Papers by Federico Neresini
From Bench to Bed and Back: Laboratories and Biomedical research
Contemporary biomedicine is characterized by the ever-closer connection between clinical practice... more Contemporary biomedicine is characterized by the ever-closer connection between clinical practice and research. Laboratories become nodes of articulated networks, making it no longer possible to consider them as single entities. In light of these changes, a wide range of actors–researchers, scientific instruments, data-bases, experts in bio-informatics and bio-statistics, pharmaceutical companies, clinicians, drugs, patients, cells, ethical and regulatory issues – are involved. In this Introduction, we address why these processes represent a relevant challenge for social sciences as well
Scienza, democrazia e partecipazione
Salute, malattia e medicina: lo sguardo sociologico
On Data, Big Data and Social Research. Is It a Real Revolution?
Studies in Classification, Data Analysis, and Knowledge Organization, 2017
This chapter aims at discussing critically some epistemological assumptions underlying a data sci... more This chapter aims at discussing critically some epistemological assumptions underlying a data science for social research. For this purpose, it is discussed the general notion of big data and the meaning of key-concepts such as those of information and data, mainly considering contributions coming from the science and technology studies (STS) and the sociology of quantification. In particular, it is argued the necessary shift from a discrete and transportable definition of data to a processual one, also taking into account the fact that data are always a process both when they are produced and when they are used/analysed in order to have research’s results. The notion of data-base is compared with that of infrastructure as defined in STS, so that it is clear that they cannot be considered as repositories from which it is possible to extract meanings or results like getting minerals from a mine. Data and data-base are processes which cannot begin without a research question. For these reasons the debate opposing hypothesis-driven versus data-driven research should be overtaken: in social research, as well as in hard sciences, data-driven research simply doesn’t exist. The last paragraph is devoted to draw some conclusions from the previous discussion in the form of hopefully useful suggestions for developing a data science for social research.
Concezioni di scienza. La dimensione cognitiva dell'impresa scientifica
The work reported in this paper aims at describing a project that leverages the potential of Info... more The work reported in this paper aims at describing a project that leverages the potential of Information Retrieval and Machine Learning towards novel techniques that unveil the latent states of expert users such as sociologists and economists by means of indicators when the user is accessing large collection of newspapers, blogs, etc. An indicator measures the degree to which a certain latent state is present during interaction when exploring and searching an information repository. In this paper the state of a user is the particular condition that s/he is in at a specific context with reference to a problematic issue induced by the data s/he accessed to; risk is an example of state and a risk indicator aims at providing a measure of the degree to which articles examined by the user evoke risk in her/his mind. Observable attributes, e.g. keywords, clickthrough data or links, are the input data to model states and compute indicators. In this work, starting from some results of a soft...
La scienza sullo schermo. Le rappresentazioni della tecnoscienza nella televisione italiana
L'universo sommerso del disagio giovanile
ECML PKDD 2020 Workshops, 2020
Research at the intersection between Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Public Communicatio... more Research at the intersection between Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Public Communication of Science and Technology (PCST) investigates the role of science in society and how it is publicly perceived. An increasing attention has been paid to coverage of Science and Technology (S&T) issues in newspapers. Because of the availability of a huge amount of digitized news contents, the variety of the issues and their dynamic nature, new opportunities are offered to carry out STS and PCST investigations. The main contribution of this paper is a methodology and a system called TIPS that was co-shaped by sociologists and computer scientists in order to monitor the coverage of S&T issues in the news and to study how they are represented. The methodology relies on machine learning, information retrieval and data analytics approaches which aim at supporting expert users, e.g. sociologists, in the investigation of their research hypotheses.
DOING SOCIAL RESEARCH WITH MASS MEDIA AND SOCIAL NETWORKS DATA: THE INTERDISCIPLINARY CHALLENGE Organizers
Nowadays, the possibility to access big volumes of data is opening up new trends in social scienc... more Nowadays, the possibility to access big volumes of data is opening up new trends in social science research. Mass media and social media networks provide such a quantity of data that “a new era" of social science research can be imagined, as described by the American Sociological Association 1 . As an example, aggregated newspaper articles can provide unprecedented accounts of the media’s agenda, as well as online discussions can answer broad questions about how often the public talks about politics during daily life 2 . This new “big data” paradigm requires the development of scalable, sustainable data infrastructures that facilitates an effective access to mass media and social media data by social scientists. In particular, we need to address questions related to the support for researchers in Social Science in the comparative investigation of relevant sociological analytical dimensions, time trends and evolution of the social representations of public debates featured in th...
The essay suggests ‘the swerve’ as an analytical metaphor useful for researchers and theorists en... more The essay suggests ‘the swerve’ as an analytical metaphor useful for researchers and theorists engaged in building the future of STS studies. What is suggested is to shape one's own “swerving methodology”, presented as a “reflective practice” adopted in the comparison with objects, with research questions and STS epistemologies.
La scienza e l'eresia: il controverso caso della Comunicazione Facilitata
Complessità sociale, devianza e controllo. Alcune ipotesi teoriche di ridefinizione
Starting off on the wrong foot: the public perceptions of nanotechnologies and the deficit model
The Laboratory Kit between Infrastructure and Boundary Object
In West Africa, as in other parts of the Atlantic world, the eighteenth century was an age of exu... more In West Africa, as in other parts of the Atlantic world, the eighteenth century was an age of exuberant consumerism. The West African coast was a burgeoning marketplace to which goods from all points of the compass were rushed: Indian cottons, Brazilian tobacco, brassware from Aachen, New England rum, glass from Venice and Bohemia, and much else besides. Trashy gewgaws would not do. Traders from Europe and the Americas knew that African consumers were discerning; only articles that matched African tastes and met local quality standards would find a market. African buyers, much like their prosperous counterparts in Paris or Philadelphia, were 'moved by prestige, fancy, changing taste, and a desire for variety'. 1 Consumer demand in West Africa was therefore dynamic. Sub-Saharan consumption patterns varied from place to place and changed markedly over time. 2 * Our debts are many. A large number of people have provided us with references, supplied us with unpublished material, or commented on our arguments. We are grateful to Doug Armstrong,
Regolazione sociale e azione volontaria: modelli interpretativi a confronto
Il dibattito sulla clonazione nella sfera pubblica italiana
The social representation of nanotechnologies and its relationships with those of science and technology: Making familiar the unfamiliar between enthusiasm and caution
Journal of Risk Research, 2021
Food safety and young consumers: Testing a serious game as a risk communication tool
Food Control, 2016
Abstract Raising consumers' awareness about food safety issues is one of the primary objectiv... more Abstract Raising consumers' awareness about food safety issues is one of the primary objectives of Italian public health organizations. New dynamic and interactive tools, based on web applications, are already playing a leading role in health promotion campaigns targeted at adolescents. Among the web-based tools specifically designed for young people, educational videogames have proved especially effective in furthering learning and disseminating information, as they arouse adolescents' interest and curiosity. When a number of cases of Haemolytic-uraemic syndrome (HUS) were reported in 2010, particularly among children, the Italian Ministry of Health stressed the need to implement communication initiatives aimed at raising consumers' awareness of the potential risks associated with raw milk consumption at home. The pilot study described in the article is a relevant example of educational projects implemented in Italy, oriented to transmit knowledge about food risks to young consumers (aged 16–18). To provide correct information on safe milk handling practices and to reduce health issues, including serious ones, the videogame “A mysterious poisoning” was developed. This tool was administered online to 359 upper secondary school students from four different provinces in Italy. The videogame covered all stages of the milk supply chain, from stable to table, and enabled players to identify the crucial moments when milk can be contaminated and to discover safe milk handling practices. By completing a series of tasks, students helped a detective discover the cause of a food poisoning outbreak. This videogame provided an opportunity for students to test their knowledge of the product and to receive more detailed and accurate information. Data collected through two structured questionnaires that were administered before and after the controlled use of the videogame showed that this serious game was capable of changing players' perception of risk exposure and their cognitive associations, particularly increasing their levels of knowledge about the risks associated with raw milk consumption.
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Papers by Federico Neresini