Apple's iconicity: Digital society, consumer culture and the iconic power of technology

Moving from a theory of iconic power, the article offers an understanding on the ways the iconic power of Apple technologies has emerged since the first Macintosh advertising campaign in 1984. This description of Apple\u2019s iconic power will be the basis for a preliminary reflection concerning the interwoven dimensions that bond together mobile technologies, cultural meanings and consumer experience in today\u2019s capitalist society. The article shows three different processes through which Apple has become a powerful iconic presence in today\u2019s digital society. The first dimension directly refers to the firm\u2019s communicative strategies and the ways in which Apple has developed its iconic status with advertising by mobilizing wider cultural frameworks and symbolic structures in society. The second dimension refers to the processes involving users\u2019 and consumers\u2019 appropriation of Apple\u2019s meanings and images, with specific reference to the way consumers have developed spiritual involvements toward Apple\u2019s brand as well as a sense of sacral participation in Apple\u2019s identity. Finally, a third dimension concerns how Apple\u2019s icon has become \u201creframed\u201d and subverted by fans and media, often as a way to articulate and make sense of very different events in society. The appropriation of Apple\u2019s iconic power for different and alternative purposes reveals the partial autonomy of the iconic power gained by digital technologies, which can become the surface on which to articulate cultural structures, dualities and oppositions in contemporary society

Populism, Music and the Media. The Sanremo Festival and the Circulation of Populist Discourses

The article has the purpose of expanding the study of the relationship between music and populism in two directions. On a more theoretical level, the article aims at establishing further interconnections between political science, cultural sociology and media studies. On an empirical ground, a primary aim is that of presenting a distinctive case, able to offer an example of how populist discourses could emerge and circulate in relation with music phenomena; this empirical case is represented by the public controversy, anchored on populist references, emerged in Italy during the 2019 Sanremo festival, the most important musical event of the country. What emerges from the analysis is that the circulation of populist discourses in society requires a renewed theoretical sensibility, more able to intercept the role of aesthetic, cultural and symbolic phenomena, as well as a distinctive focus the role digital media technologies in reshaping the collective possibilities to articulate social and political identities

The Contamination of Practices: How Practice Theories Matter in Multiple Domains

This introduction presents the genesis of The Contamination of Practices: How Practice Theories Matter in Multiple Domains Symposium. The Symposium is the outcome of a research network established to explore new ways to adopt, criticize and expand the approaches that fall under the definition of practice theory, in relation to different topics, and to answer multiple research questions. The shared foundation underlying the contributions is developed around the metaphor of \u201ccontamination\u201d: while up to the present the efforts of scholars of major practice theory have been to sharpened to specify a common theoretical framework, we argue that practice theory is at the verge of entering a new stage of diffusion and contamination. Contamination is intended here in a double sense: on the one hand, practice theory is contaminating several fields and domains of social research; on the other hand, its conceptual framework is also being contaminated by other intellectual and theoretical traditions, as it is being innovatively adopted and adapted based on the different topics and questions it addresses. Each of the nine articles comprising the Symposium addresses this contamination in a specific way

The socio-technical shaping of digital commons and the material politics of the Italian wireless community network

Digital commons represent important alternative forms of technology production and sharing in contemporary network society. The article presents the main results of a qualitative study on a specific case of digital commons, Ninux.org, the largest wireless community network (CN) in Italy. CNs are distributed local communication infrastructures, generally built and self-managed by grassroots organisations. Empirical data has been gathered through a mix of qualitative techniques, including 14 in-depth interviews with key participants of four major local networks (Pisa, Bologna, Firenze and Roma), multi-sited ethnographic observations and documents analysis, with the aim to investigate par- ticipation processes in this project, paying particular attention to the discursive elements and material practices among participants. On the basis of the empirical research and drawing on a conceptual framework matured on the ridge between sociology of innovation and science and technology studies (S&TS), the article’s findings explore the complexity characterising the interaction between practices, technology and political visions involved in digital commons production. We argue that the adherence to the paradigm of commons enacts a complex socio-technical process, in which discourses about the governance of digital resources, political agendas and material technologies are mutually adjusted and continuously realigned to perform in practice an infrastructure as a common-pool resource

Le “promesse tecnologiche” della blockchain nell’industria musicale digitale

The article analyzes the emergence of blockchain technology in music industry, unfolding narratives, expectations and promises surrounding blockchain’s impact on the circulation of digital music. Blockchain is increasingly addressed as the upcoming “revolution” in music industry and is often acclaimed as a new “disruptive technology”, able to change the game in the music business. The article analyzes how this innovation is discursively constructed by news articles, start-ups, self-presentations, and other documents. From a theoretical point of view, the analysis relies on concepts coming from Science & Technology Studies (STS), information infrastructure studies and the study of technological promises, thus enriching the intersection between sound studies and STS. On these bases, the article outlines an overview of the ‘hype’ discourse generated around music blockchain, recognizing five main technological promises supporting the adoption of blockchain. Moreover, it also brings to the foreground some concerns about the possible consequences of this adoption for the evolution of music value and music circulation processes.L’articolo analizza l’emergere della tecnologia blockchain nel settore dell’industria musicale, identificando le retoriche e le “promesse” costruite attorno al suo impatto sulla circolazione della musica digitale. La blockchain è stata descritta come una imminente “rivoluzione” nel settore della musica ed è spesso acclamata come una nuova “tecnologia dirompente”, in grado di trasformare radicalmente il mondo della musica. L’articolo analizza il modo in cui questa innovazione è presentata discorsivamente da articoli, documenti, notizie e presentazioni da parte delle start-up e degli organi di informazione del settore musicale. Da un punto di vista teorico, l’analisi si basa su concetti provenienti dagli studi sociali sulla scienza e la tecnologia (STS) e fa particolare riferimento agli studi sulle infrastrutture informative e all’analisi delle promesse tecnologiche. Su queste basi, l’articolo delinea una panoramica dei principali discorsi e retoriche generate intorno alla blockchain musicale, riconoscendo cinque principali promesse tecnologiche a supporto dell’adozione della blockchain nell’industria musicale. Infine, l’articolo solleva anche alcune preoccupazioni sulle possibili conseguenze dell’adozione della tecnologia blockchain rispetto alla costruzione del valore culturale della musica e all’evoluzione della circolazione della musica digitale nel prossimo futuro

Un gioco di “specchi culturali”: popular music, italianità e la circolazione transnazionale dell’italodisco

The article presents an analysis of the music genre italodisco within the broader context of globalization and transnational circulation of musical stiles and local identities. In a first part the article addresses the birth of italodisco the late 70’s and its dynamic trajectory of diffusion up to the present time. Then it unfolds some of the main artistic, organizational and commercial phenomena that accompanied the international diffusion of early. italodisco artists and, finally, the article examines the transnational circulation of italodisco, focusing on the symbolic process of identity construction of italianity within the aesthetic flows of today’s cultural globalization

Digital Circulation: Media, Materiality, Infrastructures. An Introduction

The concept of “digital circulation”, together with the idea of “social life of digital things”, is highly evocative. Yet science and technology studies have not addressed it in depth to date. This introduction looks at the major converging dimensions examined in the papers in the first part of a special issue focusing on the notion of digital circulation. Specifically, if focuses on digital circulaton’s material ontology and on the infrastructures that sustain the processes of circulation, seeing them as pivotal points in theoretical considerations aimed at bridging science and technology studies, media and communication studies and other neighboring fields. This introduction also provides an overview of the articles that make up this issue of Tecnoscienza

The Contamination of Practices: How Practice Theories Matter in Multiple Domains

This introduction presents the genesis ofThe Contamination of Practices: How Practice TheoriesMatter in Multiple DomainsSymposium. The Symposium is the outcome of a research networkestablished to explore new ways to adopt, criticize and expand the approaches that fall under the def-inition of practice theory, in relation to different topics, and to answer multiple research questions.The shared foundation underlying the contributions is developed around the metaphor of \u201ccontami-nation\u201d: while up to the present the efforts of scholars of major practice theory have been to sharpenedto specify a common theoretical framework, we argue that practice theory is at the verge of enteringa new stage of diffusion and contamination. Contamination is intended here in a double sense: onthe one hand, practice theory is contaminating several fields and domains of social research; on theother hand, its conceptual framework is also being contaminated by other intellectual and theoreticaltraditions, as it is being innovatively adopted and adapted based on the different topics and questionsit addresses. Each of the nine articles comprising the Symposium addresses this contamination in aspecific wa