An STS Perspective on Pandemic

What can STS say about the pandemic? What kind of scientific models do we need to question our time? In this reflection I envision three issues which seem to me of particular importance: (1) the ‘social’ as a result of sociomaterial associations; 2) science as an open-air laboratory; 3) the new forms of alliances between science and politics. I conclude focusing on the theme of interdisciplinarity, the major challenge that the pandemic poses to science

Frammenti di un discorso sociologico. Ovvero come la pandemia mette alla prova le scienze sociali

Quello che segue non è un discorso compiuto, è piuttosto un groviglio di questioni tra loro interconnesse. Si propongono alcune suggestioni, così come sono emerse in questi mesi con al centro le domande: cosa dice la pandemia alle scienze sociali? Di quale sociologia abbiamo bisogno per interrogare questo tempo? Nel testo non si cercano risposte ma si azzardano alcune riflessioni che provano a proporre una visione sociologica che guarda all’importanza delle molteplici interconnessioni tra umani e non umani, secondo la prospettiva degli Studi Sociali sulla Scienza e la Tecnologia (STS). Gli stimoli proposti assumono una prospettiva che è insieme sociale e materiale dialogando con alcuni elementi del materialismo filosofico e del pensiero femminista orientato alla tecnoscienza. La proposta si muove su tre piani: la necessità di ripensare il sociale ponendo le associazioni come centro di osservazione; guardare alla scienza come a un laboratorio a cielo aperto mettendo al centro il viaggio con-del virus; le nuove forme di alleanza tra scienza, politica e società (non dimenticando le questioni di genere). Alcune conclusioni finali porranno l’accento sul tema dell’interdisciplinarità indicando in sintesi alcuni dispositivi teorici utili a sostenerne la possibilità

Sociomaterialità in classe. Pratiche di innovazione didattica

The paper presents an empirical research based on two school experiences of didactic innovation. From the theoretical point of view, the paper combines the sociomateriality in education with the practice-based studies of knowledge and learning and it uses a qualitative and ethnographic approach. It enquires about what happens when artifacts, materials, bodies, technologies are included into class relations and it aims at showing processes of didactic innovation's structures which are displayed in the material settings performed into the classroom. For each case, the educative practices and the sociomaterial interactions have been observed. The conclusions suggest some considerations about the progression in the educative research in terms of sociomateriality and about how this approach can also produce indications and insights to the school policy in general

Bodies and Technoscience. Practices, Imaginaries and Materiality

In our contemporary technology-driven societies, every aspect of life connected to our bodies — such as birth, reproduction, sexuality, gender, and aging — is profoundly influenced by technoscientific advances. The body is no longer a fixed entity but a dynamic battleground, constantly reshaped by technologies. This compelling book delves into the evolving interface between human bodies and technoscience, exploring themes like technoscientific imaginaries, the cyborg concept, bodily transformations through technologies, datification, and biomedicalization. Approaching these topics from a Science and Technology Studies (STS) perspective, the book poses essential questions about the relationship between technology and the body: What are the consequences of our increasingly mutable physicality? What analytical frameworks can we use to study this ever-changing, hybrid body? How does STS help us understand the material and discursive construction of corporeality through technoscience? And how do our bodies, in turn, help shape the very nature of technoscience? This book is of interest for scholars and students in Science and Technology Studies (STS), Sociology of the Body, and Social Theory, offering fresh insights into the crucial interplay between scientific knowledge, technology, and bodily experience. It invites readers to reconsider the essential questions regarding the interplay between technoscience and corporeality

Networked together: designing participatory research in on-line ethnography

Abstract. This book contains the conference proceedings of the third edition of Rethinking Educational Ethnography: Researching on-line communities and interactions Conference hold in Napoli from 6th to 7th of June 2013. In 2013, the third edition of the Conference has invited ethnographers in different fields of research (not only in education), and those involved in ethnographic investigations in diverse disciplines (anthropology, sociology, etc.) to present and discuss contributions on the challenges of participatory research design in digital ethnography

Identità e competenze: soggettività e professionalità nella vita sociale contemporanea

Il volume si colloca nella scia dei dibattiti delle scienze sociali che guardano alla formazione delle identità individuali in relazione alle trasformazioni socio-culturali contemporanee. Accanto alla proposta teorica sulla relazione tra identità e competenze vengono esposti cinque casi di studio su gruppi professionali impegnati in processi organizzativi in profondo mutamento. Il testo illustra, quindi, dal punto di vista teorico ed empirico, come si coniugano i processi di costruzione delle identità individuali con quelli dell'identità professionale