Towards lower carbon cities: urban morphology contribution in climate change adaptation strategies

Non-urbanized areas (NUAs) play an important role in reducing the effects of climate change by providing both carbon storage and sequestration. Urban areas are responsible for the emission of 60% of global greenhouse gas, 50% of which are produced by buildings. During the past decades, increasing urban growth and sprawl processes produced several urban layouts characterized by different morphological features and a common lack of sustainable energy and environmental solutions. Investigating the relationship between urban morphology, energy demand and carbon emission/sequestration represents a relevant topic for urban planning practices implemented to face urban climate change effects. This study proposes a method for a transformability assessment aimed at investigating the transformation suitability of different urban morphology types. The case study is the metropolitan area of Catania (Italy), characterized by an impressive urban growth since the 1960s. The proposed method identification of limits and options for increasing sustainability of urban areas considering the contribution of both NUAs and built-up areas. This approach allows to identify appropriate planning tools for new layouts of urban fabrics while increasing the objectivity of the decision process. In the framework of climate change mitigation and adaptation, the outcomes of this research may lead to innovative urban planning practices.     

Regional strategic assets and the location strategies of emerging countries’ multinationals in Europe

This paper explores the location strategies of multinational enterprises (MNEs) from emerging countries (EMNEs) in search for regional strategic assets. The analysis is based on a systematic comparison between EMNEs and multinationals from advanced countries (AMNEs) in order to unveil similarities and differences between these two major sources of foreign investment into the regions of the European Union. The empirical results suggest that EMNEs follow a distinctive logic in their location strategies. They are attracted by the availability of technological competences only when their subsidiaries pursue more sophisticated and technology-intensive activities. Conversely, EMNEs share some behavioural similarities with AMNEs in their response to the spatial agglomeration of investments.     

Gramsci and the African Città Futura: Urban Subaltern Politics From the Margins of Nouakchott,Mauritania

This article offers reflection on how Gramscian theories can be useful for critically analyzing the political significance of the actions and resistances of urban subaltern Africans. It interrogates the potential of subaltern political forms to profoundly transform society and to thus prepare for the African “future city”. It merges a theoretical analysis of Gramsci's concepts relating to the città futura—and its relation to concepts of city, subalternity, political initiative and cittadinanza—with a comparative critique of urban theory applied to Africa and especially relating to the politicization of the city in Mauritania. Our reflections are based on Mauritania and the case of Nouakchott, its capital, where we have carried out our research for over a decade. We will interrogate the re‐appropriations or resistances, as well as the autonomous construction of modes of living and of city‐making, made by marginal inhabitants, in order to consider their political potentialities.     

Small shifts in handedness bias during the Early Mesolithic? A reconstruction inferred from Microburin technology in the eastern Italian Alps

This study discusses the existence of a variability recorded in lateralization indexes of proximal microburins, a by-product of the individual manufacture of microliths, in a sample of Sauveterrian sites from the Italian Eastern Alps. At first glance, such variability may appear to support the existence of customary handling, pertaining perhaps to an ensemble of normalized technical procedures accomplished by the members of the human group regardless of site type, context and economic activities. However, plotting the patterns in lateralization index against the regional Sauveterrian chrono-cultural sequence reveals a diverse correlation emerges and indicates how the early settlement phase involved greater functional differentiation among sites used by selected human groups compared with the successive phases, when this pattern vanishes. This trend may correspond to the decrease in lateralization observed on skeletal markers from the Upper Paleolithic to the Mesolithic, linked to the change in technological models and techniques employed in food gathering. The implications of this research at different levels are also discussed.     

Multitemporal analysis for preservation of obsidian sources from Melka Kunture (Ethiopia): integration of fieldwork activities,digital aerial photogrammetry and multispectral stereo-IKONOS II analysis

An integrated analysis of recent satellite imageries and dated aerial photos demonstrated to be a good investigation tool (Gallo et al., 2009) for the identification of new sites and for the assessment of landscape changes of wide archaeological areas in Ethiopia.     

A socioeconomic impact assessment of three Italian national parks

The expansion of protected areas (PAs) is feared to negatively affect the local economy, as every PA, albeit to different degrees, entails restriction to the economic activities. The literature on the topic has started assessing what is the socioeconomic impact of PAs, mostly focusing on the Global South. The objective of this article is the analysis of the socioeconomic impact of three Italian national parks (NPs), established in the 2000s, using a counterfactual approach based on both the outcome regression diff-in-diff and the doubly robust diff-in-diff combined with different propensity score-based and Mahalanobis distance matching procedures. We find that the three Italian NPs have a robust and statistically significant impact on average income of residents in municipalities hosting them. Conversely, there is weak evidence that population and local establishments are positively affected, and touristic local establishments and employment are negatively affected by the three NPs. All together the results indicate that the three NPs have no negative effect on the socioeconomic dynamics of the territories impacted, although additional investigations are required to shed lights to the impact mechanisms.     

The Darwinian Rhetoric of Science in Petr Kropotkin's Mutual Aid. A Factor of Evolution (1902)

The paper explores the significance of rhetorical argumentation in Petr Kropotkin's treatise Mutual Aid. A Factor of Evolution (1902). It argues that Kropotkin's work is steeped in the tradition of a rhetoric of science that is profoundly Darwinian and in which various forms of analogic reasoning play a central role. After explaining the epistemic function of the metaphors “struggle for existence” and “mutual aid,” the paper analyses Kropotkin's argumentation strategies and offers an interpretation of them as a further development and reworking of Darwinian rhetoric.     

Italy under scrutiny

Paul Ginsborg, Storia d'Italia dal dopoguerra ad oggi, Turin, Einaudi, 1989, 622 p., ISBN 88–06–11386–0 (A History of Contemporary Italy. Society and Politics, 1943–1988, London, Penguin Books, 1990).

Paul Ginsborg ed., Stato dell'Italia, Milan, il Saggiatore‐Mondadori, 1994, 704 p., ISBN 88–428–0147‐X.     

GOVERNMENT QUALITY AND THE ECONOMIC RETURNS OF TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT IN EUROPEAN REGIONS

Transport infrastructure investment is a cornerstone of growth‐promoting strategies. However, the link between infrastructure investment and economic performance remains unclear. This may be a consequence of overlooking the role of government institutions. This paper assesses the connection between regional quality of government and the returns of different types of road infrastructure in the regions of the European Union. The results unveil the influence of regional quality of government on the economic returns of transport infrastructure. In weak institutional contexts, investment in motorways—the preferred option by governments—yields significantly lower returns than the more humble secondary road. Government institutions also affect the returns of transport maintenance investment.