About this Research Line

This research line aims to investigate the social and cultural implications of innovation processes, the role of science and technology in contemporary society and the centrality of the media and technologically mediated forms of communication. The main research fields include science & technology studies, the sociology of media and communication, media studies, the sociology of medicine and health, the sociology of the environment and, in general, perspectives that identify science, technology and the media as privileged areas for interpreting social change. The interpretative perspective cultivated in this research line promotes the study of science, technology and the media as drivers of social change and, at the same time, as outcomes of particular historical, social, cultural and economic conditions. Examples of topics addressed are the presence of technoscience in the public media sphere; the role of digital technologies in everyday life; the relationship between gender, sexuality and media; scientific practices in laboratories and research organisations; the processes of digitalisation of cultural industries; the forms of social interaction mediated by digital devices and platforms; the relationship between innovation and environmental sustainability; and the role of innovation in the field of biomedicine and health.

Essential bibliography:

1. Balbi, G., & Magaudda, P. (2018). A History of Digital Media: An Intermedia and Global Perspective. Routledge.
2. Crabu, S. (2021). Organizing the precision clinic: arranging expertise, knowledge and technologies in cancer precision medicine clinical trials. New Genetics and Society, 40(1), 58-72.
3. Magaudda e Neresini, (a cura di) (2020) Gli studi sociali sulla scienza e la tecnologia, Bologna, Il Mulino.
4. Magaudda, P. e Minniti, S. (2019). Retromedia-in-practice: A practice theory approach for rethinking old and new media technologies. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 25(4), 673-693.
5. Neresini, F., Crabu, S., & Di Buccio, E. (2019). Tracking biomedicalization in the media: Public discourses on health and medicine in the UK and Italy, 1984–2017. Social Science & Medicine, 243, 112621.
6. Neresini, F., Giardullo, P., Di Buccio, E., & Cammozzo, A. (2019). Exploring socio-technical future scenarios in the media: the energy transition case in Italian daily newspapers. Quality & Quantity, 54(1), 147-168.
7. Scarcelli, C. M., & Stella, R. (2019). The mediated erotic lover. The role of pornography in the negotiation of gender roles and desire amongst Italian heterosexual couples. Journal of Gender Studies, 1-11.
8. Scarcelli, C. M., Chronaki, D., De Vuyst, S., & Baselga, S. V. (Eds.). (2021). Gender and Sexuality in the European Media: Exploring Different Contexts Through Conceptualisations of Age. Routledge.
9. Stella R. (2020) Porn culture, embodied experiences and knowledge of sexual practices. Sexualities, 23(3):325-341.
10. Stella, R., Riva, C., Scarcelli, C. M., & Drusian, M. (2018). Sociologia dei new media. Torino, UTET Università.