ABSTRACT. Transnational families, characterized by geographically dispersed members who maintain strong familial bonds, are increasingly common in today's globalized world. While existing literature often portrays older individuals in these families as passive care recipients, this research challenges that notion, arguing for their active participation in intergenerational exchange. This study investigates the complex interplay of migration, ageing, and care within transnational Pakistani families in the UK, focusing specifically on the role of grandparents and their navigation of care responsibilities across their life-course, within and beyond national borders. Addressing the methodological challenges of researching older migrants, this project employs qualitative methods, including in-depth interviews and arts-based approaches, with 24 participants. The research explores how grandparents negotiate intergenerational and multidirectional care arrangements, the impact of UK migration regimes and welfare/family policies on grandparental migration and care, and the gendered dynamics shaping these relationships. Crucially, by including interviews with grandparents who have returned to Pakistan after visiting family in the UK, the study offers a unique perspective on the experiences of mobile older migrants, contributing to a nuanced understanding of proximate and distant care within transnational families and addressing the need for innovative approaches to research with this often underrepresented group. This approach aims to move beyond representations of older migrants as passive recipients and explore their agency within transnational family care networks.

ABSTRACT. Internal migrations’ studies have always been neglected due to the perceived and mediatic importance of its international counterpart. In particular, late life migrants are left behind, as they tend to complete less relocations. In this article, changes in the value of Subjective Well-Being measures (SWB) of migrants are evaluated before and after migration, and results are confronted in five European countries: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Sweden. Data have been taken from the SHARE and SHARELIFE Panel European surveys, using multiple waves (from 2004 to 2023). Individuals are 50+ at the moment at first interview and used observations are between 50 and 74 years of age. The number of entries is 8842, divided between 1086 individuals (8.14 mean person-year observations for each unit). The main SWB measures are “Life satisfaction” (LS) and “Perceived Health” (PH). Effects are divided into Pre-Migration, After Migration (0-2 years), Medium Term (3-5 years), Long Term (6+ years). First insights suggest that LS present a drop right after the migration and a steady recovery after it, reaching even higher levels than the originals. France has worse satisfaction for movers than non-migrants; the opposite appends to Italy . PH present a perceived decay of conditions, as time seems to bring more negative results. Internal movers have similar or worse outcome, except for Italians. On a country level, Sweden seems to be significantly more different compared to other countries (higher LS, lower PH), still differences are relevant between the others. A general but modest improvement in life satisfaction is present everywhere, less evident for Spain. Sweden do not display a reduction in satisfaction right after the relocation. More evident increases of PH have been denoted everywhere, except France. Fixed effect and logistic models will be performed to better evaluate the effect of social origin and previous migrations.

ABSTRACT. This doctoral thesis will address the ways in which a group of refugee and immigrant teachers give meaning to places and not places witnessed in their life experiences. Through the analysis of their life stories, they will delve into the characteristics that they pass through and in the traces left by a migratory process, Thus allowing an understanding of different dimensions in the individual life of teachers who have come as refugees. Among the main threads of this research is the question of how teaching identity is generated from the inequalities and singularities resulting from their status as refugees, Approaching concepts of the social sciences and humanities such as place and non-place, to reflect on whether this offers redefinitions or developments around their teaching identity and whether they are conditioning for their chances of entering the labour market or continuing their studies at postgraduate or advanced levels. From the qualitative paradigm, biographical research is used as a method, with biographical interviews, life lines and personal documents being employed as techniques for collecting information. It is suggested that different levels of narrative elaboration should emerge to help glimpse the importance of life history in teachers as, from an anthropological perspective, accepted and recognized subjects. In addition, the staging of a necessary biography of the life of teachers to reconstruct their educational practices, given the marks that certain experiences leave in their lives and the interaction in their teaching work with some phenomena such as migration, which generates a biographical condition that ultimately determines his teaching identity.

ABSTRACT. This paper examines the methodological and substantive issues, including obstacles, pertaining to studying the autonomy of migration, to understand how capitalism in our time works and how it can, under certain conditions, unravel. After the end of the second quarter of the 21st century, mobility, digitality, surveillance, and control are key issues in a world dominated by techno-optimism, false promises and fears of AI, crises, wars, and anti-immigration politics. Trumpism marks a broader logic of anti-democratic politics which makes bordering and anti-immigration a central target in the de-democratization processes across the globe. Studying the old and new forms of the autonomy of migration via the interaction of digital and non-digital manifestations of commoning, solidarities, the praxis of survival, and resistance of ‘the wretched of earth’ or ‘les damnés de la terre’. Drawing on research and praxis of migrant resistance struggles, we chart a sample of how mobile commons in the post-pandemic era generate new socialities: via moving, struggling, learning how to survive, bringing in their own cultural and social resources, ideas, and knowledge systems new life is born. As the enemies of subaltern migrants are rallying the powers of old Europe into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre of the ‘autonomy of migration’, the colonial and postcolonial subaltern speaks and creates, and this is a product of an ‘aleatory materialism of the encounter’ which opens unchartered terrains for struggles.

ABSTRACT. My proposal aims to examine Ellis's autoethnographic approach, which abolishes the traditional duality (researcher/object of study) typical of conventional social research. Here, as is well known, the objects of study are lived experiences narrated directly by the researchers themselves, since no direct engagement with otherness is planned. The so-called interpretive turn, symbolically inaugurated in 1973 with the publication of Geertz's The Interpretation of Cultures, proposed that ethnographic inquiry should consist of interpreting the cultural meanings that individuals ascribe to their social interactions. Thus, accounts shifted to the text, where the presence of the ethnographer, and especially the hermeneutic circularity, was very clear. This meant, in other words, problematizing the relationship of observation and the mode of knowledge production. The linguistic, deconstructivist, dialogic, postmodern turn has worked on these issues with different nuances depending on how far one wanted to push the boundaries. The focus shifted from the object of inquiry to the researcher and, depending on the vein, emphasized issues of writing, the artistic nature of ethnographic products, the polysemy/heteroglossia of ethnographic accounts, the need for advocacy, and the empowerment of the subjects studied. For my purposes, the most interesting consequence concerns the impossibility of thinking of a clear separation between subject and object in the research situation. Interpretive anthropology (despite all its difficulties) has transformed the classical ethnographic monologue into a reflective, dialogic and polyphonic text, while preserving the scientific character of the discipline, considered an indispensable value. Even in constructionist terms, subject and object still retain distinct roles. This last feature (describing the other from oneself) is lost in the cases aimed at the production of autoethnographies, where the separation (hitherto epistemologically blurred, but still ontologically clear) between subject and object of research loses any meaning. This separation has made room for a complete fusion between the cognitive enterprise and the life of the researcher, whose lived experiences become the object of research that does not require comparison with alterity. In doing so, it is possible that the boundaries of science have been crossed. My aim is to discuss this possibility, examining the methodological and epistemological consequences of the autoethnographic project, dwelling also on its refusal to generalize the results of the research and, above all, highlighting the weakness of the political-emancipatory potential that autoethnography proposed by Ellis sets as a priority objective.

ABSTRACT. As part of my post-doctoral research into the effects of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on police work, I took an interest in camera operators to understand how algorithmic processes modify representations of delinquency phenomena. Thus, I spent 12 days under non-participant observator in the camera room, with the 19 men and 4 women of the Center of Video Supervision of a town in eastern France. In this paper, I will begin by examining the social characteristics of the actors I met: both those of the group surveyed and my own as a researcher. The “image hunters” are white, male, from the region, prior experience in law enforcement, fathers of families, working in a profession “without contact with the world” (Thomas, 48). My personal and professional characteristics - holder of a doctorate in a discipline unfamiliar to operators, Greek with a “Belgian accent” (Samuel, 38), living in Nantes while conducting a survey in the east of the country, single and childless - placed me as an outsider to the establishment's norms and profiles. These elements will be analyzed in order to better understand the conditions under which the survey took place, as well as the multiple distances of class, gender, nationality, lifestyle and political ideology that shaped the encounter between their world and mine (Darmon 2005; Rolle 2017). Secondly, I will focus on my efforts to create a common ground with my respondents (Beaud, Weber 2003) despite these discrepancies. Introduced to the operators by the manager and his deputy, I had to implement survey techniques aimed at distinguishing myself from management and reducing the distance with them. By analyzing my field notes, I distinguish my strategies into two categories, corresponding to two phases of the investigation: those deployed during the first meeting and those mobilized once the first contact had been established.

ABSTRACT. Drawing from my illness story, developing in two Oncological Institutes and marked by an initial misdiagnosis which hindered adequacy of therapies for two years, I reflect on what kind of self and autoethnography I could express and carry out, in the double agency of patient and STS researcher. Namely, a patient drawing on the repertoires, languages and frames of STS, and on my experience as ethnographer of sociotechnical artefacts and information infrastructures (Pellegrino, 2003, 2014). The relationship with ‘others’ (doctors, technicians, nurses, other patients and the wide assembly of human-non human entanglements in clinical practice) was ineludibly framed by this (half spontaneous half deliberate) positionality. In light of my being a patient-STS researcher, my autoethnographic ‘I’ is literally embodied/performed, and has a double soul, evocative (Ellis and Bochner, 2016) and analytic (Anderson, 2006). It is even more embodied than in autoethnography as such (see Spry, 2001), since in illness and consequent medicalization the body claims its own deep-rooted and unique voice, often forgotten and neglected otherwise. In my experience, even if connected to autobiography, autoethnography is different as more focused, thicker in description, contingent and time-space bound to vulnerability. Then my ‘I’ is performative, as trans-formative of my own illness trajectory (I consider my STS background crucial to avoid the bad end of the story). Being absorbed by the aim of positioning myself as an informed and competent participant, a “not naïve patient” (Pellegrino, 2021), struggling to make sense of inconsistencies and wounds, I tried to intervene and reshape my illness trajectory, sometimes with problematic and conflictual consequences as in the forced exit from the first Oncological Institute. Eventually, a performative ‘I’ is continuously re-forming the narrative restitution of the field, which enacts and selects different portions of this ‘I’, also in the present contribution, making it anew.

ABSTRACT. My mother lived with my family during her early years with dementia and I accompanied her to every appointment. Seeing all that was no longer deemed available to her made me want to understand more about the structural, institutional and social conditions that influenced her quality of life. I wanted better for her and every person touched by dementia. This experience as a care partner nudged me into pursuing a doctoral program. A week before my first class in social theory and five months into the COVID-19 pandemic, my mother’s health declined and I moved her into a long-term care (LTC) home. Restrictions prohibiting visitors meant I was limited to watching from the lobby as she disappeared down the hall, a social worker wheeling her to her room where she would spend the next two weeks in isolation. When visiting restrictions finally eased to allow “essential” caregivers to visit, we were shocked to realize that my ten-year-old daughter was not considered as such. For months, she and my mother connected through a patchwork of Zoom calls, mailed love notes, photos and artwork. When my daughter was finally permitted to visit, we waited anxiously in the corridor of the LTC home, my daughter asking curiously, “why are there no other kids here?” This question hung in the air throughout our visits, all the while seeing residents faces light up upon seeing a child. My mother and daughter were shining stars to each other, providing enormous inspiration for my research that explores relationships between people living with dementia in a LTC home and adolescents. This paper, and the digital story that my mother, daughter and I co-created, reveal how the theoretical framing and methodology for my research is shaped by my lived experience of engaging in my mother and daughter’s relationship.

ABSTRACT. The research critically reflects on gendered experiences in urban public space, focusing on street harassment. A qualitative methodology with a critical-case design was implemented, combining autoethnography and semi-structured interviews, including photo elicitation. Drawing on Bourdieusian theory and feminist epistemologies, this study highlights how symbolic violence, spatial exclusions, and neoliberal security policies shape uneven access to urban environments. The choice of qualitative methods aims to move beyond an incident-based approach to harassment (Fileborn & O’Neill, 2023) to explore women’s lived experiences – where the word «woman» used hereby is rooted in the trans-inclusive conceptualization proposed by Jenkins (2016). Autoethnography allows firsthand engagement with the embodiment and production of spatial meanings (Gale & Wyatt, 2019), offering insights from the researcher’s own social location. As Crawley (2012) notes, «I write autoethnography because I am commonplace» (p. 154). Relatedly, while Ellis and Bochner (1996) challenge accusations of self-indulgence, concerns about solipsism (Butz & Besio, 2009; Atkinson, 2006) were addressed by incorporating other voices through interviews, as suggested by Bassetti (2021). Ethical considerations were central to this study. Autoethnographic relationships move along a continuum from “researcher-and-researched” to “researcher-as-researched” (Doloriert & Sambrook, 2009), posing challenges of anonymity and disclosure. Consequentially, Medford’s (2006) concept of “mindful slippage” guided reflections on personal exposure. Self-reflection has been realized alongside positionality considerations, keeping these considerations in mind. My feminist political commitment and academic interest in gender and power inform my «situated knowledge» as a «partial, locatable, critical» perspective (Haraway, 1988, p. 584), shaped by my position as a white, Italian, cis, able, working-class, educated young woman. Lastly, this study demonstrates how feminist autoethnography can work to challenge dominant narratives on public space, gendered violence, and safety. Findings reveal that mainstream security policies, rooted in neoliberal control, contrast with feminist and community-led redefinitions of safety as relational and collective.

ABSTRACT. In my PhD work, I am looking at how caste privilege gets reconstituted through elite educational institutions and how such institutions privilege the already privileged. My work entails reversing the epistemic gaze to study the oppressor, the upper castes in the hierarchical division of the caste system in India.

Field, for me, wasn’t a far off, exoticized space. My field did not start with interviews with the respondents. It started with my own experience as a student in institutions under scrutiny. I construct myself not only a researcher but also a respondent through this research. My experience influenced the way I saw privilege as well as discrimination. I resonated with students who struggle with the language, with the magnanimity of change, with hierarchies, with stark differences. However, I am also acutely aware that despite having gone through these struggles, my upper caste identity as well as economic capital helped me get through them, whereas marginalized students are forced to drop out.

Through this paper and my ongoing empirical work, I want to engage with the dilemma one feels as a researcher trying to tell her story, amongst others, while dealing with complexities of one’s identity in terms of caste and class; insider and/or outsider.

ABSTRACT. In recent decades, reflections on the role of the researcher in sociological inquiry have grown increasingly complex, partly due to approaches such as autoethnography. The concept of the researcher-activist in urban spaces has gained prominence, highlighting the integration of ethnographic methodologies, political engagement, and field activism (Martínez, 2023). This shift moves from an introspective “I-on-myself” perspective to a collective “we-on-ourselves” approach, emphasizing relational networks and the communal dimension of sociological practice. This research examines the self-positioning, stabilization, and destabilization strategies employed by researcher-activists in urban contexts, maintaining scientific rigor and neutrality. It draws on two theoretical perspectives: autoethnography (Ellis, Adams, & Bochner, 2011), which underscores methodological reflexivity and personal involvement, and public sociology (Burawoy, 2005) alongside activist scholarship (Hale, 2008), which fosters direct engagement with social movements. Despite their distinct emphases, these perspectives converge in recognizing the relational and political nature of social research. 1. How do researcher-activists navigate pressures on the one hand from political movements and resistance collectives, particularly when ideological boundaries remain more strict, on the other hand from academic institutions with respect to the institutional but free status of scientific research? 2. How does the collective dimension of “we” materialize and evolve in research practice? The study employs qualitative methods, including in-depth interviews with ten researcher-activists from diverse disciplines, working across five social contexts in Italy (Naples, Rome) and France (Lyon, Marseille, Paris), complemented by participant observation. Through a multi-sited ethnographic approach (Marcus, 1995), it explores how researcher-activists’ positioning adapts to political and cultural landscapes. By integrating autoethnographic reflexivity with the activist researcher’s collective engagement, this study critically examines the epistemological and ethical dilemmas inherent in politically engaged scholarship. Concluding in October 2025, it seeks to contribute to international debates on qualitative methods, representation, and knowledge production, reinforcing the inherently collective nature of sociological inquiry.

ABSTRACT. The question of urban greenery is nowadays one of the issues that come up in the urban discourse in the context of quality of life, morphological development and urban renewal projects, often being posed as challenges that the cities must face in the age of climate change. This is also the case of Polish cities and towns – as often the largest as the medium sized ones. Moreover, the recent press discourse in Poland has exposed our cities to unjustified simplifications.

At the Urban and Regional Policy Observatory, Institute of Urban and Regional Development (PL), we study the Polish cities taking into account urban greenery – its distribution, quality and role for their centres. At the same time we base our research on a theoretical, sociological framework that sees city centres as social spaces, defined by their perceived functions and needs, as a result creating a “public realm”, as Lyn H. Lofland wrote. For urban greenery not only completes public space – it also acts as a public space in its own right, offering qualities natural to the man-made public space, thus contributing to how a city centre functions.

In this paper we present a synthesis of theoretical sources for thinking about greenery as an important part of urban fabric, and methodological implications of how sociology, geography and remote sensing techniques can meet over the concept of public space. We discuss results of our original interdisciplinary studies and show perspectives for further disputes on the problem of urban greenery.

ABSTRACT. While Gen Z is often described as a snowflake o strawberry generation – emotionally fragile, anxious and unfit to face difficulties and disappointments – it is also very sensitive about environmental and social issues and often capable to capture the attention of politics, media and public opinion. From a sociological perspective, these tendencies seem to point at a general hypersensitivity, that is, an extremely high aptitude to react to what happen around, foremost formulating affective and also normative expectations and claims, leaving the cognitive approach on the background. In this sense, the world-society’s uncertainty and contingency – especially related to the future, increasingly conceived as threatening – generates different forms of psychological and affective-emotional distress (depression, anxiety, self-cutting, and so on), widely spread in the West. This research analyses the post-pandemic personal experience of the young university students in Rome, their expectations and claims, through their own self-narratives, adapting the traditional semi-structured interview technique with an experimental visual method which situates interviewees in a comfortable and “safe” environment where they could tell about their experience, biography and life without feeling judged and influenced by the interviewers. The hypothesis is that precisely the affective dimension of individuality could more clearly emerge through this method, highlighting the adaptive reactions to contingency and uncertainty of society.

ABSTRACT. How do unprecedented climate extreme events shape organizational (issue) fields and influence processes underlying attitudes toward climate change mitigation or adaptation? Answering questions about the impact of rare, extreme events poses significant challenges in the social sciences. As data capturing intricate social dynamics is often collected only post-event, issues of limited analyses and potential misattribution arise. However, recent advances in climate predictions may allow for identifying high- and low-risk regions 1–10 years into the future, enabling the observation of dynamics pre- and post-event, offering a more robust methodology.

We utilize decadal extreme hot summer predictions to orchestrate a medium-term digital field observation of urban governance, positioning it as a natural quasi-experiment. Our approach transcends outsourcing climate predictions by engaging in deep interdisciplinary collaboration to assess systemic risks, appreciate social vulnerabilities and organizational field’s institutional buffering with a novel objective: designing a sociological study that allows us to gauge not just the short-term impacts of external shocks but also the changes in network and discourse dynamics.

This requires understanding the goals and limitations of each discipline; the specific scientific principles underlying the climate statistics (e.g. the skill of predictions in vulnerable regions) and which extreme climate events could tangibly impact the social system and are observable by human institutions, redefining what hazards climate predictions should emphasize. Our study underscores the potential of intensive interdisciplinary collaboration, beyond mere synthesis. It involves exchanging and integrating statistical methodologies across disciplines, from spatiotemporal extreme event statistics to social network and semantic text analysis, while bridging epistemological gaps between physical and social sciences. While our methodology focuses on combining climate extreme predictions and digital field observations, leveraging natural science predictions in the design of future studies could benefit any sociological research that aims to understand social dynamics within a changing natural environment.

ABSTRACT. InterEd -Interdisciplinary Approaches for Innovative Education- is a two-year (2024-2025) European project funded by the Erasmus+ program, aimed at transforming teaching in secondary schools by integrating interdisciplinarity and Phenomenon-Based Learning (PhenoBL). More specifically, the main goal is to develop a teaching method that unites different disciplines, providing students with an educational experience that helps them understand and tackle contemporary challenges in their complexity. The project will develop resources like a Compendium on Interdisciplinarity, a Virtual Learning Lab (VLL) focusing on values like sustainability and inclusion, and Interdisciplinary Pedagogical Micro-Units (IPUs). To achieve this, InterEd is using a multimethod and a multidisciplinary approach: desk research, case studies, roundtables, webinars, focus groups, and experiential labs. Specifically: desk research, case studies around 4 countries (Finland, Italy, Turkey, Norway and Denmark) and roundtable were used to produce the Compendium; roundtables with academics and webinars in 3 countries (Italy, Greece, Cyprus) with both secondary teachers and academics were used to collect feedback on needs and perceptions in 3 countries (Italy, Greece, Cyprus) education systems; prior field research and a specific desk research was used to produce VLL. Next step will be the test of VLL on 36 secondary teachers and feedback collection thanks to 4 focus groups and then a pilot testing of IPUs involving 75 students and 24 teachers in 3 countries (Italy, Greece, Cyprus).

ABSTRACT. The study aims to describe the social-emotional competencies of the university student population in Italy and to examine the impact of individual and relational variables on these competencies. The research employed a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative and qualitative analyses. Data were collected through an online questionnaire completed by a sample of 1,974 university students. The survey identified factors predictive of «self-efficacy», «responsibility» and «sociability» skills. Open-ended responses were analyzed using a Grounded Theory approach. The results show that social support, trust in others and life satisfaction positively influence social-emotional skills. However, the pandemic has weakened social networks, reducing the quality of relationships and face-to-face interactions.

ABSTRACT. Media narrations are used by teenage audiences when looking for references for their identity building. As a possible starting point for Media Literacy activities to help teenage in this process, my research focuses on the representations of values proposed by italian adolescents favourite tv programmes. The aim of the research is to understand what values are communicated to young people by these programmes, using the methodology of "qualitative content analysis". From a theoretical point of view, reference will be made to the theory and classification of values by S. H. Schwartz (1992), which constitutes one of the most innovative contributions in social psychology to the theorisation and empirical investigation of values, starting, however, from an in-depth study of the subject from the main sociological theories. The study will be divided into two parts: 1. Theoretical and methodological research on values in sociological and social psychology thought, and on the relationship between adolescents, values and television. 2. Qualitative content analysis in order to study the media representation of values. Television represents for adolescents a constant source for the formation of their identity and the learning of values. The results shows that the representation of values proposed by tv programmes anaylized is widely influenced by genres. Also tv programmes are labeled as educational or no-educational in relation to values represented (negative or prosocial values). So, an analysis of values that emerge from the italian adolescents favourite tv programmes, is useful, not only as a monitoring action, but as a possible starting point for a value-focused educational strategy in the field of media education.

ABSTRACT. The paper discusses the methodological challenges characterizing research on radicalization, particularly of jihadist nature. The first issue concerns the definition of the subject of investigation, as there is no unanimous consensus on the term "radicalization." However, the most significant difficulty lies in the lack of a solid empirical foundation, which hampers the ability to answer fundamental questions in this field of study. The scarcity of primary data makes it challenging to clarify why seemingly well-integrated young individuals are drawn to militant Islamism and what factors drive the transition from violent discourse to violent action. An analysis by Desmarais et al. (2017) found that only 20% of studies on radicalization rely on empirical research, while 80% primarily use existing literature as their main source of analysis. According to Sageman (2014), despite the huge funding for terrorism research, scholars are still unable to adequately answer the fundamental question: "What drives an individual to resort to political violence?" This stagnation is partly attributed to government strategies that finance research without providing the academic community with access to essential primary information. A systematic review of the scientific literature on radicalization (Vergani et al., 2020) highlighted a correlation between research methods and findings. For instance, studies utilizing existing datasets tend to emphasize push factors as primary causes of radicalization. Meanwhile, research based exclusively on qualitative methodologies often provides more specific explanations, focusing on individual factors—particularly pull factors—whereas studies employing quantitative or mixed methods frequently propose explanations that incorporate a combination of push, pull, and personal factors. Strengthening the empirical foundation in this field is essential, not only for advancing research but also for the formulation of effective policies and strategies. A promising avenue for future research involves integrating case studies with control groups, coupled with the adoption of innovative data collection strategies.

ABSTRACT. Sports studies have evolved from a predominantly quantitative approach to a more inclusive research framework that integrates qualitative and mixed methods (Gratton & Jones, 2010; Diana, Catone & Taddei, 2024). This methodological shift has been essential in advancing the study of inclusive sports, capturing the diverse experiences of individuals with disabilities, migrants, those facing addictions, mental health challenges, and economic inequalities. This contribution explores the evolution of methodologies in the study of inclusive sports, emphasizing the importance of integrating and combining innovative research techniques. The analysis is based on three key elements: 1.A research study on Baskin, an inclusive form of basketball experiencing steady growth (Taddei & Bianchi, 2023). The study was conducted using a concurrent transformative mixed-methods design (Creswell, 2003), a theoretically driven approach aimed at initiating social change and providing support to the local community (Castro et al., 2010). 2.A literature review of recent studies utilizing participatory (De Cataldo & Russo, 2022) and creative research methods (Giorgi, Pizzolati, & Vachelli, 2021) in the field of inclusive sports. 3.The increasing digitalization of various aspects of sports and physical activity, which presents new opportunities for leveraging digital data and Artificial Intelligence to enhance methodological innovation and optimize the integration of social science research techniques. This study aims to identify the challenges and opportunities associated with ongoing methodological innovation in sociology and sports studies. By embracing participatory, creative, and digital approaches, researchers can develop more inclusive, effective, and impactful methodologies that advance both academic knowledge and real-world social change in the field of sports.

ABSTRACT. Hashtag activism has emerged as a crucial mechanism for mobilization, protest, and awareness campaigns in the world of sports, reshaping participation and public discourse. X (formerly Twitter) serves as a key platform where athletes, fans, and sport organizations discuss social justice, athletes’ rights, and institutional accountability. This phenomenon, known as “hashtag activism,” allows users to connect and amplify collective causes. This study examines the methodological challenges of content analysis in hashtag activism within sports, comparing quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods approaches to explore discursive dynamics and social participation. While quantitative analysis helps track engagement metrics and dissemination patterns, qualitative methods are essential to understanding the meaning and context of online mobilization. A key example is the commemoration of sports tragedies through hashtags, such as the #100harikanjuruhan movement, which highlights the use of social media in memory activism. Additionally, the intersection of digital activism and social justice is evident in the #MeToo, #BoycottQatar2022, #BlackLivesMatter, #TakeAKnee and #WhereIsPengShuai campaigns within sports, where organizations leveraged social media to demand institutional accountability. Analyzing data from X reveals critical challenges, including data representativeness, algorithmic bias, and content visibility manipulation. Adopting an integrated methodological approach provides a more comprehensive understanding of digital activism in sports, recognizing social platforms as new spaces for political and cultural participation.

ABSTRACT. The media representation of Paralympic athletes is often marked by polarized narratives that swing between the glorification of disability and its denial. Some researchers (Silva & Howe, 2012; Purdue & Howe, 2012) have highlighted how the media contributes to the spread of stereotypes that shape the social perception of para-athletes. These athletes are often portrayed either as heroes with extraordinary abilities thanks to their prostheses or as athletes whose disabilities are minimized. Our study aims to explore this phenomenon from a new perspective, placing the focus on the Paralympic athletes themselves’ view. We adopted a methodological approach based on the combination of heterogeneous data and sources. On the one hand, public interviews given by athletes to the Paralympic Committee (published on YouTube) and to the newspaper Ability Channel (available on Spotify) offer an initial glimpse of their public image. On the other hand, we analyzed the digital content produced and shared by the athletes themselves on their social accounts (e.g., posts, stories, comments). The comparison between different types of data (unobtrusive vs obtrusive data [Veltri, 2019]) allows us to gain a deeper understanding of self-representation dynamics and to reflect on the opportunities and challenges related to the use of various kinds of digital data. Through this analysis, our study highlights the importance of a methodological approach that integrates multiple digital sources, offering a broader and more nuanced view of the phenomenon.

ABSTRACT. Despite efforts to promote healthy lifestyle, Latvia has some of the lowest health indicator results in the European Union in more than one category, for instance, healthy life expectancy is among the lowest in the EU (OECD/WHO 2021), overall life satisfaction of the Latvian population ranks as the second lowest in all EU countries (Eurostat 2022). Already today, the population at retirement age (65+) has the fourth lowest life expectancy and healthy life expectancy in the EU (Eurostat, 2020b). This clearly illustrates that there is a pressing need for new solutions allowing to society to transition towards more healthy lifestyles. This research addresses these challenges by exploring ways humans engage with wearable technologies. More particularly, research aims to identify social practices in communities that motivate individuals in Latvia to participate and continue physical activities while using wearable technologies and to analyse how these practices change self-perceived well-being of individuals Research also looks to illuminate the drawbacks and challenges people face while engaging in these practices. It is a part of doctoral thesis and currently the methodological and conceptual part of the study is being developed. The research adapts the qualitative critical companionship approach. This approach is used for semi structured qualitative interviews combined with online diaries following how relations between individual, community, and wearable technologies affect physical activities. The expected result will provide information on the role of the community in the self-evaluation of individual well-being. Success factors will be identified for continuing physical activities with wearable technologies and their sharing practices with others. Meanwhile, the challenges of this process will provide the factors to be improved or avoided to activate individuals for a healthy lifestyle through physical activities.

ABSTRACT. The Rome Marathon, now in its 30th edition, has undergone a very significant evolutionary process, so much so that, sociologically, it can be considered a “total social fact”: based on Mauss's theory, it involves a complex system of symbolic universes and social actors, and is much more than a sporting competition. In fact, the organizers interface with various institutional entities to establish the details of the event, the policies related to security, the adequate information and media coverage, the management of traffic and other general lines of conduct, valid and binding for the entire duration of the event. In addition to these institutional actors, there are numerous and diverse subjects belonging to the Third Sector (non-profit associations, foundations and groups of volunteer citizens) appointed to extend the public and social utility function of the event. Finally, turning to the targets of the initiative, there are athletes and spectators; tourists attracted by the event or ordinary citizens, of every generation, representatives of the local community, who participate in the event in the many ways provided (conferences and informative events on sport and well-being, group training sessions, non-competitive amateur races, music and entertainment, “themed” social occasions, etc.). To bring out the polyvalence of such a total social fact, a complex methodological system was developed, based on a mixed-methods approach, capable of enhancing forms of observation and qualitative-quantitative empirical analysis. The research design - which we intend to discuss here - aimed at highlighting and creating a dialogue among multiple aspects of a single and complex social macro-phenomenon, involved the synergistic combination of numerous techniques: from in-depth interviews with privileged witnesses and ordinary citizens of the local area, to survey research; from secondary data analysis to content analysis.

ABSTRACT. The methods used to study physical activities and body have always been divided according to the discipline conducting the investigation. In experimental sciences (biomechanics, physiology), these phenomena are analyzed using quantitative experimental setups. In social sciences, the study of physical activities or body primarily relies on traditional methods such as interviews, observations, or questionnaires (Mohr and al.2020). Research topics rarely integrate contributions from both types of disciplines.

This presentation is based on an experimental methodology used as part of a PhD project examining how the social world determines the way we walk. Its uniqueness lies in the integration of both sociology and biomechanics. Indeed, based on Marcel Mauss's conceptual framework on body techniques (Mauss, 1936) and Bourdieu's theory on embodied class differences (Bourdieu, 2000), a motion capture system was employed to quantify social class differences in walking. The objective was to integrate reflexivity and the conceptual framework of sociology with investigative methods from experimental disciplines.

The non-probability sample consists of two groups of thirty men, aged between 18 and 25, with contrasting social characteristics (in terms of capital-volume), walked 20 50-meter loops in a gymnasium. The first group was made up of students from major French universities ("Grandes écoles"), while the second group was made up of workers (skilled and unskilled) in the blue-collar sector. A motion capture of their gait was conducted, using cameras and markers placed on their bodies. Quantitative data were thus generated on the gait of each individual.

In addition to explaining the interdisciplinary framework of this study, the presentation will showcase the main statistical results. The analysis of effect sizes and descriptive statistics highlights class differences in walking styles. These results are limited because they are not inferential. Nevertheless, this study offers interesting perspectives for integrating disciplines and methods in the study of the body.

ABSTRACT. Starting from a historical discussion of the practice of dance ethnography, this article aims to reflect on actual potentiality of the interpretative paradigm and the ethnography in ethnic dances studies, both inside specific local communities as well in specific and contextualized experimental variations of our contemporaneity as stages, ateliers and performances. The main objective is to present traditional and innovative research tools to deepen the study of values and motivations in the field of dance. Moreover, on the basis of the analyzed researches, I will try to focus on the different ways through which it is possible to reveal which are the actual needs/desires for the dance community that is the object of a study through the elaboration of a list of main objectives that can be achieved by social researches on dance. Ethnography is a tool with great promise in the field of dance: it is useful to access to the differents interpretations that practitioners give to dance, linked to the different cultural and social backgrounds, and to invest the importance of dance in their ordinary life. Exploring many researches I will focus the attention on the use of notes, photos and videos during the participant observation, on narrative interviews and on the latest projecting tests and visual techniques, trying to highlight their potentialities to show how dances/movements are categorized in a certain context and, meanwhile, highlighting the possible risks which their use, due to lack of standardization, involves.

Geertz C.,(1973),“The Interpretation of Cultures.” New York: Basic Books, Inc.

Veutro M.,(2023),“Esplorare i valori. Narrazione e immaginazione come strumenti di ricerca sociale.” Libreriauniversitaria, Limena

Frosch J.,D.,(1999),“Dance Ethnography. Tracing the Weave of Dance in the Fabric of Culture.” University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh.

Hall, G.(1976]“Workshop as a Ballerina: An Exercise in Professional Socialization, in «Urban Life and Culture», 6, pp. 193-220.

ABSTRACT. Evaluation makes extensive use of methods and techniques developed in social research (Bezzi, 2001). However, unlike traditional research, its objective extends beyond understanding social phenomena to reconstructing processes and assessing outcomes directly linked to the evaluand (Stame, 1998). Moreover, evaluation data should not only generate knowledge but also inform decision-making and drive improvements within the contexts (Montalbetti, 2024). When employing methodologies originating outside the evaluation domain, it is essential to critically examine and adapt them to align with evaluative logic and the specificities of the context under investigation. Against this backdrop, this study presents an ongoing evaluation in which Social Network Analysis (Chiesi, 1999; Salvini, 2007) has been employed as an evaluative method (Durland & Fredericks, 2005) to assess the contribution of the “Vicini di Scuola” program in strengthening partnership networks. This nationwide initiative, comprising 23 projects founded by social enterprise “Con I Bambini”, aims to reduce school segregation through a range of strategies, with inter-institutional collaboration playing a central role. Given the significance of network-based mechanisms for the program’s success, SNA offers a valuable framework for mapping and analyzing partnership structures. To collect data a structured questionnaire was developed and administered to all project partnership members. The instrument focus on relational dynamics across four key dimensions: (1) instrumental processes, (2) innovation, (3) network development, and (4) network governance. The questionnaire was administered at the beginning of the projects and will be administered again at the end. This pre-post design enables an assessment of the program’s effectiveness in fostering territorial networks and enhancing collaborative practices.

ABSTRACT. This research aims to map and analyze the network of third-sector organizations (TSOs) engaged in social and environmental resilience initiatives in Naples, particularly in the neighborhoods of Soccavo and Pianura. As part of the IX Municipality, these areas are particularly vulnerable due to exposure to environmental risks such as bradyseism, flooding, landslides, and hydrogeological hazards. According to the literature, TSOs can play a crucial role in local communities, contributing to both emergency prevention and crisis management. These organizations often have a long-standing presence in the territory, and their deep knowledge of local social vulnerabilities translates into valuable resilience resources. Their embeddedness within the community enables them to act as key facilitators in disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies, providing targeted formal and informal interventions that address both immediate crises and long-term adaptive capacities. The study follows a mixed-method approach, integrating indirect data collection (social media, websites, and literature), urban explorations, and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, primarily third-sector actors such as social workers, socio-healthcare operators, leaders of NGOs, volunteer associations, and social promotion organizations. Through social network analysis (SNA) inter-organizational relationships are visually represented, distinguishing between mutual and non-mutual collaborations while identifying central actors that function as network hubs. This approach provides deeper insights into resource exchange, knowledge transfer, and coordination mechanisms among TSOs. By applying relational evaluation techniques, the study also examines how inter-organizational ties influence the implementation, success, and sustainability of local interventions, particularly in natural risk situations and emergency management. Specifically, it analyzes whether and how these collaborative networks can be effectively positioned within the participatory framework of Disaster Risk Management (DRM). The findings contribute to both methodological advancements in SNA for evaluation studies and policy recommendations for more inclusive and sustainable territorial planning.

ABSTRACT. The escalating challenges confronting contemporary welfare systems have catalyzed a paradigm shift in addressing emerging social needs, fostering decentralized models prioritizing community empowerment and network activation. In this context, Social Network Analysis (SNA) has emerged as a valuable evaluation framework, as understanding relational dynamics is essential for assessing the impact of social interventions. Networks are no longer merely operational mechanisms but have become critical dimensions of impact assessment. Our research examines SNA's methodological contribution to evaluating social initiatives that cultivate collaborative networks. Complex social interventions inevitably operate through internal and external relational structures that profoundly shape implementation outcomes. The research presents an impact evaluation of a project against educational poverty in the Ragusa province (Sicily, Italy). SNA was employed to investigate the project's relational ecosystem and to assess the strengthening of the "educating community." Data collection utilized Computer-Assisted Mobile Interviewing (CAMI) at two critical junctures: mid-implementation and project conclusion. Comparative structural analysis revealed significant transformations in network expansion patterns and collaboration intensity. Integrating SNA into impact evaluation frameworks yields crucial insights for assessing intervention effectiveness and optimizing organizational structures. This approach ultimately enhances community-based social initiatives' sustainability and transformative potential by illuminating the otherwise invisible relational infrastructure underpinning social change

ABSTRACT. As is widely known, theoretical reflection on the complexity of normative agency (Coleman, 1990) represents a focal point for sociologists of behaviour and strategic interaction under conditions of uncertainty. In the present contribution, the empirical reconstruction of welfare procedures, connected to the implementation of anti-poverty measures in the municipalities of Rome, calls into question the notions of teleological and strategic agency; a key hypothesis of the research consists in verifying how the procedures that draw the boundaries of the decisions taken by social actors (the social workers involved in the implementation of anti-poverty measures) can be considered as an autonomous structure that delimits and defines the spheres and spaces of alternative courses of action (Dentale, 2022). In this context, the epistemological significance of the network approach in social research is expressed, and concretely translated, in the assumption that the social ties within which actors/social workers construct reality have important consequences for the actors themselves and for the context within which they are embedded (Scott, 1997; Freeman, 2007). In the evaluation of complex, multi-stakeholder and multi-objective initiatives (such as the case of anti-poverty policies) the strategic interdependence between actor and context (Pawson and Tilley, 2007) produces results (in terms of styles of decision-making and practices) that must be read starting from the particular, circumstantial and contingent way in which actors model the intervention setting to the needs and requests coming from their "significant others" (internal service accounting requirements; more or less profitable collaborations with territorial structures for taking on care..). The conjunction of the network analysis with the perspective of realistic evaluation has made it possible to identify in three ‘decision-making styles’ of intervention (procedimental, prestational and activating) the forms of strategic action of social workers: these are practical solutions, which originate from relational configurations, useful for dealing with dilemmatic situations.

ABSTRACT. The establishment of community welfare models has increased the relevance of network dynamics as enablers of intervention success (Salvini et al. 2020). Networks are considered a key factor for the generation of social capital, the promotion of exchanges of information and good practices, and the facilitation of social innovation through the activation of synergies between different actors and expertise. Therefore, when evaluating this type of policy, the network can be viewed both as a model of intervention and as a impact dimension, thus as both an independent/explanatory variable and a dependent variable (Kenis & Provan 2009). This analytical perspective seems appropriate for evaluating initiatives based on the concept of the ‘educating community’ (Galligani 2024), adopted as a key model to contrast educational poverty in the project financed by the Italian NGO ‘Con i Bambini’. These projects are based on the local partnership of various actors (third sector organisations, schools, local administrations), to provide multidimensional interventions to support children (i.e. network as intervention model). At the same time, the consolidation of the local social capital and practices is considered as a key factor to ensure the sustainability of impacts beyond the singular intervention (i.e. network as objective). The paper discusses a selection of the findings of the evaluation of network impacts of 17 projects financed by the ‘Cambio rotta’ programme of ‘Con i Bambini’. The evaluation of the networks was carried out through a dedicated questionnaire inspired by SNA (Galligani & Riccardo 2021) and administered online to all members of each partnership. The presentation will focus on the findings related to: the governance structures; the evolution of the network over time (in the progressive involvement of new actors); the roles played by specific participants (NGOs, local administrations, etc.), thus highlighting how educating communities build the ‘relational’ bases of their sustainability.

ABSTRACT. The evaluation of local development programmes is useful to know if what is being done, for a certain purpose, is being well done, and represents an opportunity for change for territories insofar as it allows one to know the requirements and needs peculiar to local contexts. In this sense, evaluation can be seen as a tool for capacity-building through listening to an ever-wider group of stakeholders (Casavola, Tagle, 2004). The adoption of a positive perspective (Lo Presti, 2017) is particularly suitable in the context of local development in marginal areas, as it places local actors at the centre of discovering what works and what doesn’t, fostering double-loop learning (Stame, 1998, 2016). Evaluating the social impact of local development programmes allows for observing whether, within the area of intervention, change in terms of cohesion and social infrastructures have occurred (Lo Presti, Celardi, Dentale, 2018), as well as the strengthening of relational networks. It is within this context that the objectives of the Local Development project in the municipality of Castelbuono (PA), promoted by Fondazione Con il Sud, are established. The survey involved an ex post evaluation of the project's activities, aiming to identify—independently of FCS's project action—positive changes generated for the beneficiaries and social actors in the reference context, with an openness to the unexpected. Specifically, in order to evaluate the impact of social infrastructure interventions among Third Sector Organisations, the application of Social Network Analysis (SNA) was used to gather information on the construction of relational networks and the strengthening of collaborations. To obtain a mapping of the networks, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the representatives of the local entities, organisations and associations. The qualitative study represents an interesting research result with respect to the form and intensity of the collaborations activated by local stakeholders.

ABSTRACT. In the field of healthcare, the tendency to seek organizational models based on the integration of all social and healthcare services emerges, as demonstrated by the WHO guidelines. In the Italian healthcare system, this has led to the creation of local integration systems that involve the definition of protocols and formal relationships between centres that provide social and healthcare services. Catastrophic events, such as earthquakes or floods, cause rapid and unexpected changes that undermine the planned structure of the interorganizational structure. Existing network configurations must quickly adapt to the new situation. Our work presents the results of a study involving ASUR (Azienda Sanitaria Unica Regionale) Marche in the province of Ascoli Piceno, which was hit by the 2016 earthquake, and the University of Urbino Carlo Bo, aimed at studying the evolution of the structure of the interorganisational network linking the centres involved in providing social welfare services in the field of mental health, as a consequence of the seismic event. The analysis was carried out using Social Network Analysis based on data from both databases and semi-structured interviews. In addition, in-depth interviews were conducted to investigate the meaning and context of social relationships within the network. Some indicators of network integration, already discussed in the literature, were used for the analysis. The results show that in emergency situations the network adapts and becomes denser. The evolution of the network depends both on how these external pressures are received by individual actors, and on contingent situations, such as geographical location and available resources. From the analysis of the data, it was also possible to identify the critical issues that may hinder the integration of social and health services; these include the difficulty of interacting with very different organisational cultures, territorial isolation and staff precariousness.

ABSTRACT. Many studies in the field of higher education use distance as a simple measure of accessibility, commuting, or moving. They often define distance as the straight-line distance, while only a few studies measure distance using the actual travel distance. This approach is supposedly more sophisticated, accurate, and realistic. Our aim is to assess whether the straight-line is an adequate proxy for travel distances by car and multimodal public transportation in Germany.

We compare the straight-line and the travel distances between the former school and the current university. We also distinguish between the shortest and the best route. The linear relation between the straight-line and travel distance was analyzed using ordinary least-squares regression. To examine outliers, the difference between the actual travel distance and the predicted travel distance, which is the straight-line distance multiplied by the regression slope, was used. The straight-line distance is a good proxy when the absolute difference between the actual travel distance and the predicted travel distance is less than 5 km, or the relative difference is less than 10 %. The results are based on a representative sample of 2,903 different routes taken by German students.

In 96 % of the cases, the straight-line distance is an adequate proxy for the shortest travel distance by car. However, the straight-line is a good approximation of the best car route 80 % of the time. For the shortest and best public transportation routes, the straight-line is a reliable proxy 66 % and 60 % of the time, respectively. The largest discrepancies occur in areas with physical obstacles such as lakes, rivers, mountains or wilderness and nature conservation areas. These findings suggest that future studies should use travel distances for more realistic results, as they provide significantly greater accuracy than straight-line distances.

ABSTRACT. Different planning concepts highlight how integrating spatial and temporal dimensions in urban design can advance sustainable accessibility and well-being. Approaches like the X-minute City (XmC) emphasize locating daily services and amenities within close reach, mitigating spatiotemporal injustice and reducing car dependency. Yet, a key challenge lies in developing robust methods to analyze the spatiotemporal dimensions of these opportunities specifically for older adults living in smaller cities who can face unique mobility barriers.

This paper presents a methodological framework for understanding how older adults (65+) navigate service availability across space and different time frames. First, we apply a chronotopic mapping approach, analysing spatiotemporal open data—e.g. store opening hours and GTFS transit information—to generate mobility and opportunity sketches of daily points of interest in three case studies located in Czech Republic, Estonia, and Sweden. These study areas, differing in size, governance, and urban characteristics, offer diverse insights into the interplay of context-specific spatiotemporal factors. Second, participatory mapping sessions will enrich these sketches as older adults use mapping and GIS tools to locate anchor points and share personal mobility narratives. These narratives highlight individual routines, place-based meanings, and time constraints shaping daily mobility strategies.

By integrating quantitative analyses of transport and service datasets with qualitative insights from participants, we illustrate how barriers arise where local infrastructures, public transport, service hours, and rhythms intersect. In exploring the XmC concept—underscoring accessible local services without presupposing travel time or speed in contrast to 15mC concept—we explore whether and how mismatches between older adults’ needs and urban temporal structures compromise accessibility. Finally, by discussing the use of data from multiple case studies, including OpenStreetMap, we address challenges related to data consistency and availability. Taken together, our contribution stresses the value of inclusive data practices and participatory engagement in shaping more age-friendly planning.

ABSTRACT. Car dependence remains a key challenge for sustainable mobility, shaped by complex spatial and individual factors. Addressing its impacts requires robust methodological approaches that integrate diverse data sources and analytical techniques. This study combines spatial metrics with survey data on attitudes and perceptions to examine car dependence across the different territorial contexts of Lombardy, ranging from metropolitan to remote rural areas. The research is structured in two stages. First, a spatial analysis classifies areas in the case study region into different car dependence levels using bivariate clustering of established cause-and-effect indicators. These spatial clusters reveal increasing car dependence from dense urban areas to suburban and rural contexts. In the second stage, survey respondents from each car dependence cluster are categorized based on self-perceived car dependence, allowing for a direct comparison between subjective experiences and territorial classifications. The findings highlight several mismatches between spatial and self-perceived car dependence. While suburban respondents who do not feel car-dependent often exhibit strong attachment to car use and low concern for its impacts, rural respondents report higher car reliance alongside dissatisfaction with this dependency. These results challenge deterministic assumptions about car dependence based solely on spatial conditions and emphasize the importance of personal activities, built environment perceptions, and individual attitudes in shaping mobility choices. This study contributes to methodological discussions on mobility research by demonstrating the complementarity of spatial analysis and survey-based approaches. Integrating both dimensions provides a nuanced understanding of car dependence, informing context-sensitive strategies. Suburban interventions may focus on reducing car attachment and addressing car-centric designs, while rural strategies might prioritize enhancing alternative mobility options. By bridging spatial and individual perspectives, this research advances methodological frontiers in mobility studies, offering insights for designing fairer and more adaptive transport policies.

ABSTRACT. This contribution reflects on the methodological challenges and opportunities emerging from the innovative use of diverse data sources in mobility studies, drawing from experiences within two recent research initiatives: the Spoke 8 - MaaS and Innovative Services of the National Centre for Sustainable Mobility (MOST) and the Spoke 1 - Urban Regeneration of the Ecosystem MUSA - Multilayered Urban Sustainability Action. Focusing specifically on the mobility patterns within Milan’s Bicocca neighbourhood, these projects integrated a variety of novel data sources – including telco and traffic data, surveys, sensors for the detection of flows, soundscape and air quality – as well as methodological approaches such as urban audits, spatial analysis, surveys, and mobile methods. The presentation introduces the case of the “Bicocca Mobility ID Card” emphasizing how these combined methodological tools offer unprecedented potential to analyse urban transformations, mobility behaviours, and the interactions between diverse social groups and the built environment. At the same time, it critically addresses significant methodological risks, notably the fragmentation of knowledge due to an excessive focus on detailed data descriptions at the expense of theoretical and systemic comprehension. Moreover, substantial integration difficulties arise from data expressed in different units of analysis, accompanied by an observed tendency towards excessive data engineering and aestheticization. Further complicating this scenario is the low transparency surrounding data collection techniques and original purposes – often linked to commercial rather than scientific objectives - which raises critical concerns regarding the reproducibility and reliability of these novel spatial data. This “black box” problem underlines the necessity for greater methodological awareness and rigorous scrutiny in handling innovative data sources for mobility research.

ABSTRACT. Public transport (PT) is crucial for sustainable development and access to opportunities in urban and rural areas. However, the sector is facing a crisis in working conditions and labour supply. Swedish trade unions report deteriorating conditions, including long, stressful days, unpaid breaks, and inadequate rest spaces. Additionally, PT operators are experiencing a severe staff shortage, leading to frequent service disruptions.

The everyday work of bus drivers is characterized by a complex and rigid spatiotemporal configuration, which appears to limit their agency and well-being at work while also affecting their non-working life. Bus drivers operate a crucial part of the system of everyday mobilities and, at the same time, are also mobile subjects that move across the built environment before, during, and after work.

This paper discusses the use of mobile methods to grasp the everyday work experiences of bus drivers. The data collection involves mobile ethnography, including ride-alongs and in-depth interviews, to understand bus drivers' work practices and the organisational conditions contributing to shaping them. Twenty drivers from two Swedish regions, covering various service types, will be interviewed and observed during their shifts. Special attention will be given to the spatiotemporal aspects defined by duty schedules and PT timetables, and the power dimensions related to gender, racial, and class relations surrounding them.

Our contribution addresses how to operationalize an intersectional and spatiotemporal framework in mobile ethnographic fieldwork. It highlights methodological challenges related to exploring the relationship between spatiotemporalities and workers' gendered, racialized, and classed experiences and agency (e.g., participation, adaptation, resistance). Addressing these challenges is crucial to ensure that results from the mobile ethnography reflect the bus drivers’ experiences and provide applicable insights for improving their working conditions.

ABSTRACT. The accessibility to urban amenities and services of general interest is considered as a proxy for defining and identifying peripheral areas within cities. Despite the evolution of the concept of periphery over time, and its subsequent linkage to non-spatial factors such as socio-economic conditions, accessibility remains a pivotal aspect in the study of disadvantaged city areas. Indeed, the adequate accessibility to desired opportunities and services constitutes the basis for spatial justice and social inclusion. A plethora of methodologies and approaches for the study of accessibility have been proposed in the scientific literature. Some of these approaches consider services achievable by walking, and/or the concentration of amenities calculated with gravity models. Other studies have focused on the provision of transport infrastructures, such as metro and railway stations or bus stops, or analysed the accessibility through private motor vehicles, measuring distances based on road networks. However, only a few studies have examined the accessibility of services in relation to public transport availability. The present contribution aims to propose an analytical method to identify the peripheries of access to services through public transport systems. Specifically, the study proposes an analysis of the city of Rome, using the public transport open data in General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) format to measure temporal distances to amenities available from other open data, such as OpenStreetMap. The analysis identifies a classification system based on the concept of peripherality to define a range of accessibility levels across different urban areas. Furthermore, the proposal aims to address several methodological concerns, including the varying accessibility levels in relation to urban rhythms and diurnal and nocturnal variations; the necessity to adjust accessibility according to diverse user profiles, groups, and urban populations; and the ranking of opportunities, thereby enabling the identification of various acceptable access thresholds.

ABSTRACT. Mobile methods have become increasingly important in recent years, broadening the methodological toolkit of empirical social and spatial research. These approaches facilitate immersive engagement with individuals' lived experiences, enabling data collection in situ during everyday activities, movement, and social interactions. This contribution explores the application of ride-alongs as a mobile instrument for investigating everyday mobility practices by bicycle. Ride-alongs are characterized by their flexibility, providing unique access to participants' individual experiences and perceptions. By accompanying participants on their bicycle journeys within their habitual environments, researchers can document spontaneous reactions, social interactions, and environmental perceptions, while simultaneously engaging in direct dialogue. The integration of diverse qualitative methods, such as observational techniques and interviews, allows for the nuanced capture of both the spatial and social dimensions, as well as the subjective meanings, associated with cycling. Consequently, ride-alongs offer a deeper understanding of the complex interplay between the individual, social context, and everyday space. An empirical case study, employing multimodal data collection, illustrates the practical application of this method within low-density settings on the fringes of a medium-sized city (Graz, Austria). This contribution critically evaluates the specific potentials and challenges of ride-alongs, including ethical considerations related to their implementation. Furthermore, it addresses the methodological question of how interactions between researchers and participants should be structured in order to capture everyday life experiences as close as possible.

ABSTRACT. In an era where algorithms shape significant societal and economic processes spanning critical domains like education, healthcare, criminal justice, and finance, understanding these systems is imperative for fostering informed and empowered citizens. Existing literature on algorithmic literacy, however, predominantly emphasizes the measurement of user awareness and general knowledge through self-reported scales. This narrow scope limits our grasp of how users navigate, adapt to, and interact with opaque algorithmic systems by overlooking behavioral dimensions and users’ practical, context-specific understandings of algorithms, known as folk theories. Consequently, current frameworks fail to capture the dynamic interplay between user knowledge, cognition, and key behavioral and socio-cognitive dimensions. To address these gaps, our research proposes an innovative dual-method approach that integrates controlled laboratory and large-scale online experiments, aiming to develop a behaviorally validated and comprehensive measure of algorithmic literacy.

Our theoretical grounding begins with a critical synthesis of prior work on algorithmic literacy and user interventions. While many initiatives focus on enhancing user knowledge or awareness of algorithmic systems, these often assume that increased transparency alone leads to empowerment. We argue that such approaches are limited, as they neglect the complex, adaptive strategies users deploy based on incomplete or ”black-boxed” understandings of algorithms. These strategies, referred to as folk theories, offer a critical yet underexplored perspective on how users engage with and respond to algorithmic processes in their daily lives. By complementing self-reports with behavioral data from tasks simulating real-world algorithmic interactions, we seek to empirically validate the influence of these folk theories on user interactions and their correlation with broader measures of algorithmic literacy.

To this end, we test four hypotheses: (H1) users with higher levels of algorithmic literacy will exhibit more frequent and complex interactions with algorithms; (H2) greater algorithmic literacy is associated with higher complexity of folk theorization; (H3) interactive behaviors are more closely informed by users’ folk theories than by their general algorithmic knowledge; and (H4) individuals with greater algorithmic literacy will demonstrate increased linguistic complexity when explaining their understanding of algorithms. We employ a mixed-methods design comprising both controlled laboratory experiments and scalable online experiments to test these hypotheses and strengthen the validity of algorithmic literacy measures.

The laboratory experiment involves approximately 200 university students who engage in tasks designed to assess cognitive, behavioral, and socio-cognitive aspects of algorithmic literacy. Tasks include content sorting based on perceived algorithmic logic, interactive simulations, and cognitive assessments, with behavioral measures such as sorting accuracy, time taken, and number of adjustments tracked. Participants’ explanations of algorithmic functions are also analyzed for linguistic complexity to gauge their depth of understanding and folk theorization. By manipulating contextual variables, such as social influence or time constraints, the lab setting allows for a detailed exploration of how these factors shape user behavior and cognitive models. In parallel, an online experiment is conducted with 1,000 participants, providing a broader demographic reach and enhancing the generalizability of our findings. The online component features streamlined versions of the lab tasks to facilitate large-scale data collection and enable demographic comparisons. Integrating the data from both experiments, we derive a composite measure of algorithmic literacy that encompasses behavioral, cognitive, and socio-cognitive dimensions. This measure is standardized, weighted, and cross-validated to ensure robustness and broad applicability.

The aimed contributions of this study are threefold. First, by integrating behavioral assessments with self-reported data, we address a significant methodological gap in algorithmic literacy research, offering a validated and comprehensive measure of user competencies. Second, our emphasis on the role of folk theories as behavioral indicators – a bridge between user knowledge and behavior – highlights a critical, yet often overlooked, dimension of algorithmic literacy, capturing the nuanced strategies users employ when navigating opaque and complex algorithmic environments. Third, the combination of laboratory precision with online scalability provides both depth and broad applicability, enhancing the robustness of our findings. In conclusion, our study advances the theoretical and methodological foundations of algorithmic literacy research, with direct implications for policymakers, educators, and technologists. By validating self-reported cognitive measures with novel behavioral assessments and integrating socio-cognitive elements like folk theories, we offer new tools and frameworks for understanding and enhancing user engagement with algorithmic systems. During the conference, I will present the research design of both experiments.

ABSTRACT. Today, algorithmic systems play a systemic role in the construction of social reality, while imposing oppressive and colonialist conditions on individuals (Sadowski 2019; Couldry and Mejias 2019; Eubanks 2019). However, in everyday life, however, the extractive and surveillance activities carried out by digital platforms have been normalized through habitual use by users. The result is the neutralization of narratives and practices that, by becoming taken-for-granted, reinforce specific power asymmetries or, in Gramscian terms, hegemonic arrangements (Markham 2021; Pronzato and Markham 2023). Nevertheless, “power relations, however asymmetrical they may be, are dynamic, contingent, socially constructed, and constantly renegotiated” (Bonini and Trerè, 2024: 6). Gramsci (1975) himself considered relations of hegemony as pedagogical relations, thus transformable and orientable in different directions (Baldacci 2016); thus, forms of agency, resistance and literacy are also possible in relation to the hegemonic power of platforms. In recent years, critical pedagogy – a longstanding scholarly, activist stance against oppressive structures (Freire, 1970; Weiler, 1991) – has emerged as a methodological and educational framework for addressing the processes of surveillance and datafication underpinning algorithmic systems, whose power has become hegemonic (Markham, 2019; Markham and Pronzato, 2023). The goal of this article is to propose new trajectories for developing critical pedagogy in relation to algorithmic awareness. Specifically, it explores three initiatives – i. auto-ethnographic diaries, ii. a dissemination art exhibition, and iii. interactive workshops, which are considered as action-research, dissemination, and teaching practices aimed at fostering algorithmic awareness and critical data literacy. I argue that these initiatives represent forms of counter-hegemonic praxis, offering three interrelated levels of analysis and action: research, dissemination, and teaching. Their implementation can disrupt normalized relationships with digital platforms, favour reflexivity and critical analysis of these taken-for-granted engagements, and foster user agency, resistance, and action regarding the impact of computational processes on social life.

ABSTRACT. In contemporary digital society, consumer cultures and practices have been re-mediated and reconfigured by the complex sociotechnical systems of digital platforms. These platforms employ AI models and algorithms that learn from users’ consumption patterns to recommend, filter, and rank content dynamically (Airoldi, 2021). Consequently, algorithmic literacy (AL) has become increasingly important, encompassing the skills needed to understand the algorithms underlying online platforms (Zarouali et al., 2021) and to manage the default content curation settings (Bucher, 2017). The Algofeed Project, which investigates the socio-cultural effects of platform-based feedback loops (Punziano et al., 2024), has produced empirical findings on general and platform-specific digital skills, usage patterns—particularly regarding YouTube and TikTok—and cultural consumption in the Italian population. Adopting a user-centric definition of AL based on two levels of digital literacy (Frau-Meigs, 2024), the Algofeed survey examined how users present themselves online and the information they share when creating accounts and profiles. The results reveal Italian users’ browsing habits, content creation and visualization practices, their ability to discern between content produced by individuals and AI bots, and their proficiency in identifying threatening or phishing content. By integrating these survey findings with key literature (Bulger & Davison, 2018; EDMO, 2024), this contribution offers recommendations and guidelines for best practices in AL. It highlights actionable steps to enhance AL across both affective and behavioral dimensions (Oeldorf-Hirsch & Neubaum, 2025) among diverse segments of the Italian population. Ultimately, this work underscores the need for a critical, user-centered approach to digital literacy that not only raises awareness of algorithmic processes but also empowers users to navigate and regulate the digital environment effectively.

ABSTRACT. We demonstrate the concept of meta-identity to describe the synthesised, indexed, and categorised representation of individuals based on their interactions, content production, and platform-mediated behaviours. Unlike self-constructed or socially negotiated identities, meta-identity is primarily shaped by opaque algorithmic logic that prioritises engagement, visibility, and marketable user profiles.

While identity has traditionally been understood through social interactions and institutional structures, as theorized by Goffman’s dramaturgical approach, Castells’ network society, Stuart Hall’s cultural identity and other researchers in the sociological field, the digital landscape reconfigures these frameworks by introducing algorithmic mediation as an additional structuring force, leaving users and content creators with minimal control over their own digital identity.

This paper examines the influence of algorithmic decision-making on identity formation and perception by analyzing the collective work of more than 400 content creators who produced approximately 100 amateur films in digital environments. The study highlights significant discrepancies in identity attribution by comparing how these works are categorized by Artificial Intelligence models—such as those used by platforms like YouTube—against the self-perception of their creators and audience interpretations. The categorisations widely used by social media platforms may reinforce stereotypes, restrict diversity, limit user agency in shaping their identities, and induce content of a political and ideological nature for the platforms users and communities.

This study is part of a broader research project, active since 2020, exploring how meta-identity shapes social and personal identities, often with minimal individual control. The parameters used by Big Tech companies to determine algorithmic content suggestions and interactions lack transparency and remain largely incomprehensible to users. These findings highlight the need for broader public debate, greater transparency, and regulatory measures to ensure users have more control over how their data is classified and utilised.

ABSTRACT. The pervasiveness of algorithmic systems, particularly boosted by advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and it Generative models, is reshaping journalistic practices and news value chain. However, journalists’ ability to critically engage with these technologies remains underexplored. Building on multidimensional models of algorithmic literacy (Dogruel et al., 2021, Swart, 2021) and AI literacy frameworks (Deuze & Beckett, 2022; Ng et al., 2021) this study investigates how Portuguese journalists perceive and interact with algorithmic systems, addressing a critical gap in current research. Employing a mixed-methods design, the study integrates an online survey of 219 journalists with three focus groups to capture both quantitative and qualitative aspects of the cognitive, affective and behavioural dimensions of the Portuguese journalist’s algorithmic literacy. The results reveal a complex and multifaceted panorama. While many journalists demonstrate an overall awareness of algorithms, they lack a deeper knowledge, with confusions between AI and algorithms operations. The affective dimension highlights a tension between the acceptance of digital tools as indispensable to remain competitive and concerns with issues like filter bubbles in social media and transparency in GenAI tools. Behaviorally, we identify that most journalists declare moderate skills in using social media, and lower skills in the use of Gen-AI tools. The results also identify a lack of structured training and newsroom support for adopting new tools, particularly Gen-AI. Based on the results we propose a framework for targeted professional development, outlining four key areas for intervention: (1) Foundational Knowledge, (2) Algorithmic Awareness, (3) Technical Proficiency, and (4) Ethical Standards. The study concludes that strengthening algorithmic literacy is vital for enabling journalists to navigate and critically engage with increasingly algorithm-driven media ecosystems.

ABSTRACT. Algorithm awareness – the extent to which people are aware of algorithms and the way they function – has been explored from various perspectives in recent years. As various aspects of everyday life strongly rely on algorithms, varying levels of awareness lead to questions about equality. Indeed, algorithm awareness is a key component of digital competencies, meaning that a lack of awareness could contribute to the digital divide (Gran et al., 2021). Therefore, exploring the relationship between digital inequalities and algorithmic awareness is essential.

Most existing studies on this connection have relied on quantitative methods (e.g. Gran et al., 2021; Petrovčič et al., 2024). However, this paper takes a more creative approach, drawing inspiration from scenario-based methods, as seen in the work of Das et al. (2024). The purpose of this paper is to explore how digital inequality and algorithm awareness shape everyday experiences with algorithmic systems. To achieve this, this study employs a role-playing card game.

In the game, groups of 3–4 players randomly select a card from two decks: a character deck and a scenario deck. The character cards represent individuals from diverse backgrounds, ranging from digitally privileged, tech-savvy individuals to vulnerable or marginalized users with limited digital literacy. The scenario cards introduce real-life situations involving algorithmic interactions. These cards provide a starting point for building a story that the group then creates and writes down together.

This setup allows participants to explore algorithmic experiences from diverse perspectives, highlighting differences in digital abilities and levels of algorithm awareness. After the game, a joint discussion takes place, in which by comparing the stories, the players can reflect on how their characters' backgrounds influenced their experiences. The method makes visible how digital inequalities shape everyday experiences and encourages participants to question algorithmic decision-making.

ABSTRACT. As digital technologies and algorithms shape contemporary cultural consumption, higher arts education (AFAM institutions - it. Conservatori) must address students’ evolving social and artistic needs. This original study investigates algorithm awareness and literacy among 205 conservatory students, examining how emerging technologies influence their artistic engagement, decision-making, and perceptions of digital innovation. Most of these young and experienced artists specialize in classical opera, a field experiencing declining audience engagement and evolving industry demands. Yet, rather than being passive recipients of digital change, these "classic artists" have the potential to become key promoters of digital and social innovation in the arts. As AI-driven tools, algorithmic curation, and digital platforms reshape how cultural content is produced and consumed, classical musicians must navigate and redefine their artistic identities in an era of algorithm-mediated visibility and engagement. This study engages an uncommon team of social scientists and high arts researchers and explores artists' input on the integration of AI technologies, digital platforms, and interdisciplinary artistic approaches into new performance and educational models. Using a mixed-methods approach, the research identifies students' social and professional needs, emphasizing how they can leverage algorithmic awareness to reimagine classical opera for contemporary audiences. Findings highlight the need for educational strategies that foster algorithmic literacy, equipping students with critical skills to actively shape their field rather than merely adapt to digital shifts. The study underscores scenario-based and participatory methodologies as effective tools for cultivating awareness of algorithm-driven cultural production. This research aligns with the panel’s focus on methodological innovations in algorithm awareness, showcasing how human-algorithm interactions influence artistic identity, professional aspirations, and the future of cultural participation. By embracing digital tools and AI-driven approaches, opera students can play a leading role in bridging tradition and technological innovation, ensuring the continued evolution of their art form in a rapidly changing cultural landscape.

ABSTRACT. Composite indicators simplify complex phenomena by combining multiple dimensions into a single score synthesizing the overall latent status, such as gender equality or economic development. These indicators are built on a hierarchical basis and comprise various domains and subdomains, each capturing different aspects of the assessed concept. For example, the European Gender Equality Index (GEI) combines data across six domains to provide a score reflecting gender gaps in a Country. This paper studies composite indicators in a multivariate statistics framework introducing a statistical learning approach for gender gap measurement, that can complement and enrich a composite indicator. Object-Oriented Bayesian Networks (OOBNs) are employed. OOBNs are an extension of Bayesian networks (BNs), namely multivariate statistical models encoding variable relationships through a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) and a joint probability distribution. A graph is a mathematical object composed by a set of nodes and a set of edges. Each node is associated with a variable of interest and edges constitute the relational structure between variables. The absence of an edge between two nodes indicates conditional independence between the corresponding variables. OOBNs allow for hierarchical definition and construction of BNs. Their architecture is particularly useful for managing large and complex domains, especially when modular structures are present. Since composite indicators have a clear hierarchical architecture, OOBNs represent a natural tool to model and build them. OOBNs allow for transitioning from computing a GEI score to learning a statistical model that accounts for the relationship between the variables involved in the computation and enables prediction. Here, this methodology is applied to provincial-level data from Italy. Thanks to the inferential engine associated to the OOBN, different scenarios can be simulated in real time, allowing an ex-ante evaluation of the impact, on the GEI indicator and its distribution, of possible actions aimed at gender inequality reduction.

ABSTRACT. A team can be understood as a group of individuals working together towards a shared goal, characterized by a degree of stability while interacting and coordinating their efforts. However, the nature and outcome of teams varies depending on their structure, temporal boundaries and the mechanisms regulating their functioning. In the context of Wikipedia, teams are not always explicitly defined or prescribed; rather, they emerge dynamically through collaboration on articles, discussions, and other editorial activities. We conceptualize Wikipedia teams through multiple registers: (1) regulation, which encompasses the formal and informal rules that govern interactions and shape long-term collaboration; (2) production, where a team contributes to the creation and improvement of content, akin to a collective production process; (3) interaction and communication, which define the intensity and nature of engagement among contributors; and (4) entry of new participants and controversies, which may redefine the team's composition and direction over time. In this context, we aim to operationalize teams within Wikipedia by analyzing patterns of co-editing, discussion participation, and revision activities. We rely on Wikipedia Dumps, which are periodic snapshots that capture revision history, user activity, and edit metadata while omitting article text. Rather than assuming fixed team structures, we adopt a dynamic perspective where teams can be seen as evolving networks of contributors interacting within specific timeframes. By constructing co-editing graphs, where users and pages form nodes and revisions create edges, we can identify clusters of collaboration, measure their density, and track their evolution over time. Additionally, we will examine how coordination occurs beyond direct interactions—through shared project goals, implicit regulatory mechanisms, and task-oriented structures. This approach allows us to explore both the formation and regulation of teams, as well as their impact on content quality and platform governance.

ABSTRACT. This paper presents the initial findings of the Italian PRIN HEALING Project (https://prinhealing.unimi.it/), which investigates the role of social networks in shaping health-risk behaviours and lifestyles within a small municipality in the Lombardy Region of Northern Italy (about 1,500 inhabitants). While existing literature highlights both structural factors (such as education and occupation) and relational factors (family and peer networks) as determinants of health, this study seeks to deepen understanding of how these factors interact and collectively influence health-risk behaviours. Structural factors are relatively static over an individual's life course, whereas social networks are more dynamic, with relationships such as friendships and acquaintanceships shifting across occupational and educational boundaries.

Key research questions include the clustering of health-risk behaviours among interconnected individuals, the comparative impact of structural and social networks on unhealthy lifestyles, and the dynamics of habit transmission within these networks. A clearer understanding of the relationship between stable structural factors and fluid relational dynamics can help enhance public health interventions by identifying influential individuals or communities that spread unhealthy practices.

This research is innovative in its approach to mapping the complete social network (not only egocentric) within a local community to examine health-risk behaviours—an unprecedented method in Italy. Internationally, the Framingham Heart Study offers a similar socio-epidemiological model (Christakis & Fowler, 2013).

ABSTRACT. This paper investigates whether network analysis can provide insights into survey non-response and attrition among young adults (ages 16-30) in a longitudinal household panel study. Non-response and panel attrition are challenges for maintaining data quality in longitudinal studies. First, panel attrition might bias survey estimates if those who drop are different from the panel members who participate. Second, attrition reduces the available sample size of panel members who responded to all the waves, which is required to conduct longitudinal analyses (Lynn, 2018). The challenge of attrition is even greater among young adults (16-30), a population sub-group that is fundamental for the continuity of the study. However, only a few studies have addressed the response of young adults in household longitudinal studies (e.g., Parutis, 2023). Using data from the UK's Understanding Society, we examine the transition to adulthood when they are asked to complete an adult questionnaire. This is accomplished by employing evolving graphs of the variables that influenced attrition in successive waves of the longitudinal study. The findings have implications for survey methodology and the design of targeted interventions to enhance data quality.

ABSTRACT. Soft skills, such as communication, collaboration, leadership, problem-solving and emotional management, are increasingly recognized as essential for both educational success and professional development. Scholars have shown that peer interactions not only influence educational choices but also contribute to the development of social and personal skills. Hence, a social network analysis perspective provides valuable insights into how student connections facilitate (or hinder) the acquisition of soft skills at school. Within this scenario, the present contribution aims at exploring how individual soft skills are affected by peers across different types of social relationships. Primary data gathered in the academic year 2024–2025 through a survey on a sample of high school students in the Campania region are analysed. A proportional quota sample of 28 schools was reached out of a total of 324 schools, and around 1500 students attending the last year took part to the study. A whole network design was adopted to explore multiple dimensions of social interactions in the school context, with a particular focus on identifying different forms of social support. Among the other sections, the questionnaire includes the 3SQ psychometric scale validated in related studies, measuring ten dimensions (among others, trust, empathy, leadership, openness, collaboration, and autonomy). Furthermore, participants were also asked to identify at most five different classmates those they considered their best friends, those who provided academic support in school related-activities, those they turned to for personal advice and those with whom they discussed future plans and options. This allows for the construction of four distinct networks within each classroom. To measure the effect of peers’ on individual soft skills, network models are applied taking into account how different types of interactions and social exchanges at school contribute to explain the development of specific competencies.

ABSTRACT. Over the last years, in Italy, digital platforms and social media have taken on a central role in raising public awareness and in prompting processes of destigmatization of conditions characterized by pelvic and vulvar pain. These platforms, in fact, have been used by many as spaces for information, influence, mutual support, advocacy, struggle and resistance, both individual and collective, against experiences characterized by pain and medical, institutional, and social delegitimization of women, trans*, gender-fluid and non-binary people, and, more generally, people with vulvas (Holowka, 2022; Buonaguidi, Perin, 2023). This contribution will present the research design processes and the methodology we employed to analyze and make visible the main discourses and narratives about bodies, health, and needs, created and shared by the users of these platforms, and to highlight their transformative (or not) potential. In particular, we adopted a collaborative digital duo-ethnography (Burleigh, Burm 2022), employing non-participant observation, conducted across two major social media platforms: TikTok and Instagram. The presentation will highlight how this collaborative, situated and transfeminist approach facilitated the creation of spaces for dialogue, for the exploration of critical issues, including ethical ones, for unforeseen trajectories, and for the implementation of moments of dialogical and shared self-reflection (Wiant Cummins, Brannon 2021). The situated approach of this duoethnography aims to primarily recognize the epistemic value of the embodied experiences of power and oppression of those suffering from pelvic and vulvar pain.

Buonaguidi,A., Perin,C. (2023).Resisting But Embracing Fragility: Exploring Prominent Themes Emerging From Online Feminist Activists and Advocates’ Posts Addressing Conditions Characterized by Chronic Pelvic Pain on Instagram.AG AboutGender, 12(23),140–180. Burleigh,D., Burm,S. (2022).Doing Duoethnography: Addressing Essential Methodological Questions.International Journal of Qualitative Methods,21. Holowka,E.M. (2022).Mediating Pain: Navigating Endometriosis on Social Media.Frontiers in Pain Research,3. Wiant Cummins,M., Brannon,G.E. (2021).Implicating Ourselves Through Our Research: A Duoethnography of Researcher Reflexivity.Journal of Contemporary Ethnography,51(1).

ABSTRACT. In this paper I discuss the challenges and methodological implications emerging from the exploration, through digital ethnography, of a phenomenon new to the Western academic community: live shopping on TikTok.

This phenomenon stands out for its ability to intertwine platform economy, informal economy, domestic labour and popular culture, raising new theoretical and methodological questions for social research. The ethnographic observation of these economic practices challenges the traditional tools of the digital ethnographer, necessitating a reformulation of field strategies and the adoption of an innovative and creative methodological approach. Live shopping is characterised by ephemerality, constant interaction between sellers and consumers, a strong performative component, prolonged duration and active community participation. These elements require direct involvement of the researcher in the platform and manual note-taking. Through the case study of the housewives from Campania who sell clothes live, the article traces the entire ethnographic process, highlighting the challenges arising from the interaction with the platform and the role of the researcher in the community. The latter is called upon to assume a hybrid role of observer and consumer, actively contributing to the live dynamic. An immersive analysis is proposed, in which the results are presented through visual and thematic narratives, inspired by the very format of live TikTok, with the aim of initiating a debate on the methodological challenges faced by the digital ethnographer in unstable and evolving contexts such as live shopping.

Avallone A., (2018) “People wathching in Rete. Ricercare, osservare, descrivere con l’etnografia digitale”. Franco Cesati Editore. Prilosadoso B., N. A. (2025). Socialization of the Use of the Live Tiktok Shop Feature as a Marketing Method in Increasing Housewives' Home Businesses . Journal of Human And Education, 737-744. Zuo, H., Wang, T. (2019). Analysis of TikTok User Behavior from the Perspective of Popular Culture. Frontiers in Art Research, 1(3).

ABSTRACT. Migrants have been early adopters of digital technologies with the dual purpose of maintaining communicative connections with their countries of origin while simultaneously facilitating their search for information and integration in the host country. Faced with a broad and expanding range of applications, social networks, and messaging platforms, migrants strategically select those that, due to their functional characteristics, best support their informational needs and affective relationships. In the initial stages of the migration process, these private digital environments, such as WhatsApp, play a crucial role in forming community networks that contribute to integration and social recognition in the new place of residence. This study addresses two key issues: first, it presents the methodological approach for examining these closed digital spaces where information circulates among migrants; second, it critically discusses the questions that emerge from implementing this research method. Regarding the first aspect, this research employs a combination of data collection techniques from various disciplines, including virtual ethnography and interviews with participants in these online groups. However, ethical concerns arise regarding this methodological approach: What happens when, as a migrant, the researcher is also a member of these private groups? To what extent is it ethical to simultaneously be both the subject and the object of this research? This study revolves around this dilemma as an integral part of the research process.

ABSTRACT. The analysis of digital environments presents significant opportunities for sociological research, while posing challenges related to the specificities of the digital setting and the topics being observed. The web serves as a privileged setting for studying socially significant domains, such as assisted reproductive technology (ART), a multimodal phenomenon that develops offline but finds an essential space for discussion and sharing in online contexts (Garcia et al., 2009).

As part of an interdisciplinary and mixed-methods study on late parenthood, a netnography was conducted on three digital spaces dedicated to ART. The objective was to understand how the structural characteristics of platforms influence content production and sharing. This analysis follows the principles of Follow the natives (Latour, 2005) and Follow the medium (Rogers, 2009), considering platforms and users as equal actants in determining affordances and interactions.

The comparative analysis highlights differences in terms of content accessibility, communication exchanges, and levels of mediation. Some environments promote immediate interactions, while others support more long-lasting discussions. These differences shape users’ communicative register and platform usage, creating distinct discursive ecosystems.

The onlife concept, which rejects the separation between physical and virtual reality by recognizing their interconnection (Floridi, 2014), enriches epistemological reflection. However, both epistemological and methodological challenges arise at all stages of research. Additionally, ethical and deontological issues emerge, raising concerns about data protection, privacy, and the need for ongoing reflection on ethics. Understanding platform affordances enables a deeper analysis of the role of digital spaces in constructing discursive and relational practices, providing essential tools for a more comprehensive study of online interactions.

________________ Floridi L.(2014)The Onlife Manifesto.Being Human in a Hyperconnected Era,Berlino,Springer. Garcia A.C.,Standlee A.I.,Bechkoff J.,Cui Y.(2009)Ethnographic Approaches to the Internet and Computer-Mediated Communication,“Journal of Contemporary Ethnography”,vol.38,52–84. Latour B.(2005)Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory,Oxford University Press. Rogers R.(2009)Digital Methods,Cambridge,MA:MIT Press.

ABSTRACT. While early studies played down ethical concerns about online research, there has been a shift towards more formal systems governing social media research over the past decade. Institutional regulatory structures like Research Ethics Boards have increasingly scrutinised these projects, with ethics forms becoming ‘gatekeepers’ for how universities organise research culture. There has been a concurrent growth in ethical guidelines for online research from organisations like the Association of Internet Researchers. Yet, there remain doubts as to how seriously ethics is treated in research, above all in studies employing data mining techniques. This is particularly salient for Digital Activism (DA) studies, where activists might be exposed to harm through their identification in publications. In response to this issue, our paper provides a critical discussion of how ethical issues are addressed in empirical DA research. We draw on data gathered from a systematic review of journal articles published between 2009 and 2024. In the first instance, mentions of research ethics were searched in protest literature more broadly (N= 264) and then in DA articles specifically (N=59). Coding categories included how ethics were narrated (e.g., popular approaches or the mention of formal procedures) as well as what attributes characterised articles discussing research ethics, for example the platform(s) studied, method(s) of data collection and analysis, authors’ institutional affiliations and their respective disciplines. We tested specifically whether empirical DA research included ethics statements, and whether articles were more likely to address ethical issues if they drew on traditional rather than digital data sources. Results indicate that very few DA articles published during this period included ethics statements. Nevertheless, there was much evidence of non-maleficence in the corpus, including those studies using digital methods. These are often rendered opaque by the submission requirements of journals and the norms of certain disciplines.

ABSTRACT. Political polarization is becoming increasingly strong, and this is most likely related to the effects of the internet, and primarily to social media (Kubin, Sikorski 2021). Political polarization takes two forms, on the one hand, we can talk about ideological polarization (Dalton 1987), which refers to the fact that political views, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes are constantly moving further apart from each other in different political spaces. On the other hand, it is important to talk about affective polarization (Mason 2018), which means that the role of identity is also becoming increasingly important in relation to political views. Those who belong to the same political side feel increasing sympathy for each other, the role of common identity is becoming increasingly important, while they become increasingly hostile towards their political opponents, identifying them as a hostile group that challenges and attacks their identity (Kubin, Sikorski 2021). On the left, there is the “Woke” side, which draws on cultural Marxism and later critical theory, including the work of Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Jacques Derrida, and Michel Foucault. The new right, or altright, is increasingly intertwined with the so-called “Manosphere” or “Red pill” communities, which originally focused on a specific interpretation of the problems of today’s boys and men. In my research, I examine the formation and history of these two groups, and how members of the two groups see each other and themselves. To examine polarization, I use the method of social listening (I am examining social media posts and comments from Facebook, X, Youtube, TikTok etc.). Using this method, I examine the communication of online communities belonging to the two political sides about each other and about themselves.

ABSTRACT. The Italian manosphere, similar to those in other countries, consists of various online groups that espouse anti-feminist and misogynistic ideologies. These groups, such as Men’s Rights Activists (MRAs), Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW), Incels, and Pickup Artists (PUAs), focus on issues related to masculinity, viewing themselves as resisting societal changes that challenge traditional gender roles. Within these communities, men are often depicted as disadvantaged or victimized by evolving social norms and feminist movements. The first analysis began with a qualitative approach, such as digital ethnography, to create a network representing the online connections between these communities, particularly on Facebook, through a network analysis of 158 national pages and 31 international pages. Subsequently, two datasets were developed: the first consisting of 1,914 textual documents collected from both Facebook pages and associated blogs and forums; the second focused on the self-representations of manosphere members, analyzing the language they use to describe themselves and fellow ideologically aligned individuals, how they promote their views, share life stories, seek advice and support from their perceived peer group. Both datasets were subjected to statistical and text mining analyses, including topic analysis through Latent Dirichlet Allocation, simple correspondence analysis, and keyness analysis, that allow for an exploration of recurring themes and keywords related to gender dynamics, masculinity, and societal opposition.

ABSTRACT. Eco-smart enclaves represent an emerging phenomenon in the contemporary urban landscape, where sustainability and technological innovation intertwine to create highly efficient, sustainable, and automated spaces. Artificial intelligence plays a central role in managing these environments, regulating energy consumption, mobility, security, and access to services. However, a deeper analysis reveals some gray areas: while these technologies promise greener and smarter cities (the so-called smart cities), they also contribute to socio-spatial segregation processes, where access to such spaces is often limited to specific categories of citizens, excluding those who do not meet the optimal parameters.

This contribution critically examines the role of artificial intelligence in the construction of eco-smart enclaves, analyzing how these technologies go beyond merely optimizing infrastructures and resources and actively shape the social and economic organization of urban spaces. The focus will be on how AI incorporates and reproduces value-driven and decision-making models that influence accessibility and the social composition of these enclaves, fostering the emergence of increasingly exclusive and self-referential cities. More importantly, it highlights the expansion of gentrification—no longer just social but also, and above all, technological.

This context, where urban transformation is driven by automation and the predictive management of behaviors, urgently calls for a critical reflection on the social and ethical implications of artificial intelligence in shaping the city of the future.

ABSTRACT. With the advancement of generative artificial intelligence across the world, several institutions continue to mainstream its use into their daily activities. One institution that has witnessed a significant revolution as a result of AI is the education sector. However, there are growing concerns that humans are now allowing AI to do nearly all the work, and this fear is predominant in developing countries where regulatory frameworks tend to be largely weak. This study examines the extent to which AI is driving the erosion of academic values, especially in university thesis writing in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. Relying on a mixed-methods approach that combines quantitative and qualitative techniques, the study made use of 128 randomly selected postgraduate students at their thesis completion stage and 12 purposively selected university staff members, including the deans of faculties, heads of departments, and research and quality assurance leads. The study was conducted in two universities, Niger Delta University and Federal University Otuoke, selected based on their active postgraduate programmes. Structured surveys and key informant interviews were used to collect data from the respondents. These were analyzed using percentages and a thematic approach for the quantitative and qualitative data, respectively. Among others, findings show that unregulated use has entrenched a significant level of dependence on AI for academic writings, especially theses by students in these universities. This has significant implications for institutional policies on AI integration in the universities in Bayelsa State and Nigeria as a whole.

ABSTRACT. This contribution aims to advance an alternative understanding of platforms’ evolution premised upon their theorization as socio-material assemblages. According to it, the current shape of digital platforms in terms of practices, policies, and infrastructure emerges from the relationships between users, companies, and algorithms and their continuous redefinition. Platforms, thus, become fields of constant negotiations between companies’ race for profit and users’ interests in performing their digital activities according to their needs.

This approach entails an original strategy of research that recognizes the fundamental role played by users and algorithms in the Web 2.0 paradigm without limiting its focus on digital companies' logic. Platforms’ economic model is based upon network effect and, thus, cannot work without users’ central activity as content creators. This confers great bargaining power to them because corporations cannot lose them and, so, must adapt their policies to their requests and concerns. At the same time, the role of algorithms cannot be reduced to mere intermediaries of companies’ will. Surely, specific aims are inscribed in their design, but, when deployed in the assemblages, they modify in unpredictable ways the social reality due to users’ often unexpected perception and adaptation to them. Therefore, adopting a concept of actor-network theory, they can be defined as mediators. Following these acknowledgments, to understand the evolution of platforms is fundamental to look at the relationships established between these three elements. In particular, as suggested by actor-network theory, the focus must be on controversies, namely on the moments where these links are contested and redefined. The study of these crucial events not only can highlight the distributed agency in the shaping of platforms but can also explain and compare the different evolutions of digital assemblages and of the practices there performed.

ABSTRACT. During the current surge in generative AI development, Reddit has played a significant role in shaping interaction between humans and algoagents. Since early text generation AI models, it has been used to select "good quality" text corpora for training: for example, the dataset used to train both GPT-2 and GPT-3 were derived from internet sources linked in Reddit posts that received enough upvotes (Radford et al. 2019, Brown et al. 2020). Moreover, Reddit posts are routinely included in training datasets. As a result, generative models such as ChatGPT have inherited bias and ideological frameworks from Reddit communities, while also acquiring a strong ability to produce Reddit-like text. In fact, Reddit communities have recently experienced a proliferation of AI-generated texts, posted by algoagents posing as humans. An interesting example is the "Am I The AssHole" subreddit r/AITAH, in which users submit stories of everyday conflicts for moral evaluation by others (see e.g. Reagle 2025); recently, ChatGPT-generated stories have become common. A natural question then arises: how do users engage with machine-generated stories, and which role do these stories play in interactions between users? Moreover, since r/AITAH is dedicated to addressing moral questions, how does the machine contribute to the collective negotiation of morality within the community? My contribution presents a quantitative-qualitative approach to tackle these questions. AI-based automated techniques are paired with human analysis to investigate a corpus of roughly 20.000 posts, spanning two years between 2023 and 2025. Key questions, both methodological and content-related, pertain to the phenomenon’s diffusion (and how to measure it), user reactions (both to AI-generated stories and to algoagents themselves), and the interactions it generates between users.

ABSTRACT. This study explores how AI models such as GPT, increasingly present in higher education, reshape not only learning practices but also fundamental definitions of academic integrity and ethics. Drawing on a triangulation of data sources — an extensive student survey (N = 792), desk research of existing AI-in-education studies, and three focus group interviews with students from different academic disciplines planned for March 2025 — we examine how AI use is embedded in diverse learning contexts at AGH University and how it contributes to redefining academic practices and ethical norms. Rather than viewing AI solely as a tool, we approach GPT as an algorithmic agent (“algo-agent”) that participates in constructing academic norms and values, influencing the boundaries between what is deemed acceptable or unethical. Our findings illustrate that AI systems create new possibilities for learning (such as personalized assistance, scaffolding for complex tasks), but simultaneously introduce new forms of academic risks and ethical dilemmas (e.g., reliance on AI-generated content without transparent acknowledgment, gaming the educational process). Crucially, AI tools challenge traditional notions of learning effort and authorship, pushing universities to reconsider what constitutes an “authentic” academic output. This emergent reality points to a reconfiguration of power, agency, and knowledge within the university, where AI is not merely supporting learning but actively shaping the epistemic and normative order. Methodologically, we reflect on what it means to study AI as a co-actor in education and how recognizing AI as an active participant compels us to rethink responsibility, agency, and the social construction of ethics in academia. We argue for theoretical models that acknowledge AI as a normative force and outline challenges for building a critical AI literacy that goes beyond technical skills, focusing instead on understanding the ethical, political, and social implications of AI’s integration into higher education.

ABSTRACT. This contribution explores the creative and methodological potential of using commercial artificial intelligence platforms — specifically GPT and DeepSeek — as innovative tools in sociological research, with a particular focus on netnographic research and social network analysis. Based on the author's doctoral research project examining online narratives related to the Russo-Ukrainian war (2022-2024), the paper proposes a methodological evolution from the traditional approach of manual content coding by expert human coders (Schreier, 2012; Faggiano, 2022) to a methodological framework based on training artificial coders.

The theoretical foundation of this project originates from previous studies on the socio-semiotic dimensions of war narratives, particularly concerning the conceptualization and operationalization of "fabulation" and "testimony" (cf. Jedlowski, 2022). Initially, these narrative dimensions were manually detected by expert researchers specifically trained to identify semiotic indicators — including "polarization", "calls to action" and "memetic potential", namely semantic marks (or connotations) related to "mythology", "surface" and "deep" imaginary (Giungato, Taddei, Affuso, 2024). Although valuable, this process is limited by subjective biases, interpretative variability, and the restricted number of potentially analyzable texts. The introduction of AI platforms offers an alternative approach that combines systematic analysis with interpretative creativity.

Thanks to a preliminary and necessary phase of specific training aimed at creating an interpretative alter-ego of the researchers, AI can even suggest novel interpretations, identify semantic connections not immediately evident, generate new analytical categories, and reveal latent narrative patterns. Epistemologically, this approach centers the debate on the symbiotic and instrumental relationship between the human researcher and AI, simultaneously highlighting significant ethical considerations such as authorship of analyses, interpretative biases, and researchers' creative responsibility. Such interactive and iterative experimentation thus transforms artificial intelligence into an active creative participant, significantly contributing to sociological knowledge construction and expanding interpretative and imaginative capacities for understanding complex digital phenomena.

ABSTRACT. In the wake of the global push for green and sustainable development, governments and social organizations are urging companies to enhance their social responsibility and proactively consider the interests of various stakeholders. Organizations are under increasing pressure to showcase their dedication to sustainability through Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance metrics (Galeone et al., 2024; Ding et al., 2024). The intersection of technological innovation and sustainability goals offers valuable opportunities to explore the impact of AI adoption on corporate ESG practices. The implementation of Fintech services provides significant potential to strengthen and advance organizational ESG initiatives. However, scholarly understanding of these relationships remains limited (Trotta et al., 2024). Our research addresses this knowledge gap by investigating Fintechs’s impact on corporate ESG performance among US listed enterprises. In particular, we consider Penalized Generalized Estimating Equations (Penalized GEEs) for high dimensional longitudinal data analysis in order to investigate: How does Fintech development in European enterprises affect their ESG performance? This study makes two key contributions to the existing literature. First, it offers strong empirical evidence on the relationship between AI development and ESG performance within the context of an emerging market. Second, our text-based AI adoption metric introduces a novel method for quantifying the extent of AI integration within organizations.

ABSTRACT. In the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, an action plan adopted by the United Nations in 2015 to achieve 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it is important to understand the interconnections among these goals, which are measured using both simple and composite indicators. In particular, achieving Sustainable Development Goal 10 (Reducing Inequalities) requires a deep understanding of the interdependence among various socio-economic indicators. In literature, income, education, and health have consistently been identified as key dimensions influencing inequality dynamics. However, analyzing the large number of indicators related to these dimensions poses challenges due to their high collinearity and dimensional complexity, which may affect the robustness of findings and the effectiveness of policy interventions. This study extends previous research on poverty and inequalities in Italy to a European context, examining dependent relationships among inequality-related indicators across multiple countries. Specifically, we employ four regression models: RIDGE, Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator, ELASTIC NET and Partial Least Square. These models are widely recommended in literature to assess relationships while addressing multicollinearity issues. A crucial aspect of our approach is the evaluation of result stability, implemented through bootstrap resampling methods, which allow us to quantify the variability and reliability of our estimates. Our findings contribute to the debate on how to effectively monitor SDG 10, providing policymakers with a statistically robust framework for assessing inequalities. This study highlights the importance of using advanced statistical methods to enhance the reliability of inequality measures, ensuring that policy recommendations are based on stable and reproducible results.

ABSTRACT. This study investigates the relationship between perceived quality of care and the scientific and social impact of Italian Academic Health Science Centers (AHSCs), addressing the complexity of high-dimensional data inherent in sustainability-related research. The main objective is to assess whether enhanced scientific productivity corresponds to improved patient perception of care quality, thus offering evidence to inform strategies at the intersection of research excellence and healthcare service delivery. To this end, a comprehensive dataset was created, by combining data from diverse sources such as clinical trials, patents, competitive research funding, bibliometric indicators, and altmetric scores, reflecting both scholarly and social visibility. Perceived quality of care was operationalized through user-generated reviews and ratings from digital platforms, serving as a real-world proxy for service evaluation. The analysis adopts E2Tree, an approach specifically designed to improve the interpretability and explainability of ensemble models like Random Forests. E2Tree enables the disentangling of complex variable interactions, offering clear insights into variable importance, groupings, and nonlinear associations in a high-dimensional context. By enhancing transparency in model behavior, E2Tree supports informed decision-making and bridges the gap between predictive accuracy and achieving a deeper understanding. Results highlight which dimensions of scientific output and social dissemination are most strongly associated with positive patient perception. Beyond the methodological contribution, this research aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), notably Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-being) and Goal 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure). It underscores the value of explainable machine learning tools in fostering sustainable healthcare systems, where research impact and care quality are evaluated in an integrated, data-driven manner.

ABSTRACT. This study explores the transformative role of TikTok and Douyin in shaping climate change narratives within the digital public sphere, leveraging the intersection of computational tools and sociological inquiry. As these platforms increasingly influence public discourse, particularly among younger demographics, their algorithm-driven, visually engaging content raises critical questions about how climate change is communicated, perceived, and acted upon. By employing a mixed-methods approach, this research combines large-scale data collection from TikTok and Douyin APIs with Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) for topic modelling to analyze climate-related content trends over time, particularly during global events like the Conference of the Parties (COP). The study also integrates qualitative focus groups to explore user engagement and the role of content creators in shaping climate discourse. This methodological synergy allows a nuanced understanding of how algorithmic mechanisms and platform-specific affordances influence public opinion and policy engagement. By bridging computational techniques with sociological frameworks, this research contributes to the broader discourse on the intersection of technology, media, and political engagement, offering insights into how digital platforms can be harnessed to address one of the most pressing challenges of our time—climate change.

ABSTRACT. Between 2023 and 2024, a comprehensive study examined local community responses to global sustainability crises. The research focused on community services and community practices. The research was mainly conducted using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, using descriptive and classifying methods. The detailed description, systematisation and categorisation of the social phenomena (sustainable community services and practices) was carried out through literature review, focus group discussions and workshops, and guided interviews. During the focus group discussions, together with the invited Hungarian experts, the researchers developed a set of criteria suitable for the detailed description and analysis of community services, practices and working methods. Based on the experience of the focus groups, structured interview drafts were prepared. Using these measurement tools, the researchers began to collect good examples and produce descriptions of community-based practices. The researchers built a knowledge base repository of community services and practices. More than 80 case studies and 64 interviews were conducted. The research generated a large volume of textual documents. The categorisation of good practice was facilitated by coding and text analysis techniques (e.g. word clouds) and the use of quantification methods. The research used a working definition and traditional methods to create a model of the community service process. The aim is to answer: How to find the common definition using innovative AI tools in the Hungarian language, such as adapting and fine-tuning natural language processing methods to answer community developers' questions? How to find a new, summarised Hungarian definition of community-based services and good practices and create new, optimal processes (models) of community-based services? How can generative AI tools help us to perform automated content analysis of our texts and interview material?

ABSTRACT. Over the past two decades, there has been growing interest in using synthesis measures like composite indicators. A Composite Indicator is a valuable tool for consolidating data on complex, multidimensional issues, aiding in policy decisions. However, its normative nature and the tendency to use a single Composite Indicator to represent intricate phenomena have often been criticized. This paper introduces an exploratory, simultaneous approach for developing a Composite Indicator system that captures various dimensions of a phenomenon. This approach, known as the Ultrametric Composite Indicator model, reconstructs the hierarchical relationships between observed variables, which are identified through the correlation matrix, using an extended ultrametric correlation matrix. The Ultrametric Composite Indicator model is used to analyze waste management in Italian municipalities, a complex issue that provides valuable insights into municipal practices concerning waste collection and disposal. Additionally, it serves as a tool to support local councils in Italy in making well-informed policy decisions.

ABSTRACT. The embedding of digital data, devices and infrastructures within social life is a feature of the 21st Century. Social relations are being reshaped across many societal domains, and significant challenges to social sciences emerge.

This transformation is evident in the world of work, where platforms and artificial intelligence operate as Black Boxes (BBs). Their automatic decision-making and data management are complex to understand. The lack of transparency raises risks for workers’ fundamental rights, including pervasive surveillance, discriminatory treatment, and unjustified dismissal. Ensuring workers’ protection requires methodologies to understand how BBs operate. This question is crucial for researchers, trade unions, and labour courts.

This paper proposes a sociological approach to the Black Box Test (BBT) commonly used in the software industry to ascertain the proper functioning of the products before distribution. First, it examines the problematic presence of BBs in the workplace. Second, it deconstructs the structure of a BB, identifying four analytical layers that provide information into its functioning: user interfaces designed to enable human-machine interaction; the software installed on the user's device, which connects it to the BB’s IT system; data flow between the user's device and the IT system; the BB’s IT system, responsible for automatic decision-making. The third part illustrates a sociological approach to BBT, using interview techniques and observation of digital artifacts. This methodology emphasizes information about the functioning of BB functioning that is outside of it, such as those that are part of the user experiences, or are situated in the superficial layer. By combining this information, it becomes possible to reconstruct the functioning of BB, and verify potential or actual harm to workers’ rights.

This method could also be applied beyond the field of research, serving as a valuable tool for lawyers and judges, and being accessible through technical consultancy assignments to sociologist experts.

ABSTRACT. This submission proposes a dialogue between the field of Applied Linguistics (research line Languages ​​and Technologies) and the research field on sociodigital futures. We intend to present a multidimensional model based on an alternative philosophical approach to human-AI interactions, with a particular focus on large generative AI systems, aiming to contribute to the development of research, practice and policy agendas that promote critical AI literacy in Brazil. Highlighting the “foundational” aspect of this AI technology, we argue that its sociocultural, ethical and epistemic impacts must be considered, as well as the need to move away from metaphors and personifications that create a division between humans and AI as mere tools and instead adopt an “ecological” – and also sociodigital – vision in which AI is seen as a cognitive assemblage involving machines and humans. The essay draws on the ideas of Katherine Hayles and the post-phenomenology of technology (Don Ihde), analyzing how language interfaces between humans and AI agents create effects of intelligence and quasi-subjectivity. Practical applications of this model are proposed as a methodology for exploring AI literacy events.

ABSTRACT. The paper proposes methods of sociodigital futures inquiry that can engage with both the technical understandings of black box systems and the diverse socio-political contexts within which such systems are developed. We report the entangled approaches adopted to understand a predictive analytic system for identifying vulnerable children in one English Local Authority. Since November 2023 we have been investigating this system which comprises large-scale data linkage with in-built risk modelling. Our research has employed freedom of information (FOI) requests and we reflect on how FOI can be usefully deployed (and its limitations) to generate insights and potentially intervene in sociodigital futures in the making (Van Isacker & Walters, 2024). We have also been piecing together information and insights through discussions with investigative journalists, activists and other academics, alongside community and council stakeholders who have brought different perspectives and challenges to bear concerning the futures scripted through this system as we support that inscribing a particular role into a technological artefact implies prescribing corresponding roles to human actors (Schulz-Schaeffer, 2021). We have drawn on assemblage theory (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987) and the methods of tracing and mapping to chart open systems that are contingent, unpredictable, and productive (Martin and Kamberelis, 2013) and reveal the intra-actions (Barad, 2007) between societal drivers and contexts and digital solutions. We also take on critiques that mapping automated technologies is not a benign abstract act (Sleep, 2022) and the need for a counter-mapping approach that asks critical questions about what big data is being used, how it is used, and who it affects (Redden, 2018) and that actively recognises the impacts of both bureaucratic decision-making and technological change in the adoption of the predictive system researched here.

ABSTRACT. The adoption of Digital Twins (DT) in cities is increasingly gaining momentum. The DT models are involved in transforming urban governance by providing advanced tools for simulating and managing complex systems. This innovative governance model is at the centre of a shift in decision-support mechanisms for policymaking and public participation, fostering new ways citizens and institutions interact in decision-making processes. This study explores the role of DT in citizen participation by analyzing the narratives of the actors involved in structuring, implementing, and managing DT models, focusing on the digital content produced by these actors. This content allows us to trace the narratives they disseminate. The second data collection phase is based on the study of DT platform affordances. Through a pluralistic approach to both analysis and the acquisition of digital documents and platform-derived data, we reconstruct how DTs are perceived and utilized as tools for public participation. The narrative-based approach enables an understanding of expectations, desires, and perspectives, shedding light on how policymakers and those structuring these models envision and redesign forms of power, strategies of legitimation, and challenges related to transparency and accessibility. Furthermore, this research process helps us grasp how these actors address critical issues related to digital disparities and information management, which risk reinforcing inequalities forms. We argue that narratives allow us to reconstruct the public dimension of the discourse on Digital Twins applied to urban environments, providing insights into the inclusion and exclusion strategies emerging using these new governance and participation models. On the other hand, the methodological approach undertaken enables us to reconstruct, from practical contexts, the strategy through which policymakers are developing participatory new forms.

ABSTRACT. The increasing entanglement of social life with AI-driven infrastructures, platformised knowledge systems, and algorithmically mediated communication demands new methodological approaches that capture the complex interactions between human agency and digital infrastructures. This paper introduces Algorithmically Mediated Semiotic-Discourse Analysis (AM-SDA), a multi-scalar, LLM-assisted framework for studying sociodigital intra-actions at the intersection of individual agency (micro), digital infrastructures (meso), and ideological formations (macro). Mirroring Hartley’s cultural science (Hartley, 2021, 2025; Hartley et al., 2021; Hartley & Potts, 2014), AM-SDA extends the concept of digital semiosphere by operationalising its recursive meaning-making processes within AI-mediated environments. While Hartley’s framework highlights storytelling as an analytical cornerstone, that priority remains conceptually driven and lacks a structured empirical methodology. AM-SDA addresses this gap by translating macro-meso-micro scales into an empirical framework for studying digital discourse and platform mediation. AM-SDA responds to three key methodological challenges: (1) how to study the recursive relationship between algorithmic mediation and social meaning-making in real-time digital environments, (2) how to integrate computational and qualitative approaches to capture both large-scale patterns and interpretive depth, and (3) how to critically engage with AI affordances as an epistemic partner in research rather than as a passive data-processing tool. By employing non-participant curated digital ethnography, LLM-assisted distant reading, and systemic qualitative analysis, AM-SDA provides a structured yet flexible methodology for studying sociodigital practices across platforms, infrastructures, and temporalities. Demonstrating its application in researching digital nationalism and online conflicts surrounding Hanfu on Xiaohongshu (RedNote), this paper illustrates how AM-SDA contributes to AI literacy, research adaptability, and interdisciplinary digital methodologies.

ABSTRACT. Sociological research boasts a long-standing tradition in exploiting newspapers as a data source for investigating social phenomena. This tradition has gained renewed momentum due to increasing digitalization processes, which have made vast quantities of digitized articles available for social research, coupled with the development of automated analysis techniques that enable efficient processing of such data. Current journalism is a proper sociodigital phenomenon: contents are growingly created to adhere to online communication requirements, they circulate crossplatform and they are available as texts. The TIPS (Technoscientific Issues in the Public Sphere) project aligns with this context, for over a decade, has conducted numerous studies leveraging the capabilities of its purpose-built web platform. Our presentation aims to showcase significant research outputs by the TIPS research group. The examined cases will illustrate how TIPS addressed methodological challenges of social research applied to digital data: by experimenting various analytical techniques, ranging from automatic classification to topic modeling, from Named Entity Recognition (NER) combined with network analysis to the latest developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) TIPS project developed. This approach will offer the opportunity to explore advantages and limitations of research based on newspaper publications but also on its utility in analyzing socio-digital phenomena, both emerging or long-standing. Furthermore, we will discuss some epistemological and methodological implications arising from the application of the analog/digital dichotomy in social research, particularly when simplistically equated with the real/virtual distinction.

ABSTRACT. This paper examines the role of the media in shaping the public perception of irregular migrants and their influence on political responses and policymaking. Through the analysis of media reports such as those from BBC News (“Europe migrant crisis: Are there too many migrants?”), The Guardian (“How Europe is outsourcing its migration crisis”), Al Jazeera (“In search of safety: The migrant journey through the Balkans”), New York Times (“Migrants Pose Little Threat to Public Health, Reports Say”), and Le Monde (“La crise migratoire: un enjeu médiatique et politique”), the work explores how migrants are presented through contradictory narratives —from threats to security and economic resources to humanitarian issues and their rights. By analyzing these and other reports, the paper examines how the media shape public opinion and influence political responses that range from inclusive migration policies to stricter and more restrictive control measures. Media narratives often polarize public perceptions of migrants, contributing to the formation of policies that either criminalize migrants or highlight their victimization and humanitarian needs. Through this work, the goal is to show how media representation directly affects the development of migration policies and the creation of laws and to offer recommendations for fairer and more balanced reporting on irregular migration. The paper contributes to the understanding of the complex connections between media discourses, public opinion, and political responses, providing new insights into the creation of policies related to irregular migrants.

ABSTRACT. The study of online discourse about targeted communities has traditionally focused on hate speech, often overlooking the role of auto-narratives and self-definition by affected groups. While much research has examined the impact of hateful discourse, less attention has been given to how communities define themselves, articulate their identities, and respond to external narratives. Shifting the focus to these processes is essential for understanding digital discourse and the role of marginalized groups in shaping their representation. Auto-narratives and self-definition not only affirm cultural identity but also generate counter-rhetoric that challenges hate speech and promotes inclusivity. Anthropology has long explored how marginalized communities construct their identities, revealing the practices, symbols, and narratives they use to assert themselves in the face of systemic exclusion, providing the tools to decode the cultural frameworks and symbolic systems that shape identity formation. Ethnographic research deciphers the symbolic language and cultural codes that structure counter-narratives, highlighting the strategies that challenge racism and stereotyping. In digital spaces, these narratives emerge on social media pages run by activists, community leaders, and support networks, where individuals share testimonies, cultural expressions, and collective discourse to contest discrimination. These platforms serve as spaces of self-representation, constructing a rhetoric that challenges stereotypes and reclaims identity. Defining recurring themes, symbols, and rhetorical strategies offers critical insight into how marginalized groups navigate and reshape online narratives. This work employs ethnographic methodologies, critical discourse analysis, and textual data analysis to investigate how Roma influencers and support networks negotiate their identities in digital environments. By characterizing recurring themes and latent symbols, it examines how digital communities use shared cultural codes to construct self-narratives developing counter-discourses that challenge hate speech and affirm cultural identity.

ABSTRACT. The definition of “on-line hate speech” covers forms of expression propagating, inciting, promoting or justifying hatred based on intolerance, including that expressed in the form of discrimination and hostility against minorities. More directly, hate speech can be used in cases of cyber-harassment, to deliberately, repeatedly and aggressively harm others, in order to psychologically weaken the individual who is the victim. Besides, the concept of hatred includes other sub-concepts such as Homophobia, Racism, Chauvinism, Terrorism, Nationalism, Tolerance / Intolerance, and so on. To contrast online hatred, EC has allocated a relevant amount of H2020 funds for the completion of specific research projects. The goal is the construction of computer tools that can locate, evaluate and eventually block on-line hate speech. Today, the automatic tackling of online hatred is a daily-performed operation for Social Forums like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. However, the algorithms such Social Forums use probabilistic Large Language Models not being able to contextualize syntactically and semantically the words used inside posts. This shortcoming may produce inaccurate results, which as for ethics can have rather serious consequences. On the contrary, we want here to demonstrate how to avoid this impasse using Linguistic-Linked Open Data (LLLOD) integrated with formalized morphosyntactic rules, such as those of negation grammar. To achieve this task, we will build detailed NooJ Italian Electronic Dictionaries, tagging entries in order to produce specific semantic expansion and “Sentiment Analysis”. This will allow us to measure and weight hate speech, assigning them values ranking from -5 (absolutely negative) to +5 (absolutely positive). NooJ will ensure these results allowing the labelling of dictionary entries using tags referring to their semantic and syntactic functions. Besides, NooJ grammars allows word contextualization, i.e., syntax formalization useful to connect the different forms of sentence with their "semantic content".

ABSTRACT. The advent of the platform society has created new possibilities for individual expression and new areas in which violence can reveal itself. Pre-existing forms of violence have had greater visibility, while new ones have been favored including hate speech (Ziccardi, 2016), which has reinforced dominance stereotypes against women and increased the subordination of those who are doubly oppressed, such as migrants and rom. Gender-based violence, rooted in power relations, cultural norms, stereotypes, and now also hate speech channeled through movements (Men's Right Activists, Incel groups, Red Pill and Pick Up Artists), will be studied by identifying and estimating a Bayesian network model using data from Flash Eurobarometer 544. The objective is to identify complex interdependencies between sociodemographic variables, gender stereotypes, and perceptions of violence against women in the European Union. The study considers key stereotypes such as the ‘traditional’ role of women, male authority, female behaviors that justify violence, the low credibility of women, and gender roles in the workplace. Bayesian networks (Scutari, 2022) allow us to represent the conditional dependencies between the variables under study, identify likely causal patterns, and estimate posterior probabilities, making them ideal for analyzing multidimensional datasets with very complex relationships between the variables considered. The hypothesis is that antifeminist and misogynistic stereotypes represent a possible gateway to the manosphere (Ironwood, 2013), an online network where discussions related to toxic masculinity are developed. Hatred towards women is not limited to the virtual world but interacts and intertwines with violence perpetrated offline, creating the cycle of violence. The model focuses on identifying stereotypical beliefs and their relationship with perceptions of violence. Variables such as age, education, gender, and geographical area are integrated into the Bayesian network to assess their direct and indirect effects.

ABSTRACT. The present contribution investigates network dynamics underlying the dissemination of narratives and hate speech on social platforms, employing an integrated methodological approach through Network Analysis and Text Mining. This strategy of analysis can uncover intricate topological network patterns in the propagation mechanisms of narratives and racism by exploring the presence of connections among users of social media and the contents emerging in the texts shared online. Specifically, the study motivated from the fact that among minority groups, Jews have been the cyclical target of physical attacks and hate speeches. Institutions and research centres have reported a recent significant increase in online hate speeches against Jews. Noticeably, since October 7th, 2023, the terrorist attack by Hamas, and the subsequent Israeli military response and the bombing of the Gaza strip, the tendency to equate the Israeli government with the Jews and to manifest hostility against the Jews is a new kind of online antisemitism. The proposed approach is applied to detect and examine the spread of hate speech on data gathered from X (formerly Twitter), focusing on “The International Holocaust Remembrance Day”, celebrated every year on January 27. This recurrence generates online debates related to the Shoah and other historical episodes of violence, such as Israel-Hamas conflict. Often, these debates hide a veiled antisemitism, with hate speech, misinformation and extremist language, also with nuanced hate (e.g., sarcasm). By analyzing user interactions -such as retweets, mentions, and replies- we discover the presence of key nodes, influential users, and high-risk areas where such harmful content tends to circulate. Text mining techniques are then applied to construct labeled textual networks, offering novel perspectives on graph patterns, while community detection methods highlight the complex properties of these data structures.

ABSTRACT. The representation of migration in the media plays a crucial role in shaping social reality and influences public perceptions, attitudes, and policies. Social media in particular provide a space in which dominant narratives about migrants might be constructed, contested and reinforced. Previous studies have shown that traditional media coverage tends to associate migration with insecurity, threat and xenophobia. At the same time, digital platforms can both reinforce these frames and provide opportunities for participation and self-expression for migrants themselves. In this paper, we present the results of a preliminary analysis of migration-related representations in the social media accounts of selected Italian newspapers, focusing on three key events: the Cutro shipwreck, the agreement on detention centers in Albania, and the Open Arms case. The study combines quantitative and qualitative methods, including sentiment analysis, to identify dominant narratives and assess the role of migrant voices in shaping public discourse. The findings contribute to a broader reflection on the impact of digital media on integration processes and building a sense of belonging in host societies.

ABSTRACT. This study analyzes the alignment of social responsibility and sustainable development in Moroccan public higher education institutions (HEIs) based on a mixed methodological approach. Integrating quantitative and qualitative techniques, the research design offers scientific credibility with capturing the richness of institutional practices and perceptions of the stakeholders.

Data collection employed a variety of methods, including documentary analysis, the Unit-Based Sustainability Assessment Tool (USAT), and semi-structured interviews. The USAT provided quantitative assessment of DD-RS integration, with qualitative interviews, analyzed using NVivo 15, providing rich information about the dynamics underpinning these practices. Triangulation of these sources enhanced validity and allowed an appreciation of the findings from a range of angles.

The study is underpinned by stakeholder theory, neo-institutional theory, and the principles of New Public Management that guided the indicators' selection as well as structuring the analysis. Quantitative results were rendered in stacked charts and interdepartmental comparisons and led to HEIs typology according to the level of dedication to DD-RS. Despite being methodologically demanding, the hybrid approach provided a thorough understanding of DD-RS implementation across Moroccan public HEIs.

This research contributes to the literature of educational management research through the demonstration of the usefulness of mixed methods in assessing sustainability in HEIs. It sheds light on institutional engagement with DD-RS and provides methodological guidance for further research into intricate organizational phenomena in education.

ABSTRACT. Educational management is a specific field that requires innovative approaches of research methodology to adress the rapidly evolving challenges of the hyper modern education system. This research investigates various methods and the latest trends in research methodologies applied in the field of educational management, with a particular focus on their practical application at Mohamed -V- University. The study aims to examine the researches that have been carried out over the past five years and evaluate the effectiveness and adaptability of these approaches in addressing challenges faced by educational management while also exploring their potential to transform educational management practices. A scientific and bibliometric analysis will be carried out to analyse various articles published in educational management with a focus on national journals, including Moroccan publications and thesis, since the purpose of this research is to explore emerging trends in this field in our country. The current study will focus on approaches such as quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods. The main contribution of this study lies in the need to understand the effectiveness of the operationalisation of methods and methodologies as a way of optimising the resolution of problems in the educational management. It also aims to conduct a better understanding of methodological trends in educational management and their relevance in the academic context.

ABSTRACT. This paper examines the changing terrain of contemporary sociology in Morocco, providing a thorough examination of its fundamental concepts, approaches, and methods. It delves into how sociological research has adapted to Moroccan society's unique cultural, political, and economic contexts by revisiting the foundation and emerging issues within Moroccan society. Key themes include the impact of globalization, social stratification, gender dynamics, and urbanization. The paper also highlights the variety of research methods employed by Moroccan sociologists, spanning qualitative ethnographic investigations to quantitative polls and mixed-method studies. By providing a critical overview of current agendas, it aims to highlight the contributions and challenges of Moroccan sociology, fostering a deeper understanding of its role in shaping both academic discourse and public policy.

ABSTRACT. Morocco's university dropout rate continues to rise, with around 49% of students leaving university before graduating, despite consecutive reforms and measures taken to achieve Morocco's 2015-2030 strategic vision in the higher education sector “For a university of equity, quality and promotion”. This raises questions about the state of knowledge about social inclusion at university, capable of informing decision-making and achieving this strategic vision. Whereas previous studies have mobilized a quantitative approach, but with exploratory aims, to identify the main factors affecting student inclusion on university campuses. A knowledge that we consider unsatisfactory for creating general and regular knowledge beyond the cases studied, no study has chosen a mixed approach to create knowledge on the factors enhancing the attractiveness of the campus environment. Which brings us to our central question: How does a mixed approach contribute to the creation of general and regular knowledge about the factors enabling student inclusion in the campus environment? To answer our central question, we intend to discuss the external validity of future studies that will focus on the inclusiveness of the campus environment, mobilizing both a qualitative (interpretive descriptive research, phenomenology, ethnographic approach, case study) and quantitative approach pursuing a descriptive (Partial Least Squares-based Structural Equation Modeling 'PLS-SEM') and explanatory (Covariance-based Structural Equation Modeling 'SEM-CB') research purpose. From a scientific perspective, this discussion will encourage researchers to choose a mixed approach, with a view to creating regular and general knowledge, participating in this way in the construction of theories on the university's social inclusion. From a managerial point of view, this discussion will highlight the benefits of a mixed approach to framing future higher education reforms and decision making, enabling optimal resource allocation as a result, capable of creating an environment conducive to teaching and learning within universities, prioritizing efficiency over organizational isomorphism.

ABSTRACT. Metacognitive skills are essential for cultivating self-regulation, critical thinking, and continuous learning, all of which are foundational for effective managerial work. The study is designed to propose a MEQue methodology for metacognitive errors measurement. The main research objective is to verify the suitability of the proposed questionnaire containing 33 self-assessment statements aimed at identifying metacognitive errors among managers. The research sample consists of 367 managers, of which 213 (58.04%) are male and 154 (41.96%) are female, aged between 24 and 59 years. Factor analysis enabled extraction of 6 factors characterizing metacognitive errors of managers and labeled as follows: Selective abstractions, Dichotomous decision-making, Negative emotional expectation, Elimination of the positive, Unreasonable generalization, and Ability to read thoughts. The study provides an overview of the applicability of the MEQue methodology, particularly in managerial practice.

ABSTRACT. This paper presents a series of case-studies based on the first-hand experience of one of the authors in her work as an independent social work (ISW) in the UK and Italy. The casework described in the paper relates specifically to cross-border Italy-UK child protection cases involving children in care proceedings in England and involves assessing family members in Italy who are being considered for the child's long-term care. The cases illustrated in the paper are commissioned by local authorities and courts in England and involve raising awareness among British authorities, consular services, and the judiciary about collaborating with Italian authorities in line with international standards, such as the Alternative Care Guidelines and the 1996 Hague Convention.

Transferring a child from one jurisdiction to another involves mediation between two countries, two different social work systems and different legal frameworks. Since cross-border social work involves many different cultures, identifying and addressing cultural differences is crucial.

The paper analyzes intercultural aspects arising in said cross-border cases, highlighting institutional and procedural differences between the UK and Italy as well as more qualitative differences in communication forms and language expression, expectations, negotiation of social hierarchies, trust in the institutions, etc. Cross-border social workers thus negotiate between different institutional and cultural systems in order to avoid stereotyping or cultural misconceptions that may lead to inadequate child protection responses.

The theoretical framework that underpins the paper is based on 4 social work methodologies adopted in the UK: ● Cultural Competence and Trauma-Informed Practice ● The Social GRACES model (Burnham, 1993) ● Family Scripts ● ASKED Model of Cultural Competence The paper will demonstrate how these methodologies could be transferred to the Italian context and how the UKs social work models and experiences offer valuable insights that can be adapted and transferred to social work practice in Italy.

ABSTRACT. Research on children’s participation often focuses on legal frameworks and adult-led interpretations, while children's own perspectives remain underrepresented. This study, conducted as part of an ongoing PhD project, explores how children under the age of ten experience and perceive participation within residential care settings. The research applies a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative content analysis of institutional frameworks with empirical data collection through symbolic interviews and photo walks. These participatory methods aim to capture children’s views beyond verbal expressions, allowing them to represent their lived experiences through images and symbols. This paper critically reflects on the methodological and ethical challenges in conducting participatory research with children in vulnerable contexts. Key considerations include gaining access and consent, ensuring meaningful engagement, and balancing protection with autonomy. While data collection is still in preparation, preliminary insights from the study design and initial phases of engagement highlight both opportunities and limitations of visual and symbolic approaches in childhood research. By focusing on the perspectives of children in care, this research challenges adult-centric narratives and contributes to a broader discussion on how to develop inclusive and emancipatory research methodologies. The findings will provide valuable insights into how research methods can be adapted to foster authentic participation and representation of children's voices.

ABSTRACT. Online gaming platforms constitute unique field sites for researching different themes related to digital youth culture such as play, learning, socialization, and consumption. However, they pose methodological challenges for sociocultural digital media research. This paper introduces the play-along method, inspired by the 'media go-along', “scroll back” and 'app walkthrough' techniques, which involves the informant logging onto and playing a game in the presence of the researcher while they engage in a discussion about aspects of the game that unfold on the screen. By observing and participating in gameplay, researchers gain insights into player agency, game mechanics, and consumption practices within virtual worlds. Carried out across three research projects involving 60 young informants aged 10-24, the method offers several advantages: immersion in the gaming context, and a flexible, informal interview setting. It provides a unique opportunity to observe real-time interactions, digital purchases, relevance of devices, affordances and design, and relational dynamics. However, the method also presents challenges, such as gameplay interference, parental restrictions, and technical issues. Ethical considerations include maintaining the privacy of third parties and managing the blurred boundaries between the informant's private and research contexts. Despite these challenges, the play-along method represents a significant methodological advancement for exploring key aspects of contemporary children’s digital cultures such as interfaces and infrastructures, bodies and affects, memories and narratives, and play and collaboration. The method's participatory nature positions informants as experts in their own lives, providing rich, authentic insights into the commercial and social dimensions of online gaming and contributing to the growing literature in social science and digital humanities methods.

ABSTRACT. Research with children moving alone highlights the importance of adopting innovative and intercultural approaches to understand their experiences of mobility, growth, resilience, and learning. These children cross both visible and invisible borders (Khosravi, 2010), facing inequalities and stereotypes that reduce them to "young adults to be controlled" rather than minors to be protected and valued (Santagati et al., 2024). Despite the highly conditioning system and the presence of vulnerabilities, recent international literature has begun to highlight the strong agency expressed by these minors (Cardoso, 2017). In this context, the research aims to explore how children moving alone perceive and define borders and what debordering and learning processes emerge along these migratory trajectories. To answer these questions, participatory and creative research methods are employed, allowing for the deconstruction of predefined categories, challenging adult and colonial narratives (Freire, 2022), and collecting biographical narratives through an approach that promotes emancipation and active participation. The importance of emancipatory intercultural competences (Aguilar Idáñez, Buraschi, 2023) is crucial in this type of research, as it enables researchers to operate in diverse cultural contexts and address asymmetric power dynamics, creating spaces for social justice. Intercultural competences are not only about having a positive attitude towards diversity but also involve the ability to understand the complexity of situations and manage conflicts effectively. The use of creative and visual methods allows for overcoming traditional data collection approaches and engaging with the emotional and subjective dimensions of children moving alone, revealing their resistance and learning processes in relation to social boundaries. These approaches not only facilitate a deeper understanding of children’s words but also help build a more authentic and respectful narrative of their life experiences.

ABSTRACT. Young people have a lot to say about their lives if adults would only listen. This is the core premise to this paper, which details work the author did in supporting a youth action research team in conducting mixed methods research on their experiences of burnout in secondary schooling. I first present a conceptual framework for understanding the different levels of involvement and leadership of youth in research including youth participatory action research (YPAR). This conceptual framework is important because not all YPAR or youth-involved research is youth-led. Youth-led research refers to research projects where young people take leadership, ownership, and responsibility in most if not all aspects of the research project from topic selection, setting research questions, designing the project, collecting data, analyzing and interpreting data, and presentation (Anselm et al., 2020; Branquinho et al., 2020; London et al., 2003; Ozer, 2017; Ozer & Wright, 2012). Youth-led is an important framing to use because rather than “giving voice” to them (Liebenberg et al., 2020), it creates a space for young people to enact their agency (Bautista et al., 2012; Cahill et al., 2008; Rodríguez & Brown, 2009). Next, I outline the study the youth conducted, which included online and live quantitative survey responses, researcher self-observation and journaling, individual and focus group interviews, and research team notes and debriefing discussions. Then, I describe how I framed my own facilitation as an external research partner and the coaching I provided to other adults working with the group to ensure the project remained youth-led. This work entailed not only teaching youth and adults about the YPAR process but also engaging in ongoing critical reflection on the impact of adults in decentering youth decision-making and ownership of the project.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this PhD project is to explore and understand through children’s narratives, how their culture is constructed through the entanglements they have with human and more-than-human entities. This presentation will report findings from ethnographic research done with children aged 6 to 8, living in a Casa Hogar or residential care center in Chihuahua, Mexico; using creative methods (drawing and social mapping) and work with children. This research will see children's culture as an entity itself, that is, with different ontological assumptions. In this case, considering that culture is developed among the entanglements of humans and more-than-humans. Subsequently, through a post-human lens, this research will attempt to explore children’s culture while looking into the characteristics of the entanglement children have in their environment for the construction of culture that they make when interpreting ‘their world’ impacted by violence. This, while acknowledging how we are all part of these worlding and common worlds to explore these assemblages and shared agencies in the construction of children’s cultures. This research will use a relational ontology because it allows to understand knowledge as constructed in the relationships between elements.

I propose that there must be an exploration of the mutual response of agencies for the production of children’s culture, as these interactions are what develop a culture (Hengsr, 2005). And these mutual responses are present in the dynamic and transformative entanglements between people, spaces and artefacts present in children’s culture. In addition, the research explores the culture of children living in a context of violence in Chihuahua, Mexico. As cultures exist in interrelated contexts, it is important to analyse whether narco-cultures also come to relate to and impact children's culture.

ABSTRACT. The paper investigates the effects of extraordinary powers in an area characterized by socio-economic marginality, Caivano, a town that came into the spotlight of crime news following a gang rape of two minors. The role and function of social services is investigated mainly through qualitative research, interviews and participatory observation. Caivano located North of Naples, has approximately 37,000 inhabitants. The socio-economic marginality of this municipality primarily stems from a significant increase in population driven by real estate speculation. This growth was further amplified following the earthquake on November 23, 1980, and the subsequent enactment of Law n. 219/1981, which allocated 1.5 trillion lire to provide housing for over 300,000 displaced individuals, many of whom were relocated from the historic centre of Naples to nearby municipalities. Because of this law, Parco Verde was constructed in the town, a site that not only became infamous for the rape but also as one of the largest drug-dealing hubs in Europe. This park became a new home for residents from the poorest areas of Naples introducing a population that is economically fragile and precarious. Caivano is also part of the area known as Terra dei fuochi. Currently, a special Commission manages the municipality (due to mafia infiltration), and thus technicians now govern the chronic condition of marginality. Contrary to what usually happens in municipalities dissolved due to mafia infiltration, the local public debate regarding the Caivano case suggests that finally, with the Commissioning, the State is present. The exceptional nature of managing the criminal situation in this space is also evident from the enactment of decree-law 123/2023, called the Caivano Decree. Beyond the complex relationship between penal provisions and institutions it is intended to reflect on the consequences that the extraordinary administration and the new criminal laws are having on local social services.

ABSTRACT. This research investigates social worker’s discretion and its learning process to understand whether and to what extent the anti-oppressive practices implemented by professionals can be passed on to trainees by training them in their role of advocacy and anti-discrimination. Anti-oppressive approach is theorised as a practice that rebalances the asymmetry of power (Freire, 2022), which may unfairly affect citizens or minorities in situations of disadvantage and vulnerability. Such asymmetry can be found in the relationship between social worker and user, manifesting itself in the form of excessive discretion from the professional. Discretion, as a practice of subjective technical judgment, is recognised as a legitimate tool for social workers. However, when discretion is exercised in an arbitrary manner, it can potentially degenerate into a means of domination and oppression, given the positional and resource advantages held by the social worker (Dominelli, 2002). To investigate whether the anti-oppressive approach and the use of discretion can be learned and fostered during the academic course, especially as part of the curricular internship, provided by Social Service courses, we chose to use a qualitative methodology of data collection, involving professionals from Italy: discursive interviews were conducted with 10 senior social workers, all of considerable experience as tutors of curricular traineeships. In addition, 10 new social workers who had recently completed their training and entered the profession were included in the study, as well as 10 social worker trainees. This helped explore different perspectives on the representation on the exercise of discretion and anti-oppressive practices learned and implemented. It was observed that the respondents experienced a process of introspection and reflection when formulating their responses to the questions posed by mentors and former trainees, as indicated by the use of the term "revelation" (Holstein and Gubrium, 1997).

ABSTRACT. Social work academics and practitioners are increasingly questioning the power dynamics in helping relationships. Reflections emerging from anti-oppressive social work approaches (Dominelli & Campling, 2002; Sanfelici, 2024) highlight how power imbalances and social dynamics that tend to marginalise and discriminate against people are reflected in fieldwork. Professionals themselves tend, often unconsciously, to perpetuate dynamics that feed forms of oppression such as ageism, disablism and racism (Thompson, 2016). The university's mission is to train future social workers who are aware of power dynamics and able to promote people's emancipation. By applying the main principles of the Relational Social Work Method (Folgheraiter and Raineri, 2017) to the field of social work education, it's possible to implement experiences of "relational teaching and learning" (Cabiati, 2017), based on the highest degree of reciprocity between teachers and students, the participation of experts with experience in teaching activities and the use of peer groups. This approach can develop students' reflexivity and critical thinking, helping them to move away from a deterministic approach to social problems and open up to anti-oppressive social work practices. The paper focuses on the importance of group work in social work education (Baldwin, 2000) as a means of enabling students to put anti-oppressive theoretical principles into practice, to reflect on the reasons for professional choices and to experiment with relationships with people and communities. The theoretical framework and group work methodology are described, with an emphasis on facilitation skills and the promotion of self-help dynamics. The strengths and critical issues of using a peer approach in a university context are also discussed. The proposed reflections are based on some data collected through an online survey of social work students and some extracts from reports written by students at the end of their practical learning experiences about their participation in group work activities.

ABSTRACT. In contemporary society, gender violence is recognized as a social and public health problem. It is rooted in an androcentric and patriarchal vision of the social world, embedded in the social relationships of power and domination. Domestic violence has additional characteristics: it uses a cyclical temporal progression and is more difficult to report to the authorities, being perpetrated by a family member. Feminist studies have undoubtedly opened up new perspectives, both from the point of view of institutional construction and the recognition of cultural and social determinants' role in supporting and promoting specific structures. However, welfare systems continue to incorporate definitions of needs and rights, as well as models and expectations of gender relations. The paper presents the research results of a case study in the Marche region. The aim was to analyze the capacity of the territorial services to support marginalized people, among which there were women welcomed into a shelter after having reported domestic violence. By adopting a participatory and emancipatory approach rooted in anti-oppressive logic, the research gave voice to the women who turned to these services. By enhancing the knowledge rooted in the co-researchers experience, the study highlights opportunities and critical points of the territorial services in the case study analyzed. It suggests integrated and innovative strategies to accompany women in the difficult paths that follow the reporting of domestic violence. The results highlight that, in many situations, the network of territorial services is the only possible option for exiting domestic violence, becoming a precious opportunity for rebuilding a new social identity. However, the practices and support strategies of public services and the third sector seem to reproduce gender representations and stereotypes that limit women's freedom of action. They impose on them the adherence to historically structured social models and roles, turning into institutional traps.

ABSTRACT. This presentation will focus on the results of a co-constructed study carried out with three small groups of social workers employed in public and Third Sector social services. The study involved professionals in critical inter-vision sessions (Ioakimidis, 2023), in which we discussed written reports on “case studies”, choosing situations of people struggling with poverty and the social work intervention aimed to help them. The critical reflection method proposed by Fook (2002) guided the steps of “de-constructing” and “re-constructing” cases, through an outline that guided the analysis through four types of “guiding questions”: reflective practice questions, reflexive questions, deconstructive questions, and critical questions. The deconstruction of the intervention allows the discourses, language, power relations involved, unveiling tensions and ethical dilemmas about care and control, and different meanings associated to these two often intersecting dimensions. The case reconstruction aimed to formulate hypotheses on how to carry out interventions that can critically detect, account for and try to tackle the impact of systemic vulnerabilities related to different sources of privilege and oppression, and to enable dialogic construction processes that can convey recognition, also within contexts where dilemmas arising from the dual mandate of care and control.

ABSTRACT. The digital turn has transformed public discourse analysis, offering unprecedented opportunities to examine contested framings in global political narratives. This study applies a mixed-methods approach to investigate German and Chinese public discourses on BRICS from 2021 to 2024, integrating computational text analysis with qualitative frame analysis. The research critically examines how media, institutional elites, and public voices construct strategic framings of BRICS and its member states, revealing underlying epistemological and ideological divergences. Methodologically, this study employs digital methods such as web-scraping, topic modeling, and sentiment analysis to quantify trends in German media and public perception, juxtaposing these findings with critical framing/discourse analysis. The German media landscape is mapped through sentiment trends and lexical shifts, while Chinese state media responses are analyzed through reflexive dialogue, revealing how narratives are shaped, countered, or reinforced. Public discourse is further examined through digital ethnography on social media platforms, providing a grassroots perspective that contrasts elite-driven narratives. This mixed-methods framework addresses key challenges of the digital turn in social research. It demonstrates how digital traces, while expansive, necessitate methodological triangulation to capture contextual nuances. Moreover, by positioning the researcher within this reflexive process, the study highlights the epistemological implications of studying digital discourse in multipolar geopolitical contexts. The findings contribute to critical digital sociology by illustrating the entanglement of media, power, and public opinion in shaping global political imaginaries.

ABSTRACT. This article explores how TikTok is redefining the sales practices and economic sustainability of households and SMEs in Naples and its province. In a context of increasing precariousness, the platform is configuring itself as an unprecedented informal digital marketplace, offering new opportunities for commerce through live streaming. The sequential exploratory mixed method design guides the research in two integrated phases. The first qualitative phase employs digital ethnography to explore the emerging economic practices on TikTok by analysing the profiles of SMEs and online shops and actively participating in live sales and semi-structured interviews in order to listen to sellers' motivations, their stories and considerations about this new practice. The second quantitative phase maps the distribution of economic activities, using data from the Chamber of Commerce and geo-referenced data provided by the interviewed live streamers in order to observe how the phenomenon develops and is distributed from digital to physical spaces, correlating this information with territorial characteristics, such as economic structures, access to services and social composition and indicators of socio-economic deprivation through spatial analysis. The investigation focuses on platform work, rather than platform work, showing how TikTok transforms the home and shop setting into new productive and performative spaces by making them arenas for the reproduction and maintenance of informal economies. Adopting a socio-technical perspective, the research examines how the art of making do (Pine, 2016) manifests itself in digital contexts, redefining local economic practices and imaginaries. The aim of the article is to stimulate a critical debate on the transformations of informal labour in the era of the platform economy, analysing the socio-economic implications of this new form of digital commerce and its impact on local economies and household labour.

ABSTRACT. We are living in a historical period in which technological innovation is much faster than any other field of study. This digital revolution leads us to think of a transversality on multiple levels of action: from the use of tools that are as innovative as they are unknown in their technicalities of analysis, to the correct use of a wider range of action in a research design that uses mixed methods. In particular, artificial intelligence (AI) offers a series of reflections and opportunities that are unexplored to date. If on the one hand we can think that it is a tool of great utility that will touch a large part of our lives, consciously and unconsciously, on the other hand we ignore the procedures and methods with which AI moves with great adaptive capabilities on our devices. The abstract aims to highlight what contribution artificial intelligence can make to the field of social research by placing as a fixed point the tools consolidated to date in research methodology, whether they are traditional or closely linked to e-methods. It will be an opportunity to compare research carried out with mixed methods on a well-defined target group, celiacs, with research carried out on the same target group but exclusively through the use of Artificial Intelligence. Traditional tools will be directly compared with more innovative ones, including chatbots, in order to define the limits and advantages of a technological innovation with which research methods struggle to keep up with the times. We will see how the results will differ from each other, or if they will have points of contact, not only with regard to the more content-related aspect, but also how the analysis techniques can talk to each other.

ABSTRACT. We are living in a digital age where digital technology provides social science scholars with new tools that complement traditional instruments to support their research activities. The article “Digital Economy Transformation and Social Mobility of Ho Chi Minh City Workers” was developed using Mixed Methods Research (MMR), integrating digital tools into this study. Specifically, VOSviewer version 1.6.20 was used to create maps based on global academic documents and visualize the academic context during the literature review. Quantitative data were synthesized from official statistical websites, then identified macro factors affecting workers' social mobility. Qualitative data were collected through in-depth interviews conducted both face-to-face and online. These interviews aimed to reflect the depth of statistical data and interpret the multidimensionality of practice. In developing this MMR, we prioritized methodological coherence, data quality, and validity throughout the data collection and analysis process. A key implication of this article is its discussion of the advantages and limitations of digital tools for studying social phenomena in contemporary contexts, along with strategies to address these limitations. These issues fall within the scope of session 36: Mixed Methods at the Digital Turn: How Digital is Reshaping Mixed Methods Research.

ABSTRACT. The present proposal intends to discuss the main results obtained within a quali-quantitative research carried out by the University for Foreigners of Perugia (within a PRIN-PNRR shared with other national universities) with the general aim of reconstructing the socio-cultural traits of the communities of Italian emigrants in California, focusing on the characteristics of the personal social networks - maintained/created in the territories of origin/new arrival. Starting from the results collected through the realisation of 1. a web-survey addressed to Italian key-informants who have emigrated to San Francisco and the nearby areas; 2. remote focused interviews and 3. network questionnaire (linked to the application of network analysis), the contribution intends to carry out a methodological evaluation through which to clarify the strengths and weaknesses of the research instruments used, in consideration of the online transposition, in a digital environment, of interactions traditionally carried out in person. Moving in the context of mixed methodology research, the temporal and semantic sequence of the data collection methods (questionnaire, first; focused interviews and network analysis, then), allowed a strategic engagement of the interviewees, moved by the desire to clarify aspects connected to their socio-linguistic biography; to their identity and values experience; to the social and life experiences matured within relational networks where cultural practices and values are at various levels influenced by their Italian origins. Following the web-survey, the remote focused interviews and the network analysis, represent the empirical basis from which many significant methodological observations resulted. The online context in which the interviews were carried out represented, for the interviewees, the symbolic place within which they revived their own experience as Italians abroad, giving back to the research deep and richly detailed narratives; aspects that fruitfully influenced the accuracy of the information gathered.

ABSTRACT. This study examines the virtual reality platform VRChat as an emerging social world where bodies, identities, and relationships take new forms. In these spaces, people engage in affective, embodied interactions, navigating both the possibilities and constraints of digital presence. Individuals, their avatars, and the technology itself function as a cyborg entity, where human experience is co-constructed with digital possibility. Conducted by a digital anthropologist under the guidance of mentors specializing in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) in VR, Perceptual Psychology, and Cognitive Science, this research explores how a digital anthropology perspective can deepen our understanding of habituation, embodiment, and interaction in VR social worlds. At its core, our mixed methods approach examines the ways we can digitalize traditional anthropological methods while also bringing an anthropological lens to digital methodologies, bridging the gap between these fields to better capture the complexity of virtual life.

We are combining methods including participant observation within VR spaces, analyzing text from platforms like Discord and Reddit, and transcribing content from VR bloggers, Analysis through LLM, alongside semi-structured interviews to capture personal experiences. We also bring in an art production analysis lens, looking at avatar creation, world-building, and experience design as creative practices that shape how users construct and inhabit virtual spaces. Working across these different methods allows us to engage with multiple perspectives on immersion and habituation, but it also raises questions about how to bring such diverse data together. This is a work in progress, and as we continue refining our approach, we are not just grappling with methodological challenges but also seeking to broaden how digital anthropology approaches virtual environments within a mixed methods framework. Findings are expected to be finalized in July..

ABSTRACT. This paper presents the main stages in the legal philosophical and legal sociological thought of Renato Treves, whose contribution to the sociology of law was not only enormous but is also still highly relevant for the present age. It will highlight his interest in the sociology of law, which led him to found an important school of legal sociology and to establish the first academic chair in sociology of law in Italy. The paper will start by setting out the various stages in his thought, including in particular the early period before his exile in Argentina, followed by the Argentine period from 1938 to 1947 during which he started to analyse the relationship between law and society, which subsequently provided the necessary basis for his legal sociology. It will then analyse the long period from 1947 to 1992 during which Treves revived his interest in philosophy of law, while also pursuing his research in the social sciences. A particular focus will be placed on the period from 1959 to 1969 during which Treves pursued his interest in empirical research into sociology of law. This eventually led him to the creation in 1969 of the first chair of sociology of law at the University of Milan, as well as a number of in-depth studies brought together in major publications in this area in 1977 and in 1980. Finally, it will consider the final, long phase of his intellectual development which lasted from 1979 until 1992. During this time he brought together the various strands of his empirical research, having particular regard to the methodological problems inherent within it, as well as his sociological theory, which resulted in the publication in 1987 and 1988 of his magnum opus Sociologia del diritto.

ABSTRACT. In this contribution we present a critical reflection on the strategies, opportunities and limits of doing research with communities experiencing the effects of environmental disasters and pollution. These communities can be studied using a composite set of research techniques which integrate into a single research design the skills and sensitivity of different disciplinary fields (sociologists, anthropologists, epidemiologists, etc.) and the direct experiences of workers and citizens (Brown, 1992; 1997; 2007). Although different in their approach, the common point of these contributions is precisely the relevance of the knowledge owned by communities and individuals who experience the effects of pollution and environmental disasters (Brown et. Al., 2011) in an in a process of co-learning in knowledge enhancement. The so-called lay knowledge is a form of knowledge empirically founded in the experiences of daily life, an experience that is not only individual but also mediated by the narratives that of those damages are produced by the community itself. Starting from the research experiences on the topic of asbestos pollution in Italy and elsewhere (Altopiedi, 2011; 2015), we discuss on the political role that the academic researchers have to play in contested or affected communities to co-produce knowledge that challenge of mainstreaming definition of environmental and health risk.

ABSTRACT. This study examines the socio-legal dynamics emerging within the context of climate and environmental migration, specifically focusing on Italy’s international protection system. In a legal and political environment increasingly characterised by exclusionary and control-driven logic, the research explores how law can evolve from a tool for maintaining the status quo to an instrument of emancipation for migrants, particularly those affected by climate disasters. Using a qualitative approach, the analysis is based on a sample of some judicial rulings from Italian courts, selected for their relevance in addressing the “environmental context” as a fundamental element of international protection claims. The methodology employed involves content analysis, segmenting the rulings into two main dimensions: the narrative dimension, which outlines the life stories of migrants and the motivations behind their protection requests, and the argumentative dimension, which highlights the legal reasoning and arguments made by the judges.

The rulings analysed show a growing recognition of climate vulnerabilities, suggesting that, in some cases, the courts are reinterpreting existing regulations in light of new socio-environmental contexts. This process of re-signifying the law, grounded in the concept of human dignity, appears as an act of resistance against the neoliberal order dominating migration policies, leading to a potential reconfiguration of the legal and symbolic boundaries of asylum.

From this perspective, law emerges as a powerful tool for social contestation, capable of restoring visibility and agency to vulnerable subjectivities, such as those of migrants displaced by environmental catastrophes. This contribution contributes to the sociological debate on social justice and human rights, exploring the potential of law as an agency for social change, particularly in the context of climate migration, which highlights global inequalities and the need for a legal framework capable of addressing the challenges of our time.

ABSTRACT. This paper explores the significance of adopting a decolonial methodological perspective in the study of deviance and law, emphasizing participatory research practices within international and cross-cultural contexts. It critically reflects on researchers’ positionality and privilege, highlighting the necessity of challenging dominant Eurocentric epistemologies by centering marginalized voices as co-creators of knowledge. The aim is to explore how an intersectional, collaborative, and inductive research approach— grounded in participatory practices that reflect the epistemologies of research participants—can be applied to the study of deviance and law. The paper focuses primarily on the opportunities participatory approaches bring to research, including centering the knowledge and priorities of those most affected by the research and challenging unequal power relations. Participatory approaches provide deeper insights into local dynamics of norm enforcement and resistance among marginalized and invisibilized populations. However, several barriers to the implementation of participatory designs exist, particularly in formal academic contexts, alongside ethical challenges and risks. These include institutional expectations of individual authorship in academic programs, the difficulty of clearly defining research aims and methods due to participant negotiation, extended timelines for achieving consensus, risks of exacerbating internal community power dynamics, ethical issues related to data ownership and interpretation, and the practical necessity of integrating participatory methods with other research approaches. Considering these epistemological, practical, and ethical constraints, this paper interrogates to what extent participatory approaches can effectively be employed in sociology of law and deviance studies and which ones might be most appropriate.

ABSTRACT. In the socio-legal field, the concept of legal culture has been regarded as a key analytical tool and widely applied, yet it has also faced criticism and rejection. Two fundamental issues stand out. The first concerns its internal coherence and viability for empirical research. The second relates to its frequent role as an explicans—whether in explaining individual behaviors or differences between legal systems—while it is far less often treated as an explanandum. This raises a crucial inquiry: how does legal culture take shape, what are its roots, and how does it evolve over time? To engage with these questions, this paper rethinks the concept of popular legal culture, first introduced by Lawrence Friedman and now central to the established research area of Law and Popular Culture. By popular legal culture, we refer to both the ideas and attitudes about law held by ordinary people and the segment of mass culture that engages with law and the legal professions. The paper argues that a sociological study of law should empirically explore the mutual influence between these two dimensions, inherently considering their interconnections with legal norms and institutions on one side and individual behaviors on the other. Building on this argument, the paper pursues two main objectives. First, it seeks to outline the theoretical and methodological debate within Law and Popular Culture studies, including its links to popular criminology, by presenting key insights and critical perspectives. Second, it examines the principal research strategies and the most widely used methodologies in the field.

ABSTRACT. Correspondence and audit studies are widely regarded as a “gold standard” for capturing discrimination and bias. However, gatekeepers (e.g., employers) are the analytic unit even though stated implications often center on group-level inequalities. Using the binomial distribution, we show that such field experiments have the potential to uncover applicant-side inequalities and burdens beyond the gatekeeper biases standardly reported by demonstrating that unit-level probabilities do not accurately reflect real-world applicant chances of success. Specifically, applicants from groups facing lower callback rates must submit more applications to ensure an eventual callback, have fewer opportunities to choose from, and face higher uncertainty regarding how many applications to submit. These results reflect several sequential and cumulative stratification processes “real-world” applicants face that warrant attention in conventional reporting. Our approach can be straightforwardly applied and, we show, is particularly pertinent for employment relative to other institutional domains (e.g., education, religion). We discuss the methodological and theoretical relevance of our suggested extensions and the implications for the study of inequality, discrimination, and social closure.

ABSTRACT. People with disabilities have among the lowest labor market participation rates of any group. Studies in sociology, social psychology, and economics employing different research designs have alluded to discrimination as a primary reason for negative employment outcomes. However, studies face important challenges. First, theories of status-based discrimination have largely ignored disability as an axis of inequality. Second, most quantitative and qualitative studies offer indirect ways of ascertaining the role of discrimination in labor market inequality. Addressing these limitations, we draw from sociological perspectives on status groups and stereotypes as well as economic and social psychological frameworks for understanding links between employer biases and potential discriminatory behavior. We conducted three experiments: one with undergraduate students, a second with human resource hiring professionals, and a third audit study where fictious applicants with physical and cognitive disabilities applied to active laborer and administrative job postings (n=1,390 résumés to 1,032 firms). We find that disability presents some barriers to hiring, but barriers depend on the type of disability and sector of employment. Although there were few differences between applicants applying for administrative jobs, people with physical and cognitive disabilities applying to laborer jobs were about half as likely to receive an interview request than applicants without disabilities. This suggests that employers consider both disability and job type when assessing applicant abilities whereby statistical discrimination models are more likely explaining unequal outcomes over taste-based explanations.

ABSTRACT. Labor market discrimination remains widespread, disproportionately affecting minority groups. Despite policies, disparities in hiring, wages, and career progression persist, limiting social mobility and economic efficiency. In Italy, women face multiple layers of discrimination, deepening labor market inequalities. These biases extend beyond individual disadvantages, reinforcing systemic barriers that hinder inclusive growth.

This study uses a Factorial Survey Experiment to examine how recruiters' characteristics, such as gender, age, and education, influence wage assignments. Traditional research struggles to separate discrimination causes from other candidate-related factors. To address this, we designed a vignette experiment, varying attributes like gender, ethnicity, and qualifications. Recruiters evaluated these profiles, helping us distinguish between discrimination forms. A D-efficient design was applied to optimize the experimental layout, ensuring statistical efficiency and reducing vignette requirements. Our findings reveal that recruiters’ characteristics significantly impact wage assignments, with notable differences based on gender, age, and education. Male recruiters consistently assign higher wages than female recruiters, regardless of the candidate’s gender. Age-related differences also emerge, as recruiters aged 31-50 exhibit the largest wage disparities, while younger recruiters demonstrate more neutral salary expectations. Education plays a mitigating role: recruiters with higher education levels assign more equitable wages, although gender disparities persist.

These results highlight both structural and individual factors shaping wage-setting practices, reinforcing the need for further research into the mechanisms driving these disparities. The interaction between recruiter and candidate gender suggests that wage gaps are not solely determined by candidate characteristics but also by who makes the salary decision. Addressing these biases through targeted policy interventions, such as bias-awareness training for recruiters, could help foster fairer wage-setting practices in the labor market.

Auspurg, K., Hinz, T. Factorial Survey Experiments. SAGE Publications (2014).

Kübler, D., Schmid, J., Stüber, R. (2018). Gender discrimination in hiring across occupations: a nationally-representative vignette study. Labour Economics, 55, 215-229

ABSTRACT. Minorities often face discrimination in multiple life domains, with effects accumulating over the life course. Correspondence studies are an effective method for measuring discrimination, combining the rigour of experimental methods with the external validity of field research. However, they typically examine isolated discriminatory incidents in the labour (Zschirnt & Ruedin, 2016) or housing market (Auspurg et al., 2019) within one country.

Our study shifts attention to a critical area for children's development and parental labour market participation: childcare. We present findings from the first pre-registered, cross-nationally harmonised correspondence test examining discrimination in access to childcare across nine European countries: Belgium, Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

In Spring 2024, we sent over 13,500 emails to childcare providers in all nine countries to examine discrimination in access to childcare amongst Black, Muslim and Roma families. The ethnic origin of the senders was signalled through their names, which were carefully selected and externally validated in all countries. We also included cues of employment and housing success, e.g. stating a recent promotion. This innovative design allows us to test whether discrimination in access to childcare exists and whether barriers in other life domains (i.e. housing and employment) affect minorities’ access to childcare – a phenomenon known as side-effects discrimination (Feagin & Eckberg, 1980).

We find some evidence of discrimination in childcare access, although most effects are relatively small and there is substantial variation across groups and countries. These findings align with the idea that discrimination is more prevalent in more resource-intensive, higher-stakes environments, like the labour market, than in domains where citizens have a right-based entitlement to public services, like education (Gaddis et al., 2021). At the same time, they suggest that exposure to ethno-racial disadvantage already starts at a very young age.

ABSTRACT. In recent years, the global population has experienced a demographic shift, with a significant increase in the proportion of older individuals. This trend is expected to continue, posing several challenges, especially for healthcare systems. Older adults are more likely to develop diseases than younger individuals, which increases the demand for healthcare services and may limit their availability for the rest of the population. To ensure an efficient allocation of resources, it is crucial to understand better how older adults use healthcare services. Among them, frail individuals are of particular interest, as they are at greater risk of adverse events such as hospitalisation, hip fractures, and even death. Frailty is a key condition in older adults, encompassing physical, psychological, and social dimensions. While frailty's physical and psychological aspects have been widely studied, the social dimension has received less attention. This study provides a bibliometric analysis of the literature on the impact of social frailty on healthcare utilization. Using the Scopus database, 976 articles were analysed with the Bibliometrix package in R. The search was conducted using the query: frail* AND ( "utilization of services" OR "healthcare utilization" OR "healthcare utilizations" OR "healthcare services" OR "healthcare service" OR "healthcare access" OR "health care utilisation" ) AND ( old* OR eld* OR age*. Only articles published between 2000 and 2025 and written in English were included. The analysis revealed a growing interest in this topic, with a notable increase in publications since 2016. Most articles are published by American, British, Canadian, and Italian authors. The principal keywords are care, frailty, patients, and health. Two main collaborations were observed: one among European countries and another among non-European countries. The findings highlight the increasing recognition of social frailty as a key factor in healthcare utilization and the need for further research to support healthcare planning.

ABSTRACT. Data-driven performance monitoring of service providers is nowadays ubiquitous in many contexts, including healthcare. Since the quantitative methods adopted in this framework often involve regression models, it is crucial to correctly handle informative missingness of the outcome variable, a quite a common issue in this framework. If these corrections were not implemented, the overall estimation process would be biased.

In the linear context, the well-known Heckman model (Heckman 1976, and subsequent papers) enables consistent parameter estimation in the presence of non-random missingness in the response variable by explicitly modeling the selection process and correcting the outcome model via regression adjustment. In other words, this approach treats selection as a specification issue generating omitted variable bias.

In this work, an extension of Heckman’s model is proposed which deals with a binary outcome and a selection mechanism influenced by some background variables as well as by the outcome itself. This investigation complements existing results based on the Probit model by making use of a logistic modelling strategy. In detail, the outcome model can be corrected via the inclusion of a relative risk term obtained from the selection model. Some approximations can be made under the assumption that the outcome denotes a rare event. Similarly to Heckman’s model, this approach allows to test whether the background variables and/or the outcome play a role in the selection mechanism.

The methodology described here might also be extended to a longitudinal setting, in the spirit of the existing proposals for the linear case. Future research could focus on this extension, enabling a more comprehensive analysis of selection dynamics over time.

ABSTRACT. Assessing the scientific performance of Academic Health Science Centers (AHSCs) is a crucial task in the context of data-informed healthcare system governance. AHSCs play a pivotal role in integrating clinical care, scientific research, and education, contributing substantially to the advancement of national health systems. However, evaluating their performance requires a multidimensional approach that goes beyond traditional metrics. This study proposes a data-driven framework to measure the performance of Italian AHSCs across several dimensions, such as research productivity, clinical trials, innovation output, and social impact. By integrating data from multiple open-access and proprietary sources, including OpenAlex, Dimensions, and Altmetric, we derive a comprehensive set of standardized indicators reflecting both academic and translational activities. The proposed framework offers strategic insights for institutional decision-makers and policymakers, facilitating evidence-based resource allocation and priority setting. Moreover, the framework contributes to ongoing debates on the role of AHSCs in knowledge production and societal value generation within contemporary healthcare systems. This contribution demonstrates how the integration of bibliometric, altmetric, and innovation data can enhance evaluative practices in complex academic-medical ecosystems, aligning with the broader goals of data-driven health system improvement.

ABSTRACT. Emergency department (ED) overcrowding is a growing concern in healthcare systems worldwide, significantly impacting the quality of care and the efficiency of resource allocation. This phenomenon arises when the demand for emergency services exceeds the available capacity, leading to prolonged waiting times and increased strain on healthcare workers. According to the Italian National Agency for Regional Health Services, 18.27 million ED visits were recorded in Italy in 2023, marking a 26% increase compared to 2020 (from 13,259,811 to 18,277,405 visits). Concurrently, the number of hospital-based EDs has declined by 9%, exacerbating the situation and underscoring the need for enhanced triage efficiency. Furthermore, many EDs face critical shortages of inpatient beds, vacant nursing positions, and limited access to on-call specialists. Given these challenges, ensuring the reliability and accuracy of triage systems is of paramount importance, as triage represents the initial and most critical stage in emergency patient management. This study aims to validate the triage system of a reference hospital by employing Propensity Score Matching (PSM), a statistical technique that mitigates selection bias by balancing confounding variables such as age. The analysis encompasses one year of ED data from Caserta Hospital, comprising over 60,000 patient visits. Subsequently, we will model and predict the flow of priority levels assigned to patients, thereby facilitating a more efficient allocation of ED resources. The anticipated findings may either reinforce the robustness of the current triage system or highlight areas for improvement. In both scenarios, this study seeks to contribute to the optimization of triage processes, with potential implications for patient management strategies and reductions in ED waiting times.

ABSTRACT. The digital transformation and adoption of data-driven methodologies are reshaping decision-making processes in healthcare at both local and national levels. In this context, reconstructing the patient journey has emerged as a key paradigm for gaining a deeper understanding of patient experiences and improving healthcare pathways. The patient journey encompasses the full experience of navigating the healthcare system—from symptom onset to diagnosis, treatment, and long-term disease management. This longitudinal perspective helps identify both system strengths and critical gaps, highlighting points of discontinuity that influence care pathways and patient behaviors. A holistic approach considers the physical, emotional, social, and administrative factors shaping healthcare experiences and outcomes (McCarthy et al., 2016; Meyer, 2018; Joseph et al., 2020). Digitalization and data-driven strategies enable real-time collection and analysis of patient behavior across different journey stages: pre-diagnosis, diagnosis, treatment, and disease management. The integration of digital technologies with data analytics presents unprecedented opportunities to monitor, assess, and enhance care processes. Techniques such as process mining and statistical data analysis reveal patterns in patient flows, wait times, and hospital stays. For example, an Australian study using a Patient Journey Database identified bottlenecks in emergency department transitions, measured department efficiency based on patient stay duration, and mapped physician-network interactions to optimize hospital performance (Perimal-Lewis et al., 2012). This integrated approach can drive more efficient healthcare management, addressing challenges like hospital overcrowding and resource allocation. This contribution aims to showcase how patient-centered strategies and personalized care can be achieved through in-depth data analysis and a comprehensive reconstruction of the patient journey. [Reference list exceeds words limit]

ABSTRACT. Research into the integration of Islam and Muslims in Europe faces a number of major challenges. The first is linked to the over-politicisation of the ‘Islam’ research subject, which can be defined as a reconfiguration of public debates from essentially technical discussions to major symbolic issues (Lascoumes, 2009). Is the researcher then inevitably trapped between a rock and a hard place, ‘assigned to be “for” or “against”’ (Musso, 2008) his or her subject and his or her interlocutors? The second major challenge we identified is the securitisation of Islam, which can be analysed as the tendency to regard Islam as the major variable explaining contemporary conflicts and insecurities (Alles, 2021) and which gives rise to concrete administrative and police surveillance mechanisms and to the classification of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ religiosity (Fadil, Ragazzi, de Koning, 2019; Cesari, 2013; Hajjat, 2010). The question then is how do these surveillance mechanisms (Laurens and Neyrat, 2010) impose themselves on research fields and constrain the work of researchers in fields that have been made sensitive in this way? More precisely, the spread of extreme right rhetoric about Islam and Muslims can lead the researcher to face both reputational and physical threats. The third challenge lies in the wake of post-colonial studies, which aspire to the development of indigenous modes of knowledge (Tuhiwai, 1999). Under the impetus of citizen activism calling for a voice ‘by and for’ the first parties concerned, a proposal is now gaining ground: in order not to run the risk of speaking on behalf of the subalterns (Spivak, 1985), some are tempted to consider that only the researcher with characteristics common to his or her object of research is capable of discovering its deeper meaning or the most accurate interpretation. In this context, how do researchers in an ‘outsider’ position negotiate access to fieldwork? Are they condemned to be purely disqualified? As we see, the field of research related to the insertion of Islam and Muslims in Europe is entangled with several emotional issues. This paper proposal intends to present how the author navigated those different aspects.

ABSTRACT. Twenty years ago I was working on a project interviewing people about personal debt. I had carried out one interview in the early morning and arrived at the second location to hear from a woman in her seventies. She explained her husband had been experiencing mental health issues and had, secretly, ordered hundreds of pounds worth of goods on credit. When he died, she was left with the debts, and then a social security benefits error meant she owed the local authority over £1,000. To pay these off she started back to work as a cleaner, despite not being in good health herself. She spoke about her depression and having no-one to talk to or help her. She was under her Doctors care, and on medication, but had not told her adult children about any of this. After the interview I walked out to my car, drove down the road and had to stop. I sat and cried for some time, but had to collect myself to go onto the next interview. The next day I spoke with colleagues about this and slowly, their stories also emerged of experiences they had struggled with. This paper reflects on interviews and focus groups with those colleagues, and on more recent work as co-ordinator of the Researcher Wellbeing Group of the Centre for Applied Social Science at the University of Sunderland, where we have spent the past two years considering Emotions in research, Researcher Wellbeing and how to enhance Research Culture.

ABSTRACT. Qualitative research is inherently emotional. It requires researchers to engage deeply with participants’ experiences, often encountering moments of vulnerability, distress, or intense connection. Drawing from the perspective of the vulnerable observer (Behar, 1996), this paper reflects on the emotional labor of the researcher, emphasizing how emotions shape both the research process and its outcomes. Rather than merely exposing the researcher’s autobiographical horizon, adopting a vulnerable stance entails recognizing how personal subjectivities and positionalities filter one’s understanding of the field. I illustrate these dynamics through two research experiences: one with parents of premature infants, including those who faced perinatal loss or severe medical complications, and another with academic mothers navigating precarious employment—an experience I was simultaneously living. In both cases, moments of simultaneous sameness and difference (Ezzy, 2010) emerged, requiring an ongoing renegotiation of emotional display rules (Hochschild, 1983). These shifts in power and emotional engagement not only shaped rapport-building but also influenced the very direction of the research. By considering how emotions circulate within the research encounter—affecting both interviewees and interviewers—I argue that emotional reflexivity is not only an ethical necessity but also a methodological resource. Building on Douglas’ (1985) call for research as a creative search for mutual self-understanding, I advocate for greater recognition of emotional labor in fieldwork, urging researchers to integrate emotional literacy into methodological training and practice.

ABSTRACT. This presentation explores the complex emotional and ethical challenges faced by researchers conducting close-up studies of far-right movements, focusing on the tensions that arise when engaging with groups whose values, ideas, and worldviews are deeply misaligned with those of the researcher. Through a reflexive approach, the presentation explores the emotional burden of qualitative fieldwork in politically and morally contentious settings, where the act of listening, observing, and interacting can generate discomfort, cognitive dissonance, and moral distress. The first part of the presentation situates the study of far-right movements within the field of social movement studies, emphasizing the methodological dilemmas of qualitative research in such contexts. It examines the affective toll of prolonged immersion in environments where hostility, nationalist rhetoric, and exclusionary ideologies shape daily interactions. What strategies can be adopted to maintain analytical clarity while managing the visceral reactions that arise from engaging with narratives that contradict one’s fundamental beliefs? The second part of the presentation is grounded in my fieldwork on CasaPound Italia and reflects on the emotional dilemmas of studying the far right up close. It discusses the constant negotiation between empathy and detachment, the strain of maintaining relations with participants while internally rejecting their ideological premises, and the ethical questions that emerge when a researcher’s emotional reactions—frustration, unease, even fleeting moments of affinity—become integral to the research process. By centering the emotional experience of the researcher, this presentation contributes to the broader discussion on emotional literacy in qualitative fieldwork.

ABSTRACT. Preterm birth is a traumatic event impacting infant health and family well-being, presenting challenges during NICU stays and the transition home. The e-ParWelB project addresses this by developing a socio-psychological model integrating eHealth tools, social research, and psychological support for parents. The sociological aspect combines narrative interviews with medical staff and ethnography across NICUs in four Italian hospitals.

NICUs are highly distressing environments, as they confront social actors with the imminent risk of infant death or severe disability, disrupting the natural life trajectory. Discussing topics like neonatal mortality creates emotionally intense moments during interviews. This underscores the need for methodological reflexivity in emotionally charged research, recognizing data collection as an embedded, ethically complex process (Dickson-Swift et al., 2007).

Medical professionals create an apparent "normality" in the NICU's challenging environment to function daily. However, pivotal events, like initiating palliative care or a patient's death, evoke deeply disruptive emotions. Reflecting on specific situations or patients often resurfaces these intense feelings.

For external researchers without intensive care experience, initial NICU ethnography can be profoundly shocking, beyond academic preparation. This aligns with Bourdieu’s (1999) concept of participant objectivation, highlighting the need to critically examine one’s position and impact within the field and the research process. The NICU’s emotional intensity demands heightened reflexivity (Finlay, 2002), as the researcher’s emotions, subjectivity and positioning shape the co-construction of knowledge.

In this context, interviews may be not only a part of the information gathering process but also a cathartic moment. They create a shared emotional space where both interviewee and researcher support each other through traumatic experiences. Following the tradition of relational ethnography (Desmond, 2014), it becomes evident that the interview setting is not a neutral space but rather a co-constructed one, where both the researcher and the interviewee engage in an interactive process of meaning-making.

ABSTRACT. Based on a doctoral study and a research project conducted with breast cancer patients from diverse socio-economic backgrounds in France, this presentation explores the interplay between patients’ emotion management and the researcher’s own emotional experience in qualitative fieldwork. Through three cases, it examines how emotions are actively managed, negotiated, and, at times, destabilizing for both participants and the researcher. First, laughter and humor emerge as powerful tools for patients to reframe emotionally charged situations, either as self-mockery or to ease the burden on their relatives and caregivers. Second, some patients engage in comparative suffering, minimizing their distress by contrasting it with more severe conditions. While this fosters resilience, it also reflects a social expectation to endure hardship with composure. Lastly, the withdrawal of a patient-partner from the research project due to emotional exhaustion highlights the limits of engagement in collaborative research when illness-related emotional work becomes overwhelming.

These cases reveal not only the diverse strategies employed by breast cancer patients but also the ethical and methodological challenges for researchers navigating intense emotions in the field. How do we acknowledge and integrate these emotional dimensions into our research practice? What strategies help researchers manage their own affective responses? By reflecting on these questions, this presentation aims to contribute to the broader discussion on emotional literacy in qualitative research.

ABSTRACT. This paper explores the intersection of gender inequality, societal structures, and short-term fertility intentions through an innovative methodological lens, contributing to the broader understanding of gender and political behaviour. Using feminist theories of gender regimes and Giordano’s (2019) classification of European gender regimes (Scandinavian, Continental, and Mediterranean), the study examines how structural inequalities and traditional gender roles shape reproductive decision-making in Finland, Germany, and Spain.

The research employs a mixed-methods design, integrating data from the Generations and Gender Survey (2018–2021) and the Spanish Fertility Survey (INE, 2018). Classification and Regression Trees (CART) are used as a novel methodological tool to identify non-linear relationships and gender-specific patterns of marginalization in fertility intentions. Predictor variables include employment, financial conditions, caregiving responsibilities, gender-related attitudes, and sociodemographic factors. This approach highlights the potential of advanced computational techniques to operationalize gender and uncover complex dynamics in comparative contexts.

Preliminary findings reveal significant gendered disparities in fertility intentions, with caregiving responsibilities and employment being key determinants for women, while financial stability and gender attitudes are more influential for men. Mediterranean countries exhibit higher levels of marginalization among women, while Scandinavian countries, with more progressive gender norms, show higher fertility intentions and reduced inequalities. These findings underscore the importance of interweaving gender-sensitive methodologies with comparative political analysis better to understand the impact of structural inequalities on individual behaviour.

By applying an innovative methodological framework, this research contributes to developing gender-sensitive tools in political and social science research. It offers valuable insights for addressing gender-based marginalization and advancing policies that promote equality in reproductive decision-making.

ABSTRACT. This paper presents the index developed by the authors to measure the gender sensitivity of parliaments. The indicators are based on the institutional feminist definition of gender-sensitive parliaments. The concept of gender-sensitive parliaments refers to a parliament that responds to the needs of both women and men in its composition, structure, processes, and outputs, while seeking to eliminate barriers to women's full participation (Palmieri, 2019: 177). This definition includes key elements such as the balanced presence of women and men, the rules and practices governing parliamentary activity, parliamentary culture, and the legislation and other outputs produced by the parliament (Childs & Palmieri, 2020). In developing the index, three dimensions have been considered: descriptive representation (understood as the proportion of women and men), the substantive representation of women (examined through their role in institutional leadership positions and their promotion of gender equality measures), and an analysis of equality actions implemented at the level of parliamentary functioning. The authors have applied the index to two case studies: the Spanish Congress of Deputies and the Basque Autonomous Parliament. This study builds upon the findings from both case studies and proposes a revision and enhancement of the indicators that should constitute the index. The aim is to enable a more in-depth analysis and, most importantly, to facilitate its use in comparative research.

ABSTRACT. It is increasingly recognised that measuring human and economic development and societal progress solely in terms of income is inadequate (UNDP, 2009, 2010; OECD, 2013a, 2013b; European Commission, 2013; OECD, 2023). While income measures remain significant for various policy purposes, they arguably fail to capture the comprehensive picture of individuals' current and future well-being. The concept of well-being adopted in this article acknowledges the extensive debate regarding its definition (OECD, 2013a, 2013b; UNDP, 1990; Stiglitz et al., 2009; Stiglitz et al., 2018), a discussion that spans from income-based measures to multidimensional understandings of well-being. This approach is aligned with the ongoing efforts to establish, develop, report, and integrate well-being indicators within the budgetary process (OECD, 2023). The framework for measuring well-being developed in this paper draws from the theoretical foundations of objective well-being, particularly the capabilities approach, which was advanced by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, and combined with insights from theories of subjective well-being. By integrating these two perspectives, incorporating a gender lens, and recognising the necessity of applying the methodology within the budgeting process, we have created a methodological model for measuring well-being. This model has produced a well-being budget indicator, enabling the ranking of public expenditures according to their impact on the well-being of women and men, which can be utilised in the budgetary process.

ABSTRACT. This study investigates the intersection of gender and political affiliation in Brazil's federal bureaucracy, focusing on discretionary appointments to high-level positions within ministerial departments. Drawing on data from the SIAPE system (1999–2018) and employing logistic regression models, it analyses the influence of gender, race, partisan affiliation, ties to the public sector, and education on appointments to levels 5, 6, and 7. The findings reveal that gender and political affiliation are pivotal factors: women are significantly underrepresented at higher hierarchical levels, with their likelihood of appointment decreasing at levels 6 and 7. Conversely, partisan affiliation increases the probability of securing these positions, underscoring the enduring role of political patronage in Brazil’s coalition presidential system. The study highlights the dual challenges of gender bias and political opportunism in achieving equitable representation in public administration. While the presence of women in level 5 roles has increased, their progression to higher positions remains constrained by structural and cultural barriers. This research contributes to the discourse on representative bureaucracy by providing empirical evidence on the gendered dynamics of political appointments. It advocates for policies to address these disparities, including transparent selection processes and measures promoting gender equality, ultimately enriching governance and policymaking in Brazil.

ABSTRACT. An indicator is defined as a simple and reliable tool for measuring achievements, reflecting the evolution of social change and assessing the impact of actions and interventions. It also enables comparative studies to be carried out and different contexts to be ranked according to the scores obtained. Can women's political participation in peacebuilding processes be measured? If so, what are the elements to be taken into account, and how can different elements be quantitatively weighted to construct a single indicator? Furthermore, are indicators and dimensions used in other contexts of participation useful?

This paper explores this possibility and reflects on the different dimensions that a participation index should have in order to measure this reality in different contexts. This paper is presented within the framework of the activities of the research Project “Women's participation in processes of transitional justice. Peacebuilding proposals in Colombia, Guatemala and Peru - PROMUJER

ABSTRACT. The study of the determinants of gender attitudes has increasingly grown in recent years, with the development of different theoretical explanations. On the one hand, the modernization theory emphasizes the change of values at the generational cohorts, second, studies focus on how the partisan-ideological polarization fuel gender backlash and, on the other hand, a more sociological-economic explanation would point to the sense of threat perceived by out-groups who feel left behind by the advances of feminism. This article aims to test the predictive explanatory capacity of three theories on gender attitudes in three realms: societal, labour and domestic. Using structural equation modelling, we propose to identify key relationships between variables that affect the predisposition to support or reject gender equality. We rely on data from an original survey developed by the UNTWIST project (Policy recommendations to regain ‘losers of feminism’ as mainstream voters. https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101060836 ) in six European countries (Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, Spain, and the UK).

ABSTRACT. The structure of political conflict in Western European democracies has shifted with the rise of populist parties, capitalizing on the crisis of mainstream representation. Research suggests younger individuals are more likely to support populist parties, yet it remains unclear whether this pattern stems from cohort differences, life-cycle stages, or systemic shifts affecting all voters. Among these, generational differences may have the most lasting impact, as cohort electoral behavior tends to remain stable over time. This is because values shaped through early socialization provide a foundation for political attitudes. To address this gap, this study applies Age-Period-Cohort (APC) analysis across eight Western European countries (2002–2024) using ESS, EES, ITANES, and ELNES data. Findings indicate that the 2008 economic crisis increased populist support across the whole population. However, in some countries, individuals socialized during the crisis are particularly inclined to support populist parties, especially on the left. By leveraging cross-national survey data, this study highlights both the immediate destabilization of party systems and the long-term impact of economic and societal crises on younger cohorts’ electoral behavior.

ABSTRACT. In this contribution, we will present a case study that is based on the integrated use of data from the joint World Values Survey and European Values Study data (joint EVS-WVS 2017-2022 data-set), in combination also with other sources from both other international surveys and non-survey data, such as, for example, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) database and other indices with nation as a unit of measurement. The utilisation of these data has been instrumental in the construction of the World Love Index (WLI), a longitudinal and transnational index designed to serve as a detection tool of social love as a proxy for social well-being. In our study, we adopt a definition of social love that encompasses four constituent dimensions: overabundance, care of the others and the world, recognition of the other and universalism. This definition involves extensive use of indicators closely related to the concepts of solidarity, environmentalism, gender equality, trust and democracy. Furthermore, during the construction of the WLI, a series of prolonged deliberations were undertaken, in conjunction with an international panel of experts hailing from a multitude of culturally diverse backgrounds, concerning the enhancement of the comparability of the data derived from the surveys, which, although also collected at a global level (in particular the WVS), are based on a purely Western view, both as regards the content of the questions and the methods of answering them, and as regards the method of survey used, specifically the use of a structured and standardised questionnaire. As a result of our reflections, we have explored several options which, although they do not resolve the issue of intercultural comparability at its roots, may offer a more informed interpretation of this bias.

ABSTRACT. This paper examines the causal impact of climate change awareness on the mental health and economic decisions of youth in 20 high-income countries. With a concerning rise in young people’s mental health and inactivity rates, this study seeks to understand how awareness of climate change affects mental health and economic choices among the youth. We will combine three sources of information: the European Social Survey to obtain information on individuals’ health, education, climate beliefs, and associated preferences; national-level voting for green parties and a green policies index from OECD and Eurostat databases, respectively. This research will use an instrumental variable approach to identify causal links between climate change awareness and young adults’ mental health and economic outcomes by exploiting variation across time and regions. Preliminary findings indicate that increased climate awareness is associated with a significant reduction in the well-being and mental health of young adults. Moreover, this heightened awareness appears to contribute to delays in making long-term financial commitments, including home ownership and investments in higher education. These findings offer evidence-based recommendations to design interventions that enhance young people’s resilience to climate change threats and improve their mental health and future economic prospects.

ABSTRACT. Web surveys offer several important advantages over F2F interviews: they are cheaper, faster, more accessible, and mitigate some methodological issues, such as interviewer effects and desirability bias. As a result, web surveys are gaining popularity in both scientific and commercial research. However, they often produce non-representative samples, potentially leading to biased public opinion estimates.

Most research on web surveys has focused on developed countries, with limited attention to developing contexts. A few papers that go beyond WEIRD nations are typically case studies of single countries (except for Castorena et al. 2023). In contrast, we assess web surveys in a comparative perspective. Specifically, we compare the “Values in Crisis" (ViC) survey (2020-2021, online opt-in panels with quota sampling) with the 7th wave of the World Values Survey (WVS) (2017-2022, face-to-face multi-stage stratified sampling). Our analysis covers nine countries — Brazil, China, Chile, Germany, Greece, Japan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and the United Kingdom — representing diverse demographic, economic, and political contexts.

Key comparison dimensions of interest for us are demographic coverage and substantive estimates (national mean scores) for 18 attitudinal questions present in both the WVS and the ViC questionnaires, including measures of life satisfaction, trust, life goals, attitudes toward authorities, national pride, religiosity, postmaterialist values, and support for gender equality and reproductive freedom.

Our results suggest that WVS samples better approximate national demographics, though ViC samples, in general, do not perform much worse. At the same time, in many countries, web surveys show up to 30% higher support for gender equality in the labor market, abortion, and homosexuality, while indicating lower religiosity, national pride, and life satisfaction. For other attitudes, the differences are less pronounced. Importantly, the aforementioned discrepancies persist even after adjusting for uneven demographic coverage (via weighting and matching) and different sampling frames (by restricting WVS respondents to internet users).

ABSTRACT. Secularization theory suggests that religiosity declines over time, yet the study of religious change across countries faces a critical challenge: the potential noninvariance of religiosity measurement. Previous research has indicated that measures of religiosity are culturally specific, raising doubts about the universality of religiosity and its measurement across diverse countries. Nevertheless, it was demonstrated that religiosity measures can achieve approximate invariance across some European countries. However, whether these measures are invariant not only across countries but also over time has yet to be investigated. Without temporal invariance, observed changes in religiosity may reflect shifts in the understanding of religiosity and its measurement, rather than true societal trends, thereby undermining the validity of comparisons over time. This study examines the measurement invariance of religious involvement (RI)—captured by the frequency of an individual's religious attendance, frequency of praying, and self-assessed religiosity indicators—across 11 rounds of the European Social Survey (2002–2024). Using a one-factor model of RI and the alignment method, we find that while exact invariance across rounds is largely absent, approximate invariance holds in all countries, providing reliable, aligned factor means for assessing trends in RI in European countries over time. Further analysis reveals patterns of religious decline across Europe, while some countries exhibit stable or even increasing levels of RI, diverging from the overall trend. Additionally, we discuss the polarization of countries based on the varying dynamics of their RI and provide several possible explanations for the divergent trends.

ABSTRACT. Sensitive topics pose a challenge in social science survey research. In this context, various techniques have been developed to assess sensitive issues, such as the randomized response technique, the sealed envelope method, or wording and framing techniques. However, some of these techniques are unsuitable for online surveys. In our study, we tested the direct and indirect measurement of experiences with racism and subsequently conducted a comparative analysis of these two measurement instruments. These instruments were applied in the context of a large, probability-based survey on the integration of migrant women in Germany, the so-called "DeZIM.panel." The aim was to determine the extent of racist experiences using both instruments and to identify differences in respondents' answers. Our descriptive findings indicate that the instruments yield different prevalence rates, with the indirect instrument reporting a higher prevalence. Furthermore, multivariate analyses aimed at explaining these differences reveal that men, younger respondents, and migrant women are more likely to report racist experiences using the indirect instrument, whereas respondents' educational levels had no discernible impact on the measurement.

ABSTRACT. Focus groups are used for qualitative research, with rules governing their use. Some literature advises against their use in studies on sensitive issues. This communication is based on the use of focus groups to study social representations of students at the University of Coimbra regarding sexual harassment. This method was chosen mainly because of the advantages, such as the speed of the information-gathering process and its richness in better understanding the attitudes, beliefs, and feelings of the participants. Another aspect was the use of group interaction to avoid individualizing the problem and the risk to become a moment for denouncing these behaviours, and to access the way in which the phenomenon is socially constructed. However, it is linked to practices, private experiences, values, and romantic/sexual histories that are difficult to share in a group context. This method was applied in mixed-gender and in exclusively male and female groups. In all of them, very different themes emerged, and the comfort level varied. I had access to a variety of opinions, and I found that being in a group made some participants feel more comfortable. In a way, it ended up becoming a moment of collective learning and understanding of the dimensions of sexual harassment. One disadvantage was the resistance to talking about personal experiences, and, at a time when awareness of the problem was growing, this topic was very sensitive for many students. I reduced the number of participants (5-6), but this impacted the fluidity of the discussions and the interaction, which was more restrained compared to moments when the topic was glossed over or barely discussed. The context of hyper sexualization in academia was addressed more than the experiences of violence, which hints at the normalization of sexual harassment, but this cannot be understood as such.

ABSTRACT. Loneliness in general amongst youth is an underresearched topic in certain aspects. For example we have some knowledge about incels and about loneliness amongst young people who live with mental helath issues, but we lack general knowledge about loneliness amongst young people. If we examine the data of the Hungarian Youth Research 2020, we can see that amongst the hungarian youth, 25 precent of the 15-29 year olds has never had a serious relationship and 17 percent of them have never been on a date before (Tóth – Fekete – Nagy, 2022). Loneliness in general is a is a sensitive topic which is not easy to research, and it can also lead to social isolation which is a private matter. How can we recognize loneliness amongst youth and what kind of challenges and opportinities we have to conduct a research amongst the students at the University of Szeged? In my presentation I would like to describe the process of our research – e. g. the challenges of the conceptualization process and to find the best methods to collect data.

ABSTRACT. Student dropout is a significant yet underexplored issue in Russian higher education, particularly within teacher training master’s programs. Investigating the causes of dropout presents methodological and ethical challenges, as it requires addressing sensitive topics such as academic struggles, disillusionment with the profession, and personal hardships. This study explores these factors through the lens of V. Tinto's (1993) theory of student attrition, which emphasizes the role of academic and social integration in students' decisions to persist or withdraw. The research employs a qualitative approach, utilizing semi-structured in-depth interviews with former students (n=21) of the pedagogical master’s program at the Institute of Education, Higher School of Economics (HSE), Moscow. Participants were recruited through purposive and snowball sampling to ensure diversity in experiences. Thematic analysis was conducted following Braun and Clarke’s (2006) framework, enabling the identification of patterns and underlying mechanisms contributing to dropout. Given the sensitivity of the topic, methodological rigor was ensured through reflexivity, triangulation of perspectives, and adherence to ethical research principles. Participants were informed of their right to withdraw at any stage, interviews were conducted in a neutral and supportive environment, and open-ended questioning allowed respondents to control the depth of disclosure. The analysis reveals a typology of dropout factors and examines the complexities of discussing these issues with participants. Key causes include difficulties in balancing employment and studies, limited social integration, and growing disillusionment with the teaching profession. Additionally, students without prior teaching experience faced significant challenges in lesson planning and instructional delivery. This study highlights the importance of careful methodological approaches when investigating dropout, ensuring that sensitive topics are addressed ethically while yielding meaningful insights into student attrition.

ABSTRACT. Social and cultural norms experienced during formative years, alongside socialisation experiences within the family of origin, play a crucial role in shaping individual perceptions of the future, personal expectations, and life choices. As Italian society undergoes profound transformations in terms of social norms, cultural values, and demographic and family behaviours, it is essential to explore how these changes influence younger generations. This study aims to investigate the expectations of young adults concerning family structures and personal relationships as well as how these perspectives are shaped by their past experiences of socialisation. It also addresses the role of cultural and societal shifts in defining relational norms and aspirations. To achieve these objectives, a qualitative approach will be employed using focus groups as the data collection method, involving young Italian people aged 20 to 29. Focus groups will facilitate open discussions, enabling participants to express complex thoughts and personal values that might not emerge in surveys or interviews, making them ideal for exploring topics like family aspirations and future relationships. Topics of discussion will include how young people imagine their future family lives, whether they anticipate forming traditional family units or alternative arrangements, and what factors influence these expectations. Given the sensitivity of the topics discussed, the focus groups will be conducted in a safe and non-judgemental environment to ensure participants feel comfortable expressing their views and experiences freely. An in-depth analysis of these discussions, employing an inductive approach, will identify recurring themes and relational patterns, offering valuable insights into how family background and personal experiences influence young adults’ visions of future relationships. The findings will contribute to a broader understanding of how evolving social dynamics shape the way young people envision their personal relationships and family lives into adulthood.

ABSTRACT. This paper presents Large Language Models (LLMs) that leverage data from the Manifesto Project and other expert surveys to distinguish three political dimensions within the texts of political parties around the world. It focuses on identifying populist versus non-populist stances, ideological positioning, and liberal versus illiberal characteristics. The models can analyze texts in more than 30 languages. They achieve an accuracy of nearly 90% for detecting populist stances and liberal/illiberal characteristics, and over 90% for identifying ideological positioning. However, accuracy varies across languages, with English and Spanish yielding the highest accuracy. This paper highlights the potential of LLMs to meaningfully identify political texts. Moreover, it demonstrates the value of human expert knowledge in training and validating these tools. The models presented have the potential to become a powerful resource for the general public, practitioners, policymakers, and academics seeking reliable insights into the stances of political parties.

ABSTRACT. Many logit types of models are commonly and routinely used in a wide variety of scientific fields such as in social sciences, economics, health sciences, and other fields to model categorical outcomes. Some common types include binary logit model, multinomial logit model, ordinal logistic regression, conditional logit model, mixed logit model, and panel logit models. Compared with linear models, the direct interpretation of coefficients from logit models is generally much less straightforward and much less accurate. Logit models are usually interpreted using one or two following methods: odds ratio, marginal effects, predicted probabilities, and microsimulation. In this project, we aim at accomplishing four objectives. First, we provide a description of the microsimulation approach as contrasted to the other interpretation approaches. Second, we demonstrate the procedures how microsimulation could be implemented in STATA, R and SAS using data examples. Third, we experiment with AI tools for microsimulation and compare the processes and the results with the traditional way of conducting microsimulation. Four, comment on the usefulness of AI tools for data analysis.

ABSTRACT. The growing integration of messaging applications into broader social media ecosystems has raised critical questions about their evolving roles. WhatsApp, initially designed as a private messaging service, has increasingly been used for commercial, informational, and community-building purposes. This study examines WhatsApp’s functions beyond messaging by analyzing Facebook posts containing references to the platform. Using a fine-tuned Large Language Model (LLM), we automated the classification of 10,000 Facebook posts into predefined categories. To assess the feasibility of LLM-assisted content coding, we compared its performance with human coders, measuring inter-coder reliability using Cohen’s Kappa.

Results show that the agreement between the LLM and the original coder, while lower than that between two human coders, remained significantly high, demonstrating that LLMs can be effective tools for large-scale content analysis. The findings also reinforce the argument that WhatsApp is more than a messaging app—it functions as a social media platform where users engage in commercial transactions, job recruitment, information dissemination, and community organization. These insights align with existing literature on WhatsApp’s transformation into a space for digital networking and content sharing.

This case study contributes to both methodological and theoretical discussions. First, it provides empirical evidence on the viability of LLMs for automating large-scale content classification, a critical task in digital media research. Second, it offers a nuanced understanding of WhatsApp’s socio-digital role, emphasizing its growing importance in online public discourse. The study suggests that AI-assisted analysis can complement human coding efforts, increasing efficiency without sacrificing reliability.

ABSTRACT. Our study’s main contribution lies in generating new knowledge about the use of AI among PhD students and early-career researchers in the social sciences. While most studies focus on AI’s role in specific disciplines—such as psychology, health sciences, administration, and education—or in discrete academic tasks like literature reviews and scientific writing, our research takes a broader, PhD-centered, multinational, and multidisciplinary perspective. We explore how researchers approach and select AI tools, how they interact and collaborate with AI systems, and how they integrate these technologies into their workflows to achieve their research objectives. This study integrates Actor-Network Theory (ANT) (Latour, 2005; Callon, 1986) and the Co-Intelligence Framework (Mollick, 2024) to examine AI’s role in academic knowledge production. ANT provides a lens for analyzing AI’s evolving agency, while Mollick’s approach emphasizes experimentation and critical engagement with AI as a co-creator of knowledge. By combining these perspectives, this research examines how AI tools shape knowledge co-creation, research workflows, and epistemic authority within academic ecosystems. We conducted an exploratory survey among PhD students in social sciences in Europe, using a mixed-method approach that integrates quantitative analysis of responses with qualitative critical discourse analysis of the prompts. The analysis of prompting styles reveals varying degrees of agency and roles attributed to AI tools by human agents. We conceptualized four main categories of AI agency, each representing distinct patterns of human-AI collaboration: (1) tutoring/teaching agent, (2) subordinate assistant, (3) cognitive partner, and (4) substitutive partner. AI tools are mainly used for academic writing, with background research and literature reviews as secondary applications. While PhD students rated AI-generated content lowest in originality, they found translation support and writing enhancement most beneficial. Responses suggest a shift toward fluid knowledge creation, integrating human critical thinking with AI’s data processing, highlighting AI’s versatility and the challenges of human-AI collaboration.

ABSTRACT. AI and big data are undoubtedly transforming the landscape of social research (Anderson, 2008). They are offering new and innovative tools for analysing complex phenomena (Airoldi, 2022). Within this context, AI emerges as a tool for researcher empowerment, enhancing both the efficiency and accuracy of analyses (Christou, 2025). This study draws on secondary data from the research Emotional Dynamics in Educational Relationships within Digital Learning Spaces (Sapienza Università di Roma – Scientific Coordinator Veronica Lo Presti) and explores the role of emerging AI technologies in enhancing various phases of the research process. The aim of this contribution is to examine the extent to which emerging AI technologies can be utilized in social research (Bail, 2024) and to assess their potential in terms of methodological innovation and researcher empowerment. The analysis focuses on the benefits of AI, including increased speed and efficiency in data processing, the improvement of research quality by automating repetitive tasks, and the identification of patterns and trends that are difficult to detect with traditional tools (Mazzeo Rinaldi & Occhipinti, 2023). Another aspect addressed is the reciprocal enrichment between social research methodology and other fields of knowledge. This not only expands the researcher's toolkit but also fosters methodological evolution capable of responding to the new challenges posed by the digital era (Addeo, Mauceri, Punziano, 2022). However, the integration of AI into social research raises new and significant methodological and ethical concerns (Giuffrida & Mazzeo Rinaldi, 2020). The study shows that a critical use of AI, when accompanied by ethical and methodological reflection, can have a significant impact on the use of techniques and tools specific to social research. To achieve this, it is essential to adopt an approach that balances technological innovation, research ethics, and interdisciplinary dialogue.

ABSTRACT. Social science research increasingly employs artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse complex human behaviour and social phenomena. However, AI systems have demonstrated particular vulnerability to adversarial attacks, i.e. deliberate manipulations designed to confuse or mislead algorithmic decision-making. We examine how adversarial vulnerabilities create unique methodological and ethical challenges for social research integrity. In social contexts, adversarial attacks may manifest when research subjects strategically modify their behaviour to influence outcomes or when external actors manipulate input data to skew research findings. A critical aspect is data poisoning, where training data is compromised to induce systematic biases, e.g., by exploiting the reality-altering effect of deep-fake content, especially on social media datasets. These vulnerabilities pose significant risks to research validity and reliability. Social phenomena captured through AI-mediated observation may represent strategic performances rather than authentic behaviour. We believe that a combined approach is desirable for addressing these challenges, including: • technical safeguards (including a deepfake detector tool, or adversarial training and robust optimisation) • methodological approaches (such as emphasising triangulation and mixed-methods validation) • ethical guidelines prioritising transparency and participatory design We argue that acknowledging adversarial vulnerabilities strengthens research integrity and offers unique insights into human agency and resistance within algorithmic systems.

ABSTRACT. This work examines the critical role of ethics in open science, emphasizing its fundamental importance in promoting responsible research practices, transparent knowledge sharing, and meaningful community engagement. Ethical considerations are essential not only for ensuring compliance with legal and institutional frameworks but also for fostering trust among researchers, institutions, and the broader public. By adhering to key ethical principles, open science fosters collaboration, inclusivity and responsible knowledge advancement. Although ethics is fundamental in any research context, it becomes even more critical in projects with high collective value and significant social impact. Open science initiatives often deal with sensitive data, diverse stakeholder interests, and complex governance structures, making ethical integrity a cornerstone of their success. These issues, including informed consent, data privacy and the equitable distribution of research benefits, must be carefully addressed to uphold fairness and transparency. Within this framework, the contribution examines practical cases developed within the FOSSR infrastructure (Fostering Open Science in Social Science Research), focusing on its four main lines of activity: IOPP, GGS, GUIDE, and SHARE. Specifically, it explores how ethical evaluation, proper data management and adherence to ethical standards shape research in these contexts. The analysis highlights key challenges and best practices related to open science, the governance of large-scale demographic and social surveys, the ethical implications of international data harmonization and the responsible management of sensitive survey data.

ABSTRACT. With the Occupation and Competence Radar https://www.bibb.de/en/170512.php, the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) is developing an innovative database for vocational education and training as well as labor market development. The Radar differs from other portals in the range of topics covered (e.g. digitalization, green economy, staff shortages, job flexibility and fitting problems, apprenticeship quote, continuous vocational education and training (CVET) opportunities, advanced training courses, job prestige, job exposure and satisfaction, ….) and the possibilities for combining them at sectoral and occupational level. We bring together a wide variety of data sources, from process-produced data, big data (e.g. job advertisements, commercial registers, social media data), to classic panel and trend surveys and qualitative case studies. What these data sources have in common is that they provide differentiated information about the profession and/or demonstrate sector differentiation and are as regionalizable as possible. With the help of the German-Labor Market Ontology (GLMO), the different job titles and classifications can be brought together and mapped to the standardized German occupational classification (KldB) and the ISCO. In addition, the necessary occupational skills and tools can be described and linked to various standards. Missing levels of differentiation are estimated by adjusting marginal sums. The entire data material is shown on the basis of around 1,500 occupations, 63 industries and 16 regions for Germany. With the help of the very differentiated information in job advertisements, we expand the professional information by adding competency requirements from both the job advertisements and the training regulations. The data set is based on the total population of Germany according to the national accounts and has been harmonized with this. This means that an overall macroeconomic model that is also differentiated by industry and occupation can project developments into the future.

ABSTRACT. Historically, Italian social science research communities have struggled with poor research infrastructure and a critical lack of longitudinal data, with profound consequences for understanding and addressing social change. Based on a probability sample of approximately 10,000 individuals aged 18-74, drawn from the national population register, the Italian Online Probability Panel (IOPP) will be the first initiative in Italy to produce high-quality longitudinal survey data monitoring social transformations. IOPP is an open infrastructure, both in terms of input and output, and this represents a significant step forward for the Italian social science community. The panel’s surveys will feature a core questionnaire exploring enduring themes – family and housing, education, work, income, inequality, vulnerability, and political attitudes – and rotating modules aimed at tracking emerging societal issues. Moreover, researchers and their teams will have the opportunity to propose additional modules via open calls to explore topics not included in the core questionnaire or to delve deeper into existing topics. Data will be released through the FOSSR infrastructure, in an open format that complies with FAIR principles. Datasets will be Findable through persistent identifiers (PIDs) and descriptive metadata, Accessible via authentication and authorization systems, Interoperable with other data and tools, and Reusable under an open-access license. The datasets will adhere to international classification standards to ensure comparability with other major European and international surveys. Detailed metadata will provide a comprehensive description of data production and interpretation, ensuring that the data is easily usable by all. Data will be available in two main formats: aggregated data and microdata for research, in compliance with GDPR regulations. By leveraging traditional survey methodologies alongside advanced tools for data maintenance, IOPP represents a transformative step in embedding Italy within the global ecosystem of social science research, while promoting transparency, accountability, and the advancement of Open Science.

ABSTRACT. The growing complexity of research data infrastructures presents both opportunities and challenges for social science research. A persistent hurdle is the burden of repetitive, error-prone data management tasks that consume valuable time and resources. The ‘Data as Code’ (DaC) paradigm offers a transformative solution by applying software development methodologies to research data management. This approach enhances reproducibility, efficiency, and transparency, aligning with the Open Science and the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) principles for digital research infrastructures, thereby fostering methodological rigor and innovation. This presentation explores the integration of programmatic tools, artificial intelligence, and the DaC approach within social science data infrastructures, contributing to ongoing discussions on the future of research data management while providing practical insights for researchers and data archivists to improve data usability and long-term preservation. Through case studies from the Data Archive for Social Sciences in Italy (DASSI) — the Italian Service Provider of CESSDA ERIC — we demonstrate how these methodologies improve data quality, reproducibility, and long-term preservation. By reducing manual interventions and enhancing data curation processes, this approach minimizes human error and bolsters data archiving, accessibility, and interoperability, thereby allowing professionals to dedicate more time to critical, high-value tasks. By embracing the Data as Code paradigm, research infrastructures can move beyond traditional matrix-based data structures, enabling seamless integration and management of diverse data formats.This flexibility ensures that heterogeneous datasets — ranging from hierarchical and nested data to unstructured sources — can be seamlessly integrated, curated, and disseminated, expanding the scope and potential of social science research.

ABSTRACT. The preservation and sharing of social science data is not new, with domain specific data archives operating and developing since the 1970s. Today, 22 Member States and 12 partners are associated in the Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA). Slovenia has been a member of CESSDA since 1997, with the Social Science Data Archives from the University of Ljubljana (ADP) as service provider. ADP provides selection and permanent curation of quality data from the Slovenian research landscape and access to it for the target communities. Research involving sensitive data, e.g. special categories of personal data, is particularly challenging and labour-intensive. In the process of acquisition, ADP determines whether the research meets the requirements of the GDPR and national legislation and checks the potential usability of the data. In doing so, it follows the principle: "open as much as possible, closed as much as necessary". In this presentation, we will describe the process by which the ADP takes over the material from the researcher, verifies compliance with legal requirements, assesses the risk of disclosure of research participants, and applies safeguards such as anonymisation and restricted access to data (e.g. safe room environment). During the process, the ADP carries out an assessment of the quality of the material taken over, taking into account methodology, sampling, integrity of the material, and the potential for reuse by different audiences. Dilemmas and solutions will be illustrated by two international research projects involving sensitive personal data. The social science data archives associated in CESSDA are an important actor in the implementation of the principles of open science and in particular the FAIR principles. The special value for the social sciences is that they ensure the continuous development of infrastructure and services, tailored to the target users, and build high-quality datasets for future research.

ABSTRACT. The contemporary media landscape presents significant challenges for democratic societies, particularly with the spread of fake news and declining trust in science. Traditional media organizations rely on journalistic standards for verification of information, yet the rapid evolution of communication technologies calls for new strategies to combat misinformation. This study explores the role of science communication in fostering public trust, engagement, and resilience against fake news.

While technological solutions such as algorithmic fact-checking dominate current responses, this research shifts the focus to social and human factors. It examines how trust in science can be cultivated through collaborative efforts involving scientists, journalists, and community stakeholders. A discussion paper by the Pan-European Academies (ALLEA, 2022) underscores the importance of scientists actively participating in online discourse to expose and counter misinformation. Addressing knowledge gaps in the effective dissemination of scientific information is critical, as skepticism towards science can negatively affect public health, risk perception, and societal stability.

This study aims to assess the science audience in Lithuania through a representative survey (n=1000), segmenting the population based on cognitive, behavioral, and personality factors. Unlike previous studies that focus primarily on sociodemographic variables, this research identifies stable associations between attitudes toward science, fake news, and media consumption habits. The methodology incorporates tools such as the Swiss Science Audience Cluster Analysis, a German survey on fake news attitudes, and the Big Five-2 personality assessment.

Findings contribute to science communication strategies by defining audience segments and tailoring engagement methods. The results offer actionable recommendations to enhance public trust in science and mitigate the impact of misinformation, ultimately reinforcing democratic resilience and informed decision-making in an era of rapid information exchange.

ABSTRACT. In recent years, mainstream social media platforms have redefined their content moderation policies in response to regulatory pressures, technological advancements, and transformations in public discourse on freedom of expression and misinformation control (Gillespie, 2018). In this context, Meta (Facebook, Instagram, and Threads) has recently implemented a significant reform, replacing traditional fact-checking with the Community Notes system, a collaborative verification mechanism already adopted by X (formerly Twitter) (Vosoughi et al., 2018). However, despite relying on user contributions, this system is regulated by algorithms that determine the selection, visibility, and reliability of the annotations, thus influencing moderation dynamics and the circulation of information (Napoli, 2019). This change raises questions about its effectiveness, compliance with the European Union’s Digital Services Act (European Commission, 2022), and its broader implications for online public discourse (Zuboff, 2019). Given these premises, this study examines user perceptions of the introduction of Community Notes through a comparative analysis of comments generated on Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook and Instagram posts related to this policy change. The objective is to assess the extent to which users support or oppose the new model and identify the main arguments emerging in the online debate. This research adopts a qualitative approach based on digital ethnography (Sumiala & Tikka, 2020) and systematic content analysis. A total of 1,000 comments from Facebook and 1,000 from Instagram will be manually collected and categorized using NVivo software according to the following parameters: stance on the change (supportive, opposed, neutral), type of argumentation (epistemic, ideological, experiential, technological, comparative), comment tone (constructive, adversarial, ironic), and engagement metrics (number of reactions, replies, and shares). The comparative analysis will provide valuable insights into the differences between the two platforms and the role of collaborative moderation in balancing freedom of expression with the need to counter disinformation.

ABSTRACT. The logic of setting the agenda, that the media doesn’t tell people what to think but rather what to think about, also involves digital media, in transferring issues salience to the public, making certain issues or attributes more prominent in people’s minds. Our study analyzes the impact of viral news on public opinion during the 2024 Venezuelan election campaign, marked by censorship and disinformation, seeking to determine whether the virality of news reflects the electoral climate of citizens (Sangiorgio, et.al. 2024; Kowal, 2023). Viral news on social media were analyzed during the campaign period, with two main research questions: Is virality a way of setting the agenda for candidates? Is it a proxy for citizens' electoral opinion climate?

An innovative methodology for measuring the opinion climate was designed, based on the most viral publications. The impact generated by 420 viral news items was analyzed and viral post items from the candidates on Instagram and Facebook during the presidential campaign period. Virality was contrasted with interaction data and social sentiment analysis using AI (ChatGPT), based on comments on viral posts, analyzing the tone and content of comments on Instagram to identify emotions, opinions, and prevailing narratives.

Initial results showed that, although the government narrative had a greater number of news items and virality, a relationship of 56% government vs. 43% opposition, the comments reflected rejection and disbelief towards official information. The officialist virality was associated with the rejection of the candidate, while that of the opposition was mostly positive. For its part, the opposition used social networks to make its campaign visible in the face of censorship. Early conclusions show that viral news and comments are reliable indicators of how candidates try to set the agenda, and allow to understand where the opinion of the electorate is leaning.

ABSTRACT. The concepts of “fake”, “disinformation”, “misinformation”, and “propaganda”, as components of the Disinformation Study, have become firmly established in everyday vocabulary not only in the journalistic community and among media experts, but also in a much wider audience. These concepts are partly perceived as synonymous, although each has its own characteristics, nature, and consequences. For example, fakes concern the unreliable information to disinform the audience. It has a large number of subspecies and can be classified according to several features: form, scale, consequences. Media literacy presents an important soft skill for all Internet users, but for Ukrainians, it becomes much more important - the country has been in a state of full-scale war for the fourth year. Thus, information security presents an extremely important component of national security especially in wartime. So the Internet with social media is a battlefield, a confrontation with the aggressor country. Along with the unprecedented opportunities that the network provides for information and communication, a number of threats arise: - the spread of hostile narratives to Ukrainian and foreign audiences; - the spread of fakes, and disinformation; - the publication of the consequences of enemy shelling, bombardment, etc. that helps the enemy adjust further shelling. But recently, cases of using social media for criminal, subversive activities have become more and more frequent. Ukrainian law enforcement officers share recorded cases of Russian curators recruiting perpetrators for crimes against Ukrainian defenders in Telegram. Sometimes it was possible to stop the crime, in other cases - we have facts of the death of Ukrainian servicemen and the perpetrators themselves. The objective of this study is to analyze similar cases (Telegram, law enforcement statements) to establish patterns and trends in such offenses and then to develop recommendations for systematic countermeasures and prevention of their occurrence in the future.

ABSTRACT. Between 2003 and 2018, Brazil trailblazed dramatic political and economic changes, moving from being an economy on the rise to becoming a global stronghold of the far-right. While analyses of these transformations have prioritized subjective and institutional dimensions, they left insufficiently addressed the roles of professional discourse engineers and their imaginative modeling of publics and infrastructures under digital populism. This article explores how market and political experts crafted powerful stories of national futurity and belonging through narrative mobilization and affective reading of data. It draws on archival research and in-depth interviews conducted in 2013 and 2021 with a market researcher and political strategist poised to become the face of Cambridge Analytica in Brazil at a moment when the British political consulting firm was expanding its business into Latin America. By chronicling the data fabulations of this pivotal actor, the article shows how unmediated knowledge was strategically engineered, molded, and circulated to tell a story of national becoming and political belonging at a transitional juncture in Brazil’s post-truth democratic moment: the decline of the “new middle class” and the consolidation of “fake news.” Inquiring into the affective engineering of informational governance thus offers new venues to understanding post-pink- tide politics and subjectivity. The authors situate Cambridge Analytica’s failed venture in Brazil within the context of related campaigns in the United States as well as related efforts in other countries leading up to the 2018 Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal.

ABSTRACT. Disinformation is often framed as a foreign toxic substance, injected into public discourse by external adversaries, or as viral contagion spreading through digital networks. Such imaginaries, rooted in security concerns and biomedical metaphors, reinforce the idea that disinformation is a static thing—a form of informational pollution that can be traced back to identifiable origins and neutralized through countermeasures. This paper challenges this “reified” understanding by foregrounding disinformation’s processual, participatory, and translational dimensions. Rather than treating disinformation as fixed units of meaning, we examine how they mutate as they traverse digital ecologies, are adapted to different platform affordances, and are “translated” to the concerns of different publics through audience engagement.

We zoom in on contemporary Russian-Ukrainian themed disinformation narratives popular in the West (e.g. Biolab conspiracy theories & the Russian Doppelgänger operations) to analyze how they shift and evolve as they move across legacy and social media environments. Rather than a straightforward, linear dissemination process, this circulation involves active processes of translation and adaptation, in which audiences actively remix content. In some cases, these bottom-up meaning-making processes feed back into state-aligned propaganda and counter-disinformation efforts. This participatory feedback dimension complicates dominant scholarly understandings, showing how disinformation is as much a dynamic, localized, and bottom-up process as it is a state-driven strategic propaganda tool.

Methodologically, we employ a variety of computational and qualitative research methods to track, visualize and understand how these disinformation narratives morph into new constellations as they migrate across different platforms and audiences. By doing so, we also highlight disinformation as an ongoing negotiation of meaning in online and offline media environments. This paper argues that understanding disinformation requires a shift away from static, top-down, “hypodermic needle” disinformation models toward an approach that accounts for the multidirectional, participatory, and translational processes that shape its circulation.