 Act. To draw out the implications of these points I employ some of the theoretical ideas of the Bakhtin Circle and Gilles Deleuze. Each set of thinkers in their own way make valuable contributions for understanding the relationship between the state, public sphere and expressive images
âWhere are we when we think?â Space, time and emancipatory education in galleries
Adult education in art galleries sits on a fault line, at once an apparatus upholding the affirmative aspects of museum culture cultivated by global elites, a propellant in the whirring of an increasingly dislocated set of events on trendy and consumable political themes, and a site for âallyshipâ and other kinds of radical and socially transformative work. Resurrecting Hannah Arendtâs question,âwhere are we when we think?â this paper explores how we might move from a moment in which the âspaceâ of the gallery is replaced by the âtimeâ of the event (Helguera) and towards embedded space-times that attempt to address contemporary urgencies through situated practices that collectively analyse and respond to conditions. Drawn from examples derived from the authorâs practice, the paper argues for the use of popular education and anti-colonial pedagogies in the production of adult education in galleries, suggesting that such processes support groups in collectively naming and thinking through conflicts to re-shape both the galleries in which they have congregated and the worlds beyond their doors. This paper suggests that the re-construction and use of the often forgotten genealogies of emancipatory education are pivotal to doing social justice work in galleries
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Review Article: When 'life itself' goes to work: Reviewing shifts in organizational life through the lens of biopower
This review article suggests the English publication of Foucaultâs lectures on biopower, The Birth of Biopolitics (2008), might be useful for extending our understandings of how organizational power relations have changed over the last 20 years. Unlike disciplinary power, which constrains and delimits individuals, the concept of biopower emphasizes how our life abilities and extra-work qualities (bios or âlife itselfâ) are now key objects of exploitation â particularly under neoliberalism. The term biocracy is introduced to analyse recent reports on workplace experiences symptomatic of biopower. Finally, the conceptual weaknesses of biopower for organizational theorizing are critically evaluated to help develop the idea for future scholarship
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