Paolo Cottone

Talking gender: How (con)text shapes gender – The discursive positioning of transgender people in prison, work and private settings

ABSTRACT The present study aims to shed light on how trans people discursively reproduce gendered habitus with regard to semantic means, following from the masculine or feminine designation in Roman languages. For this purpose, 11 interviews were conducted with trans women in prison, work, and private settings in Italy. In addition, three trans people who preferred not to be interviewed shared their diaries. By critically investigating the collected data, the discursive, relational, and symbolic processes, which define the (con)textual structure of gender, were accessed, and the quali-quantitative ALCESTE software was adopted for lexicometric analysis. The results show that the sexualized, dualistic coordinates of the Italian language, on one hand, promote an outward identity conforming to a heteronormative representation of gender, whereas interactions within the private sphere, on the other hand, empower trans peoples agency in claiming a peculiar and authentic sense of self. Trans people actually are talking and, consequently, doing gender through the gendered semantics of Italian in everyday life and are undoing gender through the emotional bonds in intimate situations. Coping strategies, based on positive affectivity, should be implemented therefore in all social, institutional, and clinical policies that are devoted to promoting assistance and support for trans people who suffer stigmatization, marginalization, and physical and institutional violence.

The “presence of others” in a virtual environment: different collaborative modalities with hybrid resources

The purpose of this study is to see in which forms and under which conditions social presence turns into collaboration. Eight couples were asked to find some objects in a virtual environment in which collaboration was allowed but not mandatory. The qualitative analysis of the video recordings shows that all participants resorted to collaboration in forms that were justified by the requirements of the task, the environmental affordances and the different expertise.

Daphne European Research Project: Italian Validation of Hypothesis Model (SAI-R, CORE-OM and BDI-II)

This paper presents a discussion of the analysis per formed on the family atoms in the first meetings of the psychodra ma groups conducted in all the partner countries of the project Daphne Empower. Th e issue of the relationship with the mother is central and fundamental to the t arget of the project. Atoms and reports highlight three types of relationships that we have defined: positive, negative and uncorrelated which will be described b low.

The PASQQ: A Questionnaire for Evaluating Perceived Airport Service Quality

Perceived airport service quality is an indicator of airport performance and the key to improving airport service. The present study aimed to identify the basic dimensions of airport service quality perceived by passengers and to develop an instrument that complements traditional quality-related metrics. The Perceived Airport Service Quality Questionnaire (PASQQ) was built, pretested and administered to 874 passengers recruited at the Venice International Airport. Results indicated that four main dimensions of perceived airport service quality should be considered: perceived disorder, negative interaction, positive interaction and knowledge, and perceived security. The PASQQ is a useful and a reliable tool, and it can be adopted within a multidimensional approach to evaluate perceived airport service quality.