The Eurasia Network: Riding the Conspiracist Tiger in Contemporary Italy

The aim of this chapter is to describe the production and diffusion of conspiracy theories by a heterogenous network of intellectuals grouped around Prof. Claudio Mutti. The network analysed proposes a political syncretism, merging elements of the extreme right and the extreme left with epistemological syncretism, merging social sciences with religious and esoteric interpretations. The main conspiracy theories diffused by this network are those concerning: 1) contemporary migration flows; 2) Jewish ideology; 3) gender; and 4) geopolitical events. Finally, this chapter will underline the continuities between conspiracism, religion and the social and human sciences, showing that conspiracism does not correspond to irrational thinking, but rather possesses a specific form of reasoning rooted in European anti-modernism

ESOTERICISATION AND DE-ESOTERICISATION OF SUFISM: THE AḤMADIYYA-IDRĪSIYYA SHĀDHILIYYA IN ITALY

In this article I will analyse the Sufi order Aḥmadiyya-Idrīsiyya Shādhiliyya based in Milan, ­established by Abd al-Wahid Pallavicini in the 1980s. This is one of the most important Sufi ­orders in Italy, and it is engaged in interreligious dialogue activities and institutional relations with Italian political actors. I will argue that this Sufi order has experienced a process of ­esotericisation, ­“Western”-style, in the sense that: 1) it was shaped by the “forms of thought” of the French ­esotericist René ­Guénon; 2) following Hanegraaff’s and von Stuckrad’s definitions, it embodies both a rejected and an ­absolute knowledge; and 3) it is characterised by a sectarian organisational structure, which has distanced it from other Islamic communities. Starting from the 2010s, this Sufi order has been living through a process of “de-esotericisation,” following the same sense outlined before, in that the absolute knowledge is gradually opening up to other forms of esoteric knowledge and the sectarian dimensions are gradually fading, allowing a dialogue with other Islamic communities

`Islamic humanism': another form of universalism in contemporary Sufism

Contemporary Sufi orders in Western societies have been often described as 'universal', implying a conceptualisation of religion that transcends religious and cultural boundaries. This article challenges a univocal understanding of universalism, arguing for a plurality of universalist discourses, which entail different relations with otherness, practices, organisational structures, and politics. This article shows the continuities and discontinuities among different competing universalist discourses present in contemporary Sufism and Islam, such as Guenonian-Traditionalism, the New Age, and neo-liberalism. Furthermore, it describes another universalist discourse which has not been previously discussed in relation to contemporary Sufism, defined as 'Islamic humanism', which focuses on (1) the anthropo-cosmic role of the human being, connecting God, nature, and humankind; (2) a universal truth, which goes beyond religious and cultural differences, but is inscribed in Islam; (3) a pluralistic epistemology merging Islamic, natural, and social sciences; and (4) a sense of responsibility towards society, which implies a socio-political engagement

Pilgrimages in Western European Sufism

In this chapter I discuss Western European Sufism through the lens of pilgrimage, and I ask: what forms, what values, and what meanings does pilgrimage have within the Western European Sufi frame? First of all, we will notice that whereas the cult of saints and worship at tombs is quite widespread in African and Asian forms of Sufism (Werbner 2003; Rhani 2013), these ritual practices seem secondary in Western European Sufism. The main reason for undertaking a pilgrimage in the West European context is, instead, to meet the living charismatic Sufi master. Secondly, we will see how pilgrimage can be an instrument of interfaith and intrafaith dialogue and a manifestation of the social and political role played by the Sufi orders. Thirdly, we will see how the universalistic spirit of some Sufi orders encouraged Sufi disciples to perform Christian pilgrimages. And finally, I argue that communitas should not simply be associated with the liminal state of pilgrimage (cf. Turner 1974). In the case of Sufi pilgrimage, I argue, communitas might also be experienced in the pre- and post-liminal stages of the rituals

energy performance of a fuel cell hybrid system for rail vehicle propulsion

Abstract This paper focuses on the energy analysis of a rail vehicle in a real drive-cycle. The system includes a fuel cell, serving as the main engine, an energy storage system, composed of battery and supercapacitor, two DC/DC converters, both necessary for the connection with the electric motor, a regenerative brake, able to recover energy in deceleration, and a control system. This hybrid system is obtained through a deep study of the available solutions which include the use of one or more energy sources to the selected drive cycle. Afterwards, the system sizing was made in order to achieve the expected performance with the most appropriate power levels, without oversizing or undersizing the powertrain. The components were selected on the market after appropriate calculations according to the task that each energy source performs. After the identification of the components of the entire system, it is possible to perform an energy analysis. The fuel cell power is kept as constant as possible and it supplies the total energy demand; the battery provides the power variations at low frequencies while the supercapacitor provides those at high frequencies. The parameters analysed are: the current, the voltage and the power supplied from each energy source, the efficiency and the consumption of hydrogen for the fuel cell, the state of charge and the equivalent hydrogen consumption for the energy storage system

Insights for Industry 4.0 Applications into a Hydrogen Advanced Mobility

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L’héritage de René Guénon dans le soufisme du XXIe siècle en France et en Italie

René Guénon est l’un des penseurs les plus importants de l’ésotérisme européen. Il a contribué à faire connaître le soufisme en Occident et a favorisé la conversion de beaucoup d’Européens. Cet article vise à décrire son héritage intellectuel et spirituel dans le soufisme européen contemporain. L’héritage de Guénon est décrit à travers des types idéaux élaborés à partir d’une enquête de terrain réalisée auprès des confréries soufies les plus importantes de France et d’Italie. La figure de Guénon, qui date du XXIe siècle, occupe une place centrale chez beaucoup d’adeptes d’origine musulmane, bien que le penseur ait perdu ses dimensions les plus apocalyptiques. Sa critique de la modernité change, quant à elle, de forme et se fait plus symbolique. L’œuvre de Guénon devient une orientation intellectuelle, un vadémécum pour la quête spirituelle

Hierarchical Factor Classification of Dendrochronological Time-Series

In this paper, Hierarchical Factor Classification (HFC), an exploratory method of classification of characters is introduced, in comparison with Principal Component Analysis (PCA) in order to show its advantages, in particular when dealing with time series. Exploratory data analysis may play a very relevant role in the understanding of the structure of a data set prior the use of statistical methods – as hypothesis testing and inference, and models. The study of tree-rings time series through exploratory methods may also take advantages, by allowing some interpretation to be further checked via a small number of statistical tests. In particular, while providing overall results close to those of PCA, HFC complements it, by providing a classification of the time-series and estimating a representative chronology for each group, common to the clustered ones. As case study, a data set is taken from literature, composed by five synchronous 79 years-long chronologies of Pinus pinea L., from five different populations scattered along the Tyrrhenian coast in peninsular Italy. HFC suggests how conveniently aggregate the chronologies, by showing similarities and differences between them, otherwise unnoticed, suggesting to limit the aggregation to three chronologies only

Custom-Made Antibiotic Cement Nails in Orthopaedic Trauma: Review of Outcomes, New Approaches, and Perspectives

Since the first description in 2002 by Paley and Herzenberg, antibiotic bone cement nails (ACNs) have become an effective tool in the orthopaedic trauma surgeons' hands. They simultaneously elute high amounts of antibiotics into medullary canal dead space and provide limited stability to the debrided long bone. In this paper, we perform a systematic review of current evidence on ACNs in orthopaedic trauma and provide an up-to-date review of the indications, operative technique, failure mechanisms, complications, outcomes, and outlooks for the ACNs use in long bone infection