Cambio. Rivista sulle Trasformazioni Sociali

Introduzione. Raccontare la scienza: opportunità e rischi nella società dell’informazione.

2020-06-19T12:46:30+00:00

Introduction to monographic section.

Scienza e società: sinergie e criticità nell’era digitale

2020-06-19T12:46:38+00:00

In the historical season of communicative and existential immateriality, man must necessarily abandon his solipsistic immobility to embrace collaborative sharing. A new condition that completely changes anthropic sociality, makes it strongly participatory, both at a structural level and at a purely emotional level. Science acts as a catalyst and contextualizing spark for this process, through its different forms, acting as a unifying element between tradition and innovation. Internet, in this sex, acts as a communicative tool of this union, neutralizing the spatial and temporal dimension, systematically updating processes of socialization and collaboration that provide a representation of reality, both scientific and social, sometimes congruent and true, others deeply sweetened and fictitious. In the first case, this simulacrum of the real as such is useful and aimed at the establishment and increase of a collective intelligence that uses different contributions and hetero-directed, in the second, however, delivers a false vision, factious, functional to other purposes that relate to the persuasion fidelizing, betraying, in fact, the very essence of the scientific mission.

Nebulose di pseudoscienza. Incertezza, pseudo-fatti e tensioni nella governance tecnoscientifica

2020-06-19T12:46:37+00:00

For some decades, science communication has been at the center of the academic reflection articulating the debate on the role of science in contemporary society and its renewing need for legitimacy. Today different strategies coexist in communication activities promoted by scientific institutions and researchers to communicate the results of their work. Such communication models seem to be overtaken by disintermediation processes and by new forms of mediation implemented by digital platforms.
This paper reflects on the recent debate on pseudoscience. It analyses the phenomenon in connection to the more general transformation of technoscientific governance. Through complex mediation and negotiation activities, changes in scientific governance transform both scientific knowledge and practices and the processes through which policy is looking for technoscientific legitimation, while science itself is being continuously constrained to look for its own legitimacy in the public arena (through fund raising and trust seeking). The intersection between pseudoscience and tensions inside the governance of technoscience identifies three main issues: the role of scientific expertise in society, trust in technoscience, and the relationship between technoscience and democracy. These concerns define the main current challenges of technoscience communication.

Is What Scientists Say Always Best? Reflecting on the Role of Perinatal and Infant Experts’ Knowledge in the Cultures, Policies and Practices of Parenthood

2020-06-19T12:46:39+00:00

Reviewing recent literature on the topic, this article reflects from a sociological perspective on the influence that perinatal and infant experts’ authority and scientific knowledge have on the cultures, policies and practices of parenthood in contemporary societies. Here the author refers mainly to the heterosexual parenthood and not also to the homogenitorial families that would require a separate discussion. The geographical and social context the author refers to is mainly Italy. After having illustrated the main characteristics of the “expert-led” model in perinatal and infant area and the reasons why it has become increasingly the hegemonic model in the parenting and childrearing cultures and practices, the article presents an overview of the Italian context illustrating data on pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding and vaccination. Then it questions about possible research developments in exploring the use that the policy makes of the experts’ knowledge and scientific evidence and the implications of this use. Finally it reflects on the growing diffusion of anti-science movements in perinatal and infant area.

Lo scienziato civico: una tipologia

2020-06-19T12:46:35+00:00

This study aims to contribute to our understanding of the factors and processes that lead scientists to engage in public communication. Using a large and national sample of academics from all Italian public universities and from all disciplines, this study identifies two different kinds of scientific communication activities and a typology of civic scientist on the basis of intensity and quality of engagement. Moreover, the study identifies some factors – discipline, age, gender and seniority – that contribute to define the different kinds of civic scientist and explain why for analysing the public engagement of academics, it is necessary to consider the different logic of actors involved in every kind of activities of communication, particularly in mass media activities and in local community activities.

Il lavoro oggi: fra informazione scientifica e discorso populista

2020-06-19T12:46:41+00:00

Telling the work today, implies undeniably, to consider the relationship between production, science, technology and information society. In this context, How is the work told today? Who does it and how? This contribution attempts to answer these questions, narrowing the field of observation to the digital work of the Labor Platform, in relation to the ILO notion of decent work. It focuses, therefore, on the public discourse present in the scientific, political and information debate on digital work. In this context, the article, using Laclau’s interpretation on populism and in particular using his Theory of Speech, highlights as within what can be considered a distance between science, institutions and work can act a populist representation of the social identities of precarious work.

Geografie di confine. Invisibilità e frammentazione delle identità e dei luoghi negli Stati Uniti del 2020

2020-06-19T12:46:33+00:00

The anomia’s concept created by Merton (1949), offers us an analysis of the behavioral models that individuals adopt in order to adapt themselves or even to refuse the society’s cultural values. On this basis, some categories of subjects (the identity) that have adopted deviant behavioral models have been taken into consideration. On the other hand, this has finally lead us onto an analysis of the places that host these types of behavior. Taking on consideration further sociological theories that explain the relationship between identity and territory (Raffestin, 1981; Remotti, 1996; Isenburg, 2000; Sayad, 2002; Boni, 2005; Calandra, 2007; Elliott e Lemert, 2007; Bauman, 2009; D’Alessandro, 2009; D’Ascenzo, 2014; Salisci, 2018), a research is been carried out on identity and it’s invisible and split areas; people and spaces socially forgotten, isolated from the official’s United States society and geography. Identity and it’s invisible and split areas, is first defined and then, classified using a taxonomy. Many are the objectives of this means: reaffirm how actual the Mertonian’s Theory still is; identify the endogenous and exogenous factors of the fenomenon; certify a misrepresented perception of the american’s dream idea.

Landscape conflicts and the making of contemporary European societies: a dialogue with Olaf Kühne

2020-06-19T12:46:32+00:00

This article reflects on the ways “landscape conflicts” are likely to shape contemporary European societies. Based on an interview with Olaf Kühne, a German geographer with a strong background in sociology, the article first outlines the underlying theoretical framework, drawing on social constructivism and Dahrendorf’s conflict theory. The load-bearing axis is the idea that landscape is a social construction and, as such, constitutes a source of conflict. Conflicts basically revolve around an emerging “environmental dilemma” concerning the ostensible necessity of choosing between the energy transition and landscape conservation. However, these should be seen as “productive” conflicts in that they serve to foster social progress. The authors then reflect on the role nation-states and the European Union play in enacting regulation as part of landscape governance.

Making sense of Prato: a case study in migration studies and global economic restructuring through the lens of two recent books

2020-06-19T12:46:28+00:00

A book review of Elizabeth L. Krause, Tight Knit: Global Families and the Social Life of Fast Fashion (University of Chicago Press, 2018) and Antonella Ceccagno, City Making and Global Lab our Regimes: Chinese Immigrants and Italy’s Fast Fashion Industry (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).

Sfrattati. Miseria e profitti nelle città americane, di Matthew Desmond

2020-06-19T12:46:27+00:00

Review of Sfrattati. Miseria e profitti nelle città americane, di Matthew Desmond

La reputazione. Chi dice che cosa di chi, di Gloria Origgi

2020-06-19T12:46:26+00:00

A review of La reputazione. Chi dice che cosa di chi, di Gloria Origgi

Libertà nel lavoro. La sfida della rivoluzione digitale, di Giovanni Mari

2020-06-19T12:46:24+00:00

A review of Libertà nel lavoro. La sfida della rivoluzione digitale, by Giovanni Mari

Book Review - Profiles

2020-06-19T12:46:23+00:00

Profiles