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Philosophy Kitchen. Rivista di filosofia contemporanea, 2024

«Ce n’est plus d’une libération universalisante que l’homme a besoin, mais d’une médiation», Gilbert Simondon (1958) would write, concerning the encyclopedic ideal embraced by cybernetics. This encyclopedic inspiration went hand in hand with an explicit desire for renewal of philosophical categories and with the will of overtaking metaphysics’ dichotomies. It is the spectral and disseminated character of cybernetics, its insistence in the interstices of the encyclopaedia, that has led us to devote this issue to it, with the aim of mapping the places of knowledge in which the traces left by cybernetics can be discerned, following its trails, reconstructing its plots, bringing out its modes of being, questioning its legacy and relevance.

In: Armin Bunde, Jürgen Caro, Jörg Kärger, Gero Vogl (eds.), Diffusive Spreading in Nature, Technology and Society. Springer., 2017

The most profound change in the relationship between humans and their environment was the introduction of agriculture and pastoralism. With this millennia lasting economic shift from simple food acquisition to complex food production humankind paved the way for its grand transitional process from mobile groups to sedentary villages, towns and ultimately cities, and from egalitarian bands to chiefdoms and lastly states. Given this enormous historic impetus, Gordon Childe many years ago coined the term “Neolithic Revolution” [...]

"Arabic Pasts: Histories and Historiography", 3-4 October 2024, Aga Khan University, London.

Journal of Fish Biology, 2020

A new species of Trichomycterus endemic endemic to the Ribeira de Iguape River basin, southeastern Brazil, is proposed based on morphological and molecular evidence. Other two species of Trichomycterus are recorded for the Ribeira de Iguape River basin and their taxonomic status discussed: T. alternatus and T. jacupiranga were not differentiated by our molecular analysis, but may be consistently distinguished with basis on morphology. The phylogenetic relationships of the co-occuring species, Trichomycterus alternatus and Cambeva zonata, is inferred using mitochondrial data, reinforcing the taxonomic status of these recently revised species that have a confuse taxonomy. Additionally, we recommend a new combination for Trichomycterus taroba with its inclusion in the genus Cambeva. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Fieldwork in Landscape Architecture: Methods, Actions, Tools, 2024

The following chapter introduces particular fieldwork methods and what they yielded in a design response to the “The Greatest Grid: A Call for Ideas,” co-organized by the Museum of the City of New York and the New York Architectural League. Titled “Transgressing the Grid,” the proposal is an investigation into the everyday experience of the physical structure of Manhattan conducted through the lens of its famous rogue street – Broadway. It situates Broadway as the key agent in shaping our lived experience of the grid of Manhattan and provides a means to critically explore contested modes of apprehending and structuring the city predominantly through the embodied practice of walking. Specifically, the methodology discussed might be best outlined in three phases: fieldwork (in the form of kinesthetic immersion and recorded observation); interpretation (of the fieldwork through representational practices of making); and translation (of interpretive drawings into physical proposals for an expanded and enhanced public realm). Fieldwork thus serves as the catalytic foundation for ultimate design generation.

Este trabajo está enfocado en el estudio de los restos humanos y de los ajuares funerarios encontrados en las tumbas utilizadas en época Campaniforme en Cerdeña. Hemos analizado estadísticamente los porcentajes de enterramientos individuales, múltiples o colectivos, los primarios y secundarios, distinguiendo entre enterramientos simultáneos o prolongados en el tiempo. Hemos tomado en consideración las sepulturas donde se encuentra una clara diferenciación entre restos humanos masculinos y femeninos, y haciendo un estudio combinado con los elementos materiales hemos intentado determinar la pertenencia a uno o al otro género de cada objeto, y el posible encuadramiento social de los individuos. En los casos donde hemos podido remontar a la edad de los inhumados, hemos estudiado la diversificación en el uso del ajuar funerario respecto a este parámetro.

In Innovation Africa: Enriching farmers' livelihoods, 2009

International agricultural research organizations have made efforts to ensure their research products reach the intended beneficiaries, in order to reduce poverty and to improve rural livelihoods. Examples exist of initiatives to transfer technologies (research institution to farmer) and to facilitate the information sharing processes. These initiatives include participatory approaches, capacity building processes, and, in various cases, have utilized new information and communication technologies (ICT). These ventures have also been a step in the process of participation and democratisation of farmers in what has been called the information society. There are still limitations hindering the participation of farmers in many technology transfer projects however. Often farmers are unable to access the “media” of information sharing, or they may find the information is not useful, irrelevant, or in an unfamiliar language. These problems are compounded by a lack of awareness and skills in ICT s such that the possibility of feedback to, and communication with, research organizations can seem very remote. Village Information and Communication Centers (VICs) in Rwanda are public spaces where farmers can share knowledge, access information in their own language, and other community services (shop for sale of agricultural inputs, amalgamation of products for getting better prices, cooperative banks, training points, community meeting places and so forth) in their own place. Free access and democratization of information are key principles in organization and operations of VICs. Organized farmer groups in a form of farmer association is the basic requirement of establishing the centers to ensure institutional support backing, hosting and managing the VICs, including cost share the running of the centers. From the initial stage of establishing the VICs it should be clear that the centers are demand-driven and address the information needs and priorities of the rural and marginalized communities (women and men, youth, sick, elderly and disabled). In other words VICs should be organized in manner that there is broad ownership base as the objective is to benefit the maximum number of farmers on wider and diversified issues related with agriculture and rural development. Efforts should also be made to ensure that VICs promote multidirectional flows of information and communication between different stakeholders, R&D partners, farmer’s associations and other communities groups, including sharing of expert as well as traditional knowledge of communities. The long term sustainability of VICs lies in community empowerment which also demands a strategic vision, basically developed in partnership with farmers to invest in human resources, in the physical condition of the VICs, and in training. In this way VICs can be an economic and effective mechanism for research organizations to disseminate to farmers the products of their research and to facilitate a feedback about the process and results of the research. Key words: Village information and communication center; information and knowledge sharing; agriculture; technology transfer; learning communities; Rwanda; Africa.