The Pragmatics of Virtual Environments. Compliment responses in Second Life

ENThe advent of the Internet has dramatically changed, among other things, the way people learn a language. With the new ICT tools, more and more users can interact with native speakers in their target language, potentially without ever moving from home. To this regard, virtual worlds appear to be a resourceful place where language learners can meet and practice their L2. However, while these virtual worlds are being increasingly employed for language learning purposes, they still remain a linguistically unexplored ground. But if the Internet has changed the way people interact, it is also plausible that the pragmatic norms underlying this new form of communication have changed; therefore understanding their literacy would help understand their efficacy too. This study sets out to fill a gap in the literature by looking at how compliments are responded in Second Life. The results are then compared with compliment responses in real life to find out whether the language used in virtual environments faithfully reproduces the language used in face-to-face conversation, and to what extent it is convenient and significant for instructors to integrate such environments in their teaching practices. The results show a greater tendency to accept compliments than in real-life conversation. Possible pedagogical implications and directions for further research are discussed.Keywords: pragmatics; compliment responses; virtual environments; language learningITL’avvento di internet ha radicalmente cambiato, tra le altre cose, il modo in cui le persone imparano una lingua. Con i nuovi mezzi ICT, sempre più utenti possono interagire con parlanti nativi nella lingua d’arrivo, senza potenzialmente mai muoversi da casa. A questo riguardo/In questo ambito, i mondi virtuali sembrano essere un luogo pieno di risorse dove gli apprendenti di una lingua possono incontrarsi e praticare l’L2. Tuttavia, mentre questi mondi virtuali vengono sempre più utilizzati per l’apprendimento linguistico, rimangono ancora un terreno linguisticamente inesplorato. Ma se internet ha cambiato il modo in cui la gente interagisce, è anche plausibile che le norme sottostanti questa nuova forma di comunicazione siano cambiate; pertanto comprenderne il funzionamento aiuterebbe a comprenderne anche l’efficacia. Questo studio si propone di colmare un vuoto nella letteratura osservando come si risponde ai complimenti su Second Life. I risultati sono poi confrontati con le risposte ai complimenti nella conversazione reale per capire se la lingua usata negli ambienti virtuali riproduce fedelmente la lingua utilizzata nella conversazione faccia a faccia, e fino a che punto è conveniente e significativo per gli insegnanti integrare tali ambienti nelle pratiche d’insegnamento. I risultati mostrano una tendenza maggiore ad accettare i complimenti rispetto alla conversazione reale. Possibili implicazioni pedagogiche e indicazioni per ricerche future sono prese in considerazione.Parole chiave: pragmatica; risposte ai complimenti; ambienti virtuali; apprendimento linguistic

Neural Intrinsic timescales in the macaque dorsal premotor cortex predict the strength of spatial response coding

Our brain continuously receives information over multiple timescales that are differently processed across areas. In this study, we investigated the intrinsic timescale of neurons in the dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) of two rhesus macaques while performing a non-match-to-goal task. The task rule was to reject the previously chosen target and select the alternative one. We defined the intrinsic timescale as the decay constant of the autocorrelation structure computed during a baseline period of the task. We found that neurons with longer intrinsic timescale tended to maintain a stronger spatial response coding during a delay period. This result suggests that longer intrinsic timescales predict the functional role of PMd neurons in a cognitive task. Our estimate of the intrinsic timescale integrates an existing hierarchical model (Murray et al., 2014), by assigning to PMd a lower position than prefrontal cortex in the hierarchical ordering of the brain areas based on neurons' timescales

Wage dispersion in Italy: An exploration based on linked employer-employee data

This article analyzes wage dispersion in a sample of Italian firms, by taking advantage of a unique Linked Employer-Employee dataset (LEED) merging four data sources from the National Institute of Statistics. An in-depth descriptive analysis conveys that knowledge-intensive services record the highest within- and between-firms wage dispersion in the sample. Regression-based results show that innovation does not drive up inequality in large companies. However, it can contribute to enlarge the within-firm wage dispersion as well as the wage gap across small firms. Overall, we argue that institutional factors should be called upon to explain the dramatic increase in wage disparities in the Italian economy

EUROPEAN HOUSEHOLDS' INCOMES SINCE THE CRISIS

Abstract: We explore the link between personal and functional income distribution at the micro level. We focus on the European experience over the crisis, comparing European households' incomes in 2007, 2012 and 2014. Throughout the period, most households earned income from more than one source, and a positive relation exists between both the capital and labour shares of incomes and total household incomes. We find that functional distribution, i.e. what kind of income a household earns, significantly affects both its position in the income distribution and its chances of mobility within it, and such impact is magnified by the crisis. However, the geography of European house-holds' incomes is much more complex than frequently suggested. In general, the more households depend on labour incomes the more likely they were to move downwards in the income distribution. However, this does not imply that capital incomes made households more likely to move upwards. Resumen: En este artículo exploramos el vínculo entre la distribución personal y funcional de los ingresos a nivel micro. Nos centramos en la crisis económica europea, comparando los ingresos de los hogares europeos en 2007, 2012 y 2014. A lo largo del periodo, la mayoría de los hogares obtuvo ingresos de más de una fuente, existiendo una relación positiva entre ingresos de capital, salario y los ingresos totales del hogar. Encontramos que la distribución funcional, es decir, el tipo de ingreso que un hogar gana, afecta significativamente tanto su posición en la distribución del ingreso como sus posibilidades de movilidad dentro de ella, y ese impacto es amplificado por la crisis. Sin embargo, la geografía de los ingresos de los hogares europeos es mucho más compleja de lo que se suele sugerir. En general, cuanto más dependen de los ingresos laborales, más probable es que los hogares se muevan hacia abajo en la distribución del ingreso. No obstante, esto no implica que los ingresos de capital hicieran más probable la movilidad hacia arriba de los hogares

Upgrading Italy's Industrial Capacity: Industry 4.0 across Regions and Sectors

How are Industry 4.0 investments distributed across Italian regions and sectors? Which are the main drivers of diffusion? To address these questions, in this study we exploit rich firm survey data on the adoption of the new digital technologies and examine their adoption patterns. On the one hand, we produce novel insights into the drivers of structural change in the Italian economy, and on the other, we provide evidence on the technological upgrading of Italy's production capacity that is relevant for policy. The results of econometric tests on region-sector pairs indicate that corporate governance characteristics, innovation patterns and type of industrial relations are significant predictors of the uneven regional and sectoral distribution of Industry 4.0 investments

Donne di classe o classe di donne?

Il femminismo può creare un ponte tra donne di classi sociali diverse? L’Italia, rispetto ad altri paesi europei, mostra una situazione polarizzata: sono di più, rispetto agli uomini, sia le donne single che ricevono esclusivamente redditi da capitale, sia le single che sopravvivono grazie a trasferimenti familiari o statali. Ma interessi di classe e genere in alcuni casi possono corrispondere

La crisi e le riforme del mercato del lavoro in Italia: un’analisi regionale del Jobs Act

This paper provides an analysis of the dynamics of the Italian labor market after the introduction of the Jobs Act analyzing, in particular, the regional dimension. In line with the evidence shown in Fana et al. (2016), we show that, after the Jobs Act, temporary employment increased more than permanent one. Moreover, it emerges as the slight increase in employment is significantly linked to the stabilization of existing contracts rather than the creation of new employment. The dynamics of employment at the regional level is characterized by a significant degree of heterogeneity. However, no specific regional patterns seems to emerge. The empirical analysis is based on data on the labor force (ISTAT) distinguished by regions and on administrative data (INPS) concerning the quantity, quality and duration of employment contracts. 

I lavoratori delle piattaforme digitali in Europa: un’analisi empirica

Il presente lavoro contribuisce alla crescente letteratura sull'economia delle piattaforme fornendo evidenza empirica circa le caratteristiche socio-demografiche e occupazionali di coloro che offrono lavoro attraverso le piattaforme in Francia, Germania, Italia, Paesi Bassi, Polonia, Portogallo, Romania, Slovacchia, Spagna e Svezia. Utilizzando una banca dati originale a livello europeo vengono stimate le ‘determinanti’ della partecipazione all'economia delle piattaforme così da tracciare gli elementi peculiari che caratterizzano il lavoro su piattaforma all'interno del più complessivo perimetro del lavoro non-standard. Inoltre, si verifica in che misura la partecipazione all'economia delle piattaforme tende ad accrescere il grado di vulnerabilità socio-economica percepita da parte degli individui

Trade unions’ responses to Industry 4.0 amid corporatism and resistance

The aim of this paper is to shed light on the paths, directions, and ensuing degrees of technological adoption fostered by trade unions or, alternatively, forms of resistance thereof, in the so called ‘Italian Motor-Valley’, a distinctive technological district located in the outskirts of Bologna, Italy, specialised in the engineering and automotive industry. We find that the introduction of Industry 4.0 technology opens up a new space of action for trade unions in influencing firms’ decisions on technological adoption. However, this new scope can have ambiguous effects, depending on how the process is governed. On the one hand, trade unions’ involvement in said decisions might end up fostering corporatist tendencies, favouring the alignment of workers’ and managers’ objectives. On the other hand, such a major involvement can help both recomposing old forms of dualism and revitalising workers’ role in the crucial issue of work organisation