Maria Laura Ruiu
Northumbria University
Network
Latest external collaboration on country level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots.
Publication
Featured researches published by Maria Laura Ruiu.
The Communication Review | 2017
Maria Laura Ruiu; Massimo Ragnedda
ABSTRACT This article explores both how local social committees may contribute toward generating collective actions, leading local communities to empower their environment, and how new information communication technologies (ICTs) may alter the collective action. It focuses on a case study, represented by the “No al Progetto Eleonora” local committee that operates in the Arborea district of Oristano, in Sardinia, Italy. Here, the community has become progressively cohesive in the face of an external environmental threat represented by the proposal for a drilling project. In this context, the role played by the Internet has been marginal in promoting community cohesion, even if it has indirectly enhanced it. In other words, the Internet played a marginal role in promoting the protest and reinforcing community cohesion, but it played a primary role in attracting external solidarity and support, thus indirectly reinforcing the sense of community against an external threat.
Public Library Quarterly | 2017
Maria Laura Ruiu; Massimo Ragnedda
ABSTRACT This article is based on semistructured interviews with library staff members in order to explore both how they perceive the role of libraries in most deprived areas in Newcastle upon Tyne and how they relate with their patrons. We show that public libraries play a primary role in activating a virtuous cycle, in which infrastructures, skills, and increased ability of users to achieve their goals simultaneously result from and feed social inclusion strategies. However, some limits might be related to the availability of public economic resources that tends to affect the smaller libraries by reducing opening times and services provided.
Housing and society | 2016
Maria Laura Ruiu
ABSTRACT Cohousing communities’ participatory processes take place from the preliminary phases of the development process when the group is expected to collaborate and negotiate its private stakes with those of the whole community. Even after the establishment of the community, every choice regarding the common spaces has to be discussed and approved by the whole group. Results obtained from qualitative research on cohousing in England show how the internal dynamics of the Community Project are highly different from an “ordinary” condominium, mainly because it is an “intentional community.” At the same time, the case study shows that when some constitutive features of the participatory process are not respected, the community dynamics are negatively influenced. Theoretically, the cohousing formula produces a cooperative and communitarian organization rationally constituted in order to ensure not only livelihood, but also a higher quality of life and higher degree of socialization inside and outside the community. Practically, it requires a great effort of inhabitants in terms of intentionality, time, financial resources, and willingness to collaborate and negotiate private stakes. The Community Project represents evidence of the difficulty in reaching equilibrium between creating an “open” community and preserving the privacy typical of a condominium.
Journal of Rural Studies | 2017
Maria Laura Ruiu; Giovanna Seddaiu; Pier Paolo Roggero
Journal of Housing and The Built Environment | 2017
Maria Laura Ruiu
Rumores – Revista Online de Comunicação, Linguagem e Mídias | 2017
Massimo Ragnedda; Maria Laura Ruiu
Archive | 2017
Massimo Ragnedda; Maria Laura Ruiu
Archive | 2017
Massimo Ragnedda; Maria Laura Ruiu
Archive | 2016
Massimo Ragnedda; Maria Laura Ruiu
Archive | 2016
Massimo Ragnedda; Maria Laura Ruiu