Time, Discipline and Subjectivity: Performing Arts Worker Mobilisations in Italy during the Pandemic

Based on the results of a qualitative study, this article aims to contribute to the debate on collective mobilisations, using the example of the labour struggles of Italian artists during the Covid-19 pandemic. The conditions typical to performing arts workers, such as precariousness, self-employment, individualisation, self-exploitation, social fragmentation, and geographical dispersion, have long been associated with low probabilities of collective mobilisation. In Italy, however, in the context of the numerous labour-related conflicts that emerged during the pandemic, mobilisations by performing arts workers were some of the most intense, widespread, and sustained. Addressing this counterintuitive finding and drawing on mobilisation theory, this article aims to identify the sources of conflict and antagonism of this mobilisation, and to investigate the factors and circumstances underlying it. We argue that the collective action of artists was motivated by a number of factors: a simultaneous mass experience of economic vulnerability and social insecurity; the breakdown of disciplinary mechanisms in artistic work; and the greater availability of “free time”. The findings shed new light on the mobilisation of precarious workers in work contexts characterised by disciplinary regimes based on subjective participation, self-exploitation and consensus

Nella palude delle migrazioni maltesi. Detenzione amministrativa, centri di accoglienza e mercato del lavoro

This article analyzes Maltese immigration policies and, especially, the relationship between migration governance and the segmentation of the local labor market. This article stresses that the intersection of the multiplication of legal statuses (refugees, asylum seekers, irregular), the spatial and social confinement of migrants and their indefinite stay on the island become the instruments that regulate the conditions of access and permanence of migrants in the local labour market. Following borders studies, the article assesses the concept of "Fortress Europe" showing how the Maltese case has some peculiarities that make it different from other European countries, especially for its function of island of migrant detention. Maltese borders and, by extension, the European southern border, appear thus "a funnel", where immigrants can enter but from which it is very difficult to get out. Migrants, rather than being rejected by a "Fortress", are trapped in a swamp. The research is the result of a participant observation lasted about three months, between January and April 2014

Precari dello spettacolo. Elementi per una ricomposizione

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Time, Discipline and Subjectivity: Performing Arts Worker Mobilisations in Italy during the Pandemic

Based on the results of a qualitative study, this article aims to contribute to the debate on collective mobilisations, using the example of the labour struggles of Italian artists during the Covid-19 pandemic. The conditions typical to performing arts workers, such as precariousness, self-employment, individualisation, self-exploitation, social fragmentation, and geographical dispersion, have long been associated with low probabilities of collective mobilisation. In Italy, however, in the context of the numerous labour-related conflicts that emerged during the pandemic, mobilisations by performing arts workers were some of the most intense, widespread, and sustained. Addressing this counterintuitive finding and drawing on mobilisation theory, this article aims to identify the sources of conflict and antagonism of this mobilisation, and to investigate the factors and circumstances underlying it. We argue that the collective action of artists was motivated by a number of factors: a simultaneous mass experience of economic vulnerability and social insecurity; the breakdown of disciplinary mechanisms in artistic work; and the greater availability of “free time”. The findings shed new light on the mobilisation of precarious workers in work contexts characterised by disciplinary regimes based on subjective participation, self-exploitation and consensus.<br /

Infrared fluorescence of Xe2 molecules in electron/proton beam excited pure Xe gas and in an Ar/Xe gas mixture

We report experimental results of proton- and electron-beam-induced near-infrared fluorescence in high-pressure Xe gas and in a 90% Ar\u201310% Xe gaseous mixture at room temperature. The investigated wavelength band spans the range 0.7\u2a7d\u3bb\u2a7d1.8 \u3bcm. In the previously unexplored range for \u3bb\u2a7e1.05 \u3bcm we have detected a broad continuum near-infrared fluorescence centered at \u3bb 481.3 \u3bcm. The continuum shifts towards longer wavelengths as pressure is increased up to 1.5 MPa. The shift is quantitatively different in pure Xe or in the mixture, but qualitatively similar. We believe that this continuum is produced by a bound-free Xe2 excimer transition in a way similar to the well-known first and second vacuum ultraviolet continua of noble gas excimers. The pressure-dependent shift can then be explained by the interaction of the outer electron in the excimer with the atoms of the host gas

High-resolution electrical imaging of the Varco d’Izzo earthflow (southern Italy).

Geoelectrical prospecting techniques have been applied in the study of the Varco d’Izzo landslide, one of the most interesting of its type. It is characterized by a rototranslational movement in the early stage and successively has undergone earthflow-type movement, which still continues today. This landslide is located in the Southern Apennine area near the city of Potenza (Italy). In particular, electrical resistivity tomographies (ERT) and self-potential surveys (SP) have been carried out by combining modern technologies for data acquisition and new methods for data inversion. The high resolution of the electrical tomographic images helped us to accurately describe the geometry of this landslide body. Joint interpretation of geophysical, geological and geomorphological data allowed us to identify the sliding surface, estimate the thickness of the mobilized material and describe the main patterns of the subsurface fluid flows in Varco d’Izzo landslid