Search

In the model-based clustering literature, we find several methodologies to study latent structures underlying the data, among which mixtures of factor analyzers. However, none of them can detect hierarchical relationships among latent variables. The Ultrametric Gaussian Mixture Model (UGMM) is intended to reach this goal by identifying a hierarchy of variables, starting by partitioning the variables into a reduced number of groups per mixture component. Nonetheless, up to now, it requires complete observations, which is often not the case in real data collections. In this paper, we propose the extension of UGMM in the missing data framework. The proposal is applied to a real data set for inspecting the relationships among features of songs of different genres.

Multidimensional phenomena are usually characterized by nested latent dimensions associated, in turn, with observed variables. These phenomena, for instance, poverty, well-being, and sustainable development, can often differ across countries, or cities within countries, in terms of dimensions, other than in their relationships to each other, on the one hand, and their importance in the definition of the general concept, on the other hand. This paper discusses several parsimonious structures of the covariance matrix reconstructing relationships among variables which can be implemented in Gaussian mixture models to study complex phenomena in heterogeneous populations.

Road accidents represent a concern for modern societies, especially in poor and developing countries. In this paper, we develop a road safety model assuming that the car crashes recorded in Milan (Italy) during 2019 can be appropriately modelled as a realisation of a spatio-temporal point process on a linear network. We adopt a separable first-order intensity function with spatial and temporal components. The temporal dimension is estimated semi-parametrically using an additive Poisson regression model. The spatial dimension is estimated semi-parametrically considering a b-spline transformation of two potentially relevant space-varying covariates, namely the traffic flows and the distance to the closest road sign. This approach permits us to analyse traffic accidents at a very granular spatial scale, hence avoiding potential biases due to data aggregation.

The previous industrial revolutions have profoundly changed the world we live in, bringing prosperity but also affecting workers’ well-being. Today, the advent of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence has enabled what scholars call datafication, and experts posit that these technologies will reduce inequalities and make work effortless. However, other authors have opposite positions. In the present theoretical work, modern forms of labor, increasingly relying on data analysis, are interpreted through the framework of objectification. Integrating different disciplinary perspectives, we propose that workers can be seen as raw material from which to extract information, leading to the rise of Digital Taylorism. Therefore, it is necessary to question the psychological costs of adopting these technologies in the workplace: will workers feel more like data than persons? The present paper attempts to answer this question, anticipating the consequences of a digital revolution that is changing work environments and providing insights for future research.

Il presente saggio intende ricostruire la disciplina della gestione commissariale delle cooperative, anche alla luce delle importanti novità derivanti dal codice della crisi d’impresa e dell’insolvenza. Nello scritto si colloca la gestione commissariale tra i diversi provvedimenti che il Ministero delle imprese e del made in Italy può disporre in presenza di irregolarità riferibili alle cooperative e si analizzano specialmente i poteri del commissario governativo nell’organizzazione della cooperativa commissariata., This essay intends to reconstruct the law of the commissioner management of cooperatives, also in light of the important innovations deriving from the code of business crisis and insolvency. In the paper the commissioner management is placed among the various measures applicable to irregular cooperatives by the Ministry of enterprises and made in Italy and the power of the government commissioner is fully analysed.

Questo contributo si propone di indagare e ricostruire - analizzando i numeri della rivista "La Coltura Popolare" - l'importante ruolo svolto dalla Società Umanitaria nella diffusione dell'educazione all'aperto come diritto dei bambini, in un periodo molto vivace e pedagogicamente significativo della storia milanese. L’articolo si concentra su due focus principali: il primo è la promozione delle scuole all'aperto, con l'accurata riflessione e sistematizzazione dei principali esempi italiani ed europei accolta nelle pagine della citata rivista; il secondo è l'impegno della Società Umanitaria nella diffusione del metodo Montessori come approccio che mette in particolare rilievo il valore dell'outdoor education. Come si evince dai numerosi stralci di articoli qui proposti, il dibattito sull'educazione all’aperto di inizio Novecento, con il suo prezioso patrimonio di intuizioni e pratiche talvolta pionieristiche, offre un valido riferimento a chi intenda porsi con maggiore consapevolezza nei confronti dell'outdoor education così come viene concepita e praticata oggi., This contribution aims to investigate and reconstruct-analysing the issues of the magazine “La Coltura Popo-lare”-the important role played by the Società Umanitaria in the spread of outdoor education as a children’s right, during a very lively and pedagogically significant period of the Milanese history. The paper will be con-centrated on two main focuses: the first is the promotion of open-air schools, with the accurate reflection and systematization of the main Italian and European examples as hosted in the pages of the aforementioned journal; the latter is the Società Umanitaria’s commitment to disseminating the Montessori method as an approach that underlines the value of outdoor education. As can be seen through the numerous excerpts from the journal articles proposed here, the debate on outdoor education at the beginning of the Twentieth century, with its precious heritage of insights and sometimes pioneering practices, offers a valuable reference for gaining a deeper awareness of outdoor education as it is conceived and practiced today.

Tema del presente scritto è la disciplina (legale e negoziale) del procedimento assembleare nelle cooperative, il cui contenuto dovrebbe essere ripensato tenendo conto sia del necessario carattere democratico di queste società sia dello sviluppo tecnologico intervenuto negli ultimi decenni. Tesi di questo scritto è che un’adeguata riscrittura della predetta disciplina ci consegnerà cooperative più democratiche e imprese più mutualistiche., This article focuses on the legal and contractual regulation regarding the assembly procedure in cooperatives, the content of which should be rethought taking into account both the necessary democratic nature of these companies and the technological development that has occurred in recent decades. The thesis of this paper is that an adequate rewriting of the aforementioned regulation will deliver us cooperatives more democratic and enterprises more mutualistic.

For some years now, the term big data has become common in many fields, even outside of the computer science community, primarily thanks to the informative contribution that data - if properly processed - can provide to organizations and companies to support the decision-making process. What does big data mean? What does it mean to process them through artificial intelligence? Mostly, what does extracting value from data would mean? This paper addresses some of these questions to clarify technical elements for non-experts, discussing some critical elements and points of future attention.

The paper investigates the inclusive value that a sport climbing context can represent for blind and visually impaired adolescents through data from a qualitative research conducted by the University of Milano-Bicocca. From the perspective of Embodied Pedagogy the article highlights both the pivotal components of the materiality of sport climbing and the pedagogical relevance that the experience of these elements can assume for an adolescent with visual impairment.

The global pandemic caused by the Covid-19 virus and the measures taken to face it have upset the organization of individual and collective existence, with respect to time, spaces, relationships and habits that marked our daily life. Therefore, also schools and educational services are in the middle of a sudden change that has affected both education professionals (educators, teachers) and pupils. The pandemic situation has suddenly shown that it is necessary to orient educational and social reflection to the links existing between spheres of existence usually considered as separate. The reference to adult education is significant, because the tenets of dualist and anthropocentric thought appear more deeply rooted in adult subjects. Our proposal is to reassemble the human with the environment through a perspective we termed “Ecologies of Education”, that will be discussed by the present paper.

Nella società contemporanea la pedagogia deve misurarsi con l’affermazione su larga scala di paradigmi di tipo medico-sanitario. Questi, infatti, da tempo sono penetrati massicciamente anche nei contesti educativi, condizionando gli sguardi e le pratiche che in essi hanno luogo. Tanto la scuola quanto i servizi alla persona sono oggi pervasi da linguaggi e categorie che rispondono a logiche e saperi di tipo psichiatrico che non di rado producono effetti di patologizzazione e normalizzazione dei soggetti (studenti, educandi) che manifestano per diverse ragioni irregolarità della condotta. Gli stessi professionisti dell’educazione (docenti, pedagogisti, formatori, educatori, operatori sociali e socio-sanitari) non sempre sembrano pienamente consapevoli di quanto queste logiche di natura extra-pedagogica incidano in profondità sul lavoro educativo e sui modi attraverso cui i soggetti sono detti, pensati, trattati. Questa tendenza appare ancora più evidente e marcata nei servizi – come, ad esempio, quelli rivolti a persone con problemi di dipendenza e di salute mentale – che ospitano individui considerati “devianti”, “anormali”, “irregolari”. Individui che tradizionalmente sono sottoposti a pratiche di riabilitazione sociale, sanitaria, psichiatrica che incorporano al contempo istanze di cura, di normalizzazione e di controllo sociale. A partire da un’esperienza di supervisione pedagogica realizzata dagli Autori in alcuni servizi per soggetti tossicodipendenti con diagnosi psichiatrica, il paper intende riflettere criticamente sull’inattualità dello sguardo pedagogico e sul ruolo che esso può svolgere nel riorientare linguaggi, logiche e prassi dei servizi, al fine di promuovere in essi una prospettiva specificamente educativa, capace di prevenire derive patologizzanti e di rielaborare e problematizzare gli effetti formativi dei dispositivi in atto.

This paper reproduces, with some notes, the report at the conference "The dialogue between constitutional law and ecclesiastical law" of 3 November 2022 at the University of Siena. Starting from a constitutional bill presented by Lelio Basso in 1972, the essay tries to understand the evolution of the principle of secularism in recent decades and the relationship between secularism, the principle of tolerance and the protection of freedom of conscience and expression.

La Chiesa cattolica nei primi anni del secondo dopoguerra acquista un ruolo preponderante nell’organizzazione delle colonie di vacanza, prendendo possesso di un’ampia parte delle ex strutture fasciste. Questo contributo presenta le principali coordinate storiche, pedagogiche e organizzative che caratterizzano le iniziative delle istituzioni pontificie negli anni 1945-1960; nell’ultima parte del lavoro si propone un accenno sulla Colonia pontificia bresciana Leone XIII di Cesenatico (1952)., On Holidays with the Pope. The Pedagogy of the Pca-Poa Holiday Camps (1945-1960) The Catholic Church in the first years after World War 2 acquired a preponderant role in the organisation of holiday camps, taking over a large part of the former fascist structures. This contribution presents the main historical, pedagogical and organisational coordinates that characterised the initiatives of the pontifical institutions in the period 1945-1960; in the last part of the paper there is an introduction to the Colonia pontificia bresciana Leone XIII in Cesenatico (1952).

Questo scritto mira a indagare il rapporto tra potere pubblico e piattaforme digitali, nella prospettiva di una loro crescente collaborazione nel contrasto a fenomeni quali la disinformazione, i contenuti antiscientifici e i discorsi d’odio. Mira altresì a sottolineare le questioni di rilievo costituzionale che tale cooperazione può porre nonché le vie alternative che si possono prendere in esame., This paper aims to investigate the relationship between public power and digital platforms, with a view to their growing collaboration in the fight against phenomena such as disinformation, anti-scientific content and hate speech. It also aims to underline the constitutional issues that such cooperation can raise as well as the alternative ways that can be considered.

Parent-teacher conferences (PTCs) are important institutional encounters to promote a constructive dialogue and alliance between the school and the family system. However, cooperation between parents and institutional actors is not always straightforward, especially in the case of foreign parents. Because of the unequal familiarity of the latter with the institutional frameworks and language resources needed to participate effectively in PTCs, foreign parents risk having less communicative resources to rely on in the joint construction of the interaction. In this paper we focus on eight PTCs with foreign parents, paying attention to occurrences where children’s learning difficulties are linked by teachers to their language skills. Using a conversation analysis framework, we will observe how language issues are intertwined with cultural, identity, and moral aspects that need special attention in order to enhance and support the effective construction of educational alliances between schools and families.

After many years of conflict, Northern Ireland still appears today as a deeply divided society that bears the marks of centuries of ethnic hostility with a strong religious connotation. The context in which, more than any other, the segregationist tension between the two communities, Protestant and Catholic, is still clearly perceivable is the education system, which is characterized by a significant separation of students according to their religious affiliation. The paper aims at reconstructing the origins and outlining the focal points of such an education system, which was recently brought to the attention of the Northern Ireland Supreme Court, with reference to discrimination against students belonging to other religions or beliefs.

This paper deals with some classes of Kirchhoff type problems on a double phase setting and with nonlinear boundary conditions. Under general assumptions, we provide multiplicity results for such problems in the case when the perturbations exhibit a suitable behavior in the origin and at infinity, or when they do not necessarily satisfy the Ambrosetti–Rabinowitz condition. To this aim, we combine variational methods, truncation arguments and topological tools.

La sentenza in commento ribadisce la posizione della giurisprudenza di legittimità in merito alla rilevanza dei proventi di reato nella formazione della base imponibile del contribuente e alla necessità di adempiere ai conseguenti obblighi dichiarativi. Il contributo, ricostruito l’iter motivazionale del collegio giudicante, evidenzia alcune possibili criticità di una siffatta lettura relativamente alle esigenze di autodifesa del singolo, rivolgendo altresì uno sguardo più generale alla prassi giudiziaria in ordine al principio nemo tenetur se detegere., The judgment under review confirms the position of the Italian Supreme Court concerning the relevance of the proceeds of crime in the formation of the contributor’s tax base and the need to fulfil the resulting obligations. After reconstructing the judicial decision making process followed by the court, the paper highlights some possible critical aspects of such an approach in relation to the individual’s right to self-defence and moves on to consider, more in general, Italian case law with regard to the principle of nemo tenetur se detegere.

Recent crises in Europe and beyond have renewed a longstanding debate on the status and treatment of refugees. Hannah Arendt famously questioned the limits of universalistic human rights discourse based on the widespread phenomena of statelessness and displacement that emerged during and after World War II. In this paper, we analyze recent patterns of inclusion and exclusion of refugees in Italy through the lens of Arendtian narrative and theorizing. We consider three cases of interaction between families, schools, and other public institutions in light of the shifting normative framework before and during the war in Ukraine. Two major insights emerge from this analysis. From a pedagogical point of view, the most promising educational practices with refugees are those centered on enabling their agency and corresponding experiences of “natality”. From an ethical-political perspective, these practices highlight a latent tension between the universalistic scope of human rights enshrined in the human rights declarations and their structural dependence on the particular norms and procedures enacted by nation states. The understanding and teaching of human rights within our political communities is inseparable from the practices that engage with refugees. In this sense, our practices of inclusion and exclusion affect the understanding of national borders as a barrier or threshold with other political communities, but also the interpretation of our own ethical-political principles.

La sentenza n. 131 del 2022 della Corte costituzionale chiude finalmente la questione dell’attribuzione del cognome, sostituendo la regola della trasmissione del solo cognome paterno con quella della trasmissione del cognome di entrambi i genitori, salvo loro diverso accordo. La nota ricostruisce il quadro giurisprudenziale precedente e si sofferma sull’uso peculiare dell’autorimessione, a cui la Corte ha fatto ricorso allo scopo di stimolare un intervento del Parlamento e al contempo di poter giudicare la regola generale di attribuzione del cognome., Constitutional Court’s judgement no. 131 of 2022, at long last, settles the question relating to the attribution of the surname: it replaces the rule imposing the assignment of the father’s surname to a child with the rule imposing the assignment of both parent’s surnames, unless they otherwise agreed. The paper reconstructs the former constitutional jurisprudence; then it analyzes how the Court raised a question of constitutional legitimacy before itself, in order to encourage the intervention of Parliament as well as to be able to judge the general rule on the surname attribution.

Parenthood is the legal relationship between a child and the child’s parents and recently EU citizens are establishing this relationship through consent or intended parent agreements, without any genetic link. The new concept is known in case law as social parenthood and can be traced in different scenarios: same sex couples’ adoption; artificial reproduction; surrogacy; postmortem fertilization. The paper will investigate if the lack of a common notion of social parenthood can constitute an obstacle for the free movement of citizens and analyze the recent case V.M.A. v Pancharevo of the Court of Justice of the European Union.

This paper aims at investigating a perspective for the social impact measurability by collecting and analysing open data at the international level. Our goal is to shed light on the unlocked potential of the knowledge produced by a global community of scholars and practitioners engaged in social impact measurement processes. Global open data on social impact assessment (SIA) have been mapped and collected in a database using the impact chain as a reference point for choosing the variables. In this paper, we focus on the potential use of these data to enable forecasting analysis about the expected social value and to inform decision-making processes aimed at responding to complex social challenges. The early findings suggest the opportunity of a wider action-research initiative, by engaging different typologies of stakeholders and organizations aimed at incorporating social impact as a key strategic driver.

This paper has two main objectives: first to show that new data base technologies (DB) like graph data bases can enable the efficient design and implementation of network-based models, second that this type of models enables new insights on biomedical data and in particular prescription patterns allowing to link data about patients, prescriptions and prescriber. Albeit the application domain is potentially the whole field of health care data, the focus of this paper is on prescription patterns and specifically of antibiotics whose prescription pattern is difficult to analyze due to the antibiotics resistance. This problem can take advantage of the approach proposed: a network-based model, specifically suitable for community-based medicine, which is a suitable framework for antibiotics prescription and resistance analysis.

Il contributo intende esplorare il rischio della violenza sotteso alle micro-pratiche educative (fatte di piccoli e silenziosi gesti e parole) dalla prospettiva del corporal punishment (UN Commitee on the Rights of the Child, 2006). L’attenzione è rivolta a quelle pratiche quotidiane – connesse con le routines, quali il pranzo, il gioco e l’igiene personale – che hanno uno specifico valore educativo nei termini del riconoscimento della dignità e del rispetto delle bambine e dei bambini. L’articolo guarda alle micro-pratiche pedagogiche dalla più ampia finestra della violenza all’infanzia (Hamby, Grych, 2013), per discutere le connessioni esistenti tra violenza e educazione (Biffi, Macinai, 2020), dove l’umiliazione e la denigrazione del bambino e della bambina sono viste come componenti di una modalità punitiva inaccettabile, che dimostra quanto possa essere sottile il confine tra violenza e educazione (Schermi, 2016). Infine, il contributo analizza il percorso verso l’abolizione delle punizioni corporali, dedicando specifica attenzione alla formazione degli insegnanti per prevenire e combattere la violenza all’infanzia, che inizia condividendo uno stile educativo coerente e rispettoso tra scuola e famiglia., The paper aims at exploring the risk of violence underneath some small and silent practices (made by gestures, and words) within educational contexts, which can reasonably be considered as part of the general framework for corporal punishments (UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2006). The attention is, indeed, focused on those daily practices – connected with the main routines, such as lunchtime, playtime, and the practices related to personal hygiene – which have a specific educational value in terms of respect and recognition of the dignity of the child. The essay therefore reconsiders these typologies of smallest gestures from the wider perspective of violence against children (Hamby, Grych, 2013), in order to discuss the connections that exist between violence and education (Biffi, Macinai, 2020), where humiliation and denigration of the child is considered as part of an unacceptable punishment that demonstrates how thin the border between violence and education can be (Schermi, 2016). Finally, the paper will take stock of the path towards the elimination of all corporal punishment, with a specific focus on the role of teachers training in preventing and fighting violence against children, beginning from the sharing of a coherent and respectful educational style, between family and school.

Il contributo analizza il caso dell’internamento amministrativo coatto di minori e/o di adozione forzata in Svizzera, nel periodo 1930-1981. Questo provvedimento riguardava bambini abbandonati, figli di divorziati, figli di madri vedove, nubili o separate, figli di famiglie povere, ed era eseguito in molti casi in maniera arbitraria: esso causava sovente situazioni di violenza, abuso, sfruttamento nei confronti dei bambini, sia negli istituti sia nelle famiglie adottanti. I racconti dei superstiti descrivono punizioni corporali, umiliazioni, violenze, anche psicologiche. Il contributo mostra come, a partire dal 2009, in Svizzera siano stati avviati un processo molto complesso di riabilitazione delle vittime e un percorso di giustizia riparativa, che hanno suscitato un dibattito vivace e interrogativi ancora da risolvere., The paper reflects on the case of forced administrative internment of minors or forced adoption in Switzerland, from 1930 to 1981. This measure was carried out in many cases arbitrarily: it often caused situations of violence, abuse, exploitation toward children, in an institution, and adopting families. The survivor’s stories describe corporal punishments, humiliations, and even psychological violence. The paper shows how, since 2009, a very complex victim rehabilitation process began in Switzerland and a restorative justice path has been implemented, but many questions still remain to be resolved, however.

The paper presents the work done during the two editions of the Summer School that took place in Lampedusa in 2017 and 2018, organized by the Italian Association of Sociology - Environment and Territory Section. The aim of the paper is twofold. Firstly, it aims to illustrate the results of the data analysis and field observation carried out by the participants of the School. They consist of a multi-faceted description of the Island, with special attention to its different populations (residents, city users and especially migrants), and of some resulting project proposals. Secondly, the essay aims to promote a practice based on study and training, which is typical of the sociological analysis of territory, and that can provide useful insight on the studied places and to the people of Lampedusa, within a broader vision of justice and social sustainability.

The Rule of law principle represents one of the most important pillars of the Common European Heritage. This paper intends to study the contribution offered by the Venice Commission, the advisory constitutional body of the Council of Europe, to the protection and dissemination of the Rule of Law principle among its Member States. After outlining the identified benchmarks of the Rule of Law principle in Europe, the paper studies the Commission’s practical approach towards its Member States. The rationale of the research is to demonstrate the ever increasing relevance of the Venice Commission as a soft law body in the international scenario and its fundamental contribution to the identification and implementation of the Rule of Law in Europe.

On the first of January 2020, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) amended regulation 14 of the MARPOL Convention, Annex VI, regarding the prevention of atmospheric pollution from ships. More in particular, the revised text of the disposition provides a new delimitation of the percentage of Sulphur contained in the oil used by ships from 3,5% m/m to 0,5% m/m. The introduction of new international prescription (“IMO 2020”) aims to reduce the environmental impact of shipping activities. While the consequences of “IMO 2020” are constantly analyzed from an economical perspective, until now few attention was paid to the legal relevance of the adoption of this international rule. This paper deals with the implications of “IMO 2020” to the international legal system on the prevention of pollution from ships. Following a brief description of the aforementioned international legal framework, this paper analyzes the normative content of “IMO 2020” and its enforcement through States actions. Finally, it reports some conclusions regarding the possible consequences deriving from the entry into force of such new limit of Sulphur emissions provided by MARPOL Convention Annex VI.

In the present paper, we address the problem of prediction within the setting of species sampling models. We consider d populations composed of different species with unknown proportions. Our goal is to predict specific features of additional and unobserved samples from the d populations by adopting a Bayesian nonparametric model. We focus on a broad class of hierarchical priors. These were introduced and investigated in[1], where also an algorithm for drawing predictions is devised, however, without any specific numerical illustration. The aim of this paper is twofold: on the one hand, we provide an illustration with an actual implementation of the algorithm of[1] and, on the other hand, we discuss its relevance with respect to complex prediction problems with species sampling data.

This paper aims to deal with some stages of the debate about original citizenship in the tradition of the ius commune and canon law. In this perspective, it focuses on citizens by birth in the place of paternal origin (ius sanguinis) and their own (ius loci). Native-born citizenship is immutable, and is connected to the domicile in the place (or places) of origin. Citizens, however, can move freely and establish their domicile elsewhere. This kind of domicile is distinct from the citizenship, because it is voluntary and changeable. One can therefore live in more places. What happens if a citizen permanently lives outside his place of origin? To what obligations is he still bound in his place of origin? May he continue to enjoy the rights, benefits and privileges linked to the status of civis originarius? In the first part of the survey, the doctrines of citizenship and domicile elaborated by Nicolaus Tudeschis and Marianus Socinus sr are examined. The paper focuses on the patrimonial rights of the original citizens living elsewhere, taking into consideration some consilia of Franciscus Zabarella, Marianus Socinus sr, Iohannes Cephalus, Alexander Tartagnus. In the second part of the essay, it is shown that in the early modern age alternative theories emerged regarding the renunciation and loss of original citizenship by citizens moving permanently elsewhere. The paper deals with the debate in three territorial contexts (the Kingdom of Naples, the Kingdom of France, the German Empire) and identifies new theories with respect to the tradition of canon law and the ius commune, which is analyzed in the first part of the research.

L’impatto delle attività antropiche sui cambiamenti climatici ha indotto diversi studiosi ad affermare che ci troviamo in una nuova era geologica, definita sulla scorta del lavoro di Paul J. Crutzen come “Antropocene”. L’ipotesi da cui prende le mosse il paper è che l’odierna crisi ecologica sia anche e allo stesso tempo una crisi culturale. Essa infatti non chiama in causa solamente gli effetti dei comportamenti individuali e collettivi sugli ecosistemi, ma anche le premesse ontologiche, epistemologiche, etiche, politiche che sottostanno a tali comportamenti. Ciò significa che per affrontare la crisi ambientale occorre problematizzare i paradigmi dominanti – improntati prevalentemente a una logica antropocentrica – e assumere nuove prospettive di ricerca, di azione e di pensiero che permettano di sperimentare inedite forme di vita, nonché di imparare come poter abitare il mondo attraverso linguaggi e pratiche ecologicamente sostenibili. Si tratta di inscriversi in quell’asse di trasformazione della realtà contemporanea che Rosi Braidotti ha chiamato “divenire terra”, espressione con cui la filosofa indica il riposizionamento dinamico dell’anthropos nella biosfera. Nel paper si esplorerà dunque l’asse del “divenire terra”, al fine di mostrarne le implicazioni educative e di mettere in luce il contributo della pedagogia al mutamento paradigmatico in atto.

Luigi Ferrajoli, in his work La logica del diritto. Dieci aporie nell’opera di Hans Kelsen (2016), pointed out ten aporias in Hans Kelsen’s pure theory of law. This paper deals with the fifth aporia, that is the of Kelsen’s concept of a “norm”. The paper firstly distinguishes two different questions on the concept of a norm underlying the pure theory of law: the question “What is a norm?”, and the question “What has the meaning of a norm within a legal system?”; it secondly distinguishes three different levels of interpretation of a norm: (i) interpretation of the semantic meaning of norm sentences, (ii) interpretation of the subjective intrinsic pragmatic meaning of the norm creating act; (iii) interpretation of the extrinsic objective normative meaning of the norm creating act; it thirdly suggests that the existence of a norm is the ideal (ideel) existence of a meaning, not the empirical existence of an act.

This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of the relationship between the mixed methods approach and the evaluation field, with an overall look at the international social science area. Analysing a set of papers that make use of mixed methods, a reflection on the prevalence of the evaluation field is presented. Text analysis through the Structural Topic Model (STM) technique allows to extract topics from a corpus of documents. Findings show how the evaluation filed has a relevant role within the area of studies that use a mixed methods approach. Evaluation emerges indeed as a topic itself. Moreover, relationships among evaluation and other disciplinary fields wherein mixed methods are used can be highlighted. The overview presented in this study allows to look at trends within the mixed methods approach in social science and within evaluation, as well as intersections between the two areas.

The paper aims to introduce the reflection upon the Mixed Methods (MM) approach and evaluation research that will be attained in the following contributions. It is by now largely recognised how rarely one single evaluation strategy may fully capture the entire complexity of social phenomena happening in the “real” world. Nowadays, many recognise that combining different strategies and techniques within one evaluative process it is more efficient than using conventional evaluation approaches with a single research strategy. This article recomposes the developments of a need for a MM approach in Italy. Moreover, other papers in this special issue are briefly presented by identifying a common thread, represented by the reflection suggested in the paper by Jennifer Greene.

Over the last fifteen years, and especially following the economic crisis, the Southern European states have introduced a large number of reforms, on the one hand, to increase their competitiveness and encourage economic development and, on the other, to rationalize the «state’s side» of the welfare state, so as to reduce their public spending, as required by the austerity policies. Justice is certainly one of the state sectors which has been deeply impacted by the reforms adopted in response to the influences exercised by European Council, Commission’s Directorate-general for competition, Troika, European Court of Human Rights, and European judicial networks. The paper, which focuses on labour justice in Portugal, Spain, and Italy, analyses, from a quantitative point of view, the effects of this long «season of reforms» both at the macro (national) and meso level (judicial districts). This choice is driven by the desire to compare three states characterized by a high internal and external independence of the judiciary – the so-called Southern European Model – and, at the same time, to highlight the impact of different levels of organizational autonomy enjoyed by the local territories. The fundamental hypothesis of this paper is that the reforms introduced in recent years – both on the supply and demand side of justice – have, on the whole, increased the efficiency of the judicial systems, but have not been able to reduce the inequalities, in terms of citizens’ opportunities to access to justice. The article, which fills a gap in the literature on these topics, discusses the variables that may explain the persistence of the territorial differences and proposes to re-define the very way of conceiving and practicing the governance not only of the justice systems, but of all the public structures.

Attraverso un’analisi della letteratura attualmente disponibile, il saggio riflette sull’utilità e necessità di applicare una prospettiva di genere all’analisi della pandemia sia per comprendere gli effetti già prodotti dall’emergenza Covid-19, sia i futuri sviluppi e anche per contrastare l’impatto della crisi epidemiologica, garantendo al contempo una maggiore equità di genere. Il saggio riflette, nello specifico, su alcune dimensioni: sanitaria, della cura, lavorativa, delle relazioni affettive e sociali, della violenza di genere., The aim of the paper is to discuss, using a literature review, the need to apply a gender-sensitive approach to the analysis of the pandemic, in order to both understand its possible social and economic consequenc-es, to actively respond to the challenges posed by the coronavirus dis-ease, and to help reduce gender inequality. The paper discusses some specific aspects of the gendered impacts of the Covid-19 outbreak: health, care, work, social relationships, gender-based violence.

Il saggio si propone di esaminare il tema della transazione su titolo nullo e analizza l’orientamento attuale della Corte di Cassazione, in particolare la recentissima interpretazione dell’art. 1972, comma 1, c.c., secondo la quale il divieto di transigere su un contratto illecito si applicherebbe esclusivamente alla transazione c.d. “conservativa” (o semplice). Questa tesi, con riguardo alla transazione novativa, si pone in aperto contrasto con la norma imperativa citata ed è oggetto di critica nel presente lavoro, pur rilevandosi l’esigenza di una riforma legislativa che semplifichi la disciplina normativa in materia lasciando più ampio spazio all’autonomia privata., The paper aims to examine the issue of the settlement contract on a null title and analyzes the current orientation of the Supreme Court, in particular the interpretation of art. 1972, c. 1, c.c., according to which the prohibition to settle on an illicit contract would apply exclusively to the so-called “conservative” (or simple) settlement agreement. This opinion, with regard to the “novative” settlement agreement, stands in open contrast to the aforementioned imperative rule and is commented in this paper, although there would be the need for a legislative reform that simplifies the rules about the settlement contract, leaving more space for private autonomy.

The paper presents the work done during the two editions of the Summer School that took place in Lampedusa in 2017 and 2018, organized by the Italian Association of Sociology - Environment and Territory Section. The aim of the paper is twofold. Firstly, it aims to illustrate the results of the data analysis and field observation carried out by the participants of the School. They consist of a multi-faceted description of the Island, with special attention to its different populations (residents, city users and especially migrants), and of some resulting project proposals. Secondly, the essay aims to promote a practice based on study and training, which is typical of the sociological analysis of territory, and that can provide useful insight on the studied places and to the people of Lampedusa, within a broader vision of justice and social sustainability.

On the first of January 2020, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) amended regulation 14 of the MARPOL Convention, Annex VI, regarding the prevention of atmospheric pollution from ships. More in particular, the revised text of the disposition provides a new delimitation of the percentage of Sulphur contained in the oil used by ships from 3,5% m/m to 0,5% m/m. The introduction of new international prescription (“IMO 2020”) aims to reduce the environmental impact of shipping activities. While the consequences of “IMO 2020” are constantly analyzed from an economical perspective, until now few attention was paid to the legal relevance of the adoption of this international rule. This paper deals with the implications of “IMO 2020” to the international legal system on the prevention of pollution from ships. Following a brief description of the aforementioned international legal framework, this paper analyzes the normative content of “IMO 2020” and its enforcement through States actions. Finally, it reports some conclusions regarding the possible consequences deriving from the entry into force of such new limit of Sulphur emissions provided by MARPOL Convention Annex VI.

Il contributo analizza il caso dell’internamento amministrativo coatto di minori e/o di adozione forzata in Svizzera, nel periodo 1930-1981. Questo provvedimento riguardava bambini abbandonati, figli di divorziati, figli di madri vedove, nubili o separate, figli di famiglie povere, ed era eseguito in molti casi in maniera arbitraria: esso causava sovente situazioni di violenza, abuso, sfruttamento nei confronti dei bambini, sia negli istituti sia nelle famiglie adottanti. I racconti dei superstiti descrivono punizioni corporali, umiliazioni, violenze, anche psicologiche. Il contributo mostra come, a partire dal 2009, in Svizzera siano stati avviati un processo molto complesso di riabilitazione delle vittime e un percorso di giustizia riparativa, che hanno suscitato un dibattito vivace e interrogativi ancora da risolvere., The paper reflects on the case of forced administrative internment of minors or forced adoption in Switzerland, from 1930 to 1981. This measure was carried out in many cases arbitrarily: it often caused situations of violence, abuse, exploitation toward children, in an institution, and adopting families. The survivor’s stories describe corporal punishments, humiliations, and even psychological violence. The paper shows how, since 2009, a very complex victim rehabilitation process began in Switzerland and a restorative justice path has been implemented, but many questions still remain to be resolved, however.

Il contributo intende esplorare il rischio della violenza sotteso alle micro-pratiche educative (fatte di piccoli e silenziosi gesti e parole) dalla prospettiva del corporal punishment (UN Commitee on the Rights of the Child, 2006). L’attenzione è rivolta a quelle pratiche quotidiane – connesse con le routines, quali il pranzo, il gioco e l’igiene personale – che hanno uno specifico valore educativo nei termini del riconoscimento della dignità e del rispetto delle bambine e dei bambini. L’articolo guarda alle micro-pratiche pedagogiche dalla più ampia finestra della violenza all’infanzia (Hamby, Grych, 2013), per discutere le connessioni esistenti tra violenza e educazione (Biffi, Macinai, 2020), dove l’umiliazione e la denigrazione del bambino e della bambina sono viste come componenti di una modalità punitiva inaccettabile, che dimostra quanto possa essere sottile il confine tra violenza e educazione (Schermi, 2016). Infine, il contributo analizza il percorso verso l’abolizione delle punizioni corporali, dedicando specifica attenzione alla formazione degli insegnanti per prevenire e combattere la violenza all’infanzia, che inizia condividendo uno stile educativo coerente e rispettoso tra scuola e famiglia., The paper aims at exploring the risk of violence underneath some small and silent practices (made by gestures, and words) within educational contexts, which can reasonably be considered as part of the general framework for corporal punishments (UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2006). The attention is, indeed, focused on those daily practices – connected with the main routines, such as lunchtime, playtime, and the practices related to personal hygiene – which have a specific educational value in terms of respect and recognition of the dignity of the child. The essay therefore reconsiders these typologies of smallest gestures from the wider perspective of violence against children (Hamby, Grych, 2013), in order to discuss the connections that exist between violence and education (Biffi, Macinai, 2020), where humiliation and denigration of the child is considered as part of an unacceptable punishment that demonstrates how thin the border between violence and education can be (Schermi, 2016). Finally, the paper will take stock of the path towards the elimination of all corporal punishment, with a specific focus on the role of teachers training in preventing and fighting violence against children, beginning from the sharing of a coherent and respectful educational style, between family and school.

This study aims to examine the phenomenon of homicide with victims under 18 years-old in a wide and multiethnic metropoli-tan area in the north of Italy. We’re dealing with a type of crime that generates a widespread alarm and a common concern. The data analysis, approached with a multidisciplinary strategy, presented in this paper is based on forensic reports of the Institute of Legal Medicine of the University of Milan, to provide a detailed framework of the homicides of minors that took place in the territorial jurisdiction of Milan and Monza Prosecutor’s Office between 1993 and 2017. Quantitative and qualitative analysis were conducted regarding victims’ socio-demographic characteristics (gender, age, nationality), weapons used, places and modality of body discovery, murderers, motives of the killing and type of relationship between offenders and victims. Purpose of this paper is to compare the present set of data with the ones provided by the international literature, as well as make some crimi-nological observations on this matter with a view to preventing the phenomenon. To this end, some representative case studies have been added, their characteristics and also the relationships between offender and victim have been discussed.

The Rule of law principle represents one of the most important pillars of the Common European Heritage. This paper intends to study the contribution offered by the Venice Commission, the advisory constitutional body of the Council of Europe, to the protection and dissemination of the Rule of Law principle among its Member States. After outlining the identified benchmarks of the Rule of Law principle in Europe, the paper studies the Commission’s practical approach towards its Member States. The rationale of the research is to demonstrate the ever increasing relevance of the Venice Commission as a soft law body in the international scenario and its fundamental contribution to the identification and implementation of the Rule of Law in Europe.

This article aims to contribute towards an understanding of the notion of feminism among young Iranians born after the Iranian revolution, and specifically in the 1990s. Building on an in-depth analysis of the literature and narrative individual interviews with young women and men belonging to the so-called Millennial generation, the paper aspires to shed light on how these youths interpret the feminist ideology today in connection with the history of the women’s movement in the country. As the perceived lack of interest in feminism among the Millennials is a subject of continued debate in the international sociological literature, the paper captures a snapshot of the various definitions of feminism from the perspective of Tehran’s middle-class youths. Indeed, it unravels some of the complexities of identifying with feminism for youths born and raised in the 1990s, such as the difficulty in accepting the feminist label, the criticisms made to the movement and the persisting differences between women and men.

Multi-state models are considered in the field of survival analysis for modelling illnesses that evolve through several stages over time. Multi-state models can be developed by applying several techniques, such as non-parametric, semi-parametric and stochastic processes, particularly Markov processes. When the development of an illness is being analysed, its progression is tracked periodically. Medical reviews take place at discrete times, and a panel data analysis can be formed. In this paper, a discrete-time piecewise non-homogeneous Markov process is constructed for modelling and analysing a multi-state illness with a general number of states. The model is built, and relevant measures, such as survival function, transition probabilities, mean total times spent in a group of states and the conditional probability of state change, are determined. A likelihood function is built to estimate the parameters and the general number of cut-points included in the model. Time-dependent covariates are introduced, the results are obtained in a matrix algebraic form and the algorithms are shown. The model is applied to analyse the behaviour of breast cancer. A study of the relapse and survival times of 300 breast cancer patients who have undergone mastectomy is developed. The results of this paper are implemented computationally with MATLAB and R.

How may we relate child drawing to that produced by adults? Under what conditions may children’s graphic productions be viewed as key steps towards constructing knowledge and intensifying their gaze? This paper proposes possible lines of interpretation and action, which, in keeping with numerous existing studies, take drawing to be a crucial dimension within a broader developmental trajectory. Children’s drawing has been a focus of interest in the field of didactics and pedagogy - and studied in increasing depth - since 1887, when historian and archaeologist Corrado Ricci published a book on the topic entitled L’arte dei bambini [Children’s Art]. The many studies, especially in the fields of psychology and education, that have been conducted to date have variously interpreted children’s drawing as a visible and verifiable sign of the development of intelligence or, in contrast, as fulfilling purely communicative and emotional purposes, that is to say, as a manifestation of feeling. Differing interpretations of children’s graphic art have also been proposed based on how their productions are viewed. Some authors attribute children with artistic capacities, in the broadest sense of the term, while others define both their early scribbles and later, more defined drawing work as a medium for experimentation as they progressively encounter objective reality. In this paper, after offering a brief overview of some of the more representative studies and turning points in the history of children’s art, I focus on the potential inherent in childhood drawing, with a view to defining some of its aims and functions, including the potential ways in which it can engage with artistic heritage.

Il lavoro mira a: 1) definire il concetto di economia circolare nella percezione delle imprese; 2) individuare le motivazioni che spingono le imprese all’adozione dei principi dell’economia circolare; 3) rilevare eventuali opportunità di business che l’economia circolare offre alle imprese. Attraverso una cluster analysis, la presente indagine esplorativa analizza le risposte ad un questionario CAWI di 116 manager italiani. La ricerca individua tre cluster: Acerbi, Intermedi ed Avanzati con un livello progressivo e incrementale di recepimento dei principi di economia circolare nei rispettivi modelli di business. Il lavoro si inserisce nel filone dell’economia circolare studiando empiricamente se e come la transizione in atto rappresenti un’opportunità per le imprese italiane. Inoltre, la ricerca coinvolge simultaneamente molteplici settori e analizza l’impatto dell’economia circolare sulla performance aziendale, Purpose of the paper: The work aims to: 1) define the concept of circular economy in business perception; 2) identify the motivations that push companies to adopt the principles of the circular economy; 3) detect any business opportunities that the circular economy offers to companies. Methodology: Through a cluster analysis, the present exploratory survey analyses the answers of 116 Italian managers to a CAWI questionnaire. Results: The research identifies three clusters: Unripe, Intermediate and Advanced with a progressive and incremental level of implementation of the principles of circular economy in the respective business models. Research limitations: The work has some limitations: the use of perceptive scales for the assessment of the impact on business performance, the dimension of the responding sample is limited and, finally, the survey is only national despite the theme is of great importance for the global economic development. Practical implications: The results provided food for thought on three orders of implications: organizational aspect, reputation, communication strategies. On the organizational aspect, the adherence to the principles of circular economy involves a rethinking of the entire organization of the enterprise. Furthermore, converting to the principles of circular economy is a highly differentiating factor in the offer and can especially increase corporate reputation. Finally, the survey shows that, in the rethinking of business models, it is necessary to invest more in communication as few companies understand the importance of this area. Originality of the paper: The work is part of the study stream devoted to the circular economy. It studies empirically whether and how the transition from a linear to a circular economic paradigm represents an opportunity for the Italian enterprises. In addition, the research simultaneously involves multiple sectors and analyses the impact of the circular economy on business performance.

The paper intends to investigate the impact that the rise of the sharing economy is having in the shaping of the tourist experience (Ali and Frew, 2014), with a specific focus on the potential consequences in the habit and practices of “backpacker”, a specific category of tourist that literature has described as particularly interested in autonomously seek tailored and made-to-measure tours and travels that minimize the traditional problems associated to mass-tourism (social, economic and environmental impacts) (Buhalis and Law, 2008). From a theoretical point of view the paper analyses both the impact of the sharing economy in the tourist sector and the backpacking phenomenon, investigating their links and possible interactions. This analysis shows how, potentially, sharing platform could provide the ideal tool to realize the unique, authentic experience that is usually sought by backpackers. From the empirical side it proposes a first attempt to outline the elements of greater interest of tourist sharing practices and how they can relate to the elements that characterized backpacking practices until now, using an online questionnaire. The data collected provide a description of the interviewed travel’s motivations, their use of peer-to-peer platforms and the factors impacting the satisfaction in the experience. The pull of economic reasons appears as especially relevant between respondents and is not always associated with specific attention to more social motivations of the travellers. The paper represents an attempt to observe how the spreading of peer-to-peer platforms, and the increased facility to backpacking practices could shape the profile of the backpacker. Overall the paper brings contributions to practitioners, urban planners and tourism governance coordinators, providing useful insights that could favour the debate with representatives of the sharing economy about the impact of these activities in the urban areas. Sharing economy gains popularity day b

Today the European bioethical debate has to face the challenge of frontier issues like robotics, artificial intelligence, and moral bioenhancement. In the European scenario, the ethical debate about these issues is strictly interrelated with the legal one. The attempt is indeed to find adequate legal tools to regulate those frontier issues that can profoundly impact on the framework of fundamental rights. The present introduction to the Forum, which collects some papers dealing with different frontier issues, gives a brief overview of the contents of the papers and highlights their relevance for the public European ethical and legal discussion

The aim of this paper is to investigate the process of politicization of the highest levels of the global commercial connectivity network, during its formative decades. The paper highlights the role played by the differences among the national approaches, along with some of the key mechanisms driving the development of the maritime sector during the considered period. As the preferred instrument for the development of the national system of long-range maritime connectivity, the shipping subsidies were diffused almost everywhere. However, the interactions with the institutional, sociotechnical and commercial national environments produced very dissimilar outcomes in different countries, with direct reflections in the construction of the commercial connectivity conditions, acting indirectly also over the evolution of the geopolitical scenario. JEL Classification: F02, F14, F52, N40, N70