Gown and Town: The University and the City in Europe, 1200–2000

The paper explores town-gown relations in Europe across thecenturies from the point of view of the university. It arguesthat the history of their relationship can be largely dividedinto two distinctive periods: one, in the period 1200–1800, whenthe University was in the town, but not of it; the other,post-1800, when the two were much more closely connected. Italso briefly examines the influence of the American campus modelon the European university system.     

Materials Research in France: A Short-lived National Initiative (1982–1994)

This paper describes the French initiative in materials research against both a national and an international background, in an attempt to disentangle the local circumstances, which prompted this governmental initiative, and to characterize the specific profile of materials research in France. In presenting a biography of the interdisciplinary program in materials research (PIRMAT), we argue that: i) the PIRMAT denotes a failure of the French science policy in materials research; ii) the leadership of the CNRS led to a specific style of research, quite different from the engineering approach of Materials Science and Engineering, and characteristic of a French style in materials research.     

Assessment of thermo-hygrometric quality in museums: Method and in-field application to the “Duccio di Buoninsegna” exhibition at Santa Maria della Scala (Siena,Italy)

Maintaining the microclimatic parameters at the desired value is essential for artefacts preservation. In order to control the status of the microclimatic parameters, a continuous monitoring of the indoor environmental provides conservators, curators, restorers, and lenders with an exact knowledge of the microclimatic conditions under which the works of art are kept. Moreover, the monitoring results give important information in order to make adequate changes to the control strategy of microclimatic parameters. From this point of view, monitoring is an essential tool to develop an actual preventive control programme aimed at maintaining the optimal microclimatic conditions for preservation. As a consequence, long-term monitoring has to be applied to prevent deterioration of works of art. The widespread opinion that a correct approach to the topic of microclimate control for artefacts preservation is not only and necessarily to provide buildings with sophisticated environmental control systems, but mainly to investigate the actual environmental dynamics and, before any structural intervention, to define the compatibility between the climate control potentials and the preservation requirements, has become more and more firm among the experts. Monitoring also allows to verify the capacity of the “building and Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC)” system to maintain the desired thermo-hygrometric values within the operating conditions. To this aim, the Italian Standard UNI 10829 (1999) defining monitoring, elaboration and analysis of the microclimatic data as supporting actions for artefacts preservation, led to the need of a long-term monitoring and of a statistical approach to the data management. The approach proposed by the Italian Standard has been recently adopted by a European Standard (EN 15251, 2007). In accordance with the Standards mentioned above, in this paper an operational procedure to assess the thermo-hygrometric quality in museums is firstly synthetically presented and than applied to a case study. In particular, the procedure is developed in order to define the thermo-hygrometric quality level of the exhibition areas in the large museum complex of “Santa Maria della Scala” in Siena (Italy) during the international temporary exhibition “Duccio. La nascita della pittura senese” (“Duccio. The birth of Sienese Painting”).     

Queer Intercultural Relationality: An Autoethnography of Asian–Black (Dis)Connections in White Gay America

For this critical intercultural inquiry, I as an Asian/Japanese transnational cisgendered gay man write my autoethnography of queer (or non-heteronormative) Asian–Black (dis)connections. Specifically, I challenge, interrogate, and problematize my queer intercultural production of desire and attraction as I engage in my critical autoethnographic interrogation of dialogues with five Asian/Japanese transnational gay men who have previously engaged in queer Asian–Black relationality. In so doing, I intend to create a potential point of departure to decenter the discursive and material effects of White gay normativity in the knowledge production of Asian queer male desire and attraction.     

“A Delicious Way to Help Save Lives”: Race,Commodification, and Celebrity in Product (RED)

Abstract

The Product (RED) campaign raises money to fight AIDS in Africa by helping to sell brand-name merchandise to affluent consumers. This paper examines the racialized representations of the (RED) website and the campaign's use of a consumer–celebrity fund-raising model. Through the analytical lens of critical cultural studies, I argue that (RED) commodifies Africans and “African-ness” under a celebratory guise, and reinscribes a narrative of Africa as a “problem child.” The campaign paradoxically trades on the very disparities of global capitalism that propel the AIDS crisis. It is central in (re)producing the human consequences of globalization, shoring up a symbolic and material marketplace marked by extreme poverty and extreme consumption.     

The history of the “Virgin with Child” sculpture (Ottaviano,Naples, southern Italy): Hypotheses from archaeometric multi-technique investigations

A life-size whitish marble statue of a “Virgin with Child” has been recently rediscovered in the St. Rosario church located in Ottaviano, a small town near Naples (southern Italy). This artwork shows stylistic features of the Tuscan-Roman school of the 16th century, and is framed in an intriguing historical context. Historical documents testify that the sculpture was a property of the cadet branch of noble Tuscan family of the Medici, the Medici of Ottaviano. A multianalytical approach has been used to try to indicate the supply area of the white marble of the studied sculpture. Considering the whole mineralogical, petrographic and geochemical data, the source rock can be possibly limited to the main classical white marbles of the Mediterranean district, as the classical marble of Aphrodisias. A reuse practice of a former artwork can be also hypothesized.     

Measuring allocative efficiency in Cultural Economics: the case of “Fundación Princesa de Asturias” (The Princess of Asturias Foundation)

The literature on Cultural Economics provides us with some examples for the measurement of technical efficiency. However, there are few case studies dedicated to the analysis of allocative efficiency. The aim of this paper is to fill this gap by incorporating a methodology that analyses both technical and allocative efficiency. We use the Shephard’s distance function, particularly suitable when affronted with non-profit-making firms or institutions that are not interested in cost minimization. As an empirical application, we analyse the efficiency of Fundación Princesa de Asturias (PAF), a Spanish non-governmental organization devoted to promoting the cultural, scientific and humanistic values of universal heritage, the period of study being 1988–2012. Our findings suggest that PAF could have used 7% less inputs to achieve the same level of output. On the other hand, we have found allocative inefficiency. Concretely, the input for other expenditures appears to have been over-utilized in relation to both the inputs for labour and current assets, with labour in turn being over-utilized in relation to current assets. Moreover, our results indicate that both technical and allocative efficiency have clearly improved during the period analysed. In summary, our empirical application shows how distance function methodology can be successfully implemented to measure allocative efficiency in cultural firms and institutions.