Hello, I’m Associate Professor in Sociology of Culture and Communication at the Padova University – Dept. FISPPA, where I work with the PaSTIS research unit (which I co-founded in 2008). I’m member of the Board of Directors and Teaching coordinator of the PhD program in Social Sciences at the University of Padova. Since 2019 i’m co-editor-in-chief of “Studi Culturali” the leading Italian scientific journal on the social study of culture.
My interests focus especially on the mutual co-shaping between technology, culture and society, with special attention to the role of digital media in society, to how consumer culture shapes technological modernity, the popular culture as a crucial dimension in science, technology and innovation and – my early love – the relationship between music and technology. My main intellectual fields are science and technology studies, media studies, cultural sociology, consumer studies, cultural studies and sound studies.
I’m founding member of the Research Unit PaSTIS at the Department Fisppa. Between 2013 and 2018 I have been Secretary of STS Italia, the Italian Society for the Social Study of Science & Technology, which gathers more than one hundred Italian STS scholars. In 2010 I founded (and co-edited up to 2021) the journal “Tecnoscienza“ and since 2019 I’m co-editor-in-chief of the journal “Studi Culturali“ (Il Mulino), while I’m also member of the boards of “Sociologica” and “Dancecult“. In 2020 I got the ‘habilitation’ as Full Professor in Cultural Sociology (14/C2) within the Italian academic system.
My full CV in italian (Updated oct. 2022)
My short academic Bio in english (Updated oct. 2022)
- See my articles on GOOGLE SCHOLAR
- My page at the University of Padova
- My page on ACADEMIA.edu
- My page on Research Gate
I have published more then seventy academic book chapters and referred articles in journals such as «Journal of Consumer Culture», «Cultural Sociology», «Convergence», «CSCW», «Appetite», «Modern Italy», «Journal of Science Communication», «Journal of Peer Production»,«Revue d’Anthropologie des Connaissances», «Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia», «Polis», «Sociologica», «Studi Culturali» and «Tecnoscienza».
Here you find a showcase of many books and special issues:
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///On media technologies ///
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Concerning the media and communication technologies, my book main book is History of Digital Media. A Global and Intermedia Perspective, written with my colleague Gabriele Balbi and published by Routledge in 2018. This is a concise history of digital media from the birth of computers, with a specific attention to a global vision and a focus on intermediality.
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This book is an updated version of a similar book in Italian in 2014, Storia dei media digitali. Rivoluzioni e continuità (Laterza).
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In 2021 we updated again this work on the history of digital media for another book, in Italian, targeting undergraduate students, titled Media digitali: la storia, i contesti le narrazioni (Laterza).
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Another joint effort with my colleague Gabriele Balbi is the edited book Fallimenti Digitali: un archeologia dei ‘nuovi’ media, published at the beginning of 2018 with Unicopli, Milano. This is a collection of chapters authored by several colleagues on the common topic of failures in digital media, with the aim of put into question the narratives of digital technologies as the ‘winning’ solutions.
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In 2019 I published a research on youth’s practices connected with smartphone, condensed in the book Vite interconnesse: Pratiche digitali attraverso app, smartphone e piattaforme online (Meltemi), with my colleagues Michela Drusian and Marco Scarcelli.
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An updated version has been published in 2022 in english by Palgrave, with the title Young People and the Smartphone. Everyday Life on the Small Screen.
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In 2010 I started and since then co-edited (up to 2021) Tecnoscienza, the Italian Journal of Science and Technology Studies. It is an open access journal so you can download articles published for free. For “Tecnoscienza” in 2016 I co-edited a Double Special Issue titled Digital Circulation: Media, Materiality and Infrastructures, with my fellows Gabriele Balbi and Alessandro Delfanti.
In 2015 I edited the italian translation of the Nick Couldry’s book “Media, Society, World“, which has been translated with a more “eye catching” title “Sociologia dei nuovi media” (Milano, Pearson 2015).
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///On music ///
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In march 2023 a new book on digital music is being published by Il Mulino: “La musica nell’era digitale”. I wrote it with my colleague Tiziano Bonini with the aim of offering an accessible introduction on how digital platforms, algorithms and artificial intelligence are transforming music cultures and practices.
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In 2012 I have published in Italian, with Il Mulino publisher, my PhD research on the consumption and music listening technologies, titled Oggetti da ascoltare. HiFi, iPod e consumo delle tecnologie musicali [Objects to be listened. Hifi, iPod and the consumption of music technology]. It is a qualitative research on the users of musical technologies, albe to reveal the process of co-construction between technologies, their users and the cultural framework in which this relationships takes shape.
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I’m member of the Board of Directors of “STUDI CULTURALI” (Il Mulino), which I contributed to found in 2004. For this journal in 2013 I co-edited a special issue on sound cultures with Marco Santoro; in 2014 I have also edited a special section (Vol. 11, nr. 1) on the relationships between digital media and technological innovation. with six articles on technological determinism, smartphones, internet, big data and file sharing.
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In 2013 I edited a special issue of the online journal Lo Squaderno, together with Attila Bruni and Andrea ‘Mubi’ Brighenti, about musical spaces.
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/////On innovation processes and the cultural side of technoscience /////
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In 2020 I edited with my colleague Federico Neresini the first collective handbook in Italian on Science & Technology Studies (STS), expressly designed for undergraduate courses Gli studi sociali sulla scienza e la tecnologia (published by Il Mulino).
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In 2012 I have published a book on the representations of science & technology in popular culture – including fiction, movies, advertising and marketing – and titled Innovazione Pop. Nanotecnologie, scienziati e invenzioni nella popular culture [Pop Innovation. Nanotechnologies, scientists and inventions in popular culture] (Il Mulino, 2012).
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At the end of 2022 i co-edited with my colleague Stefano Crabu a special section of the journal Tecnoscienza on the approaches to the study of the relationship between innovation and the future with a STS perspective, including articles by Barbara Prainsack, Marc Audétat, Philippe Sormani and Silvia Casini.
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In 2011 I edited again with my colleague Federico Neresini a book on social representations of science & technology in Italian TV (Il Mulino) and titled La scienza sullo schermo. La rappresentazione della tecnoscienza nella televisione italiana [Science on the Screen. Representations of technoscience on the Italian Television].
In 2022 I edited with my collegues Stefano Crabu and Simone Arnaldi the book “Co-creazione e responsabilità nell’innovazione tecnoscientifica dal basso” (Mimesis), reporting the outcomes of a research on how citizens can make a decisive contribution to making technoscientific innovation socially and ethically desirable and sustainable.
In 2014 Springer released a book co-edited with three other colleagues of mine (Simone Arnaldi, Arianna Ferrari and Francesca Marin). It is titled Responsibility in Nanotechnology Development and focusses on the social and cultural aspects of nanotechnology, especially on the issue of responsibility. O the cultural circulation of nanotechnologies in society in 2012 I also edited a special section of the “Journal of Science Communication“.
In 2014 I have also co-edited a huge volume titled A Matter of Design, containing about 80 papers from the V STS Italia Conference, which I have co-organized in Milan in the same year. It is a open access publication and is the first book output by STS Italia Publishing.