RISULTATI RICERCA

The author analyzes his contribution in introducing Bourdieu to the Anglophone world (and to the US in particular). By doing so, he presents the reader with an abundance of anecdotes designed to illustrate observations regarding intellectual autonomy, symbolic capitals, and the international circulation of sociological ideas. Self-analysis is viewed as a straightforward and blunt version of other standard, more euphemized, academic practices (like the introductory literature review that opens scientific papers): thus, it is also supposed to be a tool for writing better.

This paper explores the historical evolution of key scientific and economic paradigms, emphasizing the interconnectedness of physics and economics. Beginning with Newtonian mechanics in the 17th century, it highlights the mechanistic determinism introduced by Newton’s Principia Mathematica (1687), which established a universal framework for understanding natural phenomena. The discussion then shifts to the 19th century, focusing on energetic physics and thermodynamics, with foundational contributions from Carnot, Joule and Clausius. This period marked a shift from purely mechanistic views to the study of energy transformations and the principles of conservation and entropy. Building on these scientific developments, the article examines the rise of neoclassical economics in the late 19th century, as economists like Jevons, Walras and Pareto adapted physical concepts to economic theory, employing analogies such as equilibrium and optimization. Finally, this paper delves into econophysics and socio-physics, highlighting the application of gravity models in economic and social sciences as an example of interdisciplinary integration. Following this historical path, the article underscores the profound influence of physical sciences on the methodological and conceptual foundations of economics.

From Market Failure Paradigm to an Institutional Theory of Environmental Governance - This manuscript examines how an institutional theory of environmental governance might be based on a re-interpretation and re-working of the arguments of the market failure paradigm and its main criticisms. The manuscript first examines in detail the arguments of the market failure paradigm regarding externalities and public goods, as well as their criticisms. The paper then suggests an institutional re-interpretation and revision of the key arguments of the market failure paradigm. The institutional theory of environmental governance acknowledges the interdependence of economic actors and the resulting fundamental role of conflicts as the rationale for environmental governance and its institutions. As environmental conflicts are primarily a matter of distribution rather than of efficiency, it becomes important to understand the likely consequences of institutional alternatives in the specific socio-economic and physical setting of the environmental conflicts, and the degree to which these consequences match with the pertinent social or economic goals.

Keywords: environmental governance, market failure, externalities, public goods, welfare economics, institutional economics

JEL classifications: Q50; H41; D62; B52

This paper aims at illustrating a research about the development of software prototypes for automated production of cloze tests (LexMeter) and for the automated modulation of course texts that could match up the real reader verbal competences (Adapter). The verbal competences are defined starting directly from texts’ lexicon and language. We assumed that the virtual reader knows and fully comprehends the meaning of the words included in texts. In this contribution it is discussed what is "behind" the planning of this software, illustrating both its technological and linguistic features. After the definition of the language model, based on lexical and descriptive-statistical aspects, it is described how the automated estimator and the text adapter were designed.

Nel contesto dell’attivazione, gli attori del welfare ricorrono a forme esplicite e implicite di categorizzazione per individuare con maggiore precisione i gruppi che possono essere attivati. Nella prospettiva di capacita, questo tipo di categorizzazione dovrebbe essere sufficientemente flessibile da promuovere la conversione dei diritti in reale capacita di agire. In questa prospettiva, la definizione di una "base informativa del giudizio" (vale a dire i criteri utilizzati per delimitare i di ritti ei doveri delle persone, con l’esclusione di tutti gli altri tipi di informazioni) aperta e la sua applicazione pratica sono caratteristiche fondamentali per valutare potenzialita e limiti delle politiche di welfare. Basato su un caso studio relativo alle transizioni scuola-lavoro in Svizzera, l’articolo mette in luce che, sebbene formalmente aperti, i programmi indagati sfociano in una forte selettivita dei partecipanti e individua i fattori che danno conto di questo paradossale risultato. Parole chiave: politiche per le transizioni giovanili, capacita, basi informative, incompletezza

The environmental emergency of the last century has led to an urgent need to reformulate the predominant role of human beings on the planet by undertaking a less anthropocentric design approach. Within this theoretical framework, the book explores the role of Design as a multifaceted discipline capable of exploring the complexity of a changing world, and reconsiders the human being’s position in a pervasive relationship with the contemporary environments through a More-than-Human approach.

Ancient road networks, once vital corridors of movement and exchange, continue to shape contemporary societies through evolving approaches to mobility, heritage, and tourism. This volume examines the transformation of medieval itineraries, particularly the via Francigena, within the framework of the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe, highlighting its role as a complex phenomenon reflecting ongoing processes of territorialisation and contemporary reinterpretation.

Giulio Ballino, a little-known sixteenth-century Venetian translator from Greek into Italian, was trained as a young man in the household of Paolo Manuzio. His scholarly ambitions were foiled by the need to earn his living as a lawyer as well as by flaws in his character. Nevertheless, he produced vernacular versions of Philo Judaeus’s Life of Moses, the sermons of St Basil the Great and a collection of moral works, which included the Enchiridion of Epictetus, a tract from Plutarch’s Moralia and the pseudo-Aristotelian On the Virtues and Vices. An analysis of his version of the pseudo-Aristotelian treatise shows that he did not follow his own pronouncements on translation but that his techniques were well suited to vernacular readers who were unlikely to be familiar with Aristotelian philosophy and who were seeking entertainment as well as enlightenment.

In order to understand the transition from a life driven by emotions and desires (with particular attention to sexual ones) to a life driven by projects and values, we will use the frameworks of interpersonal motivational systems (IMSs), of which the sexuality is part, and of metacognitive functioning that allows for emotional knowledge, understanding and regulation. We will provide a central role to consciousness, as a uniquely human quality, which allows the development of motivations and intentions not otherwise replicable in the rest of the animal world and which permits us to guide our behaviors by choosing which motivational system to support, contain or manage and, above all, why.

Our hypertechnological civilization, obsessed with attempting to control and predict every event and every aspect of our lives, has not yet understood that emergency is a connotative element of complexity and of the complex systems that we call "life". This means that emer-gency, like error, is an intrinsic part of our lives and can never be predicted, prevented or managed, much less eliminated. Seeking solutions by delegating carte blanche to technology, stak-ing all on know-how, speed and simulation, is the "great mistake" of today’s digitalized society and of its educational institutions. In dealing with emergency, rather than rationalizing our inadequacies and those of our authorities and experts by using the age-old metaphor "black swan" (Taleb, 2007; 2012), students and teachers alike need to be empowered to inhabit complexity, to expect unpredictability, and to tackle emergency through creativity and self-organization, in order to be able to fully comprehend how emergency can become emergence.

The paper investigates the current state of studies on double-entry bookkeeping and ledgers in accounting through a bibliometric analysis covering the1990-2021period. The study allows an interpretation of accounting information systems as they evolve, due to the impetus of recent, disruptive information technology. The authors used a sample of 230 publications, collected from the Web of Sci-ence, and adopted VOSviewer software to illustrate different relational techniques: citation, co-citation, keyword co-occurrence, and bibliographic coupling analyses. The results highlight the emergence of recent research streams that are weakly connected to the foundation of modern accounting, albeit sharing the same roots with seminal historical accounting contributions in terms of trustworthiness, moral-ity, and communication. This study’s main contribution, based on its findings, is a better understanding of the growing interest in double-entry bookkeeping and ledg-er, focusing on blockchain and its dimensions. Potentially, the study can shed light on the possible implications of new technologies for accounting and bookkeeping. The universality of accounting language is called upon to describe new "genealo-gies of calculation" by converging professional and academic efforts in a field that can benefit extensively from a transdisciplinary approach to research.