Logiche pratiche nel campo dei galleristi. Una ricerca sugli intermediari dell’arte a Milano.

This work aims to investigate some aspects of the art dealer profession, according to Bourdieu’s field perspective (2010), also relying on some suggestions coming from interactionist research (Becker 2004). The arguments developed are part of a study on gallery owners carried out in the city of Milan, the Italian capital of contemporary art. It is a qualitative research based on in-depth interviews to art gallery owners and participant observations. The analysis examines the practical logics (Bourdieu 1998) underlying the everyday work of these art intermediaries. The field of art dealers is a case of symbolic goods economy, characterized by the coexistence of artistic and economic values (Bourdieu 2005). This ambivalence takes shape in the definition of gallerist itself, in opposition to the idea of merchant of art, thus representing a division among art dealers, based on practices, discourses and structures. The claim to the label of ‘gallerist’ is a discursive euphemism inside conflicts of nomination (Bourdieu 2001). In this way, I interpret some different stances in this artistic microcosm. I propose a classification of art dealers’ profiles to reflect some of their hierarchies and distinctive features. The analysis, carried out through the heuristic lens of the cultural production field, permits to define this working microcosm as an occupation between humility and pride (Hughes 2010). In conclusion, the analysis reveals some struggles of classification in the field of art galleries

Antonietta De Feo, Marco Pitzalis, dirs, Produzione, riproduzione e distinzione. Studiare il mondo sociale con (e dopo) Bourdieu

L’ouvrage recueille les contributions du colloque qui s’est tenu à Cagliari en 2013 sur le thème « La science et la critique du monde social. La leçon de Bourdieu » ; cette conférence est un des moments les plus importants de l’héritage du chercheur dans la sociologie italienne. En outre, le livre est enrichi de la traduction italienne d’un texte de dénonciation de l’idéologie néolibérale, écrit par Pierre Bourdieu et Loïc Wacquant pour Le Monde Diplomatique, et d’un entretien avec Loïc Wacqu..

Cristina Costa, Mark Murphy, eds, Bourdieu, Habitus and Social Research. The Art of Application

L’ouvrage est un florilège de contributions visant à remettre en question la fécondité heuristique de la notion d’habitus dans les différents domaines de la vie sociale. L’objectif est de fournir une réflexion qui lie étroitement la théorie à la pratique scientifique. En effet, l’habitus est ici examiné au niveau théorique en tant que concept pour étudier des phénomènes tels l’éducation, la mobilité économique et sociale, la migration, la criminalité juvénile et les pratiques numériques. Le l..

Cristina Costa, Mark Murphy, eds, Bourdieu, Habitus and Social Research. The Art of Application

L’ouvrage est un florilège de contributions visant à remettre en question la fécondité heuristique de la notion d’habitus dans les différents domaines de la vie sociale. L’objectif est de fournir une réflexion qui lie étroitement la théorie à la pratique scientifique. En effet, l’habitus est ici examiné au niveau théorique en tant que concept pour étudier des phénomènes tels l’éducation, la mobilité économique et sociale, la migration, la criminalité juvénile et les pratiques numériques. Le l..

Scientific challenges of convective-scale numerical weather prediction

Numerical weather prediction (NWP) models are increasing in resolution and becoming capable of explicitly representing individual convective storms. Is this increase in resolution leading to better forecasts? Unfortunately, we do not have sufficient theoretical understanding about this weather regime to make full use of these NWPs. After extensive efforts over the course of a decade, convective–scale weather forecasts with horizontal grid spacings of 1–5 km are now operational at national weather services around the world, accompanied by ensemble prediction systems (EPSs). However, though already operational, the capacity of forecasts for this scale is still to be fully exploited by overcoming the fundamental difficulty in prediction: the fully three–dimensional and turbulent nature of the atmosphere. The prediction of this scale is totally different from that of the synoptic scale (103 km) with slowly–evolving semi–geostrophic dynamics and relatively long predictability on the order of a few days. Even theoretically, very little is understood about the convective scale compared to our extensive knowledge of the synoptic-scale weather regime as a partial–differential equation system, as well as in terms of the fluid mechanics, predictability, uncertainties, and stochasticity. Furthermore, there is a requirement for a drastic modification of data assimilation methodologies, physics (e.g., microphysics), parameterizations, as well as the numerics for use at the convective scale. We need to focus on more fundamental theoretical issues: the Liouville principle and Bayesian probability for probabilistic forecasts; and more fundamental turbulence research to provide robust numerics for the full variety of turbulent flows. The present essay reviews those basic theoretical challenges as comprehensibly as possible. The breadth of the problems that we face is a challenge in itself: an attempt to reduce these into a single critical agenda should be avoided

Adaptive observations and assimilation in the unstable subspace by breeding on the data-assimilation system

Results of targeting and assimilation experiments in a quasi-geostrophic atmospheric model are presented and discussed. The basic idea is to assimilate observations in the unstable subspace (AUS) of the data-assimilation system. The unstable subspace is estimated by breeding on the data-assimilation system (BDAS). The analysis update has the same local structure as the observationally forced bred modes. Use of adaptive observations, taken at locations where bred vectors have maximum amplitude, enhances the efficiency of the procedure and allows the use of a very limited number of observations and modes. The performance of the targeting and assimilation design is tested in an idealized context, under perfect model conditions. It is shown that the process of driving the control solution toward the true trajectory accomplished by the assimilation reduces the number and growth of unstable modes. By observing and assimilating the unstable structures it is then possible to stabilize the assimilation system so that few observations are sufficient to keep the analysis error within very low bounds, even in the presence of observational noise. In an idealized limited area model configuration the number and frequency of observations necessary to control the system is shown to be related to the properties of its unstable subspace