Open Access Books

The volume gathers the outcomes of the “Laboratori” working group, the third of five thematic panels from the seminar “Intersezioni. La formazione urbanistica di fronte ai mutamenti”, promoted by the Italian Society of Urban Planners (SIU) between 2022 and 2025. Building on teaching and research experiences developed in different schools of planning, the contributions examine the design studio as a key pedagogical device, where urban planning is practised as a reflective, multidimensional and situated process connecting theoretical knowledge, project-making and engagement with local actors and territories. The book highlights laboratories as circular interfaces between teaching, research and the university’s third mission, addressing urban complexity, socio-spatial inequalities and ecological transitions through collaborative, interdisciplinary and justice-oriented approaches.

Research on Chinese Catholicism in the Ming and Qing dynasties has grown steadily in the last three decades, spurred by the reprint of Catholic works of that period. However, past research has focused on a limited number of works, while the works of other missionaries working in more remote areas are neglected. Additionally, the Chinese works of the Franciscan and Dominican friars in the provinces of Fujian, Shandong and Guangdong have not received enough scholarly attention; therefore, it is still difficult to evaluate how the friars adopted methods and ideas different from those of the Jesuit missionaries, besides the question of the Chinese rites. Furthermore, we do not yet have a comprehensive picture of the works of Chinese Catholics and how they further developed the inculturation of Catholicism in China. In terms of methodologies, we need also to contextualize Chinese Catholicism within the larger spectrum of Chinese thought, society and politics, as well as show not only the ways in which Catholicism has changed China, but also the ways in which China has changed Catholicism, developing ideas, texts and rituals, enculturated in Chinese society and culture. The twenty papers in this volume address the questions above. Most of them are written by a young generation of academics in mainland China, showing the vibrancy of the field of Ming–Qing Catholic studies.

Biochar is the carbonaceous residue produced from the pyrolytic conversion of biomass. It is generally used for agricultural applications as a soil amendment but has far wider potential. This book presents the use of biochar as a platform for the development of new intriguing solutions in several cutting-edge fields. The book is a useful reference volume for any reader with a strong scientific and technological background, ranging from scientific advisors in private companies to academic researchers promoting the spread of knowledge about biochar to anyone not already working with it.

In the GDR, girls and women from the age of twelve were forced into closed venereological wards. The medical treatments and the stay in the wards led to severe traumatization of the forced inmates. Just the suspicion of an STD or a denunciation was enough to be brought to such a station by the police or the home management. Political medicine in the wards interfered with the physical integrity of the girls and women without the information and consent of those who had been sent to the hospital. Even though 70 percent of them were shown not to have an STD, all girls and women had to undergo a gynecological examination every day. In some stations, the forced instruction had to do the work. In other stations, the girls and women were asylum-seekers and isolated from the outside world. In a hierarchically organized terror system, the interned were physically and psychologically humiliated and traumatized. These traumatizations were passed on transgenerationally. Using the example of Berlin, Berlin-Buch, Dresden, Halle (Saale) and Leipzig, the emergence of the stations in the Soviet occupation zone, everyday life in the closed venerological stations and the traumatic consequences of the compulsory admissions are described. In addition to extensive archive research, the authors conducted interviews with former forced inmates as well as with doctors, nurses and employees of the closed venereological stations for this reconstruction.

Depuis un siècle, l’homme a réussi à repousser les limites de l’âge de façon remarquable. Pourtant, il se greffe à cet accomplissement un discours inquiet, voire alarmiste, sur les conséquences économiques et sociales du vieillissement des populations. Qu’il s’agisse de la retraite, des nouveaux parcours de vie, de l’avenir de nos systèmes de santé et de protection sociale, des liens intergénérationnels ou des épreuves individuelles accompagnant l’âge avancé, le vieillissement humain teste la solidité de nos valeurs et questionne nos pratiques. L’approche interdisciplinaire de Richard Lefrançois permet d’aborder le phénomène de la vieillesse sous des angles multiples, tout en livrant une réflexion humaniste, globalisante. Il s’attaque aux nombreux mythes de la vieillesse, faisant appel aux particularités de la civilisation et de la culture postmoderne, puis insiste sur l’influence réciproque des personnes aînées et de la société. L’auteur présente une véritable anthropologie du vieillissement.

Szczególne miejsce w historii konstytucyjnej Turcji, zapoczątkowanej ogłoszeniem w dniu 23 grudnia 1876 r. przez sułtana Abdülhamida II konstytucji osmańskiej1, zajmują akty konstytucyjne z lat dwudziestych XX w., tj. konstytucja z 1921 r. oraz konstytucja z 1924 r. Akty te były głównymi osiągnięciami tzw. trzeciego okresu konstytucyjnego, uznawanego za najbardziej interesujący etap ewolucji konstytucjonalizmu tureckiego. Przedmiotem opracowania jest druga ze wspomnianych konstytucji, a dokładniej rzecz biorąc – przyjęta w niej koncepcja organizacji i funkcjonowania władzy państwowej. Konstytucja turecka z 1924 r. nie była dokumentem zbyt obszernym; zawierała 105 artykułów, czyli o 21 mniej niż polska ustawa zasadnicza. Rzucającą się w oczy różnicą był brak w konstytucji tureckiej wstępu. Zakres przedmiotowy jej regulacji obejmował ogół podstawowych uniwersalnych materii konstytucyjnych, ujętych w sześciu rozdziałach: I. Postanowienia fundamentalne, II. Władza ustawodawcza, III. Władza wykonawcza, IV. Władza sądownicza, V. Prawa podstawowe Turków, VI. Postanowienia różne (dotyczące m.in. administracji terenowej, funkcjonariuszy publicznych, finansów państwa, zmiany konstytucji). Zaznaczyć jednak trzeba, że chociaż systematyka ta była zbliżona do Konstytucji marcowej, przyjmującej za podstawę zasadę podziału władzy, to jednak poświęcenie w konstytucji tureckiej osobnych rozdziałów – w tym samym zresztą porządku – połączono z koncepcją jedności władzy.

Les sourds-muets, aujourd’hui rebaptisés « sourds » - ce qui n’est pas sans entraîner quelques confusions - ont été entièrement délaissés par les sciences sociales, qui ont cru sur parole le discours médical de la déficience et de sa réparation à tout prix. Ce discours, qui semble relever de l’évidence tant la surdimutité est un objet de scandale pour la pensée ordinaire, est pourtant historiquement daté : au xixe siècle, les sourds-muets étaient reconnus comme une catégorie anthropologique, avant que la langue des signes ne soit interdite pendant cent ans à partir de 1880 dans les instituts d’enseignement. Les sourds sont porteurs d’une radicale étrangeté. Pour eux, être sourd réfère moins à un déficit d’audition qu’à l’affiliation à un groupe linguistique et culturel. Symétriquement, l’entendant est moins celui qui est pourvu d’audition que l’autre culturel : celui qui, ne connaissant pas la langue des sourds, se méprend sur ce qu’ils sont. Un profond sentiment de complétude, incompréhensible pour les tenants de l’idéologie de la déficience, se fonde sur l’existence d’une langue qui, pour emprunter un canal différent de celui de toutes les autres langues humaines, n’en présente pas moins les mêmes fonctions et les mêmes richesses. « Les sourds, c’est comme ça » : telle est l’expression qui conclut fréquemment les récits, et qui a pour fonction de souligner ce qu’il y a d’unique dans l’expérience sourde du monde. Fidèle à sa vocation, qui est de décrire les productions collectives d’un groupe humain, telles qu’elles sont vécues et pensées par lui, l’ethnologue donne à voir l’autre côté du miroir. Lui aussi montre, à sa manière, que « les sourds, c’est comme ça ». Bilan de sept années d’enquête, ce livre vient infirmer les représentations communes de la surdimutité comme malheur individuel. Il la montre telle qu’elle est : une singularité qui a trouvé sa voie propre pour accéder à la symbolisation.

Música e composição vão além daquilo que soa, e vibram na direção do que se pensa, do que se imagina e do que se fala. As crônicas e ensaios apresentados nesse livro surgiram dessa consciência, e especialmente da teimosia na combinação de traços e temas aparentemente opostos. Celebra uma abertura de diálogo com um novo público, encontrando agora uma moldura em livro, buscando identificar caminhos e processos de construção composicional, mostrando que o terreno é fértil, e menos visitado do que deveria ser, especialmente agora que a complexidade das hierarquias não mais precisa das fronteiras de ontem, e nem mesmo de fixar receitas de complexidade.

Mario José Buschiazzo is recognized by the specialized literature for his contribution to the history of not only Argentinean, but also Latin American architecture. His work as a restorer and, later, as a scholar and driving force of studies about American architectural history –especially colonial architecture– has left a mark in the historiographical field. Today, Buschiazzo is an essential reference when thinking about colonial architecture. This has been underlined by those who have continued working with these studies throughout time. Nonetheless, his career path allows to identify a profile that is not very related to his interest for the colonial: his relationship with contemporary American architecture. In 1955, seven years after the first publication of the renowned Anales, the Instituto de Arte Americano e Investigaciones Estéticas (IAA) began publishing a series of books called Arquitectos Americanos Contemporáneos (Contemporary American Architects). Although the Anales were intended to include “all those works that fit within the broad but precise title of the Institute that sponsors them: the Institute de Arte Americano”, they were, in general, focused on matters pertaining “the colonial”. On the contrary, this new series modified the spectrum of publications of the IAA towards not only a wider topic but also a wider audience. And taking into account the profile that the IAA had maintained until then, this is striking. In an article from the Revista de la Universidad de Buenos Aires published in 1962, Buschiazzo explained the objective behind the launching of this collection: “with the intention of maintaining in the works a sense of rigorous modernity, avoiding the archeological aspect that the research about the past could give it if it was not connected to the present, a series of small books titled ‘Arquitectos Americanos Contemporáneos’ has been published for six years already, in which the works of the most bold and creative figures of the present are being disclosed”. Beyond this particular fact, the relationship between Buschiazzo and American contemporary architecture is built upon multiple fronts that are principally related to architecture in the United States: from his publications regarding US architecture (an unavoidable fact is that his first article on architecture addresses contemporary architecture in such country), to his frequent contact with different characters related to the world of US architecture, to his scholarships and trips, and his interests and readings in relation to such matters. This book studies the relationship between Buschiazzo and contemporary American architecture, mainly between 1955 (when the collection Arquitectos Americanos Contemporáneos was launched) and 1970 (when he passed away). The goal is to build a richer and more complex image of the architect than that obtained only through his studies regarding “the colonial” or his work as a restorer. The hypothesis that guides the research is that, in opposition to his traditional image, Mario Buschiazzo had an evident interest towards “contemporary American architecture”, that can be noticed in his writings, the books published by the IAA while he was the director and the books of his own collection. An interest that, at the same time, was aligned with his broader political positions. Although Buschiazzo’s attraction towards contemporary American architecture and, particularly, his admiration for the United States has already been mentioned by a number of authors before, in general, there are only isolated commentaries derived from a limited number of evidences. In contrast, this work studies this particular facet of the IAA’s founder through a varied amount of materials. Apart from those texts written by himself, letters written and received –personal and institutional ones– by him will be analyzed, also trips he made to the US, bonds he established with people from there and the testimony of those who knew him. At the same time, special attention will be given to his personal collection of books. Through the marks he left on them, it is possible to track thoughts, ideas, corrections and even aspects of his own personality. All these sources will build the nodes of a dense network that will allow us to understand the scope of this attraction for the contemporary and the North American.

Over the last fifty years, conservation professionals have confronted increasingly complex political, economic, and cultural dynamics. This volume, with contributions by leading international practitioners and scholars, reviews how values-based methods have come to influence conservation, takes stock of emerging approaches to values in heritage practice and policy, identifies common challenges and related spheres of knowledge, and proposes specific areas in which the development of new approaches and future research may help advance the field.

Communication is vital for social participation. However, communication often takes place under suboptimal conditions. This makes communication harder and less reliable, leading at worst to social isolation. In order to promote participation, it is necessary to understand the mechanisms underlying communication in different situations. Human communication is often speech based, either oral or written, but may also involve gesture, either accompanying speech or in the form of sign language. For communication to be achieved, a signal generated by one person has to be perceived by another person, attended to, comprehended and responded to. This process may be hindered by adverse conditions including factors that may be internal to the sender (e.g. incomplete or idiosyncratic language production), occur during transmission (e.g. background noise or signal processing) or be internal to the receiver (e.g. poor grasp of the language or sensory impairment). The extent to which these factors interact to generate adverse conditions may differ across the lifespan. Recent work has shown that successful speech communication under adverse conditions is associated with good cognitive capacity including efficient working memory and executive abilities such as updating and inhibition. Further, frontoparietal networks associated with working memory and executive function have been shown to be activated to a greater degree when it is harder to achieve speech comprehension. To date, less work has focused on sign language communication under adverse conditions or the role of gestures accompanying speech communication under adverse conditions. It has been proposed that the role of working memory in communication under such conditions is to keep fragments of an incomplete signal in mind, updating them as appropriate and inhibiting irrelevant information, until an adequate match can be achieved with lexical and semantic representations held in long term memory. Recent models of working memory highlight an episodic buffer whose role is the multimodal integration of information from the senses and long term memory. It is likely that the episodic buffer plays a key role in communication under adverse conditions. The aim of this research topic is to draw together multiple perspectives on communication under adverse conditions including empirical and theoretical approaches. This will facilitate a scientific exchange among individual scientists and groups studying different aspects of communication under adverse conditions and/or the role of cognition in communication. As such, this topic belongs firmly within the field of Cognitive Hearing Science. Exchange of ideas among scientists with different perspectives on these issues will allow researchers to identify and highlight the way in which different internal and external factors interact to make communication in different modalities more or less successful across the lifespan. Such exchange is the forerunner of broader dissemination of results which ultimately, may make it possible to take measures to reduce adverse conditions, thus facilitating communication. Such measures might be implemented in relation to the built environment, the design of hearing aids and public awareness.

Brian Huot's aim for this book is both ambitious and provocative. He wants to reorient composition studies' view of writing assessment. To accomplish this, he not only has to inspire the field to perceive assessment--generally not the most appreciated area of study--as deeply significant to theory and pedagogy, he also has to counter some common misconceptions about the history of assessment in writing. In (Re)Articulating Writing Assessment, Huot advocates a new understanding, a more optimistic and productive one than we have seen in composition for a very long time. Assessment, as Huot points out, defines what is valued by a teacher or a society. What isn't valued isn't assessed; it tends to disappear from the curriculum. The dark side of this truth is what many teachers find troubling about large scale assessments, as standardized tests don't grant attention or merit to all they should. Instead, assessment has been used as an interested social mechanism for reinscribing current power relations and class systems.

Democratize the capitalist enterprise. Cornerstone of shared and sustainable prosperity is the first essay published in Spanish by Belgian sociologist and political scientist Isabelle Ferreras. This is an original and revised version of the essay originally published in English in 2019, Democratizing Firms – a Cornerstone of Shared and Sustainable Prosperity, by the Center for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP). This new version in Spanish has been enriched with contributions, specifically indicated in the text, from two other recent publications by Isabelle Ferreras: “Those Who Work are Labor Investors: Recognizing the Two Core Constituencies of Capitalist Firms” and “From Shareholder Primacy to a Dual Majority Board”, the latter written with Julie Battilana. Both texts were published in 2021 under the Aspen Institute Business & Society Program's Ideas Lab on Worker Voice in Corporate Governance. This new version, original and enriched, has been translated and prepared by Sebastián Pérez Sepúlveda.

This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact

The last decades have witnessed major progress in both monetary policy theory and practice, with broad academic consensus on the desirability of monetary policy rules and ongoing research on their exact specification. Typically, the analysis is carried out in a New Keynesian framework with nominal rigidities and constant capital stock. The latter represents a constraint that this study seeks to overcome by introducing a model with investment and capital adjustment costs. The work assesses different interest-rate rule specifications with respect to the target variables included, based on two criteria: determinacy of rational-expectations equilibrium and convergence to steady state after a shock. The study concludes that rules with both an inflation and an output gap target ensure a unique rational-expectations equilibrium and a less distressful adjustment of the economy after the occurrence of shocks.