Weak covering properties and selection principles

No convenient internal characterization of spaces that are productively Lindelof is known. Perhaps the best general result known is Alster's internal characterization, under the Continuum Hypothesis, of productively Lindelof spaces which have a basis of cardinality at most $\aleph_1$. It turns out that topological spaces having Alster's property are also productively weakly Lindelof. The weakly Lindelof spaces form a much larger class of spaces than the Lindelof spaces. In many instances spaces having Alster's property satisfy a seemingly stronger version of Alster's property and consequently are productively X, where X is a covering property stronger than the Lindelof property. This paper examines the question: When is it the case that a space that is productively X is also productively Y, where X and Y are covering properties related to the Lindelof property.Comment: 16 page

The origins and purpose of eco-innovation

This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted following peer review for publication in Global Environment. A Journal of History and Natural and Social Sciences The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available online at http://www.whp-journals.co.uk/GE/Pansera.pdfNowadays, eco-friendly technologies are considered a strategic objective in industrialised countries. Rising demand for more sustainable products and services from civil society has become a major challenge for policy makers. The present article aims to provide a historical perspective on the concept of eco-innovation, its different meanings and its position in the modern debate around sustainability. The first part of the article explores the origins of the notion of eco-innovation, drawing on the Sustainable Development debate. The second part attempts to shed light on the purpose of eco-innovation and its implications for a desirable sustainable transition in modern industrial societies. This part illustrates the essential differences between mainstream economics and the School of Ecological Economics. Finally, the third part attempts to describe the social and institutional changes necessary to foster eco-innovation

Frugality, grassroots and inclusiveness: new challenges for mainstream innovation theories

Author's post-print version originally presented at GLOBELICS International Conference on “Innovation and Development: Opportunities and Challenges in Globalisation” Hangzhou, China November 9-11 2012.Intriguing and provocative concepts such as frugal innovation, BOP innovation, empathetic innovation and inclusive innovation are attracting the attention of many scholars in emerging countries as well as raising concern in the Western. Those notions are often indicated as ‘below-the-radar innovations’. There are several reasons to believe that technical and social changes originating in the developing world will become a major driver of innovation in the near future. For those reasons it is crucial to understand how innovation is planned, design and deployed outside the comfortable territory of Western paradigm. The objective of the present article is to provide an overview of the alternative innovation paradigms that are emerging in the developing world. On the other hand, the article aims at analysing the determinants and drivers that are at the base of below-the-radar innovation

Renewable energy for rural areas of Bolivia

This is the Accepted Manuscript of an article whose final and definitive form has been published in Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews 16 (2012) pp. 6694-6704. The final version is available online at http://www.sciencedirect.com/This paper analyses the current status of rural renewable energy in Bolivia and provides and employs an analysis framework to study the network of stakeholders that determines the adoption, absorption and diffusion of renewable energy technology. The study, moreover, illustrates the impact and implications of traditional indigenous knowledge on the local entrepreneurial ecosystem

Hannah Arendt e l’antropologia filosofica

Hannah Arendt sets out to achieve a definition of “the human condition” that is based neither on the results of the scientific knowledge pursued by anthropology nor on the elaborations of philosophical thought as proposed by Husserl and Heidegger, but rather on an understanding of the original and authentic meaning of “human action.” In searching for an answer to the question “Who is man?,” in attempting to define his identity, Arendt bases her investigation on a phenomenological analysis of the conditions of human existence, of the activities closely connected with it, and of the spaces in which these activities take place.This formulation, with which Arendt opens her work The Human Condition, solicits a comparison with German philosophical anthropology, in particular with that of Arnold Gehlen, especially with regard to the concept of “action.