This collection considers algorithms at work, alongside black box control, platform society theory and the formation of subjectivities.

Résumé Depuis plusieurs années, habitants et militants de la vallée de Suse s’opposent à la construction d’une ligne à grande vitesse entre la France et l’Italie. La réaction des autorités est quasi-militaire mais le faible avancement des travaux ne justifie pas un tel emportement. La lutte expérimente pas à pas les nouveaux concepts de la construction du commun.

Marking the 50th anniversary of Pitirim A. Sorokin’s death, this Brief offers a critical analysis of the renowned sociologist’s theories while highlighting some of his more overlooked ones. Topics explored include cultural dynamics; the relationship between culture, society, and personality; social mobility; and the socio-cultural causality of time and space. In addition, this book updates these theories by discussing their relevance in current cultural contexts. The Brief aims to extend the work started by Sorokin on the promotion and application of (...) “integralism”, an approach that conceives the change of any sociocultural phenomena as the result of the combination of external and internal forces. It uses this method to analyse socio-cultural phenomena, propose new policy, and enhance the development of humanity from the point of view of culture. -/- This book also discusses sociology’s relationship with other sciences. In particular, it touches upon the interplay between sociology and psychology and pushes for a new scientific awareness that is transdisciplinary. The end point is a new vision of humanity and its development from a cultural context. -/- Social and Cultural Dynamics will be of interest to social scientists, sociologists, and psychologists as well as professionals in these disciplines. (shrink)

In this article we will study the pronominal system in Ortonese, which belongs to the central-southern Italo-Romance languages. The analysis we propose is contrastive: we will compare the data with the Italian to highlight their differences in terms of some morphosyntactic aspects. We will examine, the stressed and unstressed personal pronouns, emphasizing the placement of the combined pronouns with the compound tenses. Then, we will focus on the rest of the pronouns, such as demonstratives, possessives, quantifiers and indefinites, also pointing (...) out the uses of the clitics “ci” and “ne” and the presence of the pronoun “nome”, which does not exist in Italian. (shrink)

The condition of precariousness not only provides insights into a segment of the world of work or of a particular subject group, but is also a privileged standpoint for an overview of the condition of the social on a global scale. Because precariousness is multidimensional and polysemantic, it traverses contemporary society and multiple contexts, from industrial to class, gender, family relations as well as political participation, citizenship and migration. This book maps the differences and similarities in the ways precariousness and (...) insecurity in employment unfold and are subjectively experienced in regions and sectors that are confronted with different labour histories, legislations and economic priorities. Establishing a constructive dialogue amongst different global regions and across disciplines, the chapters explore the shift from precariousness to precariat and collective subjects as it is being articulated in the current global crisis. This edited collection aims to continue a process of mapping experiences by means of ethnographies, fieldwork, interviews, content analysis, where the precarious define their condition and explain how they try to withdraw from, cope with or embrace it. (shrink)

As humans interact in the world, they often orient one another's attention to objects through the use of spoken demonstrative expressions and head and/or hand movements to point to the objects. Although indicating behaviors have frequently been studied in lab settings, we know surprisingly little about how demonstratives and pointing are used to coordinate attention in large-scale space and in natural contexts. This study investigates how speakers of Quiahije Chatino, an indigenous language of Mexico, use demonstratives and pointing to give (...) directions to named places in large-scale space across multiple scales. The results show that the use and coordination of demonstratives and pointing change as the scale of search space for the target grows. At larger scales, demonstratives and pointing are more likely to occur together, and the two signals appear to manage different aspects of the search for the target: demonstratives orient attention primarily to the gesturing body, while pointing provides cues for narrowing the search space. These findings underscore the distinct contributions of speech and gesture to the linguistic composite, while illustrating the dynamic nature of their interplay.s in Spanish and Quiahije Chatino are provided as appendices.Se incluyen como apéndices resúmenes en español y en el chatino de San Juan Quiahije. SonGktyiCreCinH, ngyaqCskaEktyiCnoEndaHsonBnaFngaJnoIngyaqCloEktyiCreC, ngyaqCranFchaqExlyaKqoEchaqFjnyaJnoAndywiqArenqAKchinAKyqyaC. (shrink)

Galiani discusses a subject much debated in the eighteenth century, namely, the nature of the currency. He also includes considerations of economic theory and political philosophy around the main motif. He supports the following theses of monetary theory: currency has the function of a sort of register of credits that every individual can have towards the warehouses of goods of which the society is supplied, and precisely in the measure of the contribution he has given to their supply; the (...) metallic currency has the merit, with respect to a hypothetical system of artificial accounting, to be safe from frauds and not to require a bureaucratic apparatus; the value of currency depends on the value of metals, not on legislative interventions. (shrink)

Both Antonio Genovesi and Ferdinando Galiani devised strategies for Neapolitan economic development, which they realised was essential for preserving its recently acquired independent statehood. In order to avoid any socially disruptive effects they considered how economic processes changed the human mind. Both thinkers grounded their political visions on foreign trade on highly sophisticated ideas of the nature of self-interest. In spite of the similar characters of their projects, the political thought of Genovesi and Galiani has never been subject (...) to serious comparison. Instead the two thinkers have tended to be portrayed as opposite characters with highly divergent political leanings. It is argued here that this view is historically questionable and itself a product of a distorting canonisation process that was set in motion in the second half of the eighteenth century. Ironically, comparing the moral philosophies and economic ideas of Genovesi and Galiani, a picture emerges that inverts the myth that started at the end of the eighteenth century and that until this day has determined accounts of the early Neapolitan Enlightenment. (shrink)

Pierre le Pesant Boisguilbert was considered by Marx as one of the founders of classical political economy. His writings contain a large number of concepts and ideas that reappear in the writings of Quesnay, Cantillon and Adam Smith. George Berkeley - a major figure in the history of philosophical idealism - was the author of 'The Querist', a treatise on the nature of Irish under-development and cures for Irish poverty. Baron de Montesquieu - one of the great 18th century polymaths (...) - is author of the masterpiece 'The Spirit of the Laws' (1748) which, while ostensibly a treatise on law, is actually a study of political organization, types of government, national character and the determining ethos of different societies. It enjoyed enormous success in the 18th century and was almost certainly read and studied by Adam Smith. Ferdinando Galiani was a leading critic of physiocracy and a major 18th century proponent of the subjective theory of value. In 1751 he published 'Della Moneta' which contains some notable chapters on monetary theory, and some brilliant pages on the utility theory of value. James Anderson was a Scottish farmer and a prolific author of tracts on the agricultural development of Scotland and the outstanding policy issues of the last quarter of the 18th century. Dugald Stewart was author of 'Account of the Life and Writings of Adam Smith LLD' (1793) which is one of the earliest, extended commentaries on the works of Adam Smith by one who knew him well. (shrink)

I manoscritti dell'abate Galiani.--Catalogo sistematico dei manoscritti dell'abate Galiani.--Intorno al terzo dei Libri della Biccherna.--Due recensioni.--Groce, B. I manoscritti dell'abate Galiani.--Nicolini, B. Profilo di Fausto Nicolini archivista.

ABSTRACTThis paper offers an opportunity to ponder the way the Catholic Church and its methods of information control reshaped, and paradoxically even enabled, the dissemination and practice of science in early modern Italy. Focusing on the activities of Newtonian scholars operating in Rome in the First half of the eighteenth century – especially the Celestine monk Celestino Galiani and prelate Francesco Bianchini – I will argue that major contributions to the spread of Newtonianism in Italy came from individuals operating (...) within the Church, acting more-or-less independently from the Church’s oversight. These scholars realized they were witnessing an inexorable transition and that the medieval scholastic cosmology and physics could not survive. In order to rescue the Church – and to avoid further embarrassment, especially after the Galileo Affair – renewal was needed. Counterintuitively, the dissemination of Italian Newtonianism was largely a Catholic effort. (shrink)

L’idea di bonheur è una delle chiavi principali per penetrare l’intreccio e le prospettive etico-sociali tra XVII e XVIII secolo. Chiaramente distinta, dagli stessi teorici, in senso linguistico, semantico e concettuale, dalla nozione di felicità, l’idea di bonheur, che indica un orientamento particolare del problema del benessere umano in senso individuale e collettivo, percorre l’antropologia moderna quale luogo ove rimisurare il destino solitario dell’uomo e la sua possibilità mondana, per diventare il criterio della nuova organizzazione sociale, economica e politica della (...) civiltà dei lumi. Questo volume procede dunque a una ricognizione della parabola del bonheur individuando le caratteristiche, i tempi e le modalità con i quali si è configurata nell’arco di due secoli, e disegna poi il significato specifico che tale nozione ha assunto nei suoi principali interpreti, da Saint-Évremond a Fontenelle, da Voltaire a Diderot fino all’abate Galiani. (shrink)

Los especialistas suelen atribuir a Diderot una concepción pesimista de la historia. Si bien de las obras de madurez del editor de la Encyclopédie se desprende una oscura imagen del porvenir, producto entre otras cosas de su encuentro con Catalina II y de la influencia de Galiani, ese pesimismo parece no agotar sus reflexiones acerca de la historia. De los trabajos de la época anterior a su viaje a Rusia se desprende otra concepción de la historia, la cual, no (...) obstante, no se confunde con las Cándidas especulaciones acerca del futuro del marqués de Condorcet. (shrink)

In 1788, the Tuscan intellectual Giovanni Maria Lampredi (1731–1793) published in Florence his most famous treatise, Del commercio dei popoli neutrali in tempo di guerra, conceived as a reply to his well-known opponent, Ferdinando Galiani. Since then, many scholars have claimed that Lampredi’s reflection upon neutral trade remains one of the most objective academic contributions on the subject. Furthermore, these interpretations have generally analysed Lampredi’s Del commercio without taking into account the context of the work or the author’s real (...) political intents and intellectual goals. Therefore, the aim of this article is to provide a new interpretation of Lampredi’s ideas on trade and neutrality, demonstrating that, far from being impartial, his theories allow us to appreciate the intellectual dimension of the strategies formulated by European and Mediterranean small powers, such as Tuscany, to buttress their neutral policies and independence. In addition, Del commercio proposed an original conception of neutrality which urged Italian small states to pursue a more autonomous and profitable foreign and commercial policy, taking advantage of their sovereignty and neutral condition. Lampredi’s thought, then, requires us to reconsider the relationship between small powers and neutrality in eighteenth-century Europe. (shrink)