The value of the city. Rent extraction, right to housing and conflicts for the use of urban space

The extent of residential alienation and urban inequalities made visible in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis shed light on processes of politico-economic transformations that altered the role of housing within society since the late 1970s. The focus on (re-)commodification and financialization has become central in the debate and opened up rich interdisciplinary strands of research on the impacts that these processes have on housing. Building on such a fertile academic body of work, it is paramount to contribute to the setting of the public agenda, putting housing issues at the heart of the political debate and policy actions. Introducing this special issue, the paper is firstly asserting the political dimension of housing. Secondly the issue of urban rent extraction is discussed as crucial, especially in the face of the disruptive effects of extensive processes of re-commodification and financialization of housing and land markets in a context of neoliberal urban policies. Thirdly, the Italian case is presented as extremely relevant when it comes to understanding the political dimension of housing, recalling the controversial debates and clashes developed along the 20th century and the current trends of a country confronted with intense processes of financialization of housing, with a significantly accelerated real-estate cycle transforming the residential landscape and resulting in the most intense building cycle of the last half-century. Finally, the dynamics of de-politicisation (and re-politicisation) of housing are recalled with reference to the contributions collected in this special issue

Observation of the TeV gamma-ray source MGRO J1908+06 with ARGO-YBJ

The extended gamma ray source MGRO J1908+06, discovered by the Milagro air shower detector in 2007, has been observed for about 4 years by the ARGO-YBJ experiment at TeV energies, with a statistical significance of 6.2 standard deviations. The peak of the signal is found at a position consistent with the pulsar PSR J1907+0602. Parametrizing the source shape with a two-dimensional Gauss function we estimate an extension \sigma = 0.49 \pm 0.22 degrees, consistent with a previous measurement by the Cherenkov Array H.E.S.S.. The observed energy spectrum is dN/dE = 6.1 \pm 1.4 \times 10^-13 (E/4 TeV)^{-2.54 \pm 0.36} photons cm^-2 s^-1 TeV^-1, in the energy range 1-20 TeV. The measured gamma ray flux is consistent with the results of the Milagro detector, but is 2-3 times larger than the flux previously derived by H.E.S.S. at energies of a few TeV. The continuity of the Milagro and ARGO-YBJ observations and the stable excess rate observed by ARGO-YBJ along 4 years of data taking support the identification of MGRO J1908+06 as the steady powerful TeV pulsar wind nebula of PSR J1907+0602, with an integrated luminosity above 1 TeV about 1.8 times the Crab Nebula luminosity.Comment: 6 pages, accepted for pubblication by ApJ. Replaced to correct the author lis

Long-term Monitoring on Mrk 501 for Its VHE gamma Emission and a Flare in October 2011

As one of the brightest active blazars in both X-ray and very high energy $\gamma$-ray bands, Mrk 501 is very useful for physics associated with jets from AGNs. The ARGO-YBJ experiment is monitoring it for $\gamma$-rays above 0.3 TeV since November 2007. Starting from October 2011 the largest flare since 2005 is observed, which lasts to about April 2012. In this paper, a detailed analysis is reported. During the brightest $\gamma$-rays flaring episodes from October 17 to November 22, 2011, an excess of the event rate over 6 $\sigma$ is detected by ARGO-YBJ in the direction of Mrk 501, corresponding to an increase of the $\gamma$-ray flux above 1 TeV by a factor of 6.6$\pm$2.2 from its steady emission. In particular, the $\gamma$-ray flux above 8 TeV is detected with a significance better than 4 $\sigma$. Based on time-dependent synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) processes, the broad-band energy spectrum is interpreted as the emission from an electron energy distribution parameterized with a single power-law function with an exponential cutoff at its high energy end. The average spectral energy distribution for the steady emission is well described by this simple one-zone SSC model. However, the detection of $\gamma$-rays above 8 TeV during the flare challenges this model due to the hardness of the spectra. Correlations between X-rays and $\gamma$-rays are also investigated.Comment: have been accepted for publication at Ap

Il campo e il gioco. Appunti su Bourdieu

Il libro offre un'analisi delle categorie fondamentali della sociologia di Pierre Bourdieu, attraverso i precedenti teorici e le esperienze di ricerca del sociologo francese. Ne emerge la figura di un intellettuale che ha saputo ricostruire, in un confronto continuo con i classici, una teoria sociale innovativa e radicale

Voce "Giustizialismo"

La voce descrive il processo di diffusione in Italia di un atteggiamento giustizialista, inteso come svalutazione dei principi fondamentali del diritto penale e processuale liberale, con il conseguente abbassamento della soglia di tolleranza della devianza e l'estensione del penalmente rilevante