Federico Neresini

Which indicators for the new public engagement activities? An exploratory study of European research institutions

Public engagement (PE) activities have become a regular feature for several research institutions in Europe. However, while research and teaching functions can count on established indicators, PE functions are often performed as a sort of “goodwill exercise.” Few studies have focused on defining appropriate indicators and standards, particularly at the organizational level. An exploratory study was carried out on a sample of 40 European research institutions with a view to understanding whether the diffusion of PE activities has led to incorporating the PE perspective into “routine” activities of organizations. The results point to quite unequal performances among European research institutions. Also, while most research institutions examined have dedicated resources for PE activities, the study suggests that such activities are not yet considered essential. Performance indicators and standards might prove of great support for institutions and policy actors that wish to take seriously the challenge of public engagement and societal dialogue.

Can media monitoring be a proxy for public opinion about technoscientific controversies? The case of the Italian public debate on nuclear power

Is it possible to infer information about public opinion by looking at how the media discuss controversial technoscientific public issues? We conduct content analysis on media coverage of nuclear power in Italy in the years 1992–2012 and compare it with longitudinal public opinion surveys. By treating a large amount of textual data and applying an innovative methodology based on indicators of the presence of ‘risky terms’, that is, keywords referring to the issue of risk and danger, very high correlation has been found between media discourse on risk and opposition within public opinion. The analysis is conducted testing as a preliminary step Mazur’s hypothesis on quantity of coverage and opposition towards controversial technoscience. Then, risk content measures are used in order to gain stronger correlations between media and public attitudes towards nuclear power.

On Data, Big Data and Social Research. Is It a Real Revolution?

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.

Old media and new opportunities for a computational social science on PCST

Although with some reluctance, social sciences now seem to have accepted the challenge deriving from the growing digitisation of communication and the consequent flow of data on the web. There are actually various empirical studies that use the digital traces left by the myriads of interactions that occur through social media and e-commerce platforms, and this trend also concerns the research in the PCST field. However, the opportunity offered by the digitisation of traditional mass media communication — the newspapers in particular — is much less exploited. Building on the experience of the TIPS project, this paper discusses the advantages and the limits of computational social science on PCST using newspapers as the main source of data. Some methodological issues are also addressed, in order to suggest a more aware use of such data and the several computational tools available for analysing them. Abstract

Social Aspects of Biobanking: Beyond the Public/Private Distinction and Inside the Relationship Between the Body and Identity

Genetic biobanks are generally seen as structures of scientific research and therefore they are just considered a matter for scientists; following this common point of view, we have, on the one hand, science, and on the other hand, society. On the contrary, it will be shown that biobanks could be considered an example of the mutual constitution of the scientific and the social. After a theoretical re-framing of the relationship between science and society in the light of the Science and Technologies Studies perspective, it will be clarified how biobanks perfectly embody this mixture of science and society: they collect, purify and conserve organic material which is seemingly from an environment external to that of science, but to make it available for scientific research, they reorganize the environment according to its needs.