scholarly journals Socio-psychological aspects of grassroots participation in the Transition Movement: An Italian case study

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fulvio Biddau ◽  
Alessandra Armenti ◽  
Paolo Cottone
Keyword(s):  
Collective Efficacy ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
Community Action ◽  
Psychological Aspects ◽  
Italian Case ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Tackle Climate Change

In this article, we present a case study investigating the socio-psychological aspects of grassroots participation in a Transition Town Movement (TTM) community initiative. We analyzed the first Italian Transition initiative: Monteveglio (Bologna), the central hub of the Italian TTM and a key link with the global Transition Network. A qualitative methodology was used to collect and analyze the data consisting of interviews with key informants and ethnographic notes. The results provide further evidence supporting the role of social representations, shared social identities, and collective efficacy beliefs in promoting, sustaining, and shaping activists’ commitment. The movement seems to have great potential to inspire and engage citizens to tackle climate change at a community level. Grassroots engagement of local communities working together provides the vision and the material starting point for a viable pathway for the changes required. Attempting to ensure their future political relevance, the TTM adherents are striving to disseminate and materially consolidate inherently political and prefigurative movement frames – primarily community resilience and re-localization – within community socio-economic and political frameworks. However, cooperation with politics is perceived by most adherents as a frustrating and dissatisfying experience, and an attempted co-optation of the Transition initiative by institutions. It highlights a tension between the open and non-confrontational approach of the movement towards institutions and their practical experience. Corresponding to this tension, activists have to cope with conflicts, contradictions, and ambivalence of social representations about community action for sustainability, which threaten the sense of collective purpose, group cohesion and ultimately its survival.

scholarly journals A Gay Woman’s Experiences During Her Career In The Department Of Defence Part: 1 – Fleet Of Hope

2003 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benedictor Leah Tlou ◽  
Willem Schurink
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
South African ◽  
Symbolic Interactionism ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Real Case ◽  
The South ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Rich Information ◽  
Analytic Induction

A opportunity presented itself to undertake an explorative qualitative study of the perceptions and experiences of an authentic lesbian who was for some time an employee of the South African Department of Defence (DOD). In order to capture, describe and reach an understanding of this woman’s experiences and worldviews, we employed a qualitative methodology, i.e. with her assistance an autobiographical sketch was constructed, and utilizing a variant of analytic induction (AI) and symbolic interactionism, we analysed and interpreted the material. According to qualitative requirements we provide in this article an account of the major steps taken during the execution of the case study. Following the Lowney-Winslows AI approach (1981), we are convinced that our study provided one real case, which enhanced our intuitive understanding of lesbians working in the South African Defence Force. It namely served as a starting point for further research that could carry our case study on to a more formal implementation of AI, and particularly the execution of steps five through to seven. We feel convinced that the study was ethically properly and scientifically correctly executed and that it enabled us to obtain valuable and rich information on lesbianism and the South African military. For the benefit of the reader we present Thando’s entire narrative. Opsomming’n Unieke geleentheid het hom voorgedoen om ’n ekploratiewe kwalitatiewe studie van die persepsies en ervarings van ’n outentieke lesbiër wat vir ’n tyd lank werksaam was by die Suid-Afrikaanse Departement van Verdediging, te onderneem. Ten einde die vrou se ondervindings en wêreldbeskouings vas te vang, te beskryf en ’n begrip daarvan op te bou, het ons ’n kwalitatiewe methodology benut, dit is, met die samewerking van die vrou, is ’n outobiografiese skets gekonstruuer, en het ons ’n vorm van analitiese induksie en simboliese interaksionisme benut. Ooreenkomstig die vereistes vir kwalitatiewe navorsing verskaf ons in hierdie artikel ’n uiteensetting van die vernaamste stappe wat in die uitvoer van die studie geneem is. In navolging van die Lowney-Winslows AI benadering (1981), is ons daarvan oortuig dat die studie een ware geval daarstel wat ’n spontane begrip van lesbiërs in die Suid- Afrikaanse Weermag aanmoedig. Dit dien naamlik as ’n beginpunt vir verdere navorsing wat hierdie gevallestudie na ’n meer formele implementering van AI, en in die besonder, die uitvoering van stappe 5 tot 7 kan neem. Ons voel oortuig daarvan dat die studie eties behoorlik en wetenskaplik verantwoordelik van staple gestuur is en dat dit ons waardevolle en ryke inligting omtrend lesbinisme en die Suid-Afrikaanse weermag bied. Vir die gerief van die leser word Thando se volledige verhaal aangebied.

scholarly journals 1967/1969: The End, or (Just) a Pause of the Catholic Liberal Dream?

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 623
Author(s):  
Luca Diotallevi
Keyword(s):  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
The North ◽  
Italian Case ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship

The aim of this paper is to explore the strong connections between the topics of this special volume of Religions: the current crisis of political Catholicism and religious Catholicism; the new questions posed about the relationship between Catholicism and advanced modernization; the relationship between Catholicism and European institutions; and the importance of the North Atlantic relationships within Catholicism. The paper sheds light on these questions through an analysis of a particular but indicative case study, namely, the “Catholic 68” in Italy. Deconstructing the predominant narrative about the relationship between Vatican II and the events of 1968 (or, better, those of the 2-year period 1967–1969) helps to clarify the connections between the topics of this volume in important ways. In fact, the predominant narrative about the “Catholic 68” still pays undue tribute to both an oversimplified reconstruction of the “parties” who fought one another during the Second Vatican Council and an oversimplified reading of the late 1960s. In this perspective, the Italian case is particularly relevant and yields important sociological insight. The starting point of the paper is the abundant literature on the “long 60s”. This scholarship has clarified the presence of an important religious dimension to the social and cultural processes of this period as well as a (generally accepted) link between the Council-issued renewal and “1968”. At the same time that literature has also clarified that the “long 60s” paved the way for a deep social transition which has also marked the first two decades of the 21st century. The nature of this religious renewal and social change has often been described as the triumph of liberal parties over conservative parties. This paper instead proposes a “three parties scheme” (conservative, progressive and liberal) to better understand the confrontation that occurred at the Council and that at the end of the same decade and its consequences for Catholicism and European politics today.

Ein rechtsfreier Raum? Die legale Situation auf den Färöern im Spiegel der ‚Færeyinga saga‘

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-45
Author(s):  
Andreas Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Old Icelandic ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Narrative Literature ◽  
The Law

AbstractThe chapter argues for a more nuanced and empirically based understanding of the discourse on law and socio-cultural norms in Old Icelandic literature on the grounds of a narratological reading of ‘Færeyinga saga’ as a case study. It has often been claimed that Icelandic sources express an ideal of freedom based on communality as guaranteed by the law. By contrast, ‘Færeyinga saga’ represents a cynical discourse on power politics that renders law as an invariable concept obsolete and works solely on the principle that ‘might is right’. This cynicism, however, is presented in a form that leaves the narrative open to interpretation, showing that regardless of its possible dating, narrative literature can serve as a starting point for social discussion. Consequently, the discourse on law in medieval Iceland must be perceived as more polyphonic than has been allowed for by previous unifying readings in scholarship.

scholarly journals Investigations on historical monuments’ deterioration through chemical and isotopic analyses: an Italian case study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Ricciardi ◽  
Concetta Pironti ◽  
Oriana Motta ◽  
Rosa Fiorillo ◽  
Federica Camin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Potassium Nitrate ◽  
Sewage Water ◽  
X Ray Diffraction ◽  
Italian Case ◽  
Historical Monuments ◽  
Isotopic Analyses ◽  
Historic Centre ◽  
The Church

AbstractIn this paper, we analysed the efflorescences present in the frescos of a monumental complex named S. Pietro a Corte situated in the historic centre of Salerno (Campania, Italy). The groundwater of the historic centre is fed by two important streams (the Rafastia and the Fusandola) that can be the sources of water penetration. The aims of this work are to (i) identify the stream that reaches the ancient frigidarium of S. Pietro a Corte and (ii) characterize the efflorescences on damaged frescos in terms of chemical nature and sources. In order to accomplish the first aim, the water of the Rafastia river (7 samples) and the water of the Fusandola river (7 samples) were analysed and compared with the water of a well of the Church (7 samples). The ionic chromatography measurements on the water samples allowed us to identify the Rafastia as the river that feeds the ancient frigidarium of S. Pietro a Corte. To investigate the nature and the origin of the efflorescences (our second aim), anionic chromatography analyses, X-ray diffraction measurements, and the isotopic determination of nitrogen were performed on the efflorescences (9 samples) and the salts recovered from the well (6 samples). Results of these analyses show that efflorescences are mainly made of potassium nitrate with a δ15N value of + 9.3 ± 0.2‰. Consequently, a plausible explanation for their formation could be the permeation of sewage water on the walls of the monumental complex.

scholarly journals On systematically building a controlled natural language for functional requirements

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvaro Veizaga ◽  
Mauricio Alferez ◽  
Damiano Torre ◽  
Mehrdad Sabetzadeh ◽  
Lionel Briand
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Empirical Evaluation ◽  
Functional Requirements ◽  
Industrial Case Study ◽  
Requirements Specifications ◽  
Financial Domain

AbstractNatural language (NL) is pervasive in software requirements specifications (SRSs). However, despite its popularity and widespread use, NL is highly prone to quality issues such as vagueness, ambiguity, and incompleteness. Controlled natural languages (CNLs) have been proposed as a way to prevent quality problems in requirements documents, while maintaining the flexibility to write and communicate requirements in an intuitive and universally understood manner. In collaboration with an industrial partner from the financial domain, we systematically develop and evaluate a CNL, named Rimay, intended at helping analysts write functional requirements. We rely on Grounded Theory for building Rimay and follow well-known guidelines for conducting and reporting industrial case study research. Our main contributions are: (1) a qualitative methodology to systematically define a CNL for functional requirements; this methodology is intended to be general for use across information-system domains, (2) a CNL grammar to represent functional requirements; this grammar is derived from our experience in the financial domain, but should be applicable, possibly with adaptations, to other information-system domains, and (3) an empirical evaluation of our CNL (Rimay) through an industrial case study. Our contributions draw on 15 representative SRSs, collectively containing 3215 NL requirements statements from the financial domain. Our evaluation shows that Rimay is expressive enough to capture, on average, 88% (405 out of 460) of the NL requirements statements in four previously unseen SRSs from the financial domain.

‘More Product, Less Process’ (MPLP): An early printed book project

2021 ◽  
pp. 096100062110267
Author(s):  
Karen Attar
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
Global Changes ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Main Research Interest ◽  
Printed Books ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
19Th And 20Th Century

This article addresses the challenge to make printed hidden collections known quickly without sacrificing ultimate quality. It takes as its starting point the archival mantra ‘More product, less process’ and explores its application to printed books, mindful of projects in the United States to catalogue 19th- and 20th-century printed books quickly and cheaply with the help of OCLC. A problem is lack of time or managerial inclination ever to return to ‘quick and dirty’ imports. This article is a case study concerning a collection of 18th-century English imprints, the Graveley Parish Library, at Senate House Library, University of London. Faced with the need to provide metadata as quickly as possible for digitisation purposes, Senate House Library decided, in contrast to its normal treatment of early printed books, to download records from the English Short Title Catalogue and amend them only very minimally before releasing them for public view, and to do this work from catalogue cards rather than the books themselves. The article describes the Graveley Parish collection, the project method’s rationale, and the advantages and disadvantages of sourcing the English Short Title Catalogue for metadata. It discusses the drawbacks of retrospective conversion (cataloguing from cards, not books): insufficient detail in some cases to identify the relevant book, and ignorance of the copy-specific elements of books which can constitute the main research interest. The method is compared against cataloguing similar books from photocopies of title pages, and retrospective conversion using English Short Title Catalogue is compared against retrospective conversion of early printed Continental books from cards using Library Hub Discover or OCLC. The control groups show our method’s effectiveness. The project succeeded by producing records fast that fulfilled their immediate purpose and simultaneously would obviously require revisiting. The uniform nature of the collection enabled the saving of time through global changes.

scholarly journals Challenges and Barriers for Net‐Zero/Positive Energy Buildings and Districts—Empirical Evidence from the Smart City Project SPARCS

Buildings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 78
Author(s):  
Daria Uspenskaia ◽  
Karl Specht ◽  
Hendrik Kondziella ◽  
Thomas Bruckner
Keyword(s):  
Smart City ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
Positive Energy ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Net Zero ◽  
Multidimensional Representation

Without decarbonizing cities energy and climate objectives cannot be achieved as cities account for approximately two thirds of energy consumption and emissions. This goal of decarbonizing cities has to be facilitated by promoting net-zero/positive energy buildings and districts and replicating them, driving cities towards sustainability goals. Many projects in smart cities demonstrate novel and groundbreaking low-carbon solutions in demonstration and lighthouse projects. However, as the historical, geographic, political, social and economic context of urban areas vary greatly, it is not always easy to repeat the solution in another city or even district. It is therefore important to look for the opportunities to scale up or repeat successful pilots. The purpose of this paper is to explore common trends in technologies and replication strategies for positive energy buildings or districts in smart city projects, based on the practical experience from a case study in Leipzig—one of the lighthouse cities in the project SPARCS. One of the key findings the paper has proven is the necessity of a profound replication modelling to deepen the understanding of upscaling processes. Three models analyzed in this article are able to provide a multidimensional representation of the solution to be replicated.

scholarly journals The DWQ-EMR Embedded Tool to Enhance the Family Physician-Caregiver Connection: A Pilot Case Study

Geriatrics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
Kristina Marie Kokorelias ◽  
Einat Danieli ◽  
Sheila Dunn ◽  
Sid Feldman ◽  
David Patrick Ryan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Family Caregivers ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Data Gathering ◽  
Family Physicians ◽  
Efficient Manner ◽  
Efficient Access ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
To Receive

The number of family caregivers to individuals with dementia is increasing. Family physicians are often the first point of access to the health care system for individuals with dementia and their caregivers. Caregivers are at an increased risk of developing negative physical, cognitive and affective health problems themselves. Caregivers also describe having unmet needs to help them sustain care in the community. Family physicians are in a unique position to help support caregivers and individuals with dementia, but often struggle with keeping up with best practice dementia service knowledge. The Dementia Wellness Questionnaire was designed to serve as a starting point for discussions between caregivers and family physicians by empowering caregivers to communicate their needs and concerns and to enhance family physicians’ access to specific dementia support information. The DWQ aims to alert physicians of caregiver and patient needs. This pilot study aimed to explore the experiences of physicians and caregivers of people using the Questionnaire in two family medicine clinics in Ontario, Canada. Interviews with physicians and caregivers collected data on their experiences using the DWQ following a 10-month data gathering period. Data was analyzed using content analysis. Results indicated that family physicians may have an improved efficacy in managing dementia by having dementia care case specific guidelines integrated within electronic medical records. By having time-efficient access to tailored supports, family physicians can better address the needs of the caregiver–patient dyad and help support family caregivers in their caregiving role. Caregivers expressed that the Questionnaire helped them remember concerns to bring up with physicians, in order to receive help in a more efficient manner.

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