Sociology of Culture and Communication

Deriving pleasure and meaning from one’s job is especially potent in the cultural industries, where workers routinely sacrifice monetary rewards, stability, and tidier careers for the nonmonetary benefits of self-expression, autonomy and contribution to the greater good. Cultural labor markets are consequently characterized by the continual churning of its workforce; the lure of “cool” employment attracts an oversupply of aspirants while precariousness and routinized work lead to short careers. This article draws on qualitative data to further conceptualize the appeal and limits of nonmonetary rewards over time. Why do workers stay in precarious “cool” jobs? More specifically, how do workers stay committed to their jobs and perform the requisite deep acting for their roles? Through qualitative research on two sets of workers—music industry personnel and craft cocktail bartenders—this article examines patterns in these workers’ “experiential careers.” We identify three strategies cultural workers use to re-enchant their work lives: 1) deep engagement, 2) boundary work, and 3) changing jobs. In doing so, we show how the experiential careers of cultural workers resemble more of a cycle of enchantment than a linear path to exiting the field.

Recent years have seen not just a revival, but a rebirth of the analogue record. More than merely a nostalgic craze, vinyl has become a cultural icon. As music consumption migrated to digital and online, this seemingly obsolete medium became the fastest-growing format in music sales. Whilst vinyl never ceased to be the favorite amongst many music lovers and DJs, from the late 1980s the recording industry regarded it as an outdated relic, consigned to dusty domestic corners and obscure record shops. So why is vinyl now experiencing a 'rebirth of its cool'?

Dominik Bartmanski and Ian Woodward explore this question by combining a cultural sociological approach with insights from material culture studies. Presenting vinyl as a multifaceted cultural object, they investigate the reasons behind its persistence within our technologically accelerated culture. Informed by media analysis, urban ethnography and the authors' interviews with musicians, DJs, sound engineers, record store owners, collectors and cutting-edge label chiefs from a range of metropolitan centres renowned for thriving music scenes including London, New York, Tokyo, Melbourne, and especially Berlin, what emerges is a story of a modern icon.

Endorsements & Reviews:

“Vinyl is a state-of-the-art treatment of an unforgettable object and medium that raises many of the issues central to contemporary anthropology. Its subject-matter should make it appealing to students and general audiences, while its theoretical sophistication makes it relevant to scholars of music, technology, popular culture, and cultural objects.” –  Jack David Eller, Anthropology Review Database

“Bartmanski and Woodward have created a masterpiece that any record lover should have on their shelves” –  Record Collector magazine

“Bartmanski and Woodward … provide meticulous detail as to how materiality matters … Bartmanski and Woodward divide their book into chapters that fervently trace various aspects of vinyl: its history, its functionality and use as a medium, its production and physical properties, and its consumption. In each chapter, they attend to the materially mediated cultural meanings within which vinyl is entangled.” –  Robin Bartram, Northwestern University, Qualitative Sociology

“Vinyl culture is back, and it’s even more vibrant than it was in its heyday, before digitalization. Bartmanski and Woodward take us to the epicentres of this revolution, and let those who are behind it tell us about their passions for this iconic medium. This is an exemplary study of the social and sensory life of things." - David Howes, Professor of Anthropology, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

“In the age of the digital, with the ubiquitous smart phone and MP3 technologies providing consumers with instant access to global sounds irrespective of where they are, Vinyl explores the persistence of an old technology within the production and consumption of music. In doing so it demonstrates the complex ways in which material objects form a meaningful part of our everyday lives – not just through the sounds of vinyl but by how it feels and looks. The text is beautifully written, impassioned, yet critical. Welcome to the world of the post-digital.” –  Michael Bull, Professor of Sound Studies, University of Sussex, UK.

“A passionate ode to the analogue record, and testament to how vinyl embodies the content it mediates, with each record's unique journey etched into the material” –  Hillegonda C. Rietveld, The Times Higher Education

This book is about Aesthetics and Sociology of Comics and Cinema.
The preface is written by Anna Fici, the postface by Alessio Arena. The book has:
1) Preface "È pienamente arrivato il tempo del fumetto?" by Anna Fici.
2) "Il fumetto come Arte. Percorsi estetici e mediali tra fumetto, cinema e le altre arti" by Massimo Bonura.
3) "Convergenze e divergenze tra cinema e fumetto, un caso tipico: le Silly Simphonies" by Massimo Bonura and Francesco Filippo Montalbano.
4) "Manifesto del Fumetto Futurista" edited by Massimo Bonura
5) "Tavole del Fumetto Futurista. Il brutto anatroccolo. Ma che WOW!!!" by Claudio S. Gnoffo.
6) Postface "La vignetta come scena" by Alessio Arena.

This book offers a much-needed new political theory of an old phenomenon. The last decade alone has marked the highest number of migrations in recorded history. Constrained by environmental, economic, and political instability, scores of people are on the move. But other sorts of changes—from global tourism to undocumented labor—have led to the fact that to some extent, we are all becoming migrants. The migrant has become the political figure of our time.

Rather than viewing migration as the exception to the rule of political fixity and citizenship, Thomas Nail reinterprets the history of political power from the perspective of the movement that defines the migrant in the first place. Applying his "kinopolitics" to several major historical conditions (territorial, political, juridical, and economic) and figures of migration (the nomad, the barbarian, the vagabond, and the proletariat), he provides fresh tools for the analysis of contemporary migration.

This book, written with Federico Provenzano, talks about History of Comics and like comics are a modality of communication.
The introduction is written by Alessio Arena. There are also articles by Armando Bisanti, Alberto Becattini, Claudio S. Gnoffo.

questo è il programma di Sociologia della Comunicazione per il corso di laurea magistrale in Strategie e Tecniche della Comunicazione dell'Università di Siena. Avendo studenti che provengono da differenti corsi di laurea, tra cui molti da triennali di Scienze della Comunicazione che hanno già affrontato le principali teorie sociologiche sui media, ho preferito demandare al manuale di Scannell la sintesi di queste teorie e concentrare le mie lezioni su un approfondimento del rapporto tra media digitali e società

The aim of this research paper is to explore and describe the ways in which adolescents of popular sectors of Buenos Aires City search for Internet dating through the social network Facebook. For this, we investigate the information they provide in their profiles, the strategies that deploy to seduce and gain visibility in the walls of their community of peers, on the advantages and disadvantages about dating through social network and gender differences. At the methodological level, in this research mixed type, we conducted, on a quantitative level, a survey of adolescents of popular sectors of the City of Buenos Aires (n: 150); on a qualitative level, we have made observations and in-depth interviews to 25 adolescents from popular schools, cybercafes and community centers, as well as virtual observations through Facebook. The main findings were that the personal photos and statements of "feeling state" function as central to the presentation of self among adolescents, as well as for powering the sociability through feedback.

En esta investigación se ofrece una historia de vida de Gerardo de la Torre, centrada en su desarrollo como escritor, y se realiza una lectura del cuento "El vengador" desde una perspectiva sociológica. El trabajo es una adaptación de la tesis de licenciatura en Sociología, presentada en la Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales de la UNAM en junio 2009.

The widespread use of information and communication technologies (ICT´s), coupled with global changes have taken place in most social environments. The subject of research are the university students at the School of Philosophy and Literature, and at the School of Social Sciences, both at the University of Buenos Aires. The goal of investigation is to explore the ICT´s habits in this population. This article stands at the intersection of the fields of communication and education, specifically associated to the issue of the insertion of ICT´s in these students´ everyday life.

Negli ultimi decenni i sociologi ed economisti hanno sottolineato come il mondo del consumo sia sempre più caratterizzato dalle componenti culturali, sociali ed emotive. La marca cessa di essere semplice depositaria di benefit tangibili e performance oggettive ed estende il dominio all’area dei valori, delle relazioni e dei sentimenti. Adattandosi ai cambiamenti comunicativi il marketing si è arricchito di nuove strategie che la letteratura identifica con il temine “non convenzionali”: il market environment, il market niche, la client relationship, le competences of the customer, il guerrilla marketing e le subjective experiences dei consumatori. E tra queste particolare rilievo ha assunto il “marketing esperienziale” finaliz-zato a coinvolgere la clientela offrendogli un’esperienza memorabile della marca. Il marketing include, certo, le tradizionali campagne pubblicitarie, le promozioni, le sponsorizzazioni, ma anche l’attrazione dei clienti negli ambienti dell’impresa, mettendo in mostra i luoghi, gli attori e i mezzi della produzione. Da questo punto di vista, i musei aziendali sono un medium straordinario che crea o consolida il rapporto tra l’impresa e il pubblico ma anche il legami interni e quelli con il territorio. Ne sono prova i due casi di studio sull'Heritage Marketing presentati nel volume: l’Heineken Experience e il Guinness Storehouse, i celebri musei dei due colossi dell’industria birraria.

Introduzione

Capitolo primo
IL MARKETING NON CONVENZIONALE
1.1. Le leve decisionali del marketing
1.2. Dal Old School marketing al Societing
1.3. I dieci principi del marketing non-convenzionale

Capitolo secondo
LE PANACEE DEL MARKETING
2.1. Un quadro d’insieme
2.2. Client Relationship
2.3. Market Environment
2.4. Market Niche
2.5. Guerrilla Marketing
2.6. Subjective Experiences

Capitolo terzo
I MUSEI AZIENDALI
3.1. Una definizione provvisoria e alcune classificazioni
3.2. L’origine e la diffusione dei musei d’impresa
3.3. Il museo come mezzo di promozione aziendale e socio-culturale
3.4. Musei aziendali e comunicazione visuale: note semiotiche

Capitolo quarto
L’HEINEKEN EXPERIENCE DI AMSTERDAM
di Marta Scalzotto
4.1. Breve storia della Heineken
4.2. Le strategie di comunicazione
4.3. La responsabilità sociale e ambientale
4.4. La storia e la sede del museo
4.5. La visita del museo

Capitolo quinto
LA GUINNESS STOREHOUSE DI DUBLINO
di Marta Scalzotto
5.1. Breve storia e i prodotti della Guinness
5.2. Le strategie di comunicazione
5.3. Le sponsorizzazioni e le promozioni
5.4. La storia e la sede del museo
5.5. La visita del museo

Conclusioni

Riferimenti bibliografici

YouTube is a particularly popular online video sharing site. It is not only used for entertainment and commercial purposes but also to disseminate and obtain information and knowledge concerning science and medicine. So far rather little is known about science and health communication via online video sharing websites such as YouTube. In this chapter the limited but growing research literature on scholarly communication, science and medicine on YouTube is reviewed and summarized. It shows the major research developments and points out omissions and gaps of knowledge. The chapter closes with an outlook and reflects on how recent internet research ideas could be used to better understand and analyze science and medicine on YouTube.
See also:
https://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1007/978-94-024-1202-4#siteedition-academic-link

In this article, interpretation of Bahá’í writings regarding language, cultural diversity, and worldwide communication leads to the seemingly paradoxical position that the promotion of linguistic minority rights in must coincide with promotion of an International Auxiliary Language (IAL). Opposing trends toward increased globalization and growing nationalism are noted and their concurrence explained. The notion of “cultural justice” is expounded and the unregulated global spread of English today critically assessed in its light. By contrast, from the perspective of Bahá’í writ, IAL emerges as a language intended to facilitate worldwide communication without unduly impinging on humankind’s native linguistic traditions. Thus, Bahá’í writings appear to support a worldwide linguistic ecology better planned, more equitable, less prone to precipitous change, and more cognizant of the singular role of language in humanity‘s individual and collective identity.

Résumé
Dans le présent article, l’interprétation des Écrits bahá’ís concernant la langue, la diversité culturelle et la communication sur le plan mondial, mêne au point de vue apparemment paradoxal selon lequel la promotion des droits linguistiques minoritaires doit coïncider: avec la promotion d’une langue auxiliaire internationale. La concurence entre la mondialisation croissante en la montée du nationalisme est ensuite soulignée et expliquée. Puis, la notion de justice culturelle est développée, afin de fournir un contexte où analyser di façon critique l’expansion globale effrénée de l’anglais à l’heure actuelle. Par contraste, la langue internationale auxiliaire émerge des Écrits bahá’ís comme une langue qui vise à faciliter la communication mondiale sans toutefois empiéter sur les traditions linguistiques natives de l’humainité. Ainsi, les Écrits bahá’ís semblent appuyer une écologie linguistique mondiale mieux planifíee, plus équitable, moins sujette à les changements abruptes ct qui reconnaît davantage le rôle particulier que la langue joue par rapport à l’identité individuelle et collective de l’humanité.

Resumen
En este artículo, la interpretación de los escritos bahá’ís en lo que se refiere a idioma, diversidad cultural, y comunicación mundial nos encamina hacia la posición paradójica de que la promoción de derechos minoritarios linguísticos necesariamente coincide con la promoción de un Idioma Auxiliar Internacional (IAI). Se toma en cuenta y se explican las corrientes opuestas del ensanche de la globalización y el aumenlo del nacionalismo. Se amplía el concepto de “justicia cultural” y se escruta a su luz el esparcimiento global descontrolado del inglés. En contraste, la IAI emerge del mandato bahá’í como un idioma que busca facilitar la comunicación mundial sin impactar en las tradiciones linguísticas autóctonas de la humanidad. Por esto, los escritos bahá’ís parecen apoyar una ecología linguística mundial mejor diseñado, mas equitativo, menos dispuesto a cambios repentinos, y más conocedor del rol único del idioma en la identidad colectiva e individual de la humanidad.

This paper aims to further investigate some aspects of Baudrillard’s analysis of the media society, influenced by Benjamin’s aesthetic teaching and McLuhan’s mediological legacy. His purpose is to probe the effects of the symbolic speedup fueled by the repeatability of messages and contents, constantly substituted by their immanent abstractions. The dominion of the signifier upon the signified, the replacement of the referendum with its referential highlights, the emphasis on the semiotic complexity of contemporary myths (as already remarked by Barthes), all this is destined to turn media into body extensions. Hence follows the ‘narcissistic seduction’ of television, as McLuhan outlines in reference to the tautological nature of mainstream media. In this sense, Baudrillard does not neglect the heuristic relevance of daily experience, conceived as an ‘open work’ by Eco. To the fore are the expressive shifts engendered by the cultural industry in the age of consumer fever. The result is Baudrillard’s syncretistic analysis of our communicative uncertainty. The latter stems from the meaningful and repeatable objects permeating the social act, increasingly influenced by the ‘narcissistic seduction’ of media.

SOCIOLOGY OF EVERYDAY LIFE
Η «καθημερινή ζωή» θεωρήθηκε ασήμαντη από την κυρίαρ-χη ιδεολογία της «προόδου» (γι' αυτό και άργησε να απασχολή-σει την επιστήμη). Η «αφήγηση» όμως της υπαρξιακής εμπειρίας από τις σύγχρονες πολιτιστικές δημιουργίες (όπως είναι ο κινη-ματογράφος, η μουσική, η μόδα) συμβολίζει τη «στροφή στην καθημερινότητα» με βασικό ζητούμενο την αισθητική (αισθη-σιακή) ολοκλήρωση «εδώ και τώρα». Σύγχρονοι θεοί, οι σταρ! Σύγχρονη «ηθική», η αισθητική! Οι «επικοινωνιακές μηχανές» προσκαλούν τον καθημερινό άνθρωπο σε μια «μυσταγωγική συμμετοχή» και προσδιορίζουν τις σχέσεις του με τους άλλους. Αυτή η νέα επικοινωνιακή δυνα-μική (μείγμα εικονικής αισθητικής, ναρκισσισμού και εφήμερων σχέσεων) χαρακτηρίζει τη μεταμοντέρνα κοινωνία και αποτε-λεί αναμφισβήτητα το επίκεντρο της νέας κοινωνικότητας όπου κυριαρχεί σύγχυση «δημόσιου» και «ιδιωτικού», «λογικής» και «συναισθήματος», «αντικειμενικού» και «υποκειμενικού», και όπου η υπερ-κατανάλωση δεν αφορά μόνο προϊόντα αλλά και συμπεριφορές.

Nobel laureate Niko Tinbergen coined the term ‘supernormal stimulus’ after discovering that birds who lay small, pale blue eggs speckled with grey prefer to sit on larger, bright blue eggs with black polka-dots. He found that he could exaggerate the key qualities of any natural stimulus to produce a stronger reaction yet--be it nurturance, courtship, fear or aggression.
    Animals encounter supernormal stimuli mostly when experimenters build them.  Humans can generate their own and media are awash with them: friendly smiling faces more consistently welcoming than ones own friends, animated cartoon characters with wider eyes than any real child’s, seductive bodies exceeding any proportions found in nature, and a huge array of supernatural menaces.
    This chapter examines film, television, spectator sports, video games, and social websites as well as more traditional media such as print and musical performance in terms of the concept of supernormal stimuli.

Nell’ultimo decennio i morti viventi hanno invaso le tavole dei fumetti, le pagine di libri e riviste, e, gli schermi, cinematografici, televisivi, ma anche dei monitor, degli smartphone e dei tablet. Nessun terreno mediale è rimasto immune dal contagio; una vera e propria meta-invasione transmediale di cui si tenterà di tracciare alcune coordinate nelle prossime pagine, avendo come punto di riferimento alcune opere mediali significative per questo filone; soprattutto, l’universo di The Walking Dead. Il termine universo non è usato a caso: The Walking Dead nasce nell’ottobre del 2003 come fumetto a opera di Robert Kirkman, per poi diventare sette anni più tardi una delle serie televisive di maggiore successo degli ultimi anni. Il mosaico mediale di The Walking Dead è in continuo divenire e i tasselli che lo compongono sono numerosi: un talk show televisivo, The Talking Dead, in cui gli ospiti commentano gli episodi della serie subito dopo la loro messa in onda; numerosi videogame, di cui alcuni – quelli prodotti dalla Telltale Game – hanno ottenuto un grande successo di pubblico e critica; una serie di romanzi dedicata a uno dei personaggi cardine della terza e quarta stagione della serie televisiva, il Governatore. Inoltre, è in fase di produzione uno spin-off con una linea narrativa diversa da quella principale, con personaggi e ambientazioni differenti, al punto tale che gli autori precisano che non si dovrebbe parlare di spin-off, ma di un’altra serie televisiva ambientata nello stesso mondo. Da qui si rafforza l’idea che ci troviamo di fronte a un vero e proprio universo narrativo che fa da cornice a prodotti mediali di varia natura. Il Big Bang dell’universo di The Walking Dead non è improvviso, esso è piuttosto il portato, da un lato, di una tradizione cinematografica, quella inaugurata e tuttora portata avanti da George A. Romero, profondamente sedimentata nell’immaginario collettivo, e, dall’altro, di una temperie sociale e culturale che ha ridato linfa vitale alla figura dello zombi, messa in secondo piano dopo i fasti cinematografici degli anni ’70 e ‘80. Non a caso, nella recente letteratura accademica e mediologica sul tema, si sta facendo strada l’idea che l’era attuale siano definibile come l’epoca della “Zombi Renaissance”: “We are currently experiencing a global explosion of zombie mania, with zombie representations and zombie-related material infiltrating the media and contemporary society in multiple and changing forms” (Hubner Leaning e Manning, 2014). L’universo di The Walking Dead, con gli ascolti da record della serie televisiva e le sue varie diversificazioni mediali, rappresenta probabilmente l’epitome della Zombi Renaissance.

In this chapter, I analyze a specific configuration of practices of the
sacred in which soccer becomes a particularly pertinent matrix. Using an
ethnographic case study in Argentina, I show how gestures, practices and
meanings originating from soccer and more specifically, among soccer fans, are used to create and experience the sacred. This does not mean understanding soccer fandom as a lower form of religiosity, a pseudo-religion, or even a metaphor of the sacred, but as specific forms of practicing the sacred, that could also shift onto other areas of the sacred, including religious practices.

We recently spoke with Thomas Nail, an associate professor at the University of Denver, to talk about his recent book “The Figure of the Migrant.” In it, Nail develops a theory of what he calls kinopolitics and argues that the migrant has become the “political figure of our time.”

Tratto caratterizzante di un’élite, la gastronomia è stata tradizionalmente affidata ad una expertise esclusiva. Se
da un lato guide e valutatori hanno rinforzato la dimensione normativa della gastronomia - un esempio
è il modello della Stella Michelin - dall’altro hanno svolto una funzione di “democratizzazione” del gusto. Al
tempo stesso, l’ingresso nel web di canali alternativi alle guide ufficiali rappresenta un ulteriore processo di
desacralizzazione del sapere gastronomico.
Presentando i risultati di un’indagine in Valle d’Aosta, l’obiettivo del presente contributo è quello di individuare una nuova generazione di esperti in ambito gastronomico, i foodies , in cui il cibo rappresenta
un fattore chiave dell’identità e uno stile di vita.

Dans cet entretien avec Eric Darras, Rodney Benson présente ses premiers résultats sur les États-Unis et explique en quoi les nouvelles perspectives diffèrent des études plus classiques sur la concentration économique dans les medias. Text is in English.
Éric Darras, Sociétés Contemporaines: You say it's more important to study ‟forms of ownership” than ‟concentration of ownership.” Why?
[Author's note: In the published version of Figure 3, under "Stock Market" ownership, two outlets originally listed were cut off in the reproduction:  ABC News #12 and USA Today #14; under "Stock Market with Dominant Shareholder", one outlet originally listed is cut off in the reproduction: Wall Street Journal #11.]

The aim of this study is to analyze the discourse on later life in the TV series 'M jak miłość', season one (2000) and season eleven (2010). Additionally, I also analyze fragments of the TV series 'Plebania', season one (2000) ans season eleven (2010), containing elderly characters. The questions I seek to answer are: What ways of living in later life do these series depict? Has the discourse on later life changed during the last decade? 'M jak miłość' shows older people concentrating mainly on family matters (as parents and grandparents), which I call "old age in the family". The series shows no image of poor or socially excluded old people. Poor, ill, lonely and socially excluded elderly people are shown in 'Plebania', with all four traits combined. However, the problems of such persons are always solved in succeeding episodes, through re-established family relations or new social contacts. 'M jak miłość" also depicts the third age. It is individualistic and oriented towards popular culture and individual pleasures. It is shown through wealthier characters or characters from abroad. In season 11, the principal older characters take on some third age traits: They think about their spare time rather than about their children's problems; and they progressively let go the ideal of three generations living under one roof.
Old age in the two TV series is depicted mainly through external features such as wrinkles, grey hair, changing posture, and way of moving. The more well-to-do characters look younger. In season 11 the older characters look younger than similarly aged characters in season 1, as they dress up more youthfully and use cosmetics.

Quote as:
Salvatore, Armando (ed). 2001. Muslim Traditions and Modern Techniques of Power, Yearbook of the Sociology of Islam, 3, Hamburg: Lit; New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.

[You'll find the Introduction in the section 'Book Chapters and Intros' by scrolling down my main academia webpage]

This is was one of my first inroads into the Sociology of Islam, dating back to 2001. The volume deals with historical and contemporary articulations of the relation of tension between the civilizing impetus of Muslim traditions, and modern forms, fields and techniques of power. These techniques are associated with the process of state-building, as well as with the related constraints of disciplining, normative cohesion, control of the territory and monitored social differentiation. The contributions conceptualize Muslim traditions as deriving their legitimacy, authority, as well as normative and organizing power from being embedded in the discourses and institutions of Islam, which constitute one major center within world history, by now also encompassing Muslim communities within Western societies.

The relation between gaming consumption and subcultural feelings represents an issue challenging to explore because of the current multiplication of identity affiliations. Furthermore, games are a cultural sector characterized by constant turning points and a persistent growth of audiences in numerical and variety terms. The ‘game culture’ itself has become an ephemeral concept, while digital entertainment is catalyzing the public attention and influencing the habits of other gaming sectors. This article aims to shed light on the relation between old and new (or less old) ludus as social and identity frame. Applying a mixed approach between Sociology and Cultural Studies, I have interviewed 64 subjects among common players, gatekeepers, association’s leaders, publishers, shop’s owners and game designers associated with non-digital game cultures in Italy. The intent was to explore the impact of the diffusion of digital games on already established gaming environments and then the ‘identity bricolage’ acted by individuals between the two sides.

Graduate teaching in art and humanities is undergoing a transformation parallel to the one that museum management has shown in recent decades. Research tools applied to teaching have also evolved deeply and very quickly with the online development. The incorporation of transmedia channels and digital communication has strongly entered education today, providing new ways of analyzing this evolution common to society as a whole. In museums and artistic institutions, digital communication is increasingly used as a fundamental means of connection with society, a way to attract new audiences and establish new dynamics, defining the hybrid identity, analogue and digital, of each institution. The development of new forms of communication of museum collections and activities through the different channels available on the web, and of common use by society, is nowadays a priority objective of museums around the world, adapting new strategies of communication and optimizing resources and content. Between 2013 and 2018, in the Master in Art Market at Nebrija University, we have developed a teaching project based on the use of these channels and strategies as research tools of curatorial processes in Spanish and foreign museums. Following a qualitative analysis methodology (selection of institutions and campaigns, monitoring and data collection from each campaign, segmentation and qualitative analysis of results), the students have deepened the use of the content provided by the institutional or corporate profiles, internal professional profiles and professional profiles external to the institution. The results of this innovative epistemology have provided a detailed knowledge of this reality, new possibilities of transversality in research in digital environments and new analytical capacities.

The visual art of the last decades privileges, explicitly or implicitly, social rather than art historical or aesthetic issues. In sites ranging from university classrooms and journals to museums and biennials, the emphasis is usually put on how effectively art handles the social issues of the day while questions of aesthetic value are often treated as suspicious and ideological. Given this anti-art character in these contexts of mediation, the insistence to perceive the objects as artistic objects constitutes a paradox that has been rarely discussed in sociological terms. This article draws on ethnographic research in order to explore “biennial art” that is to say the art that displayed in contemporary art and international platforms of showcasing. These platforms struggle to maintain a concept of art as social practice while at the same time nurture an exclusive and highbrow environment in which “artfulness” is key. I call this quality artfulness so as to both underline its artificiality as well as the inventiveness and skills required for its production. Artfulness in these sites is enabled through various formal or informal rituals of valorization, including guided tours, curatorial statements, media promoting activities and artist talks. These rituals, positioning certain objects within the sphere of art and producing them as objects meriting aesthetic interpretation, resemble the politics of publicity found in aesthetic capitalism at large.


https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20004214.2019.1627847

KEYWORDS: Contemporary art, aesthetics, biennials, politics of art, Rancière, conceptual art, ethnography, art and value

Università della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli
23.05.2019 - ore 13.45

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Chi è e cosa fa un digital influencer? Nati come blogger e migrati poi su piattaforme visuali come Instagram, gli influencer si sono rapidamente affermati come nuovi intermediari dei processi di costruzione dell’immaginario, soprattutto nel campo nella moda. L'intervento indaga criticamente il fenomeno dell'influencer marketing attraverso l’analisi di un caso italiano paradigmatico.

This book is published by Fondazione Ignazio Buttitta, Palermo, 2019. It is edited by Massimo Bonura and Antonino Frenda. It concerns the connections among comics and cinema with a lot of articles written by professors or experts.
My article is titled "Winsor McCay e Yambo: estetiche, regie e fumetti nella fantascienza sociologica".

La presente tesis estudia la constitución espacial del underground porteño de los 80 analizando su expansión territorial y problematizando sus temporalidades específicas dentro del proceso histórico argentino entre dictadura y democracia. Desde una perspectiva de la sociología de la cultura, una serie de lugares es analizada como un circuito cultural de sociabilidad nocturna y experimentación artística diferenciado. La tesis se organiza a partir del despliegue de una cartografía cultural que reúne mapas, una periodización del fenómeno entre 1982 y 1989 y ocho relatos de espacio que sitúan a los actores en los lugares y describen sus prácticas. Esta investigación se propone contribuir al estudio de la diversificación de las ofertas culturales de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires en la década del 80. A pesar de su carácter marginal, o acaso justamente por ello, el circuito cultural underground porteño de los 80 es un objeto de estudio relevante para entender las dinámicas culturales, pero también económicas y políticas, de un período clave de la historia argentina reciente.

[PDF: Índice - Resumen - Introducción]

Icons constantly punctuate social life and yet sociology has thematized cultural iconicity only very recently. This article describes what cultural sociology can gain by incorporating iconicity into the catalogue of its explanatory notions. Specifically, it discusses several new prominent iconological frameworks, or modes of seeing culture, and how they alter our understanding of meaning-making, both in social life and social science.

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Abstract:
The subject of this study is to examine the intercultural sensitivity and social self-esteem in a sample of adolescent, third and fourth grade students of the International School of Sarajevo. The Instruments  consisted of The Social Self-Esteem Inventory (Lawson et al., 1979) and  The Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (Chen&Starosta, 2000). The results have shown  a positive correlation between these two variables. Precisely,  five facets of  intercultural sensitivity explain altogether 36.4% of variance of social self-esteem.
Two statistically significant predictors of social self-esteem in whole sample were respect for cultural differences and  interaction confidence. That's also the case for sample of male students (where the percent of variance explained was 37%). In female sample, interaction confidence is the only significant predictor (common variance was 28%). In a sample of students from third grade, interaction confidence is also the only statistically significant predictor of social self-esteem (33.1% explained variance). Finally, among fourth grade pupils, there are two facets of intercultural sensitivity which are significantly correlated with criterion. They are respect for cultural differences and  interaction confidence (overall variance explained in this case is 51.1%).

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La programación propuesta persigue comunicar socialmente información que contribuya a movilizar el potencial existente, para que la población de las localidades de la Región de la Ribera del Rio Hondo y de la Región Limítrofe con el Oriente de Campeche, ambas del municipio de Othón P. Blanco, accedan a los beneficios de un desarrollo integral centrado en el bienestar real y verificable de sus habitantes.

Este informe tiene como objetivo describir y analizar las políticas de internacionalización editorial adelantadas en la última década por seis países latinoamericanos (Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, México y Uruguay). El estudio focaliza su atención en las políticas y medidas implementadas por los Estados nacionales y las entidades representativas del sector privado. En primer lugar, se presenta una serie de precisiones conceptuales y se sitúan las políticas de internacionalización dentro de condiciones internacionales que permiten comprender su función e importancia. A continuación, se describe y analiza los marcos institucionales público-privados en los que se llevan adelante estas políticas en cada país, y se detiene en el análisis de las políticas en sí. Finalmente, concluye con una serie de recomendaciones que apuntan a ampliar y fortalecer las estrategias y acciones de internacionalización editorial en la región. Se busca, así, ofrecer a especialistas, profesionales con actuación en organizaciones sectoriales y decisores políticos información y experiencias útiles para diseñar nuevas acciones de internacionalización o mejorar las existentes.