Human Security as ontological security: a post-colonial approach

ABSTRACT

This article will critically interrogate the relationship between Human Security and Ontological Security from a broadly postcolonial perspective. The dislocation engendered by successive waves of neo-liberal globalisation has resulted in the deracination of many of the world's inhabitants, resulting in a state of collective ‘existential anxiety’ [Anthony Giddens, Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991]. Under such conditions, the search for ontological security becomes paramount. However, conventional understandings of Human Security as ‘freedom from fear and want’ are unable – from a post-colonial perspective – to provide ontological security since they operate within a culturally specific, Eurocentric understanding of the ‘human’ as ‘bare life’ [Giorgio Agamben, Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life, Daniel Heller-Roazen (trans), Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998]. It will then be argued that post-secular conceptions of Human Security [Giorgio Shani, Religion, Identity and Human Security, London and New York: Routledge, 2014] by acknowledging the role which culture and religion can play in providing answers to existential questions concerning the ‘basic parameters of human life’ are better able to ‘protect’ ontological security in times of rapid global transformation given the centrality of religion to post-colonial subjectivity. This will be illustrated by the case of the global Sikh community. It will be argued that ontological, and therefore, Human Security rests on reintegrating the ‘secular’ and ‘temporal’ dimensions of Sikhi, which had been severed as a result of the colonial encounter.     

The emerald and gold necklace from Oplontis,Vesuvian Area,Naples, Italy

The present study refers to the characterization of an emerald and gold necklace, dating from the first century AD, found in Oplontis (Torre Annunziata, Naples, Italy), using non-destructive methodologies such as EPMA and microFTIR. Reference samples, from mines known to be active in the Roman Imperial period, were collected and analyzed using the same techniques. Experimental data were also statistically treated in order to classify the emeralds' mines. The comparison of archaeological and reference data allowed to hypothesize, with high probability, an Egyptian origin for the Oplontis emeralds – even if the Habachtal mine cannot be definitively excluded.     

HISTORICAL TRADITIONS OF CIVICNESS AND LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT*

ABSTRACT The paper investigates the importance of history for local economic performance in Italy by studying the role of social capital, which refers to trust, reciprocity and habits of co‐operation that are shared among members of a local community. The paper presents a test based on worker productivity, entrepreneurship, and female labor market participation. Using as instruments regional differences in civic involvement in the late 19th century and local systems of government in the middle ages, it shows that social capital does have economic effects.     

The face of the poet Dante Alighieri reconstructed by virtual modelling and forensic anthropology techniques

This paper describes the multi-disciplinary approach to reconstruct the face of Dante Alighieri (1265–1321). Since Dante's sepulchre will be opened in 2021, the reconstructive process is based on morphological and metric data collected on the poet's cranium during the formal identification of his remains in 1921 by the anthropologist Fabio Frassetto, as well as on the resulting plaster model. Starting from this plaster model and a morphologically compatible reference mandible, since the original mandible was never found, a 3D digital model of the complete skull was obtained by reverse engineering and virtual modelling techniques. The most important aspect in this work was the method of virtual modelling proposed for the ex novo generation of the mandible. The physical model of the skull (cranium + mandible) was then produced by means of a rapid prototyping system. This model was finally used to recreate Dante's face via traditional facial reconstruction techniques currently used in forensic anthropology.     

The District and the Global Economy: Exportation Versus Foreign Location

We depict an industrial district as a center of innovation where positive local spillovers sustain the endogenous invention of new goods by profit-seeking firms. After invention, firms face a crucial choice between reaching distant markets by export or plant delocation. Attempts by firms to circumvent trade barriers through delocation slow down the pace of innovation and harm the welfare of the district.