Nanomedicine in the making: Expectations, scientific narrations and materiality

Starting from the theoretical debate about technoscientific expectations, and based on the data collected doing ethnographic research in a laboratory of nanomedicine (in Northern Italy) operating in the field of experimental and clinical pharmacology, the paper explores in detail the relationship between anticipatory knowledge, scientific forward-looking statements and the situated practices of biomedical research in nanomedicine. In particular, I will focus on the processual dimension of scientific narrations on nanomedicine, in order to understand how future-oriented abstractions may represent a fundamental element for the local practices of nanomedical research. In doing so, and referring in particular to a socio-technical artefact called “triangle Dna origami”,I develop the notion of promissory bio-object, as a conceptual device to improve the understanding of the engagement of anticipatory knowledge in biomedical research

Innovazione sociale e pratiche tecnoscientifiche: il caso delle reti wireless comunitarie

During the last decade, a growing number of disciplines dealing with innovation processes focused started to investigate the phenomenon of wireless community networks (WCN). These networks, now consolidated on a global level, represent an infrastructure that is entirely built and self-managed by citizens voluntarily cooperating to create a new model of digital communication other than the Internet and commercial services offered on the market by Internet Service Providers (ISP). WCN, therefore, represent an emblematic case to explore not only the technical aspects of more and more pervasive technologies within contemporary society, but also to focus on relations between social, political and techno-scientific dimensions supporting innovation practices. In fact, most recent experiences of WCN acquired a central role in redefining participation practices and political activism linked to digital media, and its forms of innovation. This paper, on the basis of data collected through a qualitative research on the origin and development of the main RWC in Italy, throws light upon the way in which community networks represent a peculiar form of social innovation, where a system of individuals – beyond traditional innovation and development institutions and on the basis of political values and beliefs – cooperate to originate a new infrastructure managing to endorse participation and social inclusion in the digital society. In doing this, the paper emphasizes the procedural dimension of social innovation as an emerging practice in the active cooperation among human beings and technologies, during which political visions, technical tools and social participation have an impact on each other and transform themselves

Does \u2018bigger\u2019mean \u2018better\u2019? Pitfalls and shortcuts associated with big data for social research

\u2018Big data is here to stay.\u2019 This key statement has a double value: is an assumption as well as the reason why a theoretical reflection is needed. Furthermore, Big data is something that is gaining visibility and success in social sciences even, overcoming the division between humanities and computer sciences. In this contribution some considerations on the presence and the certain persistence of Big data as a socio-technical assemblage will be outlined. Therefore, the intriguing opportunities for social research linked to such interaction between practices and technological development will be developed. However, despite a promissory rhetoric, fostered by several scholars since the birth of Big data as a labelled concept, some risks are just around the corner. The claims for the methodological power of bigger and bigger datasets, as well as increasing speed in analysis and data collection, are creating a real hype in social research. Peculiar attention is needed in order to avoid some pitfalls. These risks will be analysed for what concerns the validity of the research results \u2018obtained through Big data. After a pars distruens, this contribution will conclude with a pars construens; assuming the previous critiques, a mixed methods research design approach will be described as a general proposal with the objective of stimulating a debate on the integration of Big data in complex research projecting

Bottom-up Infrastructures: Aligning Politics and Technology in building a Wireless Community Network

Contemporary innovation in infrastructures is increasingly characterized by a close relationship between experts and lay people. This phenomenon has attracted the attention from a wide range of disciplines, including computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW), science and technology studies (S&TS), organization studies and participatory design (PD). Connecting to this broad area of research, the article presents a qualitative case study concerning the building and maintenance of a grassroots, bottom-up information infrastructure in Italy, defined as wireless community network (WCN). Methodologically, the research is based on qualitative interviews with participants to the WCN, ethnographic observations and document analysis. The aim of the article is to understand the alignment between the technical work implied in building this bottom-up infrastructure and the political and cultural frameworks that move people to participate to this project. Relying on the field of science & technology studies, and in particular on the notions of ‘inverse infrastructure’ and ‘research in the wild’, we disclose the WCN’s peculiar innovation trajectory, localized outside conventional spaces of research and development. Overall, the presentation of the qualitative and ethnographic data allows to point out a more general reflection on bottom-up infrastructures and to enrich the academic debate concerning bottom-up infrastructuring work and other similar typologies of collaborative design projects in the domain of infrastructures