Alessandro Tassoni and His World: Science and Knowledge in Early Modern Italy

This thesis examines the evolution of cosmology in the first half of the seventeenth century through a case study of the erudite Alessandro Tassoni (1565−1635) and his Pensieri diversi (1608−1627), an encylopedia covering scientific, literary, historical, and philosophical topics. Highly successful during the seventeenth century, read even by Galileo Galilei, the Pensieri diversi has received little scholarly attention. However, it offers a significant contribution to our understanding of the evolution of early modern cosmology because it was published during the early seventeenth century when profound changes in representations of the structure of the cosmos were occurring. Specifically, it sheds light on scientific debates in the decades immediately preceding Galileo’s Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo (1632). With his Pensieri diversi, Tassoni facilitated the dissemination of scientific disputes across a wider public of erudite non-specialists by using an easy-to-read question and answer format. Yet, he did not simply reproduce opinions from late medieval thought and contemporaneous cosmological debates but instead offered his own critique. I analyse three key themes from the Pensieri diversi (motion, cosmos and immobility of the Earth). These topics open up more nuanced understanding of those complex issues that, over time, led to epistemological changes in the field of the history of science. In order to point out Tassoni’s contribution to the science of early seventeenth century, I set his scientific and philosophical speculations in their historical and sociological context, and I also provide close textual and theoretical analysis of Tassoni’s cosmological ideas. Thus, I address, more generally, the relationship between scientific and scholarly culture at the dawn of the Scientific Revolution

Framing the Sources of Image of a Local Area through Outcome-Based Dynamic Performance Management

This article investigates the place image concept. It aims to frame major factors impacting on the image of a local area and to suggest associated measures. The adoption of a dynamic approach enables the exploration of four major factors: the level of tourism development, the fit of contextual attributes, the strength of identity, and the level of synergy between public and private sectors. The emerging conceptual model identifies twelve performance indicators driving interdependencies between outputs and outcomes. Such a model eventually is applied to the “Taormina-Etna district” – located in Sicily (Italy) – with the intent to discussing its effectiveness

Dealing with abnormal business growth by leveraging local area common goods: an outside-in stakeholder collaboration perspective

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how for a business located in a local area that does not portray the characteristics of the “Silicon Valley” stereotype, developing a strategy that pretends to autonomously set its boundary spanning may lead to unsustainable growth. Design/methodology/approach: This work suggests Dynamic Performance Management (DPM) as a method to implement an outcome-based view of sustainable development of small- and micro-sized organizations in their own context. A case study shows how collaboration between the public and the business sector may improve local area's outcomes and develop common goods in the context. Findings: Among the “abnormally-grown” small-and-micro businesses, this paper identifies “dwarf” and “small giant” firms as examples of context-based organizations, where an outside-in perspective may support sustainable development. To enable such firms to build up a capability to survive and grow in their contexts, local area common goods can be leveraged to pursue collaborative strategies and generate value. To this end, education may play a crucial role. Results from a fieldwork focused on the design and use of an educational package are illustrated. Practical implications: A change in decision-makers mental models is a prerequisite to introduce the use of “lean” DPM systems as a method to implement an “outside-in” perspective to pursue sustainable development in such organizations. Originality/value: This work has a multidisciplinary track; it uses a simulation-based methodology to understand performance dynamics, to assess policy's sustainability, and to foster a learning-oriented perspective to planning

MILLEPERIFERIE: Percorsi di rigenerazione a guida culturale e creativa per i borghi e le aree interne e marginali

Questo volume accoglie i lavori di ricerca dell’“Osservatorio MILLEPERIFERIE” con l’obiettivo di offrire un punto di vista ampio e plurale sui percorsi di rigenerazione a guida culturale per i borghi e le aree interne e marginali. Per fronteggiare le sfide complesse sottese alla rigenerazione dei borghi e delle aree interne e marginali, il volume discute il contributo che la produzione culturale può offrire per sostenere percorsi autopoietici, che possano favorire una graduale trasformazione della società che consenta una adeguata integrazione tra tradizione e innovazione.La produzione culturale e creativa rappresenta un rilevante campo di indagine per comprendere in che modo le diverse strategie, iniziative e pratiche configurino percorsi in grado di incidere su diversi fattori critici di tipo culturale, ecologico, sociale, politico, istituzionale, tecnologico ed economico, così da rigenerare la comunità nel territorio. MILLEPERIFERIE intende offrire una base programmatica per orientare l’azione rigenerativa dei policy-maker verso lo sviluppo di iniziative culturali in grado di favorire un cambiamento valoriale nella società proteso alla bellezza e alla creatività

Co-produzione di valore nei servizi museali e performance multidimensionali: un approccio dinamico a supporto del management culturale

Context of the research: in small urban centres, the co-production of museum services can be a lever for the generation of public value. Purpose of the paper: the paper aims to illustrate how a multidimensional approach to performance governance can offer a systemic perspective for the identification of managerial, organizational and community outcomes. It aims as well to highlight levers for the improvement of value generation processes in museums and for the benefit of the community. Methodology: the literature on public services co-production was first reviewed. A multidimensional framework was built to analyze the performance of the collaborative context; then it was applied to a case study. Finally, we proceeded to check the proposed propositions. Results: the article highlights how co-production is able to bring additional resources to those held by the institution responsible for the service. Furthermore, from the application of the model to the case, management, organizational and community performance measures emerge. Limitations of the research: the limitations concern the scarce availability of quantitative information to evaluate the effects of the initiative. Practical implications: the identification of performance drivers brings out the effects of the availability of resources on different levels of performance, highlighting the causal connections that reveal the co-production contribution to the outcomes. Originality of the paper: the article develops the Dynamic Multidimensional Performance Governance analytical framework and highlights the contribution that co-production offers to value generation processes in small towns

Enhancing the governance of local areas through Dynamic Performance Management

This doctoral dissertation applies the findings of explanatory studies in the field of Dynamic performance management (DPM) to the public sector. Purpose. This work aims to show how DPM may support decision-makers in outlining sustainable policies for local areas. The study investigates local areas as meta-organizations. Design. The research takes a relativist perspective and investigates social phenomena through a deductive-inductive approach where qualitative research strategies assume a descriptive account in accordance with management science and System Dynamics (SD) tradition. The systematic review of the evolution of management models of public sector organizations sets the ground for arguing the need of DPM to implement public governance in local areas. The weaknesses of a linear approach to performance management underpin this emergence. Two studies support the conclusions of the thesis: i) a descriptive research frames the sources of the image of the “Taormina-Etna tourism district”. The case study discusses what factors drive the local area image. An explanatory analysis further advances the DPM chart into an SD model, which unfolds the effect of the image on tourism presence. ii) An action research uses an SD-based interactive learning environment (ILE) to foster learning of decision-makers in tourism destinations. Findings. The outcome-based DPM frames the sources of the image of a local area by identifying the linkages between output and outcomes, and simulations explain that advertisement campaigns lock system’s performance into better-before-worse dynamics, while addressing structural contextual issues seems to be a sustainable worse-before-better policy. The action research corroborates that SD-based ILEs enable policy-makers to: i) review their mental models, ii) understand strategies’ interdependence, iii) perceive time delays between decision and results; and iv) link short-term with long-term sustainable policies. Implications. The research demonstrates that DPM enhance the governance of a local area, and supports policy-makers in designing and assessing sustainable policies. Causal analysis and simulations allow decision-makers to revise and question their mental models by focusing on the factors affecting performance. Originality. This work mixes a monographic profile of a doctoral thesis with a paper-based dissertation. A theoretical basis is provided by two initial chapters of literature review. This analysis sustains the findings and implications from the field analysis developed into four core chapters. A concluding section remarks theorethical, methodological, and practical findings. The work is multidisciplinary: it is focused on local government issues, it investigates tourism destinations as meta-organizations, it uses a simulation-based methodology to understand performance dynamics, to assess policy’s sustainability, and to foster a learning oriented perspective to planning

Eco-evolutionary effects on population recovery following catastrophic disturbance

Fine-scale genetic diversity and contemporary evolution can theoretically influence ecological dynamics in the wild. Such eco-evolutionary effects might be particularly relevant to the persistence of populations facing acute or chronic environmental change. However, experimental data on wild populations is currently lacking to support this notion. One way that ongoing evolution might influence the dynamics of threatened populations is through the role that selection plays in mediating the ‘rescue effect’, the ability of migrants to contribute to the recovery of populations facing local disturbance and decline. Here, we combine experiments with natural catastrophic events to show that ongoing evolution is a major determinant of migrant contributions to population recovery in Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata). These eco-evolutionary limits on migrant contributions appear to be mediated by the reinforcing effects of natural and sexual selection against migrants, despite the close geographic proximity of migrant sources. These findings show that ongoing adaptive evolution can be a double-edged sword for population persistence, maintaining local fitness at a cost to demographic risk. Our study further serves as a potent reminder that significant evolutionary and eco-evolutionary dynamics might be at play even where the phenotypic status quo is largely maintained generation to generation

Plague Circulation and Population Genetics of the Reservoir Rattus rattus: The Influence of Topographic Relief on the Distribution of the Disease within the Madagascan Focus.

International audienceBACKGROUND: Landscape may affect the distribution of infectious diseases by influencing the population density and dispersal of hosts and vectors. Plague (Yersinia pestis infection) is a highly virulent, re-emerging disease, the ecology of which has been scarcely studied in Africa. Human seroprevalence data for the major plague focus of Madagascar suggest that plague spreads heterogeneously across the landscape as a function of the relief. Plague is primarily a disease of rodents. We therefore investigated the relationship between disease distribution and the population genetic structure of the black rat, Rattus rattus, the main reservoir of plague in Madagascar. METHODOLOGYPRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We conducted a comparative study of plague seroprevalence and genetic structure (15 microsatellite markers) in rat populations from four geographic areas differing in topology, each covering about 150-200 km(2) within the Madagascan plague focus. The seroprevalence levels in the rat populations mimicked those previously reported for humans. As expected, rat populations clearly displayed a more marked genetic structure with increasing relief. However, the relationship between seroprevalence data and genetic structure differs between areas, suggesting that plague distribution is not related everywhere to the effective dispersal of rats. CONCLUSIONSSIGNIFICANCE: Genetic diversity estimates suggested that plague epizootics had only a weak impact on rat population sizes. In the highlands of Madagascar, plague dissemination cannot be accounted for solely by the effective dispersal of the reservoir. Human social activities may also be involved in spreading the disease in rat and human populations

Predation and the Maintenance of Color Polymorphism in a Habitat Specialist Squamate

Multiple studies have addressed the mechanisms maintaining polymorphism within a population. However, several examples exist where species inhabiting diverse habitats exhibit local population-specific polymorphism. Numerous explanations have been proposed for the maintenance of geographic variation in color patterns. For example, spatial variation in patterns of selection or limited gene flow can cause entire populations to become fixed for a single morph, resulting in separate populations of the same species exhibiting separate and distinct color morphs. The mottled rock rattlesnake (Crotalus lepidus lepidus) is a montane species that exhibits among-population color polymorphism that correlates with substrate color. Habitat substrate in the eastern part of its range is composed primarily of light colored limestone and snakes have light dorsal coloration, whereas in the western region the substrate is primarily dark and snakes exhibit dark dorsal coloration. We hypothesized that predation on high contrast color and blotched patterns maintain these distinct color morphs. To test this we performed a predation experiment in the wild by deploying model snakes at 12 sites evenly distributed within each of the two regions where the different morphs are found. We employed a 2×2 factorial design that included two color and two blotched treatments. Our results showed that models contrasting with substrate coloration suffered significantly more avian attacks relative to models mimicking substrates. Predation attempts on blotched models were similar in each substrate type. These results support the hypothesis that color pattern is maintained by selective predation