A Laboratory of Minorities - The territory of Ticino represents a form of cultural and linguistic minority within the Swiss Confederation: as the only officially monolingual Italian-speaking canton, it embodies a condition of being at the margins of the centre, where the dominant culture is often constructed through dialogue—or tension—with the German- and French-speaking regions.

Overtourism has become one of the most publicized issues in contemporary tourism debates in recent years, capturing the attention of international media, local administrations, and researchers. This phenomenon, known by different names since the 1960s, describes situations where the impact of tourism exceeds the sustainability thresholds of a destination. This article focuses on the conceptual evolution of the term - from its first academic formulations to its widespread media use—while examining the various manifestations of the phenomenon and its multidimensional impacts on affected destinations. Through a systemic approach, the text also explores the opposite phenomenon of undertourism, highlighting how the solution does not lie in limiting tourist flows but in managing them intelligently.

The world changes, this has always been the case, with or without human intervention. What is new in recent years is the frequency and intensity of such changes, marked by sudden leaps - or disruptive transformations - that reshape the socio-economic fabric at an increasingly rapid pace. Dubai is perhaps one of the cities that best embodies this acceleration: within just a few decades, a small trading settlement in the desert has emerged as a global metropolis oriented toward the future.

È dal terreno fertile del convegno “Orizzonti numerici”, un momento di incontro e confronto tra professionisti e interessati del settore delle statistiche culturali, che prende le mosse questa riflessione sui dati e su ciò che si cela dietro di essi (o anche attorno). Un’occasione che ha permesso di mettere in luce come il dialogo e lo scambio di esperienze tra operatori del settore possano fare luce su quelle zone d’ombra che spesso sfuggono alle rilevazioni statistiche più comuni.

Cultural Observatories emerged in the late 1980s, gaining prominence over the last two decades. Initially inspired by Grenoble's Observatoire des politiques culturelles (1989) and Strasbourg's Observatoire européen de l'audiovisuel (1992), these observatories now number more than 100 across four continents, with a significant concentration in Europe. They vary in scope and focus, reflecting the diversity of cultural landscapes.

Per iniziare la serie dedicata ai patrimoni culturali ticinesi disseminati nel cybermondo, una passeggiata nella Lugano d’inizio Novecento si presta bene. Il fotografo russo Sergey Mikhaylovich Prokudin-Gorsky ci offre alcuni panorami e scorci di una Città, ritratta a colori, molto diversa da come si presenta oggi. Ma dove sono archiviate queste immagini? A Bellinzona? O a San Pietroburgo?

The world changes; it always has, with or without human intervention. The novelty in recent years lies in the frequency, intensity, and those so-called leaps – or disruptive changes – that transform the socio-economic fabric at an ever-increasing pace. Sometimes these are caused by revolutionary technologies; at other times, they are the result of gradual maturation that does not attract public opinion's attention until they become too significant to go unnoticed. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is likely one of these latter cases. Ignored for several decades, it has now matured the necessary potential to manifest significant and growing impacts on human communities in the years to come.

Les villes sont des destinations touristiques importantes, attirant des dizaines de millions de visitateurs chaque année. Paris, avec une dizaine de millions de touristes chaque année, est de loin le premier pôle touristique européen, New York est la grande porte d’entrée des touristes arrivant aux Etats-Unis. Les flux sont importants et étalés sur une grande partie de l’année, fait qui distingue le tourisme urbain des autres formes de tourisme et qui se traduit par un rôle économique important. Ce rôle influence souvent la politique d’aménagement des villes, notamment par la mise en valeur du patrimoine architectural.