At the onset of his philosophical production, in the fall of 1795, the poet Novalis wrote a long series of fragmentary annotations posthumously entitled Fichte-Studien. A range of important themes are dealt with, all of them dealing with Fichte’s philosophy. But the main problem that presides over Novalis’ first philosophy and which pervades these manuscripts is a greater problem, a spiritual conflict between opposites, namely, poetry (life) and philosophy, or feeling and reflection, a conflict which Novalis was experiencing ever since he had attended Reinhold’s lectures on Elementary Philosophy in Jena (1790), which would be irreversibly enhanced by Fichte’s Doctrine of Science (from 1793 onwards), and only then would be addressed in his own Fichte-Studien. The current volume attempts to determine how Novalis solves his spiritual conflict under the guise of a theory of opposites, in light of his reading of the same problem in Reinhold and Fichte. Novalis’ conclusion is that of a hypothesis of a reciprocal dynamism, a living and cumulative alternation between opposites, which shall originate the I and inaugurate its reflexive self-understanding; namely, the hypothesis of uniting feeling and reflection, essential components of the I as a being of opposites, under the form of a union in disunion, wherein a real impossibility of uniting the opposites and an ideal possibility of doing so simultaneously coexist; a proposition which will lead Novalis to part from his teachers, and involves a profound reflection on the need to reassess the concepts of I, of identity and thought itself – a genuine critique of the self – which gradually carves out the image of Novalis as an autonomous and original thinker within the scope of German Idealism.

Increased migration is a global phenomenon associated with regional instabilities and insecurities, including long-term push factors and other elements related to processes of globalization that influence economics (the gap between the global South and the global North), politics (expectations of human rights and democratic practices), demographics (declining population in the North, rising population in the South) and technology (innovation in transport and communication). Local push factors are also extremely important, however, and need to be properly assessed in order to understand on-going migration processes and their variations. In many parts of the world, the closure of nearly all legal channels for entry risks increasing irregular migration, with the collateral effect of encouraging people smuggling and human trafficking. Furthermore, unsafe methods of entry increasingly involve women and children. But despite the urgency of the question, we are still very far from the development of any rational, holistic approach to migration issues, even while they have become a highly divisive, conflictual site of confrontation between countries, and between regional, national and international bodies. The current volume demonstrates some of the limits and inadequacies of current migration initiatives, while also identifying - as in the case of the Global Compact (signed in Morocco in December 2018) - inclusive strategies that respect human rights and international law, and safeguard global security. As the Global Compact emphasizes, migration should be considered as “a cooperative structure” that examines human movement in all its dimensions. This collection brings together essays that propose new ideas, themes and approaches that speak to different aspects of migration studies, including socio-economics, politics, legal studies and philosophy, fields that can open up new ways of looking at migration that go beyond the logic of emergency, improving international cooperation.

The volume offers an interdisciplinary discussion on the relevance of atmospheres of the city as well as on dwelling, drawing on Heidegger’s understanding of as the way people are on earth. Related topics are approached from a range of angles, producing new theoretical horizons.

The Photographer’s Guide to Los Santos blends video games and photography, exploring Grand Theft Auto V as both a tourist destination and a creative space. Combining practical in-game photography advice with critical analysis, the guide offers tutorials, modding techniques, and reflections on artistic projects, making it a valuableresource for students and digital artists. This handbook redefines GTA V as a medium for artistic expression, challenging conventional boundaries between gaming and art. Drawing from exhibitions and in-game performances, the guide incorporates lessons from teaching in-game photography across Europe. The Photographer’s Guide to Los Santos encourages deep, creative engagement with GTA V, positioning the game as a site for both critical and artistic exploration.

The book aims to analyze how Augmented Reality is perceived by human beings and its effects on us and our society following a phenomenological approach. Augmented Reality has been developed to “merge” the digital and the real world. In order to achieve such a merge, we need to complement an engineering approach with a philosophical one by studying how subjects perceive the world around and how to design an AR able to provide the same kind of objects we are used to have in our everyday world. The book uses phenomenology, postphenomenology, and mediation theory as a framework to analyze how we perceive the world around, the digital objects produced by AR, and the effects that such a novelty will have on our society.

The 20th century witnessed the collapse of the traditional separation between the realm of 'official' culture and that of 'popular' entertainment. This event produced dramatic consequences at all levels of social life in the West, especially in the English-speaking context. Yet, due to its gigantic breadth and scope, the turn towards entertainment still begs for a detailed exploration. This book aims to deepen the analysis of this momentous transformation, engaging in particular with questions such as: what effects have been produced by performative and recreational practices (theatre, music, radio, serious and popular literature, comic strips) in the systemic evolution of cinema and television? What role has technology played in the development of recreational forms in the 20th century? Can entertainment and its exploitation still be operative in the era of new media and the internet? By focusing on the English-speaking context, this volume offers new historical perspectives on the forms of entertainment and amusement that have become hegemonic worldwide over the past century.

The book delivers a rich ethnographic account of present-day Indian communities in northern Italy, considering their journeys of diaspora as well as dynamics of integration, focusing on the shift from first to second migrant generation with an important accent on gender. Based on three-years of multisite fieldwork between Lombardy and the Punjab in selected households, this study contributes to the emergent debate on South Asian minorities in the national context. Far from being a passive labor force, people of Punjabi descent in Italy confront and resist multiple forms of exclusion: from patriarchy to casteism, from racialization to civic stratification. As a guest inside these homes, the author registers and and amplifies otherwise unheard struggles: life stories that intersect with collective claims which go beyond the ethnic community in order to interrogate the global politics of mobility as well as local policies for social cohesion.

The present book brings together a series of interventions concerning pressing political, ideological and organizational issues of the contemporary situation, edited by Agon Hamza and Frank Ruda. These texts were written in a very specific political conjuncture: some during the time when Álvaro García Linera was serving as a vice-president of Bolivia, others in the period after the coup d’état of November 2019. The chapters in this book are dealing with social movements and different forms of political and subjective autonomy in Bolivia; with democracy and its function in late capitalism; with the discrepancy between national and capitalist spaces; with the Russian October Revolution as an event, and its resonances in other parts of the world; with the concept and function of the state; and, finally, with the idea of communism in its relation to necessity and contingency. At the end, the book presents a long and detailed conversation between Linera and Hamza and Ruda, as well as an afterword written by Slavoj Žižek.

Cultural studies do not represent a historicist approach focused on the origins and development of particular social and cultural expressions, but - especially in its most recent form - instead analyses and engages with specific socio-cultural contexts and their formation, as well as bringing critical sensitivity to the conjunctural and contextual – especially in terms of tensions, contradictions and crises. Within this new framework, migration studies – with its interest in forms of regulation and management, control and practices of resistance – has become an essential platform not only for updating conceptual categories but also for highlighting the “contested terrain” of contemporary cultural studies itself. The current volume aims to explore the connection between these two fields of study, proposing new ideas, themes and approaches that speak to the varied field of migration studies, starting from the approach of cultural studies and post-colonial studies, both of which open up horizons and trajectories that often remain invisible in other discourses and narratives. The collection includes articles that address: the issue of migration starting from critical race theory, feminism, and transnationalism (underlining the role played by race and sex in the formation of processes of subjectivation within migratory processes); migration practices and (contested) migration politics; the representation and spectacularization of migration; and mapping, counter-mapping, media and communication.

Created as a celebration of the 80th anniversary of the Italian Civil Code, the current volume presents a theoretical model for a dialogue between Italy and Latin America. With a view to emphasising the specificity of the contexts where the Italian code initially impacted, even where it did not remain a leading cultural presence, the volume also highlights particular aspect of different legal cultures in Latin America. The book focuses on the civil legal culture that each country has developed over the decades, while underlining individual characteristics, thus providing a sense of autonomy and independence instead of any residual idea of 'cultural imperialism', even indirectly.

This book proposes a narrative model for the creation of immersive and interactive filmic experiences, in which the interactor has agency within the virtual environment to alter the course of the story and shape their own journey. The book focuses in detail on the epistemology of the immersive interactive movie by analysing its aesthetic, narrative and interactive features, examining the workflow of production and presenting an evaluative protocol for VR experiences of this kind. From the nature of the frameless moving image to the newest human-computer interfaces, passing through the design and evaluation of interactive digital narratives, this volume builds a bridge between cinema and VR, proposing that all VR movies should be interactive.

In Imagining the Heavens across Eurasia, 20 authors tell in novel ways the histories of astral knowledge through objects and their imagery. These objects include, for instance, caves and buildings, manuscripts and prints, textiles and metal dishes, instruments and paintings, monuments, and sculptures. Each chapter focuses on specific items, analysing their pictorial content and situating them in the contexts of their production and usage. As its main issue, the book addresses the knowledge inscribed in these images and their material carriers. Particular attention is paid to the interconnection between images, materials, themes, and objects across space and time. This approach enables the authors to highlight the numerous cross-cultural relations between the objects, interlinking their chapters with each other. Thus, this book offers a richly illustrated kaleidoscope of astral knowledge in Eurasia to experts and lay people alike.

The book places suffering at the center of its socio-critical considerations, replacing the famous alienation motif of the Frankfurt School. It begins by critiquing the concept of alienation and its long tradition in social and political philosophy, especially in Critical Theory. An orientation towards concrete experiences of suffering then leads to comments on the current and concrete socio-cultural limits of human formability. Through the elaboration of different aspects of suffering, a multilayered focus is provided, which aims to highlight the transcendental and productive sides of suffering. Suffering is thus read as a symptom that refers to something hidden and reveals a particular truth which can provide guidance for personal and social change.

The last few years have seen a growing interest in the conservation and enhancement of the working and living spaces of the faber: artists, designers and architects. They include both museums and private places that are waiting for fulfilling their full potential. The volume aims at presenting the results of an interdisciplinary research on museum studies and design applied to cultural heritage that, starting from theoretical and methodological considerations and from the analysis of international paradigmatic case studies, proposes a reflection on design-oriented strategies and practices for the enhancement and use of these places.

The book focuses on Kant’s philosophy of history as a part of his practical philosophy. It deals with Kant’s interpretation of history that leads to political issues and introduces his project of cosmopolitanism as the culmination of his philosophy of history. Kant’s effort to introduce a model which would guarantee perpetual peace is studied from various perspectives and the book deals with the philosopher’s inspirational impulses stemming from the eighteenth-century European thought as well as with contemporary philosophical thinking in the field of cosmopolitanism showing the topicality of the idea of Kant’s cosmopolitanism in today’s world. The issue of objectivity in history, brought by various interpretations of history and its future projections by the philosophers of the 18th century, offers a great potential for the analysis of Kant’s contribution to the problem.

The experience of democratic self-government of migration practiced in the village of Riace, Calabria, is an important case study for the potential development of migration in relation to three aspects of last Italian government's policies, all of which have both European and international relevance: the failure to sign the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration; the securitarian management of the migration crisis; and distorted media narratives around migration. This book derives from the collective efforts of a group of young social scientists in the fields of politics, law, economic geography, and media analysis, all of whom have past and present practical experience in the field. The book focuses on the high-impact local policies implemented in the small Calabrian village which turned out to possess one of the best vantage points for examining human migration on a global level. The volume represents an attempt to speak to a broad public in order to challenge 'common sense' and easy narratives on the complex issue of migration.