4,640 research outputs found
AI at Work: Automation, Distributed Cognition, and Cultural Embeddedness
Full text linkThis cross-disciplinary exploration delves into the multiple intersections between Artificial Intelligence (AI), work, and organization, mobilizing different research strands such as STS and Organization Theory, as well as the History of Science and Technology and Cultural Sociology. Matteo Pasquinelli proposes an exploration of theories of automation drawn from political economy and the history of science and technology, investigating their explanatory accounts of technological innovation. As argued by the author, these theories provide important foundations for unveiling the socio-technical genealogy of current forms of AI as well as the specific logic of automation that they follow. Cristina Alaimo continues by illustrating the perspective of distributed social cognition for the study of AI in organizational settings, crucial for abandoning the assumption that intelligence is solely an attribute of individuals or technologies. This second contribution invites an exploration of how, even in organizational environments characterized by the presence of AI, intelligence still appears as a collective capability. Finally, Alessandro Gandini stresses how the encounter between AI and society is primarily a cultural issue, proposing a critical discussion of its main implications. For the author, sociology should approach AI phenomenologically and critically, but it should also take advantage from the innovations that tools such as generative AI might bring
What is digital possession and how to study it: a conversation with Russell Belk, Rebecca Mardon, Giana M. Eckhardt, Varala Maraj, Will Odom, Massimo Airoldi, Alessandro Caliandro, Mike Molesworth and Alessandro Gandini
No full textWHAT IS DIGITAL POSSESSION AND HOW TO STUDY IT: A CONVERSATION WITH RUSSELL BELK, REBECCA MARDON, GIANA M. ECKHARDT, VARALA MARAJ, WILL ODOM, MASSIMO AIROLDI, ALESSANDRO CALIANDRO, MIKE MOLESWORTH AND ALESSANDRO GANDINI
What is digital possession and how to study it: a conversation with Russell Belk, Rebecca Mardon, Giana M. Eckhardt, Varala Maraj, Will Odom, Massimo Airoldi, Alessandro Caliandro, Mike Molesworth and Alessandro Gandini (-
The reputation economy : understanding knowledge work in digital society
No full textThis book represents the completion of a research work that began as my doctoral project for the Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Milan, and continued in the post-doctoral phase of my career through a number of related works. I am deeply grateful " rst and foremost to Adam Arvidsson for his extensive guidance and support over these years; this went well beyond the duties of a standard doctoral supervision, and represented a true inspiration and a model for me. I am also particularly thankful to Ivana Pais, who got me involved in some of the projects that are part of this book and always supported me in every possible way, coming to represent an invaluable reference in my academic life. I owe special thanks to the Graduate School in Social and Political Sciences at the University of Milan and particularly to my doctoral co-supervisor Antonio Chiesi, Luisa Leonini, Roberta Sassatelli and Giampietro Gobo for their long-lasting support that did not cease after I left the Graduate School. I am deeply grateful to all the people who helped this work to signi" - cantly improve and particularly to Chris Smith, who has been the best examiner a Ph.D. student could dream of. Thanks also to Paul Adler, Angela McRobbie and James Fitchett who took time to read and comment parts of my work; to Carolina Bandinelli and Alberto Cossu, with whom I discussed basically everything that is now in this book, over the last few years; my colleagues and friends in Milan and especially Alessandro Caliandro, Tiziano Bonini, Alessandro Delfanti, Massimo Airoldi and Davide Beraldo, Elanor Colleoni and Marianna D’Ovidio; my fellow Ph.D. colleagues and especially Lisa Dorigatti; my colleagues at Middlesex Media; my family and my longtime friends. Above all, however, I am grateful to Francesca, since not a single word of this book would have been written without her patience, understanding and support
Metodi Digitali per le Scienze Sociali
No full textCome studiare in modo accurato e affidabile le forme di interazione che contraddistinguono gli spazi digitali dal punto di vista delle scienze sociali? Quale approccio metodologico adottare, che sia rigoroso e in grado di armonizzarsi con le tradizioni esistenti di ricerca quantitativa e qualitativa?
Con questo volume, in continuità con il filone di ricerca internazionale sui digital methods, ci proponiamo di offrire una guida teoricopratica dei metodi digitali nella tradizione delle scienze sociali e anche una guida al loro utilizzo per lo studio dei social media, degli ambienti digitali e della socialità in Rete. Attraverso una rassegna di esempi e di casi di studio, vogliamo fornire un’importante risorsa per studenti e addetti ai lavori che intendono utilizzare i metodi digitali all’interno di progetti di ricerca, tesi di laurea o di dottorato, in contesti come la sociologia dei media, dei processi culturali e della comunicazione, la sociologia dei consumi, la sociologia del lavoro
Qualitative Research in Digital Environments : A research toolkit
No full textThe overarching scope of Qualitative Research in Digital Environments: A Research Toolkit is to provide researchers who want to study digital environments across a variety of disciplines, from marketing to the social sciences and digital media, with some basic concepts and techniques that can be used to detect, collect, organise, analyse and interpret digital data. Specifically, the book is a theoretical and practical toolkit for doing qualitative research on social media environments, such as blogs and online forums, as well as social networking sites such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. With this work, we aim to offer a pivotal resource for the study of cultural practices and meanings across online social networks and platforms. Building on the grounds of ‘digital methods’ and especially the principle of follow the medium , our approach aims to represent a valuable methodological guideline that supports the understanding of complex socio-cultural contexts that are populated by dispersed, fluid and dynamic social formations – and to also be useful for multidisciplinary purposes
Polymers from Monomers Derived from Biomass
No full textInterest in polymers from renewable resources has been witnessing an incessant growth in both academia and industry with these blooming activities covering a progressively wider domain of sources and approaches worldwide. The association of these innovative scientific and technological investigations with the need of introducing a growing dose of green chemistry connotations in their conception is opening the way to an all-inclusive sustainability for this new generation of polymers, which justifies their vision as macromolecular materials for the XXI century.
After the first comprehensive monograph dealing with these materials, published in 2008, [1] numerous reviews and books have appeared, mostly dealing with specific topics or brief analyses of the overall state of the art, [2,3] with a very recent update, [4] which was however aimed at highlighting trends, rather than at detailing the numerous papers covering different aspects of the vast field.
Given the structure of this book, the present chapter concentrates exclusively on the use of biobased building blocks as potential monomers and on the recent studies dealing with their polymerizations and copolymerizations, as well as on the properties of the ensuing materials. Interestingly, moreover, the rate at which new interesting results are being published, amply justifies the coverage given here, since it also provides a “further update” of the mentioned “recent update”, [4] at least within its specific scope. Natural polymers (polysaccharides, lignin, suberin, proteins, natural rubber, etc.) and their modifications fall outside that scope and the reader will find information about the multitude of equally exciting and equally incessant studies and applications of these renewable resources in such materials as thermoplastics, thermosets, blends and composites, in other publications. [1-4]
The topics discussed here are divided into two major sections, one dealing with polymers from pristine and chemically modified natural monomers, notably terpenes, rosin, sugars and vegetable oils, and the other dealing with polymers from monomers obtained from various vegetable biomass components, notably furans, diacids, diols, hydroxyacids and glycerol. The polymerizations involving classical fossil-derived monomers, such as ethylene and terephthalic acid, now also prepared from renewable resources, are obviously not discussed here, since the novelty of these systems only resides in the alternative mode of monomer synthesis.
No attempt was made to cover each family of monomers exhaustively, but rather to concentrate on contributions that appeared to provide originality and hence potential follow-ups. This personal choice did not hinder a critical approach whenever it was deemed constructively appropriate. Given the modest amount of space allotted to this chapter, even some of the numerous interesting studies had to be sacrificed to avoid a list of cursory mentions and privilege instead a reasoned treatment of carefully selected examples
Polymers from Pristine and Modified Natural Monomers
No full textInterest in polymers from renewable resources has been witnessing an incessant growth in both academia and industry with these blooming activities covering a progressively wider domain of sources and approaches worldwide. The association of these innovative scientific and technological investigations with the need of introducing a growing dose of green chemistry connotations in their conception is opening the way to an all-inclusive sustainability for this new generation of polymers, which justifies their vision as macromolecular materials for the XXI century.
After the first comprehensive monograph dealing with these materials, published in 2008, [1] numerous reviews and books have appeared, mostly dealing with specific topics or brief analyses of the overall state of the art, [2,3] with a very recent update, [4] which was however aimed at highlighting trends, rather than at detailing the numerous papers covering different aspects of the vast field.
Given the structure of this book, the present chapter concentrates exclusively on the use of biobased building blocks as potential monomers and on the recent studies dealing with their polymerizations and copolymerizations, as well as on the properties of the ensuing materials. Interestingly, moreover, the rate at which new interesting results are being published, amply justifies the coverage given here, since it also provides a “further update” of the mentioned “recent update”, [4] at least within its specific scope. Natural polymers (polysaccharides, lignin, suberin, proteins, natural rubber, etc.) and their modifications fall outside that scope and the reader will find information about the multitude of equally exciting and equally incessant studies and applications of these renewable resources in such materials as thermoplastics, thermosets, blends and composites, in other publications. [1-4]
The topics discussed here are divided into two major sections, one dealing with polymers from pristine and chemically modified natural monomers, notably terpenes, rosin, sugars and vegetable oils, and the other dealing with polymers from monomers obtained from various vegetable biomass components, notably furans, diacids, diols, hydroxyacids and glycerol. The polymerizations involving classical fossil-derived monomers, such as ethylene and terephthalic acid, now also prepared from renewable resources, are obviously not discussed here, since the novelty of these systems only resides in the alternative mode of monomer synthesis.
No attempt was made to cover each family of monomers exhaustively, but rather to concentrate on contributions that appeared to provide originality and hence potential follow-ups. This personal choice did not hinder a critical approach whenever it was deemed constructively appropriate. Given the modest amount of space allotted to this chapter, even some of the numerous interesting studies had to be sacrificed to avoid a list of cursory mentions and privilege instead a reasoned treatment of carefully selected examples
A imagem de Alessandro Baricco no Brasil
Full text linkDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Estudos da Tradução, Florianópolis, 2013.Com a intenção de delinear o modo pelo qual o escritor italiano Alessandro Baricco se inseriu no sistema literário brasileiro e os caminhos percorridos pelos seus livros traduzidos, esta dissertação dá voz às experiências tradutórias de seus tradutores. A inserção de Bariccono Brasil tem seu início em 1997, através de uma proposição da Profa. Dra. Roberta Barni à editora Iluminuras da tradução de Oceano Mare. A partir daí, outras sete obras foram publicadas no Brasil, sendo três delas traduzidas por Roberta Barni e as outras quatro por quatro tradutores diferentes. De um lado, considera-se o tradutor como figura principal namediação entre culturas, e, de outro, se analisa a realidade desta figuradentro do sistema literário, sua invisibilidade, seus limites e o exercíciode sua profissão. A pesquisa conta, ainda, com críticas e resenhas referentes ao autor italiano publicadas em jornais consagrados no Brasil, considerando estas como parte constituinte da imagem de Baricco refletida em território nacional. Abstract : Intending to delineate the way the Italian writer Alessandro Baricco has been inserted in the Brazilian literary system and the paths his translated books have followed, this thesis gives voice to the translating experiences of his translators. Baricco's insertion in Brazil began in 1997, through a personal project of Dr. Roberta Barni, with her translation of Oceano Mare. Since then, seven other of his works have been published in Brazil, three of which were translated by Roberta Barni and the other four by four different translators. On the one hand,the translator is considered as the main figure in mediation betweencultures and, on the other, this figure's reality is analyzed within theliterary system: its invisibility, its limits and its professional practice. Criticisms and reviews of this Italian author published in well established Brazilian newspapers are also considered, with the understanding that they are part of Baricco's image reflected here
The functions of social interaction in the knowledge-creative economy: between co-presence and ICT-mediated social relations
Full text linkThis article challenges the relationship between face-to-face and ICT-mediated interaction among workers in the knowledge-creative economy in Milan, Italy. If a large body of literature supports the relevance of co-presence for the building of social capital, a growing body of empirical and theoretical researches dealing with online interaction shows that, under certain circumstances, connections mediated by digital tools are equally important. The extent to which professionals in these industries are embedded in “spaces” which are physical as well as digital, and how these have come to be so, remains nevertheless a less-explored research domain.
This article will argue that professionals are embedded in a wider “space” of relations where exchanges mediated via ICTs productively intertwine with face-to-face exchange to determine new ways of searching for jobs and practicing work. It will do so by offering a unique outline on how face-to-face and ICT-mediated interaction combine in the context of Milan, commonly considered a Southern-European “creative city”. The paper will highlight the potentially new aspects that emerge when proximity becomes physical and digital, and where a mixture of face-to-face and ICT-mediated interaction profitably integrate together in a single domain, together with its contradiction and consequences, to show the necessity to overcome the rigid distinction between face-to-face and digital interaction that still characterises the empirical study of knowledge-creative economies
Territorial embeddedness and virtual connections of knowledge and creative workers in Milan
No full textThe paper discusses the relation between territorial embeddedness and virtual connections
among knowledge and creative workers in Milan by challenging the idea that co-presence
is crucial for interaction and that face-to-face (F2F) relations are essential for their success.
Knowledge and creative workers are thus embedded in a wider “space”, that is not neces
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sarily a physical one, but also virtual and ICT mediated. The literature on co-presence and
interaction (particularly within the economic sphere) originates from Becker’s (1974) and
Granovetter’s works (1983). The social mechanisms and internal relations of groups of
professionals are explored by many authors that elaborate on the idea that, notwithstanding
the technological improvements in mobility and communication, people still have to meet
in person and that F2F interactions and physical proximity still matter(Scott 2000; Storper
2013). Both theoretical and empirical researches assign many functions to F2F interactions:
notably, the functions performed cover different aspects of the job sphere, being them
acknowledged as the most efficient means of communication, strong vehicles of creativity,
information, knowledge and trust, and a way through which people can “be into the loop”, in
order to have their reputation tested and screened
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