Market-Driven Change and Social Development in Peripheral Rural Context

This dissertation studies how businesses implement well-intended development ideas in a peripheral rural context. New business models have emerged that attempt to shift the focus away from profits for shareholders to the interests of peripheral communities where a business operates and claims to bring development. Literature nevertheless shows that development initiatives especially driven by the market, tend to work in service of the ‘developed’ capital while creating a seeming benefit of th...

Modeling Atomistic Nanoplasmonics: Classical and Hybrid Quantum Mechanical/Classical Schemes

Nanoplasmonics is characterized by complex physical phenomena that give rise to enhanced optical properties of plasmonic substrates. Furthermore, the interaction of nanoplasmonic devices with molecular systems can significantly influence the molecular response, leading to either enhanced or quenched physicochemical properties, such as their spectroscopic signals. Therefore, understanding the theoretical foundations of nanoplasmonics is essential for the experimental optimization of these devi...

Kindred Classics: Poetry and Divination in Ancient Greece and India

Peasants Prefiguring Agroecology, Critical Pedagogy and Peasant Feminism: A Partecipatory Action Resaerch Project with the Kenyan Peasants League

Computational Methods and Models for Atomistic Simulations of Ion Hydration, Ion-Ligand Complexes, and Ion Transport in Channels

Ions are omnipresent in Nature and play significant roles in a large number of biological and nanotechnological applications. For example, the investigation of their coordination with ligands is a recurrent theme in the scientific literature, with special reference to catalytic activity, nucleic acid cleavage, and anticancer drug studies. Besides, in the context of biological channels, ions may generate various kinds of ionic currents crucial for human physiological activities, like movement ...

The Signed Ego Network: Modelling and Analysis Through the Lenses of Online Social Networks

Humans have the ability to communicate at a scale and complexity that is unmatched by any other species on our planet. This capacity has been a key factor in allowing us to develop large-scale societies that are predominant across many diverse areas of the globe. What’s more, since the advent of the internet, individuals and groups can be connected regardless of physical location. This increased connectivity has brought with it many new, emergent phenomena, not all of which are beneficial. Th...

For Family, God, and Country: A Comparative Study of the Emergence of Anti-gender Movements in Southeast Europe

My PhD project investigates the emergence of anti-gender politics in Southeast Europe. Specifically, I explain the development of the movement’s collective identity through its framing and ideology, its collective actions and practices, as well as the networks and relations of its main actors. How and why do anti-gender movements emerge and mobilize? What is the role of the radical right and of churches in anti-gender contention? How does the relationship between churches and radical-right mo...

Evolving monetary orders: the evolution of public financial institutions in Brazil and Mexico

This thesis examines the evolution of economic orders in Brazil and Mexico, focusing on the role of Public Financial Institutions. It demonstrates how Development Banks and Central Banks have been intricately involved in the process of reforming and stabilizing two distinct economic orders: the developmentalist and the neoliberal. The analysis covers three periods: the developmentalist era, the neoliberal reform period beginning in the 1980s, and the post-2008 era. The study reveals that afte...

Rules, Logic, and Meaning