PREFIGURATIVE POLITICS IN PRACTICE: CONCRETE UTOPIAS IN ITALY'S FOOD SOVEREIGNTY ACTIVISM*

What and how we eat have once again become prominent in debates on the fight for global justice. Proponents of alterglobalism consider experiments with food sovereignty a prefigurative practice that anticipates broader ecocultural change. Critics, however, remain skeptical about its capacity to enhance social change. In social movement research, the practical implications of these prefigurative politics have rarely been investigated empirically. Based on an ethnographic analysis, this article illustrates the multifaceted dynamics of a continuously evolving experiment with Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) in a neorural microeconomic network, a cornerstone of food sovereignty activism. An ethnographic perspective can grasp the shifting terrain of the political mobilization, frictions and unintended consequences of these types of politics. The article demonstrates the importance of understanding the complexities of prefiguration as not a simple linear, coherent process. Also, the case study allows a critique of re-emerging neorural populism.

Nuclear form factors and closure approximation in the study of the (μ-,e-) conversion in nuclei

The methods of studying the exotic (μ-,e-) conversion in nuclei are discussed. For the coherent process the dependence of the rate on the nuclear parameters is obtained by using shell model nuclear form factors. For the noncoher­ent processes the relevant matrix elements are calculated in the framework of the closure approximation. Finally the fraction of the transition rate of the coherent process throughout the periodic table is calculated.

Quantum equilibration of the double-proton transfer in a model system porphine

The equilibration of the double proton transfer in porphine is demonstrated using a model system Hamiltonian. This highly coherent process could be witnessed experimentally using state-of-the-art femtosecond spectroscopy.

SUSTAINABILITY AND UNSUSTAINABILITY ASPECTS OF INTEGRATION OF NOVICE TEACHERS IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOL SETTING

Teachers are being identified as key actors for ensuring quality education, therefore they need to receive a proper professional support during their first years of work in overcoming initial challenges. As the preliminary research indicates, support that they gain is systemic and fragmentary. The aim of the study is to explore the sustainability and unsustainability aspects of integration of novice teachers in the secondary school system. The research methods employ are semi-structured interviews with fourteen teachers on their adaptation experience in the school system, considering both obstacles and factors of success. Research indicates that novice teachers leave their work within the first three years of teaching by finding demands too high and workload sometimes unmanageable. The authors offer suggestions for a more efficient and coherent process of mentoring and professional development of novice teachers.

Culture as Mediatization: Edward T. Hall’s Ecological Approach

<p>This article aims to present a review of Edward T. Hall’s ethnographic and anthropological research to critically look at mediatization as a complex cultural process. This implies an explicit support of linguistic relativism and cultural materialism. Hall’s belief in linguistic relativism led him to further research the communication processes by relying on a meditation that directly resulted from the anthropological research conducted by Sapir and Whorf in line with Boas’ tradition. Hall realized that the principles de€ned in relation with the study of languages and interpersonal communication could be applied with equally good results to the study of human behavior in general or to the entirety of cultural facts and culture in general.</p><p>Moreover, he develops his concept of culture from a strictly ecological perspective or the idea that it results from the special connection between man and his environment. Thall’s approach combines and mixes within a systemic view of culture both the cultural materialism advocated by Harris and White and the cognitivist tradition founded by Boas. This article shows the essence of Hall’s ecological approach according to which culture is conceived as a whole: a dynamic system, a coherent process of mediatization within which all the elements are deeply connected and therefore co-dependent.</p>

ENTREPRENEURIAL BRICOLAGE — DEVELOPING RECIPES TO SUPPORT INNOVATION

In some large enterprises introducing radical innovation may prove difficult, but introducing a combination of incremental changes may be more practical, particularly in the services sector where existing resources are utilized, and this may be seen as a process of entrepreneurial bricolage. For small resource-limited firms there may be no alternative but to draw on novel combinations of existing resources. The term bricolage comes from a French expression for “tinkering” and this is what it is suggested many innovative SMEs do — learn-by-doing. The notion of entrepreneurial bricolage has been used to describe a process for assembling readily available physical and knowledge assets in novel combinations for a business purpose, creating product and process “recipes”. In this paper, we explore the research question: How can entrepreneurial bricolage be represented as a coherent process?