Abstract

The essay provides an up-to-date review of the realities of Italian restoration. Restoration work feeds off the doubt that stems directly from historical and balance, and a conceptual rigour and practical approach at the same time. Restoration is carried out always and only on the original, with all the attendant risks of error and damage, and thus with all the prudence that demands. One of the most recent definitions of restoration is put forward: “By restoration, therefore, is meant any intervention that has the aim of conserving and transmitting to the future works of historical, artistic and environmental interest, facilitating the reading of them while not erasing the traces of the passage of time this is based on a respect for ancient material land the authentic documentation that such works constitute and, moreover, is to be seen as a critical act of interpretation that is not verbal but expressed concretely in the work carried out. Or, more precisely, it is a critical hypothesis and a proposition that is always modifiable, without it ever altering irreversibly the original”. The true nature of restoration is a complete fusion of historical and technical-scientific expertise. It is therefore artificial to distinguish between a ‘project of consolidation’ and a truly described restoration project. This is a distinction based on the assumption (to be demonstrated) that in an ancient building static problems and those related to the materials can be isolated and treated separately from an overall understanding of the architectural ensemble. So the paper stresses research methodology, the project and specific skills. As part of the principle of unity of methods in restoration, interdisciplinarity is viewed as the principal tool for bringing together consistently and fully the different skills necessary for the study and conservation of monuments. In summary, there are three fundamental components: (1) the history of architecture and theory of restoration, (2) the techniques of survey, analysis, diagnosis and intervention on the materials and the structure, and (3) legislative and regulatory aspects. The author emphasises the link between restoration and access to the monumental heritage. The definition of restoration as ‘an act of culture’ (fundamentally critical-historical and technical-scientific) leads to the reflection that culture is, by definition, exchange, communication and opening up to people without distinction. So restoration, because of its cultural nature, has need of recommendations, trends and orientations rather than regulations. Restoration looks to the future, not to the past. It has educational and commemorative functions for future generations, for young people, it ultimately is concerned not with satisfaction with research per se but the preparation of all citizens and their quality of life, viewed in the widest possible spiritual and material sense. In conclusion, some perspectives for the new millennium are offered. We have to ask ourselves whether society today is still able to guarantee a role for memory, for history and for the value of traditions, or for beauty itself. At first sight, it seems that interest in conservation and restoration has been reinforced in recent times. At the same time, we are aware of dominant pressures wanting to renovate and redesign our environment, giving priority above all to economic factors and revenue. To recall an earlier declaration by Renato Bonelli: contemporary society is not interested in historical and artistic things in themselves, whether they are ancient or modern. It is practical and consumerist, but it is also a society of complexities, and that however opens up some vents.

Abstract

The scientific nature of Information Science and its interdisciplinary relationships with other fields are discussed. I review some of the theoretical positions that coexist, oftentimes in conflict with each other, including the Mathematical Theory of Communication, Social Epistemology, Floridi’s Philosophy of Information, and theoretical positions in areas such as information technologies, information retrieval, bibliometrics, and big data. I conclude that the theoretical project of Social Epistemology, in its original conception by Egan and Shera, in its current manifestations in the philosophy of Steve Fuller, and in the paradigm of domain analysis by Hjørland, is one of the most solid proposals for providing a social, theoretical foundation for Information Science.

Abstract

This is a brief review of the relationship between Library and Information Science (LIS), Social Communication Sciences, and their journals in order to assess the validity of collaborative spaces. Professional profiles are analyzed that link the common competencies of both sectors. Then, we consider whether or not the necessary training to achieve these professional competencies is being supported in hybrid university programs. To conclude, the contributions of each sector in the scientific journals published by the reciprocal sector are considered, in particular those corresponding to ID. It is concluded that professional exchanges are more intense than university training and scholarly production, although there have been rapid and recent changes in publishing behavior.

Abstract

Citation analysis can provide us with models of the evolutionary dynamics in scholarly and scientific communication. We propose to distinguish between institutional research evaluation (usually, ex post) and knowledge evaluation ex ante, in relation to directionality in citation analysis. We discuss the theoretical literature on communication systems which distinguishes between information and meaning, in which the concept of redundancy plays an important role as measure of the potential of a communication system. This is the basis for a model of knowledge dynamics which differentiates between observable variation and latent selection environments. We use indicators at the journal level and analyze the citation environments of journals in both the cited and citing directions. Among journals, the citing direction can be analyzed by co-citation and indicates the integration of knowledge from different fields. The cited direction can analogously be analyzed by bibliographic coupling and represents the extent to which the cited journal has become relevant for different disciplines, hence indicates knowledge diffusion. We apply this analysis on three different case studies of journal-journal relations: a small scale study of the journal Public Understanding of Science, a random sample of 100 journals, and a large-scale analysis of the set of JCR 2016 journals. Combined, the results seem to confirm the hypothesis that interdisciplinarity cannot be captured by one-dimensional citation analysis. Both citing and cited directions are relevant for knowledge and research evaluations, respectively. We raise the question whether indicators of interdisciplinarity can be developed by combining both directions in citation analysis, indicate further research, and discuss the normative implications of our preliminary results.

Abstract

Communication can be understood, under an epistemological framework, as a macrocontext from which education participates as a part. One of the objectives of this work is to contrast this theoretical consideration with the observed interaction between education and communication scientific journals defined by citations and relatedness towards other scientific journals. At the same time, there might be relevant differences between the citation patterns of Spanish and foreign (journals in Journal Citation Reports) communication journals, particularly with regard to their disciplinary composition. These differences might become a major problem for the interexchange of information between both sets of journals. The authors analyze the citations distribution by subject category for Spanish and JCR journals, as well as for the journal «Comunicar», and also the frequency of related journals per subject category in the case of JCR. It is concluded: a) that the aforementioned epistemological relationship is valid only for Spanish Communication journals, b) that there are relevant differences between both sets of journals in the disciplinary composition of their citedciting and related journals and that Information Science & Library Science might serve as a suitable communication channel; finally, c) the characteristic multidisciplinarity of the journal «Comunicar» is corroborated, both at the national and international level.

Abstract

One of the «black holes» of academic research in Communication is the shallowness of reflections on the classic origins of Communication, its aims and points of entry. In this respect, the study of communicative processes on the Internet becomes particularly relevant (specifically the social networks processes) when observed from the classic rhetorical perspective. We focus on the use of persuasion strategies (ethos, pathos, logos) as well as the abundant use of rhetorical figures. Such parameters, along with the resources that emergent technologies offer, unleash creativity and afford humanist aspects to network communication. These give online platforms an extremely persuasive strength. Thus, we may speak of the network user of the 21st century as the new «Rhetorician». Our research on Facebook addresses the presence of rhetoric in online social network communication: the user of these platforms applies communicative strategies described by the Rhetoricians dating back to GrecoRoman antiquity. The methodology in this work (the study of three typified cases and the content analysis of conversations generated on Facebook walls) allows us to intertwine rhetoric and communication today, mediated by the emergence of online networks. We propose the retrieval of certain parameters of deep, critical thought to the benefit of a more human communication.