From social movements to the coproduction of the city: the renewal of the Right to the City in the contemporary making of public spaces. The case of Madrid and Brussels

The article is based on the observation of Madrid and Brussels, where we can find recent similar claims for including each of their citizens in the city-making processes. Although Madrid has no experience in participatory planning, and Brussels is considered as one of Europe’s pioneers in this matter, with more than twenty years of experience, both cities encounter analogous citizen demands and self-organized actions for creating spaces that follow an ideal model that is more in line with some citizens’ requests.These demands range from asking for more possibilities in which citizens express their opinion and ideas about their environment (a new governance), to the requests for disposing of underused spaces for creating socializing places to gather (a new production of the city). Though, these urban social movements as Castells defines (Castells 1973) are not limited to mere demands, but also and nowadays systematically, they tend to pass to action and to hand the leading to empowered citizens.Thanks to crowdfunding, some projects don’t even wait until obtaining a public funding: once the building permit is given (for a permanent or temporary project), the budget for the realization comes from anybody who wills to be a sponsor. The online crowdfunding method can be applied also to crowd-thinking, crowd-creating and crowd-debating about the relevance of the project. Indeed, thanks to online networks and to mobile applications, citizens can not only express their discontent with the poor condition of a street or street furniture, but they can also make proposals and connect to other people to bring a collective solution to the matter.This vast range of means of production of the city in which its citizens struggle to achieve their ideal of a more inclusive city-making process, supposes that the degree of citizen empowerment is also broad. Notwithstanding the fact that the means used by Madrid and Brussels’ citizens to be included in the city-making are so diverse, many of these means claim to embrace a common Henri Lefebvre’s Right to the City.The article retraces the citizen-led and citizen-organized production of public spaces in Madrid and Brussels, intended as places to gather but also as places of discussion about the city-making, during the periods before and after the global crisis of 2008. The idea is to find the ways in which not only the governance is reconsidered to include citizens, but also the urban practices are questioned about their inclination to confine citizen participation only to the preliminary inquiries to a concrete project. Through the exploration of several cases of city-making which include citizens of Madrid and Brussels in the processes, the article questions which kind of Right to the city do they constitute: which are the city models defended by these practices (whose rights to what city? Brenner et al. 2012)? Are they a revision of Lefebvre’s theories in a (global crisis) context? Or are they a reinterpretation of Lefebvre’s Urban Revolution (Harvey 2013) responding to the contemporary withdrawal of the national state of many areas of the social life

Looting in the province of Argentina during the Paraguay War

La guerra del Paraguay tuvo como único escenario en territorio argentino a la provincia de Corrientes. El enfrentamiento de ambos ejércitos generaron múltiples consecuencia entre los correntinos, pero el impacto inmediato fueron los saqueos y destrozos producidos tanto por el ejército paraguayo como por las tropas aliadas. La invasión paraguaya a territorio correntino dejara secuelas importantes en sus habitantes y en el futuro político de la provincia.The province of Corrientes was the only area of the Argentine Republic to witness the depredations of the 1864-1870 Paraguayan War. The confrontations between the Allied and Paraguayan armies fell hard on the Correntino people, and the Paraguayan invasion had significant consequences for the political future of the provinc

Definizione di indici per valutazione e confronto di prestazioni in impianti controllati

Obiettivo della tesi è la verifica di un sistema di monitoraggio automatico della prestazione di anelli di controllo, la definizione di indici ausiliari per consentire il corretto utilizzo delle diverse tecniche implementate e la proposta di un metodo di organizzazione dei dati ed estrazione di informazioni utili

SPH simulations of the waves produced by a falling mass into a reservoir

The characteristics of the waves generated by the falling of a rigid mass or a landslide into a reservoir are simulated via the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) technique. Specific features are introduced to take care of the dynamic equilibrium of the rigid mass and to deal with the non-Newtonian rheology of the landslide. The validation of the SPH technique, applied to this kind of problems, is first carried out making a laboratory experiment of a circular cylinder sinking into a 2D water tank, in order to ease the boundary problem. Then a more general simulation, suitable to deal with masses with general shape, is applied to a rectangular block falling in a tank filled by two liquids with different density and viscosity. The last simulation reproduces the main characteristics of a landslide occurred in Italy in 1959

The Judicial power and the formation of tthe State of Corrientes in the 19th Century

La formación y consolidación del Estado correntino se ha dado paulatinamente al son de las pulsaciones de los tiempos políticos, no ajenos a las revoluciones y movimientos violentos. Precisamente en referencia al Poder Judicial, éste no fue ajeno a aquellas turbulencias que se manifestaron constantemente. Durante el período del siglo XIX, que corresponde al surgimiento del Estado provincial correntino, existe una función dentro de las esferas jurisdiccionales y políticas que adquiere una importancia relevante: el Juez de paz. Vinculado con un fuerte nexo al poder político, era a su vez caja de resonancia inmediata de cada uno de los Departamentos de la Provincia. Las múltiples facetas y facultades que desempeñaba el Juez de paz, lo convertían en el epicentro de casi toda actividad judicial, política, económica, cultural y social de los Departamentos. Si bien el Juez de paz, por su naturaleza constitucional, formaba parte del Poder Judicial, sus facultades desbordaban a aquélla, ramificándose a todos los estratos y funciones del quehacer estadual de la Provincia. Se avocaba a gran parte de las cuestiones de control y participación del Estado.The formation and consolidation of the Corrientes State has gradually taken place to the rhythm of the pulsations of political times, not alien to violent revolutions and movements. Precisely in reference to the Judicial Power, this was not alien to those turbulences that were constantly manifested. During the period of the nineteenth century, which corresponds to the emergence of the provincial state, there is a function within the jurisdictional and political spheres that acquires a relevant importance: the Judge of peace. Linked with a strong link to political power, it was in turn an immediate resonance box for each of the Departments of the Province. The multiple facets and faculties that the Judge of Peace played, made it the epicenter of almost all judicial, political, economic, cultural and social activities of the Departments. Although the Judge of peace, by its constitutional nature, was part of the Judiciary, its powers overflowed to it, branching out to all strata and functions of the state's task of the Province. It addressed a large part of the questions of State control and participatio

The Impact of Mobility Policy and Modal Share to The University Community in Bologna

In the Twentieth century transportation has been one of the most impactful drivers for economic and social development, while nowadays, it appears as a major cause of environmental and social problems. Even worse, the more transportation has become a relevant part in daily life and business, the more it is blamed for problems such as traffic congestion, car accidents, social economic inequality, energy consumption and pollution. Transportation is in fact caught in a vicious circle. Urban planning is forced to reduce transition costs, transforming cities in a sort of social network, and in parallel to orient mobility towards sustainability, both capable to convey socioeconomic development. Within this context, the University of Bologna has chosen a sustainable approach for its Multi-campus territorial structure, applying several sustainable mobility policies regarding public transportation, cycling, electric/hybrid car fleet and walking accessibility. The paper purpose is to show significative links between sustainable policy application and modal share, using data from an online survey submitted to university staff and students. Even gender influence on modal share has been investigated

Proteomic analysis of skin invasion by blood fluke larvae.

BackgroundDuring invasion of human skin by schistosome blood fluke larvae (cercariae), a multicellular organism breaches the epidermis, basement membrane, and dermal barriers of skin. To better understand the pathobiology of this initial event in schistosome infection, a proteome analysis of human skin was carried out following invasion by cercariae of Schistosoma mansoni.Methodology and resultsHuman skin samples were exposed to cercariae for one-half hour to two hours. Controls were exposed to water used to collect cercariae in an identical manner, and punctured to simulate cercarial tunnels. Fluid from both control and experimental samples was analyzed by LC/MS/MS using a linear ion trap in "triple play" mode. The coexistence of proteins released by cercariae and host skin proteins from epidermis and basement membrane confirmed that cercarial tunnels in skin were sampled. Among the abundant proteins secreted by cercariae was the cercarial protease that has been implicated in degradation of host proteins, secreted proteins proposed to mediate immune invasion by larvae, and proteins implicated in protection of parasites against oxidative stress. Components of the schistosome surface tegument, previously identified with immune serum, were also released. Both lysis and apoptosis of epidermal cells took place during cercarial invasion of the epidermis. Components of lysed epidermal cells, including desmosome proteins which link cells in the stratum granulosum and stratum spinosum, were identified. While macrophage-derived proteins were present, no mast cell or lymphocyte cytokines were identified. There were, however, abundant immunoglobulins, complement factors, and serine protease inhibitors in skin. Control skin samples incubated with water for the same period as experimental samples ensured that invasion-related proteins and host protein fragments were not due to nonspecific degeneration of the skin samples.ConclusionsThis analysis identified secreted proteins from invasive larvae that are released during invasion of human skin. Analysis of specific host proteins in skin invaded by cercariae served to highlight both the histolytic events facilitating cercarial invasion, and the host defenses that attempt to arrest or retard invasion. Proteins abundant in psoriatic skin or UV and heat-stressed skin were not abundant in skin invaded by cercariae, suggesting that results did not reflect general stress in the surgically removed skin specimen. Abundant immunoglobulins, complement factors, and serine protease inhibitors in skin form a biochemical barrier that complements the structural barrier of the epidermis, basement membrane, and dermis. The fragmentation of some of these host proteins suggests that breaching of host defenses by cercariae includes specific degradation of immunoglobulins and complement, and either degradation of, or overwhelming the host protease inhibitor repertoire