Search results for "Semiotics"
showing 10 items of 438 documents
economics in the mirror of the financial crisis
2011
The structure of the Chapter is as follows. In Section 2 I discuss some of the factors that may have played a role in causing the crisis and emphasise that supporters of different economic theories will assign different weights to each factor in their analyses. As a consequence, suggested economic policies are highly sensitive to the economic theory employed in evaluating the set of causes. In Section 3 I seek to defend economists from the common charge that their inability to foresee the crisis is a clear sign of the lack of scientific status of their discipline. In my view, the main liability of mainstream economics lies elsewhere, in its excessive trust on the self-equilibrating mechanis…
Standardization of Road Danger Signs in the European Union
2015
The aim of this research is to find a solution for the standardization of road signs in the EU zone by a comparative analysis of different national sign systems to establish a common set from a single country. This work is based on the idea that road sign standardization might increase the safety level of transnational journeys and foster the relationships among the various members of the EU Community. This paper presents the outcome of the first step of the research, which focuses on the harmonization of danger signs. In more detail, a multicriteria approach is applied to rank 19 EU Member States on the basis of three main aspects: the installation cost of new signs, new sign learning issu…
La congiura degli uguali: involtini & friends
2019
The essay reconstructs the events of “involtini”, a very popular dish in Italian cuisine, in order to trace the specificities of the Sicilian recipes. In particular, a corpus of recipes is analyzed in order to identify the recurring narrative programs in the preparation of the Sicilian “involtini”, distinguishing variations and invariant forms. Particular attention is given to the conformation of the gastronomic object itself and its arrangement on the plate. By comparing other types and sizes of similar gastronomic objects, it is highlighted how cultural and political meanings can be identified in the sense of the “involtini”.
Forme del mangiar per strada: il caso della rosticceria palermitana
2019
Analizziamo qui un tipo di cibo da strada noto a Palermo come rosticceria. Si tratta di un insieme coerente e composito di pietanze che fanno parte di una gastronomia locale, popolare ed economica, e con una valorizzazione fortemente pratica: puro “cibo rifornimento”. Eppure, attraverso un’analisi interna della rosticceria, considerando gli elementi che la compongono e le relazioni tra di essi, nonché attraverso un confronto con altri universi gastronomici, vedremo come sia possibile individuare le forme semiotiche profonde che reggono il funzionamento socio-culturale di questo cibo molto diffuso, e al tempo stesso un po’ snobbato, della gastronomia palermitana. È solo nel confronto che si …
Forme della cucina siciliana. Esercizi di semiotica del gusto
2020
Sarde a beccafico, cuscus, minestra di tenerumi, caponata, pasta alla Norma, pasta con le sarde, involtini di carne, cassate e cannoli, fritture varie: ecco i più tipici piatti della tradizione gastonomica siciliana, stereotipi alimentari tanto amati sia dai turisti sia dai siciliani doc. Ma cosa rende così apprezzate queste pietanze? E, soprattutto, cosa fa sì che siano diventate fra le più rappresentative della cucina – e in generale della cultura – siciliana? Se la tradizione è un’innovazione riuscita, un’invenzione efficace, questo volume prova a spiegare, con gli strumenti della semiotica, attraverso quali dispositivi antropologici, discorsivi e testuali sia nata – e soprattutto si sia…
Cassate, cannoli e altri miti
2020
On the one hand, there are the traditional Sicilian sweets, with their composition, shape and taste; on the other hand, there are the times and the spaces in which they are consumed, but also those in which they are prepared. For each of these aspects, which are not of a linguistic nature, there are multiple discourses that take them as their object, articulating their meaning. The objective of this essay is to put all these heterogeneous sources into dialogue in an attempt to identify the structures they have in common. This research does not aim to establish the origin of the Sicilians' interest in sweets, but rather the way in which in this island, crossroads of many peoples, a system ha…
Semiotica del design
2018
Tra i tanti artefatti con cui la semiotica si confronta, quelli che ricadono sotto l’ampio ombrello della parola design sembrano godere di uno statuto particolare. Il pensiero va subito agli oggetti naturalmente, il cui senso, come hanno spiegato i padri fondatori della disciplina, obbedisce a un doppio criterio di pertinenza: pratico e mitico. A fianco a tali questioni tuttavia la riflessione più recente sul design ha messo in evidenza come a costituire motivo di interesse possa essere la nozione stessa di progetto. È questo il vero oggetto del design a ben pensare, non foss’altro perché i professionisti che lo praticano non esitano a dar forma tanto a oggetti quanto a un’infinità di altri…
Forme di vita / forme del corpo: studi di caso.
2019
La nozione di “forma di vita”, in semiotica, appare al tempo stesso evidente e confusa. Vagliata e discussa da parecchi anni, viene utilizzata da molti studiosi in più occasioni e con diversi scopi. Funziona come un tipico termine ombrello. Parallelamente, molti nodi problematici relativi alla scienza della significazione, pur avendo palesi tangenze con tale nozione, sembrano volerne o poterne fare a meno, dichiarandola in contumacia fuori corso. The notion of "life form", in semiotics, appears at the same time evident and confused. Sieved and discussed for several years, it is used by many scholars on several occasions and for different purposes. It works like a typical umbrella term. At t…
Post-it
2020
The history of the invention of post-it, the famous small piece of yellow paper with a re-adherable strip of glue, help us see how designing can be a way of redesigning more than a creation ex nihilo. A designer is who works on the meaning of things, focusing on the relations an artifact creates with humans and non humans. Standing in front of an object, then, the question changes: not what is design but when.
Rosticceria: ibridazioni gustative e logiche identitarie
2020
this contribution is dedicated to the analysis of a particular dish of sicilian, and in particular palermitan, cuisine known as 'rosticceria'. the essay investigates the ambivalent status of such bread dough-based dishes, halfway between street food and other categories of dishes. the analysis concerns both the manner and timing of consumption and the food-object itself from the point of view of its gustatory and sensory characteristics.