Piazza Vittorio : la transformazione urbanistica : quale identità per i nuovi cittadini? Identity and meaningful place making

Il caso della riqualificazione di Piazza Vittorio, ormai divenuta luogo storico dell'immigrazione a Roma, è un esempio delle sfide che si pongono oggi alle metropoli multietniche ed un'ottima occasione per riflettere sul significato che questo tipo di interventi assume per l'identità culturale della città e dei suoi abitanti, vecchi e nuovi. Lo studio proposto in questo volume chiama in causa la nozione di cultural built heritage, cioè il retaggio culturale di cui è testimone l'architettura, per mostrare quanto e come l'ambiente costruito dagli interventi architettonici ed urbanistici contribuisca a rappresentare, dunque a raccontare ed organizzare, sia lo spazio, sia gli scambi che in esso hanno luogo, sia le identità di coloro che lo abitano. È il primo volume della collana "Squarci. Mobilità dell'uomo, del suo pensiero e delle sue opere", presentata dal curatore Claudio Rossi in un'ampia introduzione. All'interno di "Squarci" si vuole proporre un percorso di studi e ricerche corredati da un dvd. L'occhio della telecamera - attraverso interviste o la realizzazione di docu-film - arricchisce la ricerca con nuove dimensioni d'analisi, che aggiungono elementi di comprensione e talvolta spingono a riconsiderare i risultati stessi delle indagini svolte. È quanto accade per "Mostafa, il mercato trasferito ed altre storie. La trasformazione di Piazza Vittorio a Roma", scritto e diretto da Emanuele Svezia

The politics of place : citing and re-siting the Palazzo Littorio, Mussolini’s new Fascist Party headquarters in Rome

In 1934 and in 1937, two rounds of a major architectural competition were held for the Palazzo Littorio, the new Fascist Party Headquarters in Rome to be built in the heart of the ancient city and measuring its architectural worth against the Colosseum itself. Once the second round was announced, foreign and domestic policy shifted towards a more repressive climate and Italy had become an Empire. The processes behind the competitions represent the relationship between architecture and consent, the establishment and development of a ‘Fascist’ style, the Monumentalism versus Rationalism debate and increasing Party influence over artistic expression.

Are real exchange rates nonlinear with a unit root? Evidence on PPP for Italy : a note

In this article, we apply the recently developed threshold autoregression model to examine both linearity and stationarity of Italy's real exchange rate vis--vis her six trading partner (G6) countries. Our main finding is that Italy's real exchange rate is a nonlinear process that is not characterized by a unit root process for five of six trading partner countries. This provides strong support for purchasing power parity.

Testing for a random walk in Italy's inflation in the post-war period, 1947-1996

This paper investigates the unit root properties of Italy’s inflation rate in the post-war period (1947-1996). To achieve the aim of this study, the Zivot and Andrews (1992) one break test and the Lumsdaine and Papell (1997) two breaks test for unit roots are applied. It is found that inflation for Italy was a non-stationary breakpoint for the period 1947-1996. This result has important implications for econometric modeling and in understanding the behavior of shocks to Italy’s inflation.

Many routes lead to Rome : potential causes for the multi-route migration system of Red Knots, Calidris canutus islandica

Migrants, such as birds or representatives of other taxa, usually make use of several stopover sites to cover the distance between their site of origin and destination. Potentially, multiple routes exist, but often little is known about the causes and consequences of alternative migration routes. Apart from their geographical distribution, the suitability of potential sites might play an important role in the animals’ decisions for a particular itinerary. We used an optimal-migration model to test three nonmutually exclusive hypotheses leading to variations in the spring migration routes of a subspecies of Red Knot, Calidris canutus islandica, which migrates from wintering grounds in Western Europe to breeding grounds in Greenland and the Canadian Arctic: the breeding location hypothesis, the energy budget hypothesis, and the predation risk hypothesis. Varying only breeding location, the model predicted that birds breeding in the Canadian Arctic and on West Greenland stop over on Iceland, whereas birds breeding in East and Northeast Greenland migrate via northern Norway, a prediction that is supported by empirical findings. Energy budgets on stopover sites had a strong influence on the choice of route and staging times. Varying foraging-intensity and mass-dependent predation risk prompted the birds to use less risky sites, if possible. The effect of simultaneous changes in the energy budget and predation risk strongly depended on the site where these occurred. Our findings provide potential explanations for the observations that C. canutus islandica uses a diverse array of migration routes. Scrutinizing the three alternative driving forces for the choice of migratory routes awaits further, specific data collection in rapidly developing fields of research (e.g., predation risk assessment, GPS tracking). Generally, the type of modeling presented here may not only highlight alternative explanations, but also direct follow-up empirical research.

Not all roads lead to Rome - a review of quality of life measurement in diabetes

Aims Quality of life (QoL) is recognized widely as an important health outcome in diabetes, where the burden of selfmanagement places great demands on the individual. However, the concept of QoL remains ambiguous and poorly defined. The aim of our review is to clarify the measurement of QoL in terms of conceptualization, terminology and psychometric properties, to review the instruments that have been used most frequently to assess QoL in diabetes research and make recommendations for how to select measures appropriately.

Methods A systematic literature search was conducted to identify the ten measures most frequently used to assess QoL in diabetes research (including clinical trials) from 1995 to March 2008.

Results Six thousand and eight-five abstracts were identified and screened for instrument names. Of the ten instruments most frequently used to assess ‘QoL’, only three actually do so [i.e. the generic World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL) and the diabetes-specific Diabetes Quality of Life (DQOL) and Audit of Diabetes-Dependent Quality of Life (ADDQoL)]. Seven instruments more accurately measure health status [Short-Form 36 (SF-36), EuroQoL 5-Dimension (EQ-5D)], treatment satisfaction [Diabetes Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire (DTSQ)] and psychological well-being [Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Well-Being Questionnaire (W-BQ), Problem Areas in Diabetes (PAID)].

Conclusions No single measure can suit every purpose or application but, when measures are selected inappropriately and data misinterpreted, any conclusions drawn are fundamentally flawed. If we value QoL as a therapeutic goal, we must ensure that the instruments we use are both valid and reliable. QoL assessment has the proven potential to identify ways in which treatments can be tailored to reduce the burden of diabetes. With careful consideration, appropriate measures can be selected and truly robust assessments undertaken successfully.

Giuseppe Pagano: a rationalist caught between theories & practices of fascist Italy

The architecture of a modern building is viewed and defined as a whole: the so-called decorative detail does not exist, only the intelligent and strictly controlled technical detail. The aesthetic basis—both social and technical at the same time—of modern architecture is reproduced in the three-dimensional composition.

Mussolini and the idealisation of empire : the Augustan exhibition of Romanita

The Augustan Exhibition of Romanita`, held in Rome’s Palazzo delle Esposizioni between 1937 and 1938, exemplifies the aestheticisation, ritualisation and sacralisation of politics during the Fascist era in Italy. This article conducts a multi-layered spatial analysis of the exhibition that considers space as passively experienced, as an agent to re-map memory, as a mediator between intention and reception and as having both physical and mental characteristics. The relative sizes of the spaces, their sequence and their axial placement within the Palazzo’s plan were the most powerful forces that conveyed the exhibition’s overall political and social aims. The Mostra Augustea della Romanita` (MAR) is here analysed as a form of historical representation with a specific narrative which is played out within an orchestrated space in order to create and reinforce a (Fascist) political identity. The idea of Rome took on material aspects through a kind of ‘recognition effect’ for the visitor by presenting Romanita` as a collective mirror in which to view an image of their own social visage. Thus an active connection would, according to the organisers, be forged between a Roman past and a Fascist present, and its two leaders and creators, Augustus and Mussolini, as well as between the individual and society. The MAR also demonstrates the prevalence of the cult of Il Duce in Fascist society and its importance for maintaining high levels of consent. With its focus on a particular view of the ancient world, the MAR was an ephemeral event that acted as teleological justification for the advent and supposed permanence of Fascism, which at the same time presented itself as a unique archaeological, scientific and educational document of the Roman world.