Lo Stato non riesce più a proporsi quale unico attore del campo politico, e all'interno di quest'ultimo emerge la città globalizzata come polo di una politica oltre lo Stato. La tesi elabora dunque il concetto di città globalizzata ricorrendo a un approccio genealogico. Vengono individuati una serie di passaggi all'interno dei quali si mostrano linee di forza, rotture e mutazioni del suo divenire storico. L'analisi si muove analizzando il pensiero di autori vissuti in tali momenti, inserendoli all'interno della discussione di una sequenza di episodi che dalla città antica attraversano la modernità giungendo a oggi. Si dimostra come tutte queste capacità e problemi sviluppatisi storicamente si presentino simultaneamente all'interno della città globalizzata. La dissertazione è sviluppata seguendo la tensione tra la semantica dello Stato in relazione alla città. In questa direzione si mostra come la città globalizzata sia progressivamente divenuta forma di governo, società e territorio dello Stato – potendo dunque oggi configurare forme di parziale autonomia rispetto ad esso. Viene inoltre indicata una traiettoria che dalla città-mondo giunge alla città globalizzata passando per la metropoli e la città globale, discutendo come ciascuno di questi profili urbani indichi uno specifico assemblaggio dal quale si possono dedurre le mutazioni dei rapporti di potere nonché delle forme economiche e della guerra. La città globalizzata non è dunque il convergere verso un'unica forma di tutte le città del mondo, indicando invece una tensione con l'urbanizzazione planetaria contemporanea. Essa è piuttosto una griglia di intelligibilità politica per cogliere sistemi policentrici e multiscalari, attraversati da conflitti asimmetrici. La tesi si muove sui confini di numerose discipline, proponendo metodologicamente la formula seeing like a city e sostenendo la necessità di politicizzare il campo degli studi urbani e di urbanizzare il pensiero politico per poter articolare con maggiore complessità la costitutiva relazione tra città e scienze sociali. / The State is no more the unique actor of the political field. So, the globalized city is emerging as a new subject within the political arena. This thesis elaborates on the globalized city's concept through a genealogical approach. Within a series of tipping points, it shows the historical emergence of this new kind of city. The analysis focuses on many political thinkers that lived in that series of topical moments, from the ancient city to nowadays planetary urbanization. The dissertation is elaborated following the specific tension between the lexicon of the State related to the city. Than, it demonstrate that the globalized is historically become a form of govern, a society and a territory for the State. So, nowadays it shows some kind of autonomy in respect to it. Secondly, the thesis discuss the trajectory that goes from the World city to the Globalized city, passing through the metropolis and the global city. Each of this urban profile shows a specific assemblage through which it is possible to understand the transformation occurred in the economical and political relationships, and also the transitions in the war paradigm. The globalized city does not mean that every city on the planet is following the same model. Rather, it shows a tension in respect to the planetary urbanization forms. Instead, the globalized city is a grid to grasp politically the contemporary polycentric and multiscalar systems, that are crisscrossed by new asymmetric conflicts. In terms of methodology, the dissertation is elaborated on the boundaries of many disciplines, and it proposes a “seeing like a city” as a way through which to politicize the urban studies field and to urbanize the political theories. This is, finally, a way to gain more complexity on the fundamental link between social sciences and the city.

La revocación del mandato representativo es un derecho político fundamental, imbricado en el principio democrático, porque las facultades o atribuciones que confiere integran el estatuto jurídico-político del ciudadano al estar referidas a la participación popular en los asuntos públicos, concretamente al control y exigencia de responsabilidad política de los representantes públicos. Esta tesis doctoral presenta la hipótesis referida en el título: el fundamento de la revocación del mandato representativo reside en la soberanía popular. ¿Qué implica? Primero: la revocación tiene alma democrática y su no reconocimiento constitucional entraña una restricción de la libertad política, inasumible en el Estado democrático; segundo: la institución revocatoria no es propia ni exclusiva del mandato imperativo y tercero: el mandato representativo no implica transmisión o alienación de la titularidad ni del ejercicio de la soberanía sino sólo la delegación o la comisión del ejercicio de los poderes públicos. Este trabajo de investigación pretende dar respuesta a cuestiones capitales de la teoría democrática: ¿por qué el pueblo es el soberano?, ¿cuál es el origen del fundamento democrático de la soberanía? y ¿qué significa la soberanía popular? Debemos partir de estos sólidos cimientos para poder explicar el significado y las implicaciones jurídico-constitucionales del mandato representativo. Y, finalmente, analizar por qué la revocación del mandato representativo es una exigencia indeclinable del principio democrático. En esta tesis surcaremos la Historia de las ideas políticas, atravesaremos la ideología constitucional, nos sumergiremos en la teoría del Derecho y nos asomaremos a la antropología en busca de los argumentos que nos permitan aseverar, con rigor científico, que la revocación del mandato representativo es inherente a la soberanía popular, clave de bóveda del constitucionalismo democrático. / The revocation of the representative mandate is a fundamental political right, embedded in the democratic principle, as it confers powers and functions that integrate the citizen’s legal-political status by regulating popular participation in public affairs, particularly with regard to the control and the political accountability of public representatives. This doctoral thesis presents the assumptions outlined in the title: the basis for the revocation of the representative mandate lies on popular sovereignty. What does this imply? Firstly, the repeal has a democratic soul and its non-recognition in the constitution involves a restriction of political freedom, which is untenable in the democratic State; secondly, the revocative institution is not part nor it is exclusive of the imperative mandate; thirdly, the representative mandate does not imply the transmission or the alienation neither of the ownership nor of the exercise of sovereignty, but the delegation or commission of the exercise of public powers. This research seeks to answer crucial questions of the democratic theory: why are people sovereign? What is the origin of the democratic foundation of sovereignty? What does popular sovereignty mean? It is from this sound basis that the meaning and the legal and constitutional implications of the representative mandate should be explained. Finally, it is also important to analyze the reason why the revocation of representative mandate is an irrevocable requirement of the democratic principle. Throughout this thesis we will retrace the history of political ideas, we will go through the constitutional ideology, we will dive into the theory of law and we will take a look at anthropology, in search of arguments that will allow us to assert with scientific accuracy that the revocation of the representative mandate is pertinent to the people's sovereignty, a keystone of democratic constitutionalism.

Nel corso degli ultimi vent'anni si è assistito ad una diffusa sperimentazione di processi partecipativi, tesi al coinvolgimento dei cittadini nelle scelte pubbliche. La letteratura sul tema inquadra tale rinascita di spazi della partecipazione nel contesto della crisi della politica e delle democrazia, in particolare di quella rappresentativa, quindi non della politica in generale e verso questioni di interesse pubblico, ma delle forme più tradizionali di partecipazione politica. Nel quadro di una “rinascita” di forme di partecipazione alternative si assiste al diffondersi di pratiche che vedono i cittadini farsi promotori di iniziative, in quartieri, strade, «micro-aree urbane», mettendo al centro la cura di beni comuni, la convivenza e la vivibilità negli spazi pubblici urbani. Allo stesso tempo, come mostrano anche diversi studi e ricerche, si assiste all'emergere di un crescente interesse da parte delle istituzioni stesse verso la promozione di percorsi tesi ad accrescere senso di responsabilità dei cittadini nella cura del territorio, delle comunità di cui fanno parte, per la promozione di vivibilità, coesione sociale. La ricerca ha quindi rilevato e messo a fuoco un terreno a tratti ibrido, sperimentale, di incontro tra cittadini che si attivano ed organizzano e istituzioni che diventano sostenitrici, ma senza guidare. La ricerca analizza in particolare tre campi di pratiche, nel Quartiere San Donato, a Bologna, anche alla luce del recente Regolamento per la collaborazione tra cittadini e amministrazione per la rigenerazione e la cura di beni comuni urbani. L'attenzione è agli orizzonti di senso della, al rapporto cittadini e istituzioni che in esse prende forma, indagando se e come possono essere lette come sperimentazioni democratiche che danno vita a relazioni dialogiche nella sfera pubblica, a pratiche di responsabilità sociale condivisa, e allo sviluppo di capacità sociali collettive. / During the last 20 years there has been a large experimentation of participatory process to involve citizens in the public policy making. The literature, often frame this increasing of spaces of participation in the general context of a crisis of representative democracy and of traditional forms of political participation. In the context of an increasing of alternative forms of participation, there is a proliferation of citizens infinitives, at neighborhood level, in the streets, in “micro-urban” areas, with a focus on commons' care, livability in the urban public spaces. At the same time there is an emerging interest of the institution in the promotion of processes aiming at fostering the citizens responsibility in the care of territory, community, and for the social cohesion. The research has identify an hybrid and sometimes experiential field of encounter between active, self- organized citizens and institutions that sustain and support these citizens initiatives but without taking a lead. The research analyzed three field of practices, in the San Donato Neighborhood, in Bologna, the city where recently has been adopted a new set of rules for the collaboration between citizens and administration for the regeneration and care of urban commons'. The focus is on the meanings, on the relations between citizens and institutions emerging in these practices, training to understand if is possible to read them as a democratic experimentation able to create a public dimension, to develop social, collective capabilities and sheared social responsibility.

L’auto-organizzazione dei cittadini è una pratica sociale oramai diffusa in tutto il mondo, in quanto risposta alla crisi. In un contesto di contrazione economica e peggioramento della qualità della vita quotidiana, organizzarsi, al di là delle risorse economiche pubbliche, è un’alternativa che permette alla popolazione colpita dalla disoccupazione, dalla recessione e dalla mancanza di futuro di soddisfare i propri bisogni fisici, emozionali e sociali. Questa ricerca analizza dunque le pratiche d’auto-organizzazione, sviluppatesi nei rapporti di prossimità e tesi alla costruzione di una cultura della responsabilità, attraverso lo studio di due esperienze che si stanno svolgendo in contesti urbani e sociali diversi come possono essere la città di Bologna, in Italia, e Buenos Aires, la capitale dell’Argentina. La chiave di lettura teorica per analizzare tali forme d’auto-organizzazione è quella di ripensarle nell’ottica della creazione del capitale sociale orientato al bene comune. / In a context of social crisis, economic contraction and devaluation of the quality of life, interaction and social self-organized networks of citizens are emerging practices worldwide today. They represent a strategy of social innovation that allows people affected by unemployment, recession and the lack of a future to satisfy their physical, emotional and social needs. This research analyzes these social self-help forms as a challenge to build social capital in the framework of theCommons. Through the study of two experiences that are taking place in different urban and social contexts as can be the city of Bologna in Italy, and Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, this theoretical interpretation aims to analyze these forms of social self-organization and to rethink them as resources to build a shared social responsibility paradigm.

Ce travail porte sur la fabrication d’une céramique polycristalline transparente à structure cristalline cubique : le spinelle de magnésium et d’aluminium. Contrairement aux monocristaux tels que le saphir, les céramiques polycristallines peuvent être synthétisées sous des formes beaucoup plus complexes et avec un procédé de fabrication beaucoup moins couteux. Le spinelle présente également l’avantage d’être un matériau bi-bande transparent à la fois dans le visible et le moyen infrarouge (0.4-6 µm) avec de bonnes propriétés mécaniques. Cependant, les conditions requises pour la transparence (totale densification et absence d’impuretés ou de seconde phase), rendent une industrialisation particulièrement difficile à ce jour. L’objectif de cette étude a donc été de proposer un procédé robuste et industrialisable permettant l’élaboration d’une céramique polycristalline à grains fins à partir d’une poudre de spinelle. Pour cela différentes voies de frittage ont été explorées : un frittage naturel sous air suivi d’une compression isostatique à chaud par gaz, et le frittage SPS. Suivant la voie de frittage adoptée, les propriétés optiques et mécaniques du produit fini ont été comparées par rapport aux autres matériaux disponibles sur le marché. Finalement, les propriétés de transport du spinelle ont été investiguées par le biais d’analyses EELS et de mesures de la conduction ionique. / This thesis deals with the elaboration of a transparent polycristalline ceramic with a cubic crystalline structure: magnesium aluminate spinel. Contrary to single-crystals such as sapphire, a polycristalline material can be elaborated, through a low cost process, with different sizes and shapes. Spinel has the main advantage to be a bi-band material: transparent in the visible and in the mid-infrared range (0.4-6µm). Despite many attempts to commercialize spinel, it is not available yet as an optical material due to the difficulty to get transparency (dense and defect-free material). The aim of this work is to propose a simple and reliable process in order to obtain a fine-grained and transparent spinel. Different sintering routes have been investigated: pressureless sintering on air followed by a High Isostatic Pressing step (HIP) and Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS). According to the sintering route chosen, the optical and mechanical properties of the final product have been compared. Finally the transport properties of spinel, have been investigated by EELS spectroscopy and by ionic conductivity measurements.

The problem of invasive alien species (IAS) is recognized as the second most serious threat to loss of biodiversity after habitat destruction. It is a problem largely created by humans as they transport and introduce species, deliberately and accidentally, from one part of the globe to another. The pressures exerted on biodiversity by international trade are one of the most serious aspects of the IAS problem. Although states are under obligations in international environmental law to prevent the entry of, and control, those alien species that threaten biodiversity, to date state practice has often been found wanting. In particular, quarantine regulation, which can be a state??s first line of defence against IAS, is mainly used by states to protect their farming and agricultural product sectors rather than biodiversity at large. The reasons for this include lack of domestic resources and lack of guidance at the international level. However, even if states were to expand the purview of quarantine, the question arises whether they would be able to use quarantine regulation to protect biodiversity from IAS while simultaneously fulfilling their international trade law obligations. This study seeks to answer this question by examining international environmental law and international trade law in their application to quarantine regulation. In doing so, the study identifies many areas of conflict. The different policies that underpin environmental and trade regimes mean that environmental concepts, such as the precautionary principle and the ecosystem approach, are difficult to apply within the international trade law regime. A way of achieving a more harmonized international response to the problem of IAS is suggested by incorporating environmental considerations into the international standards used by states to design and implement domestic quarantine measures. To facilitate the practical implementation of international standards the study further recommends appropriate financial and institutional capacity building mechanisms.

The problem of invasive alien species (IAS) is recognized as the second most serious threat to loss of biodiversity after habitat destruction. It is a problem largely created by humans as they transport and introduce species, deliberately and accidentally, from one part of the globe to another. The pressures exerted on biodiversity by international trade are one of the most serious aspects of the IAS problem. Although states are under obligations in international environmental law to prevent the entry of, and control, those alien species that threaten biodiversity, to date state practice has often been found wanting. In particular, quarantine regulation, which can be a state??s first line of defence against IAS, is mainly used by states to protect their farming and agricultural product sectors rather than biodiversity at large. The reasons for this include lack of domestic resources and lack of guidance at the international level. However, even if states were to expand the purview of quarantine, the question arises whether they would be able to use quarantine regulation to protect biodiversity from IAS while simultaneously fulfilling their international trade law obligations. This study seeks to answer this question by examining international environmental law and international trade law in their application to quarantine regulation. In doing so, the study identifies many areas of conflict. The different policies that underpin environmental and trade regimes mean that environmental concepts, such as the precautionary principle and the ecosystem approach, are difficult to apply within the international trade law regime. A way of achieving a more harmonized international response to the problem of IAS is suggested by incorporating environmental considerations into the international standards used by states to design and implement domestic quarantine measures. To facilitate the practical implementation of international standards the study further recommends appropriate financial and institutional capacity building mechanisms.

The problem of invasive alien species (IAS) is recognized as the second most serious threat to loss of biodiversity after habitat destruction. It is a problem largely created by humans as they transport and introduce species, deliberately and accidentally, from one part of the globe to another. The pressures exerted on biodiversity by international trade are one of the most serious aspects of the IAS problem. Although states are under obligations in international environmental law to prevent the entry of, and control, those alien species that threaten biodiversity, to date state practice has often been found wanting. In particular, quarantine regulation, which can be a state??s first line of defence against IAS, is mainly used by states to protect their farming and agricultural product sectors rather than biodiversity at large. The reasons for this include lack of domestic resources and lack of guidance at the international level. However, even if states were to expand the purview of quarantine, the question arises whether they would be able to use quarantine regulation to protect biodiversity from IAS while simultaneously fulfilling their international trade law obligations. This study seeks to answer this question by examining international environmental law and international trade law in their application to quarantine regulation. In doing so, the study identifies many areas of conflict. The different policies that underpin environmental and trade regimes mean that environmental concepts, such as the precautionary principle and the ecosystem approach, are difficult to apply within the international trade law regime. A way of achieving a more harmonized international response to the problem of IAS is suggested by incorporating environmental considerations into the international standards used by states to design and implement domestic quarantine measures. To facilitate the practical implementation of international standards the study further recommends appropriate financial and institutional capacity building mechanisms.

La désintégration des mésons charmés est étudiée dans le cadre de l'expérience WA82 à partir des données enregistrées au Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) du CERN. Un total d'environ 4000 candidats a été extrait des 50 millions d'interactions enregistrées de 1987 à 1989. Une part importante de mon travail a consisté à assurer le fonctionnement du détecteur RICH destiné à l'identification des particules secondaires et à analyser les données recueillies. Cette information a pu être utilisée avec succès pour mettre en évidence un signal exploitable pour divers modes de désintégration rares de particules charmées ainsi que pour réduire le bruit de fond dans les modes plus abondants. Les résultats d'une analyse personnelle sont présentés, débouchant sur la mesure de rapports de branchement non-leptoniques des mésons D°, D+- et Ds+-, relativement aux modes les plus fréquents.

La tesi di dottorato ha come oggetto il pensiero sociologico di Georg Simmel con particolare riferimento alla sua interpretazione nei diversi indirizzi di ricerca della sociologia relazionale contemporanea. In particolare, si propone una rilettura del contributo simmeliano alla luce del paradigma relazionale della sociologia di Pierpaolo Donati. Il lavoro di ricerca è stato condotto secondo una rigorosa ricognizione testuale dell’opus simmeliano e della bibliografia critica internazionale sull'argomento in oggetto. A partire dalla nozione di relazione sociale, si dipana l’analisi della proposta sociologica simmeliana: il termine tedesco Wechselwirkung (azione reciproca) racchiude la complessa semantica con cui assume senso l’intera teoria sociologica simmeliana. Simmel è il primo "sociologo relazionale", come sostenuto da Donati, e in questa ricerca si cerca di mostrare le evidenze della validità di tale asserzione. Nella formulazione simmeliana si trovano importanti indizi teorici che permettono di rielaborare la relazione nei termini di una “forma sociale vitale”. Questo significa che la relazione sociale trova la sua ragion d’essere in quanto fenomeno umano che si determina a partire dalle nozioni di “spirito” (Geist) e “vita”(Leben). Nel primo capitolo si chiarisce la natura di questa relazione sociale in rapporto alle varie proposte sociologiche relazionali in campo internazionale. Nel secondo capitolo si analizza in maniera critica la (ri)formulazione simmeliana della relazione come scambio (nella forma simbolica del denaro) e le interpretazioni relazionali che si sono succedute a partire da questo cambio di rotta. Nel terzo capitolo vengono passate in rassegna le principali figure relazionali (la vita della metropoli, la moda, il conflitto, il povero, lo straniero) con le quali si confronta il sociologo berlinese. Nel quarto capitolo si propone di rileggere fenomeni sociali e culturali come forme relazionali in riferimento alla sfera dell’arte e della teologia (religione). / The subject of this doctoral dissertation is Georg Simmel’s sociology in light of its interpretation by various schools of contemporary relational sociology. It specifically focuses on the interpretation of Simmel’s contribution according to Pierpaolo Donati’s relational paradigm. This research was rigorously conducted by studying Simmel’s texts and the existing international bibliography on Simmel and relational sociology. Simmel’s theory first addresses the notion of relation, which is a central issue and plays a fundamental role in the comprehension of social facts: the German term Wechselwirkung (reciprocal action) encompasses the wide semantics that summarizes Simmel’s entire sociological theory. Simmel is considered the first relational sociologist, as affirmed by Donati, and this research attempts to corroborate and to offer further proof of the validity of this assertion. Simmel’s sociological contribution presents the relation as “vital social form”: social relation is the very essence of sociology, which finds its raison d’être as a human phenomenon determined by notions such as “spirit” (Geist) and “life” (Leben). The first chapter of the dissertation compares the nature of Simmel’s social relation with various proposals of international relational sociologies. The second chapter offers a critical analysis of Simmel’s reformulation of relation as exchange (in the symbolic form of money): this represents a significant change in his epistemological configuration of relation. The third chapter focuses on the main relational figures of Simmel’s sociology (city life, fashion, conflict, the poor, the stranger). The fourth chapter suggests that cultural and social phenomena be read as relational forms referring to the spheres of art and theology (religion).