The European Approach to Culture: the European Heritage Label

Cultural heritage is a topic with many dimensions, often complementary to each other. Even within the European Union, the topic is developed from different perspectives, partly because the European Union’s involvement in the field of culture has developed gradually over the years and with different actions. This chapter, after briefly outlining some of the different European initiatives, aims to provide an analysis of one of the measures adopted by the European Union: the European Heritage Label. This is a rather recent initiative that shows how the member States are fully aware of the potential but also of the limitations there are in managing heritage at European level; for this specific reason, in the Decision by which the European Heritage Label was adopted, there is an explicit reference to the 1972 UNESCO World Heritage Convention, a crucial tool in this field. Starting from a more general approach inherent to the label as a whole, the selected sites in Italy will then be analysed specifically: the Alcide De Gasperi House Museum, the Fort of Cadine, the archaeological area of Ostia Antica and finally the island of Ventotene. Through the study of these heritages, it is possible to have a tangible and practical approach to what is considered cultural heritage within the European Union and which therefore deserves to be protected and disseminated

Ripensare la proprietà a partire dall'accesso

Abstract in italiano La tesi si propone di indagare l’adeguatezza del modello di proprietà tramandatoci dalla tradizione giuridica figlia della Rivoluzione Francese rispetto a fenomeni che negli ultimi anni stanno facendo emergere la prerogativa dell’accesso come autonoma rispetto al diritto di proprietà. Quest’ultimo è infatti schiacciato sullo ius excludendi alios, il quale è passato da mezzo per garantire al proprietario il pacifico godimento del bene a fine dell’istituto proprietario, come ben dimostrano i diffusi casi di proprietà assenteista. La proprietà si presenta oggi come un istituto rigido e cristallizzato, che soltanto reazioni di disobbedienza possono mettere in crisi. In effetti, le questioni che sono affrontate in questo lavoro sono emerse proprio dal contatto con vertenze sociali che hanno posto al centro delle propria prassi politica il tema dei beni comuni, mettendo in rilievo come la proprietà oggi molto spesso qualifichi una posizione di privilegio che non è in alcun modo compensata da scelte del legislatore improntate alla redistribuzione della ricchezza. Guardando alla proprietà con gli occhi del non proprietario emergono contraddizioni sferzanti: la privatizzazione dei beni pubblici per rispondere alla crisi economica e finanziaria, l’assenza di politiche per la casa, il proliferare di spazi pubblici e privati abbandonati a fronte della crisi abitativa e dell’assenza di spazi di condivisione nelle città. In queste vicende, l’attribuzione delle risorse e la gestione di queste sono coniugate in termini di accesso, il quale collega il diritto riconosciuto dall’ordinamento al bene che ne consente, mediante l’utilizzo, la realizzazione. Se si parla di accesso, si pensa all’inclusione e a regole che consentano il suo esercizio con modalità che comunque tengano altresì conto degli interessi delle generazioni future; parallelamente, i processi decisionali che interessano tali beni non possono essere accentrati, ma devono ispirarsi a pratiche partecipative reali e diffuse. Muoversi in questo spazio comporta collocarsi all’opposto della proprietà: le dinamiche cui si è fatto cenno, trovano espressione nella categoria dei beni comuni. Essa consente di abbandonare il discorso proprietario, a favore di un ragionamento legato alle caratteristiche ontologiche dei beni; infatti, troppo spesso la proprietà è stata descritta o come un diritto pieno e assoluto o come un fascio di relazioni tra individui, con poca rilevanza per l’oggetto del diritto. Contemporaneamente, anche nell’ambito della teoria proprietaria è necessario offrire un modello in cui lo ius excludendi possa essere considerato non il modulo centrale dell’istituto, ma una prerogativa che, in presenza di determinate regole e in base alle caratteristiche del bene su cui insiste, possa essere intesa in modo relativo e, laddove necessario, messa da parte a favore dell’accesso dei non proprietari. Abstract in English The thesis aims to investigate the adequacy of the traditional theory of property as it comes from the French Revolution, also considering some recent phenomena that highlight the prerogative of access as independent from the right to property. The latter is in fact crushed on the right to exclude, that is a mean to ensure to the owner the peaceful enjoyment of the property, although it often becomes the end of this institution, as the widespread cases of absentee ownership demonstrate. Property stands today as a rigid and crystallized institution, which only disobedience can put in crisis. The issues that are addressed in this work have emerged from their contact with social disputes that have placed commons at the center of several Italian political practices. Commons highlight how property today very often qualifies a position of privilege, which is not compensated by political choices of a redistribution of wealth. Looking through with the eyes of the owner does not help to emerge scathing contradictions: the privatization of public assets as answer to the economic and financial crisis, the lack of housing policies, the proliferation of public and private left spaces on the front of the housing crisis and the absence of public spaces in the cities. These events ask a new way of thinking the right of property by the concepts of access and inclusion taking into account also the interests of future generations. At the same time, a theory of the commons - that are at the opposite of property - needs a reflection about their governance, the decision-making processes that should be guided by new practices of participation. It is necessary to offer an ownership model in which the right to exclude can not be considered the central module of the institution, but a privilege which can be understood in a relative manner, in the presence of certain rules and based on the characteristics of the owned goods, and, where necessary, set aside in favor of access by non- owners

Fluorescent Nanocrystals Reveal Regulated Portals of Entry into and Between the Cells of Hydra

Initially viewed as innovative carriers for biomedical applications, with unique photophysical properties and great versatility to be decorated at their surface with suitable molecules, nanoparticles can also play active roles in mediating biological effects, suggesting the need to deeply investigate the mechanisms underlying cell-nanoparticle interaction and to identify the molecular players. Here we show that the cell uptake of fluorescent CdSe/CdS quantum rods (QRs) by Hydra vulgaris, a simple model organism at the base of metazoan evolution, can be tuned by modifying nanoparticle surface charge. At acidic pH, amino-PEG coated QRs, showing positive surface charge, are actively internalized by tentacle and body ectodermal cells, while negatively charged nanoparticles are not uptaken. In order to identify the molecular factors underlying QR uptake at acidic pH, we provide functional evidence of annexins involvement and explain the QR uptake as the combined result of QR positive charge and annexin membrane insertion. Moreover, tracking QR labelled cells during development and regeneration allowed us to uncover novel intercellular trafficking and cell dynamics underlying the remarkable plasticity of this ancient organism

Cork-derived hierarchically porous hydroxyapatite with different stoichiometries for biomedical and environmental applications

Hierarchically porous hydroxyapatite derived from cork powder shows excellent performance in biomedicine (low cytotoxicity) and environmental remediation (high Pb2+ removal)