The Lab's Quarterly

03/12/2025

The issue no. 3 (2025), Vol. XXVII of The Lab’s Quarterly is now online!
In this issue you can find:
📖 Giuseppe Maiello, Giuseppe Masullo (2024, eds), The Fields of Digital Research: Theoretical, Methodological and Application Challenges, McGraw Hill educational.
🖋️ By: Stefano Cesare
🔗 Read: https://doi.org/10.13131/unipi/g82v-d647

👤 STEFANO CESARE holds a degree in Digital Sociology and Web Analysis from the Federico II University in Naples. His research interests lie in general sociology and data analysis.
E-mail: [email protected]
[Image generated by OpenAI's DALL·E, courtesy of OpenAI.]

01/12/2025

The issue no. 3 (2025), Vol. XXVII of The Lab’s Quarterly is now online!
In this issue you can find:
📖 Angela Delli Paoli (2025), La netnografia nella ricerca sociale, Franco Angeli, Milano
🖋️ By: Valentina D’Auria
🔗 Read: https://doi.org/10.13131/unipi/0n24-2e13

👤 Valentina D’Auria is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Humanities, Philosophy and Education Sciences (University of Salerno). She received her PhD in Communication Sciences and developed expertise in Communication and Social Research Methods through teaching experience, research on field and advanced training. Since 2018 she has collaborated as researcher and teaching assistant in Methodology of Social Sciences at the University of Salerno. Her research interests are Social Research Methods, Digital Social Research, Digital Ethnography and Digital Capital.
[Image generated by OpenAI's DALL·E, courtesy of OpenAI.]

28/11/2025

The issue no. 3 (2025), Vol. XXVII of The Lab’s Quarterly is now online!
In this issue you can find:
📖 Social research in the metaverse. Innovations, implications and ethical challenges
🖋️ By: Salvatore Monaco
This article contributes to the academic debate on the Metaverse as both an object and a tool of social research, analyzing its potential, critical aspects, and the broader transformations it introduces into the discipline. In particular, the paper examines the new sociological ques-tions emerging from the spread of the Metaverse, considering its im-plications for social structures, identity construction, and collective behavior. The paper then explores its applications in social research. This includes an analysis of how the Metaverse can enhance research methodologies by enabling the simulation of social phenomena, real-time manipulation of variables, and novel forms of data collection. The article also highlights significant challenges, particularly concern-ing accessibility, external validity, and the ethical dilemmas of con-ducting research in a digital space where identity, privacy, and in-formed consent take on new and complex dimensions. Given the Metaverse’s evolving nature, it is crucial to examine how social re-search can navigate the balance amongst technological innovation, inclusivity, and ethical responsibility, ensuring that these emerging dig-ital environments function as equitable, transparent, and scientifically rigorous spaces for social research.
🔗 Read: https://doi.org/10.13131/unipi/x2ge-2b62

👤 SALVATORE MONACO è Assegnista di ricerca in “Sociologia del Territorio” pres-so il Dipartimento di Scienze Sociali dell’Università di Napoli Federico II. Colla-bora da diversi anni con OUT (Osservatorio Universitario sul Turismo) e l’Osservatorio LGBT+. I suoi interessi di ricerca includono sociologia del turi-smo, studi di genere e LGBT+.
[Image generated by OpenAI's DALL·E, courtesy of OpenAI.]

26/11/2025

The issue no. 3 (2025), Vol. XXVII of The Lab’s Quarterly is now online!
In this issue you can find:
📖 Multi-planetary infrastructures and hybrid explorations: An analysis of structures of epistemic enrolment in online discourses on space missions
🖋️ By: Ilenia Picardi, Marco Serino
This paper explores the sociotechnical imaginaries involved in the construction of technoscientific knowledge as it is conveyed by space science institutions through websites and social media. The study focuses on the discourses by which Nasa promotes the Artemis programme, aimed at achieving a new human landing on the Moon. The study is based on a mixed-methods perspective that combines the social world framework and social network analysis to examine the relational structures at play in the discourses disseminated by Nasa through several online spaces observed between March and November 2024. Using a methodological protocol developed to study epistemic structures, we analyse the discursive assemblage constituted of knowledge claims on space missions and the (heterogeneous) actors discursively enrolled to sustain those claims. Through this analytical framework, we reconstruct the epistemic structures underlying Nasa’s discourse on Artemis and the intertwining of technoscientific elements and sociotechnical imaginaries relevant to these structures.
🔗 Read: https://doi.org/10.13131/unipi/35ag-yv57
👤 ILENIA PICARDI is an assistant professor of Sociology at the University of Naples Federico II
👤 MARCO SERINO is an assistant professor of Sociology at the University of Naples Federico II
[Image generated by OpenAI's DALL·E, courtesy of OpenAI.]

24/11/2025

The issue no. 3 (2025), Vol. XXVII of The Lab’s Quarterly is now online!
In this issue you can find:
📖 Awaken in dreams. Old and new inequalities in future fashion
🖋️ By: Michele Varini

This study analyses the interaction between fashion and digital technologies, focusing on virtual environments such as video games. Traditionally, fashion has played a strong role in defining social classes, genders, body ideals and identities. With the advent of the digital, these dynamics have changed, amplified and extended beyond the physical world. Using netnography and visual ethnography, this research aims to examine how four extremely popular multiplayer video games (League of Legends, Apex Legends, Overwatch 2 and Valorant) represent bodies and genders, to explore whether traditional mainstream fashion models are reflected or, conversely, transformed. By examining official content produced by gaming platforms, the research seeks to trace how representations of body and gender are conveyed in a top-down manner, similar to traditional fashion communication. This investigation highlights the hybrid relationship between fashion, gaming and media, in which the boundaries between material and non-material, online and offline, constantly shift. The study also considers how the pandemic has transformed the ways in which consumers engage with digital fashion, making this area of exploration increasingly relevant.
🔗 Read: https://doi.org/10.13131/unipi/eywy-0853

👤 MICHELE VARINI è PhD in Sociology, Organisations, Cultures, at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. He work on digital fashion issues: the hybridisation between the world of gaming and of fashion production. A collaborator of the ModaCult study centre, he is interested in digitalisation, digital fashion, new forms of production and consumption, and post-humanism.
[Image generated by OpenAI's DALL·E, courtesy of OpenAI.]

Authors: Michele Varini Abstract This study analyses the interaction between fashion and digital technologies, focusing on virtual environments such as video games. Traditionally, fashion has played a strong role in defining social classes, genders, body ideals and identities. With the advent of the...

21/11/2025

The issue no. 3 (2025), Vol. XXVII of The Lab’s Quarterly is now online!
In this issue you can find:
📖 How are science museums perceived in italy? Tripadvisor as proxy of visitor studies on public engagement
🖋️ By: Noemi Crescentini, Andrea Rubin

Science museums, science centres and discovery centres (SMCs) are key spaces for dialogue between science and society. Their evolution has integrated scientific and social perspectives, significantly influenced by the digital revolution, as demonstrated by the increase in online visitor reviews. This exploratory study investigates TripAdvisor users’ narratives about science museums in Italy and assesses how these reviews reflect the effectiveness of audience engagement. Using Topic Modelling and Qualitative Content Analysis to analyse the reviews, the research identified key themes influencing visitor satisfaction, such as the educational value and interactivity of the exhibition, with the ultimate goal of improving museum practices and audience engagement strategies.
🔗 Read: https://doi.org/10.13131/unipi/a2y1-vp86

👤 NOEMI CRESCENTINI is a Postdoctoral Fellow and Adjunct Professor at the Department of Social Sciences, University of Naples Federico II. Her research interests concern the connections between society and scientific and technological topics and the field of social research methodology.
👤 ANDREA RUBIN is Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities at the University of Ferrara. He is a member of the Research Board of Observa Science in Society and has been involved in numerous national and international projects focused on the relationships between science, technology, and society, as well as the public communication of science and technology. As a journalist, he has collaborated with, and continues to contribute to, various newspapers and science magazines.
[Image generated by OpenAI's DALL·E, courtesy of OpenAI.]

19/11/2025

The issue no. 3 (2025), Vol. XXVII of The Lab’s Quarterly is now online!
In this issue you can find:

📖 Older people and digital discrimination. Promoting digital literacy to reduce biases in oline social research
🖋️ By: Danilo Boriati

In the digital age, older people are often marginalized and discriminated against in online social research due to their perceived lack of digital literacy. This bias can have significant implications for research validity and the representation of older adults in various fields. This essay aims to explore the challenges faced by older people in online social research, the importance of promoting digital literacy among older adults, and strategies to reduce bias in research methodologies. By enhancing digital literacy among older adults, in fact, researchers can ensure a more accurate and inclusive representation of this demographic group in online social research.
🔗 Read: https://doi.org/10.13131/unipi/k1an-w367

👤 DANILO BORIATI, PhD, is Sociologist and Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Sociology of cultural and communicative processes at International Telematic University Uninettuno.
[Image generated by OpenAI's DALL·E, courtesy of OpenAI.]

17/11/2025

The issue no. 3 (2025), Vol. XXVII of The Lab’s Quarterly is now online!
In this issue you can find:
📖 On the ethics of social research in netnography
🖋️ By: Angela Delli Paoli
The paper aims to discuss the ethical challenges in netnography by highlighting the main dilemmas which develop around what counts as public versus private, whether treating digital data as texts or people’s representations, if referring to the authentic embodied self or its digital representation, when sacrificing accuracy to privilege ethics. Such dilemmas refocus our attention on regulatory concepts like privacy, informed consent, anonymity and confidentiality challenging basic regulation terms. The ethical principles emerging from this discussion call for context sensitivity and reflexivity.
🔗 Read: https://doi.org/10.13131/unipi/yh9n-ma53

👤 ANGELA DELLI PAOLI is a Researcher (tenure-track) at the Department of Humanities, Philosophy and Education (University of Salerno) where she teaches Sociology, Social Research Methods and Digital Social Research and coordinates the International Lab for Innovative Social Research (ILIS). Her research interests are qualitative and quantitative social research methods, Digital Social Research and digital ethnography. She authored monographic studies, several essays, book chapters and articles published in national and international academic journals on digital social research, digital ethnography, migration, non-normative identities.

[Image generated by OpenAI's DALL·E, courtesy of OpenAI.]

14/11/2025

The issue no. 3 (2025), Vol. XXVII of The Lab’s Quarterly is now online!
In this issue you can find:
📖 From digital traces to artificial intelligence: New boundaries from representativeness
🖋️ By: Beba Molinari

The abstract aims to highlight what contribution Artificial Intelligence can make in the field of social research by setting as a fixed point the tools to date established in research methodology, whether traditional or closely related to e-methods. It is necessary to stop and think about how and what data AI provides us with by asking: are we in the same scope of analysis as e-methods? Instead, can we continue to handle such data through traditional analysis techniques, or should we think of AI as totally new data/information? These are just a few questions that will be attempted to be answered without any claim to exhaustiveness of course, but aimed at discussing representativeness and margin of error not only statistically, but understood in a much broader sense.
🔗 Read: https://doi.org/10.13131/unipi/x6c5-2t23

👤 BEBA MOLINARI is a researcher of Sociology at the University of Rome Tor Vergata.
[Image generated by OpenAI's DALL·E, courtesy of OpenAI.]

12/11/2025

The issue no. 3 (2025), Vol. XXVII of The Lab’s Quarterly is now online!
In this issue you can find:
📖 Research on and through generative AI? An inevitable entanglement
🖋️ By: Riccardo Pronzato, Elisabetta Risi

Since the release of ChatGPT to the public, generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has become a primary concern for social researchers. Specifically, GenAI has been considered both an object of study and a potential tool for conducting social research, just as the Internet and digital platforms had been in past decades. Within this framework, this contribution focuses on these two interrelated realms, i.e., “research on GenAI” and “research through GenAI”. Specifically, this paper discusses four areas of interest for the research on GenAI: a. Users’ relationships with GenAI; b. Social narratives around GenAI; c. GenAI production; d. GenAI outputs. Then, how research through GenAI tools can be conducted at the qualitative and quantitative level is critically examined. In this regard, it emerges that GenAI systems are frequently framed as “assistants” and, therefore, research through GenAI emerges more as research “aided” by GenAI than “through” it. Given this scenario, we contend that research through GenAI is inevitably intertwined with research on GenAI and an understanding of GenAI itself.
🔗 Read: https://doi.org/10.13131/unipi/7b2k-yp40

👤 RICCARDO PRONZATO is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Deparment of Sociology and Business Law, University of Bologna.
👤 ELISABETTA RISI is Senior Assistant Professor (RTDb) at the Department of Communication, Arts and Media, IULM University (Milan, Italy).

[Image generated by OpenAI's DALL·E, courtesy of OpenAI.]

10/11/2025

The issue no. 3 (2025), Vol. XXVII of The Lab’s Quarterly is now online!
In this issue you can find:
📖 The use of artificial intelligence within social research: A classification proposal
🖋️ By: Alfredo Matrella, Michela Cavagnuolo, Viviana Capozza
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has recently been applied to different areas of behavioral and social sciences, offering significant benefits at various stages of the research process. Through a multi-channel strategy, it was analyzed the content published by AI experts and users to construct a classification of AI-powered tools functions and return a reflection on possible limitations and opportunities, focusing on the assistance these tools can provide within social research phases.
🔗 Read: https://doi.org/10.13131/unipi/7c8y-gg23
👤 ALFREDO MATRELLA Research Fellow at the Department of Social and Political Sciences at University of Milan, PhD in Methodology of Social Sciences at Sapienza University of Rome.
👤 MICHELA CAVAGNUOLO Research Fellow at the University of Rome “Foro Italico”. She obtained a PhD in Methodology of Social Sciences at Sapienza University of Rome.
👤 VIVIANA CAPOZZA Research Fellow at the National Institute for the Evaluation of the Educational and Training System (INVALSI), PhD in Methodology of Social Sciences at Sapienza University of Rome.

[Image generated by OpenAI's DALL·E, courtesy of OpenAI.]

07/11/2025

The issue no. 3 (2025), Vol. XXVII of The Lab’s Quarterly is now online!
In this issue you can find:
📖 Algorithmic feedback loops in soft science disciplines. An application of the systematic literature review on the evolution of definitions from 2000 to 2023
🖋️ By: Gabriella Punziano, Giuseppe Michele Padricelli, Antonio Vettori
In today's digital society, consumer cultures and practices have been reshaped by digital platforms. Cultural entertainment consumption, such as movies and music, is now largely mediated by platforms like Netflix, Spotify, and YouTube, which use AI-driven algorithms to recommend, filter, and rank content dynamically. This article presents a longitudinal study of scientific literature to examine how the concept of feedback loops has been addressed. It explores how this recursive process - where outputs influence new inputs - has evolved and been interpreted differently across soft and hard sciences over time.
🔗 Read: https://doi.org/10.13131/unipi/zzr3-mm11
👤 GABRIELLA PUNZIANO, Associate Professor of Sociology and Methodology of social research at the University of Naples Federico II, Department of Social Sciences. Among her research interests: the new analytical frontiers and the challenges introduced by new data, mixed and integrated and digital perspectives; social policies and welfare regimes; the analysis of public, institutional and political communication phenomena through innovative content analysis techniques; risk communication analysis on social and digital platforms.
👤 GIUSEPPE MICHELE PADRICELLI, Post-Doc Fellow at the University of Naples Federico II and Adjunct professor in Methodology of social research at University of Campania L. Vanvitelli. His main research interests concern the methodological challenges in digital realm addressed by the study of collective action and political communication.
👤 ANTONIO VETTORI, MD in ‘Public, Social and Political Communication’ at the University of Naples Federico II. His thesis work aims to understand user-algorithm interactions by focusing on the methodological aspects of the study.

[Image generated by OpenAI's DALL·E, courtesy of OpenAI.]