THE INCLUSIVE DYNAMICS OF ISLAMIC UNIVERSALISM: FROM THE VANTAGE POINT OF SAYYID QUTB\u27S CRITICAL PHILOSOPHY

This article pursues a topological reading of Milestones, one of the most influential books in the history of Islamism. Written by Muslim thinker Sayyid Qutb, the general interest in this crucial text has largely remained restricted to the fields of Islamic Studies and Security Studies. This article aims to make the case for assuming a philosophical standpoint, relocating its significance beyond the above-mentioned fields. A creative and topological reading of this text will allow the spatial complexity of Qutbs eschatological vision to be fully exposed, while also unpacking the way in which antagonistic relations have variously been articulated by this thinker. The underlying conviction is that such an examination can offer new perspectives from which to examine and develop current debates on political universalism and antagonism in the tradition of continental philosophy

Islamism Revisited: A Lacanian Discourse Critique

The aim of this article is to highlight the relevance of Lacanian psychoanaly-sis for an understanding of Islamism, unfolding its discursive-ideological complexity. Inan attempt to reply to Fethi Benslama’s recent exploration of the function of the fatherin Islam, I suggest that Benslama’s argument about the ‘delusional’ character of Islamismand the link he envisages between the emergence of Islamism and the crisis of ‘tradi-tional’ authoritative systems, should be further investigated so as to avoid potential risksof essentialism. A different reading of Islamism is proposed, which valorizes ‘creative’attempts by Islamist groups to re-organize the social imaginary within the realm of a sym-bolic economy, thereby positivising the desedimenting effects of the real in different ways.Notions such as capitonage, fantasy, desire, and jouissance are essential for us to under-stand how Islamist trajectories diversify as distinct discursive formations, thereby reveal-ing the psychoanalytical significance of Islam as a master signifier

Religion and Islamic Radicalization

The chapter begins with a brief genealogy of psychoanalytic thinking in the broad area of religion. It first looks at Freud’s early modernist dismissal of religion, comparing this with Lacan’s valorisation of the ethical quests that both religion and psychoanalysis are said to share at the heart of their discourse. It then examines Lacan’s later pessimism in opposing the ‘triumph of religion’ in our times to an increasingly uncertain future for psychoanalysis. Moving from a conceptual discussion of these themes to an applied analysis of contemporary challenges, the chapter highlights the contribution of psychoanalysis to an understanding of the aesthetics of violence informing the eschatology of Islamic terror within contemporary global jihadism

Dose influence on the PMMA e-resist for the development of high-aspect ratio and reproducible sub-micrometric structures by electron beam lithography

In this work, a statistical process control method is presented showing the accuracy and the reliability obtained with of PMMA E-resist AR-P 672, using an Elphy Quantum Electron Beam Lithography module integrated on a FE-SEM Zeiss Auriga instrument. Reproducible nanostructures with an high aspect ratio between e-resist thickness and width of written geometric structure are shown. Detailed investigation of geometry features are investigated with dimension in the range of 200nm to 1-m. The adopted method will show how tuning the Area Dose factor and the PMMA thickness it was possible to determine the correct and reproducible parameters that allows to obtain well defined electron-beam features with a 4:1 aspect ratio. Such high aspect ratio opens the possibility to realize an electron-beam lithography lift-off process by using a standard e-beam resist. © 2016 Author(s)

evaluation of the fretting wear damage on crowned splined couplings

Abstract Splined couplings are widely used in many industrial fields and one of the most problematic failure mode of these components is fretting wear. Fretting wear appears because of the relative motions between teeth and it is mainly due to angular misalignments. Aim of this paper is to set up a procedure in order to identify the entity of the fretting wear damage in crowned splined couplings in real working conditions. The first Ruiz parameter has been chosen to quantify the wear damage being relatively easy to be obtained from the calculation point of view. Experimental tests have been performed by means of a dedicated test rig to validate the theoretical results, in terms of iso-Ruiz maps. The damage entity has also been quantified by measuring the angular rotation before and after each test. Obtained results confirm that, where the fretting map shows higher values of the Ruiz parameter, the fretting damage becomes more important

electro mechanical endurance tests on smart fabrics under controlled axial and friction forces

Abstract The design, building and validation of machine for endurance tests on fabrics are described in this paper. The system is addressed to the reliability testing of smart fabrics with electrical conductivity. The development of e-textiles, in fact, requires innovative test benches for the evaluation of performances decay with load cycles accumulation; the proposed system is able to monitor the electro-mechanical parameters of fabric sample in the same time in order to support industrial development and predict failures on final applications

Experimental procedure for the evaluation of tooth stiffness in spline coupling including angular misalignment

Toothstiffnessisaveryimportantparameterinstudyingbothstaticanddynamic behaviour ofsplinecouplingsandgears.Manyworksconcerningtoothstiffnesscalcula- tion areavailableintheliterature,butexperimentalresultsareveryrare,aboveall consideringsplinecouplings.Inthisworkexperimentalvaluesofsplinecouplingtooth stiffnesshavebeenobtainedbymeansofaspecialhexapodmeasuringdevice.Experi- mentalresultshavebeencomparedwiththecorrespondingtheoreticalandnumerical ones. Alsotheeffectofangularmisalignmentsbetweenhubandshafthasbeen investigatedintheexperimentalplanning

Fretting damage parameters in splined couplings

This work focuses on the analysis of the debris found in the lubrication oil produced by the wear abrasion during wear tests conducted on crowned splined couplings. During each test the presence and the dimensions of the debris in the oil have been monitored. Tests have been performed by means of a dedicated splined couplings test rig and they have been performed by imposing an angular misalignment on the axes of the components. Results shows that when these components work in misaligned conditions, the relative motion between engaging teeth brings to the rise of a wear phenomenon called fretting wea