1,721,203 research outputs found
Mapping the literature on surveillance capitalism: Towards an empirical research agenda
Full text linkSurveillance capitalism (SC) — as intended by Shoshana Zuboff — is a fairly recent concept, but it has already attracted the attention of many scholars from various fields within social sciences. Despite this interest, a comprehensive review of the available literature on this concept is lacking. To address this gap, we systematically mapped the contributions on SC. Working on a database of 486 papers downloaded from Scopus and Web of Science, we conducted descriptive statistics to analyze the distribution of contributions over the years, the most cited works, the predominant approaches (i.e., theoretical, empirical, methodological, etc.), and the co-occurrence of keywords. Additionally, we performed a close reading of a purposive sample of 50 articles. Our analysis revealed that empirical works remain limited compared to theoretical contributions. Furthermore, both theoretical and empirical papers often lacked a specific focus on the value(s) of data, with many scholars concentrating on surveillance, privacy, and big data. Building on these findings, we propose “future research directions” to guide and inspire empirical research on SC and to better address matters of value. Specifically, we identified four main directions: “privacy and beyond”, “big data and their relation to digital platforms”, “surveillance and the culture of surveillance”, and “platformization of consumer culture”. For each “direction”, we discuss ad hoc methodological implications and strategies
IL LAVORO AFFETTIVO DEI CONSUMATORI VOLTO ALLA CO-CREAZIONE DI VALORE SUI SOCIAL MEDIA: UN' INDAGINE NETNOGRAFICA
Full text linkThe affective labor of consumers in regards to the co-creation of value onto social media: a netnographic enquiry
This work is, ideally, divided in two part. In the first one I address some theoretical issues, basically reflecting upon the concept of affective labor featured by Autonomist Marxism and Elisabeth Wissinger. In the second one I address some methodological issues, basically re-elaborating the netnographic method of Robert Kozinets.
The aim of my thesis has been to study and understand in a systematic way the affective labor performed by consumers onto the social media, intended as a leading practice of co-creation of value. On one hand I define ‘affective labor’ as the ability of a social group, situated in a contingent social context, to arouse an affective flow and to fix it in transient shapes (emotions), in order to channel it toward a productive purpose. On the other hand I considered the ‘co-creation of value’ onto social media as an activity which pertains to the discourse of consumers rather than to the consumers per se. Therefore my guiding hypothesis: ‘Since the Internet is a discourse-created phenomena, it is hypnotizable that it would be a certain dynamic of consumer discourse at creating value, rather than the bodies of consumers’. Following this hypothesis I actually discovered that online co-creation of value not only depends on the discourse but also on a specific discursive dynamic hinged on as system of communicative frictions.
As it is well-known online consumers create value since their communicative interactions are systematically monitored by companies, which (by means of techniques and devices for Sentiment Analysis) transform them in product innovation and brand reputation. Therefore my cognitive question: How do online consumers perform affective labor? Or, thorough which kind of practices online consumers do manage their affective investment in order to create that flux of information that companies harness and capitalize?
In order to answer this qualitative question a drew on the netnographic method, basically developing a personal declination of it rather than just applying it. In order to do so I elaborated a ‘practice-based netnographic approach’, mainly drawing on Richard Rogers’ epistemological motto: ‘Follow the medium’. My empirical research has produced two key heuristics: the concepts of web tribe and narrations of self. On one hand, differently from classical tribal marketing, I conceive of a web tribe as a social space rather than a social group made out of people ‘in love with’ a particular brand. Specifically I define a web tribe as a flux of communication that: a) flows through and springs from specific ‘places’ of the 2.0 web (forums, blogs, social networks, etc); b) converges on specific brands or products; c) converges on specific topics of conversation. On the other hand I conceived of ‘narrations of self’ as common discursive practices through which the members of a web tribe valorise the brand and themselves. In this way online consumers interacting within a ‘tribal space’ come to converge on some shared practices by which defining the brand value and their identities, rather than on a specific brand value and on common definition of identity per se. Thus, I finally came out to the conclusion that the web tribe is a dispositif that catalyses and formalizes the affective flow of consumer; in this way the ‘tribal dispositive’ governs the affective labor of consumers organizing it in a form that is suitable to be harnessed and exploited by companies and brands
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Brand Public
No full textThe concept of brand community has been used to understand how consumers create value around brands online. Recently consumer researchers have begun to debate the relevance of this concept for understanding brand-related communication on social media. Based on a data set of 8949 tweets about Louis Vuitton gathered on Italian Twitter in 2013, this article addresses these discussions by developing the alternative concept of brand publics that differ from brand communities in three important ways. First, brand publics are social formations that are not based on interaction but on a continuous focus of interest and mediation. Second, participation in brand publics is not structured by discussion or deliberation but by individual or collective affect. Third, in brand publics consumers do not develop a collective identity around the focal brand; rather the brand is valuable as a medium that can offer publicity to a multitude of diverse situations of identity. The conclusion suggests that brand publics might be part of a social media–based consumer culture where publicity rather than identity has become a core value
Proposte di un modello per la descrizione del trasferimento dell'acqua nel sistema suolo-pianta-atmosfera
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Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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