Submission Guidelines

Abstract length: up to 500 words, including objectives, methods, and key findings.
Deadline to submit abstracts: 30 January 2026
Notification to authors: 20 February 2026
Payment and registration deadline: 10 April 2026
Full paper submission: 30 April 2026

The call close in…

Submissions should be sent to labilis@unisa.it using the appropriate form. Abstracts will be evaluated through a double-blind review process based on originality, methodological rigour, and thematic relevance.

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Conference Committees

Executive Board: Felice Addeo, Angela Delli Paoli, Giuseppe Masullo (University of Salerno, IT), Gabriella Punziano (University of Naples Federico II, IT), Massimo Ragnedda (University of Sharjah, UAE).

Organizing Secretariat: Marianna Coppola (University Giustino Fortunato, IT), Noemi Crescentini, Vincenzo Laezza, Giuseppe Michele Padricelli (University of Naples Federico II, IT), Valentina D’Auria, Marco Di Gregorio, Vincenzo Esposito, Miriam Matteo, Francesco Notari (University of Salerno, IT), Edmondo Grassi (University San Raffaele, IT).

Local Organizing Committe: Suania Acampa, Francesco Amato, Caterina Ambrosio, Giammaria Bottoni, Rosanna Cataldo, Noemi Crescentini, Ciro Clemente De Falco, Cristiano Felaco, Ferdinando Iazzetta, Vincenzo Laezza, Giuseppe Michele Padricelli, Federica Palmieri, Rosa Sorrentino, Antonio Vettori.

Scientific board: Enrica Amaturo (Universiy of Naples Federico II, IT); Biagio Aragona (Universiy of Naples Federico II, IT); Davide Bennato (University of Catania, IT); Tiziano Bonini (University of Siena, IT); Alessandro Caliandro (University of Milan, IT); Marianna Coppola (University Giustino Fortunato, IT); Maria Paola Faggiano (University of Roma La Sapienza, IT); Caterina Foà (ISCTE -Lisbon University Institute, PT); Brian Gilley (Indiana University Bloomington, USA); Edmondo Grassi (University San Raffaele, IT); Estrella Gualda (Universidad de Huelva, SP); Allan Herison Ferreira (Universidade de São Paulo Brasil); Francesca Romana Lenzi (University of Foro Italico, IT); Giuseppe Maiello (University of Finance and Administration, Prague); Emiliana Mangone (University of Salerno, IT); Elvira Martini (University Giustino Fortunato, IT); Sergio Mauceri (University of Roma La Sapienza, IT); Francesco Mazzeo Rinaldi (University of Catania, IT); Beba Molinari (University of Tor Vergata, IT); Ilenia Picardi (Universiy of Naples Federico II, IT); Lucia Picarella (University of Foggia, IT); Riccardo Pronzato (IULM University, IT); Elisabetta Risi (IULM University, IT); Emilia Romeo (University San Raffaele, IT); Sonia Stefanizzi (university of Milano Bicocca, IT); Luciana Taddei (University of Catanzaro, IT); Giuseppe Tipaldo (University of Torino, IT); Vitor Tomé (Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa CIES-ISCTE-IUL, PT); Domenico Trezza (University Pegaso, IT); Luigi Tronca (University of Verona).

Permanent International Committee: Nick Boston (City University of New York City, USA); Chiara Diana (Université libre de Bruxelles, BE); Vulca Fidolini (Université de Strasbourg, DE); Brian Gilley (Indiana University Bloomington, USA); Estrella Gualda (Universidad de Huelva, SP); Giuseppe Maiello (University of Finance and Administration, Prague, CZ); Emily Manetta (University of Vermont, USA); Alexandra Marcotte (The Kinsey Institute, Indiana, USA); Alessandro Porrovecchio (Université du littoral Côte d’Opale, FR); Massimo Ragnedda (University of Sharjah, UAE); Jonah Steinberg (University of Vermont, USA); Marialaura Ruiu (Northumbria University, UK); Zuzana Virglerová (Univerzita Tomáše Bati ve Zlíně, SL).

About ILIS

The ILIS Network – International Lab for Innovative Cultural and Social Research – promotes
theoretical, epistemological, and methodological advancements in the social sciences through
sustained dialogue with leading scholars at both national and international levels. Its scientific
mission is to connect the understanding of contemporary social processes with recent developments
in research methods and techniques that have reshaped traditional approaches and introduced
innovative practices of data collection, analysis, and representation.
Over its past editions, ILIS has hosted distinguished scholars, and fostered wide international
participation — over 150 scholars from 14 countries in the 2024 edition.
The results of previous editions have led to numerous high-impact publications, including special
issues in Societies (MDPI), Sociologia Italiana – AIS Journal of Sociology, The Lab’s Quarterly,
International Journal of Sociology of Education, Mediascape, Italian Sociological Review, Frontiers
in Sociology, International Journal of Social Research Methodology (Taylor & Francis), and others,
as well as volumes in the McGraw-Hill Innovative Social Research series, IGI Global Handbook and
several Class A and scientific Italian journals.

Opening and Structure

The 2026 edition of the ILIS International Conference will be hosted for the first time by the University of Naples Federico II. The event will open with greetings by Anthony Giddens, followed by three Lectio Magistralis from Deborah Lupton, Richard Rogers, and Nick Couldry, who will address the transformations of knowledge production in an era of unprecedented digital and technological acceleration. After the keynote sessions, a plenary panel will bring together distinguished sociologists — including Enrica Amaturo, Tiziano Bonini, Sonia Stefanizzi, Giuseppe Tipaldo — to discuss the epistemic shifts in the post-digital society. One session will be held at the twin host partner, University of Sharjah, which will organise an invitation-only panel discussion on the same topics to be held afterwards, under the scientific responsibility of Prof. Massimo Ragnedda. Subsequent sessions will include parallel panels selected through this open and competitive call for abstracts. The conference will conclude with the Natale Ammaturo Award for early-career researchers and the Societies–MDPI Publication Award for the best paper in Digital Social Research.

Conference Theme

In the post-digital era, the very foundations of knowledge production are being radically redefined. What once appeared as a relatively stable epistemic framework — grounded in human interpretation, methodological reflexivity, and disciplinary boundaries — is now challenged by the rise of autonomous systems of meaning-making. The ascent of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) and quantum computation marks an unprecedented shift in the architecture of inquiry, moving from human-guided analysis to machine-generated inferences and simulations.

This epistemic reconfiguration poses pressing questions for the social sciences: How do these technologies transform the conditions of knowing, validating, and disseminating knowledge? What remains of the interpretive and critical vocation of the researcher in an environment increasingly mediated by algorithmic logics and probabilistic computation? And, crucially, how can social inquiry remain accountable and reflexive in the face of opaque, automated, and self-evolving systems of cognition?

The theme of “Epistemic Shifts in the Post-Digital Society: The Dilemma of Knowledge Production between Generative Models and Quantum Futures” aims to explore these transformations at both theoretical and methodological levels. It calls for a critical examination of the post-human epistemologies emerging from hybrid entanglements between human and non-human agents, between epistemic infrastructures, adaptive epistemologies, and cognitive ecologies (Knorr-Cetina, 2007; Leonelli, 2016).

Generative models — such as large language models (LLMs) and multimodal AIs — now produce not only representations of social phenomena but also interpretive frameworks, synthetic data, and simulated social realities. They shape what can be known, who can know, and under what conditions. Their outputs are not neutral but embedded in cultural biases, epistemic asymmetries, and political economies of data (Couldry & Mejias, 2019; Crawford, 2021). These technologies challenge the traditional social research paradigm based on observation, participation, and interpretation, replacing it with predictive and generative epistemics (Amaturo & Aragona, 2021; Punziano, 2025), in which data themselves become agents of knowledge creation.

In this context, another key issue remains how it is possible to access and investigate the sociotechnical production of AI-based systems. These technologies are socio-technical artifacts, whose production is the result of specific human choices and negotiations, situated in certain cultural and spatio-temporal contexts (Kaun & Männiste, 2025). Given the plethora of generative models that intervene in social research, researchers are urged to scrutinize and destabilize the “thingness of AI” (Suchman, 2023), i.e., its controversial representation as a monolithic and stable entity. However, practical limitations in accessing both the inner workings of these computational systems and their sites of production persist, rendering such research endeavours extremely difficult, yet all the more necessary (Pronzato & Risi, 2025).

Alongside these critical concerns, generative AI and algorithmic systems allow us to traverse interstices toward unprecedented opportunities for social research and knowledge production. They enable new forms of pattern recognition across vast datasets, facilitate transdisciplinary ramification, and allow researchers to explore counterfactual scenarios and simulations that would be impossible with traditional approaches alone. These technologies can co-act with human analytical capacities, democratize access to sophisticated research tools (Benkler, 2006), and accelerate the discovery of hidden correlations in complex social phenomena. The emergence of what has been conceptualized as an algomorphic society (Grassi, 2025) – where algorithms actively shape social structures, identities, and interactions – requires both critical vigilance (Noble, 2018) and creative engagement with non-human entities deeply integrated into the existence of social functioning in a structural symbiosis with the human entity. Understanding algorithms as social agents that co-constitute reality through dynamic processes of mutual adjustment (Pickering, 1995) requires researchers to develop hybrid methodologies that harness computational power while maintaining reflexive awareness of their embedded assumptions and transformative effects. The call to the scientific and social community lies in recognizing and establishing reference paradigms for their integration, as they carry with them the needs, ambitions, perspectives, fears, and behavioural patterns of those with whom they interact. These are social subjects that trace reality, contribute to shaping its logics, expand symbolic boundaries, and renegotiate classificatory ones according to the theory of social construction of technology, as well as of society.

At the same time, the rise of quantum computing and quantum social theories (Fuchs, 2021; Zohar, 2023) introduces a different kind of epistemic rupture. Rather than relying on deterministic or probabilistic reasoning, quantum epistemologies embrace uncertainty, entanglement, and superposition as core interpretive principles. Applied to social sciences, such frameworks open new possibilities for conceptualising complexity, relationality, and non-linearity — yet they also challenge conventional methodologies of validation, causality, and inference (Barad, 2007; Valsiner, 2022).

Between the generative/adaptive and the quantum paradigms lies an unresolved tension: the former promises automation of meaning, the latter re-enchantment of uncertainty. Together, they redefine what counts as “evidence”, “truth”, and “knowledge” in a digitally mediated society. This tension urges social scientists to rethink their epistemic accountability, the boundaries of reflexivity, and the ethics of delegated cognition.

Moreover, the platformization of knowledge (Van Dijck et al., 2018) and the rise of infrastructural epistemics (Plantin et al., 2018) have turned digital platforms, data brokers, and machine-learning systems into central actors in the governance of knowledge. Research infrastructures are increasingly shaped by proprietary algorithms, API restrictions, and commercial logics, which condition not only access to data but also the very structure of inquiry. In this landscape, open science and ethical transparency must be revisited to confront asymmetries in data access, computational power, and epistemic authority.

The 2026 ILIS Conference invites contributions that interrogate these transformations by addressing questions such as: How do generative and quantum paradigms reshape the epistemic status of the social sciences? What new ethical-political responsibilities arise when knowledge is co-produced with non-human agents? How can methodological pluralism endure in an age of algorithmic standardisation and automated inference? How can we reimagine training, interdisciplinarity, and reflexivity for researchers navigating post-digital epistemic infrastructures?

Ultimately, this conference aims to provide a space for epistemological experimentation and theoretical innovation, bringing together scholars across disciplines to rethink the future of social knowledge under the dual horizon of generative automation and quantum complexity. It encourages dialogue among those envisioning a renewed sociology of knowledge that takes seriously the ontological implications of digital and quantum mediation — where data, code, and cognition are no longer separate domains but entangled conditions of knowing.

Drawing on the works of the invited speakers, the conference seeks to expand current debates on digital mediation (Rogers, 2019), critical data epistemologies (Couldry & Mejias, 2019), and reflexive and environmental dimensions of digital transformation (Lupton, 2023), connecting them to recent discussions about computational governance, platform epistemology, and algorithmic knowledge production (Beer, 2023; Pasquale, 2020; Bonini & Trerè, 2024; Venturini, 2024).

Suggested Topics

The conference welcomes theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions addressing (but
not limited to) the following themes:

• Epistemic regimes: generative models vs. exploratory–quantum models;
• Theoretical implications of algorithmic and quantum mediation in the social sciences;
• Methodological innovations and hybrid designs;
• Case studies of knowledge production and framing processes;
• Algomorphic society and human-algorithm symbiosis: power dynamics, digital identities, new forms of actoriality;
• Social construction of technology: symbolic boundaries, classificatory logics, epistemic infrastructures;
• Emotions and digital cognition: algorithmic affects, mediated empathy, language transformations;
• Memory studies and digital archives: mutations of memory, algorithmic temporalities;
• Reflexivity and researcher positioning within new epistemic paradigms;
• Ethics of AI and Ethical AI;
• Datafication, big data, simulations, and predictive models;
• Education, policy, and public understanding of current forms of knowledge production (also) based on AI;
• Visualisations, interpretive interfaces, and new forms of knowledge representation.

Awards

The conference will assign two Best Paper Awards:

• The Natale Ammaturo Award – for the best paper by an early-career researcher (PhD candidate or within three years post-PhD);
• The Societies–MDPI Award – for the best contribution in Digital Social Research, which will be published free of charge in Societies (MDPI) after peer review.

Registration anf fees

• Registration deadline for presenters: 10 April 2026
•  Permanent position (online or onsite): €130
•  Non-permanent position and Students (online or onsite): €100

At least one fee per accepted paper must be paid. If at least one author holds a permanent position (researcher, associate/full professor, etc.), the applicable fee is €130; if all authors are non-permanent (students, fellows, etc.), the fee is €100. Authors with limited funding may apply for partial fee support by writing to labilis@unisa.it and providing justification.

Please note: each author may submit a maximum of two papers, one as corresponding author and one as co-author. The link for the payment will be sent together with the acceptance e-mail.

Publication Opportunities

Selected high-quality papers will be invited for publication in:

• Selected Journal (Class A – ANVUR ranking): a special issue will be hosted by Society Register (Reconfiguring Knowledge Production in Post-Digital Society and Social Inquiry); a special issue will be dedicated on Cambio. Rivista sulle Trasformazioni Sociali (Entangled Epistemologies: Reimagining Knowledge and Society in the Post-Digital Age); a topic series will be held by Societies MDPI (Epistemology, methodology and ontology of a post-digital social inquiry – the APC here are required but all the member of the ILIS Network could apply with a special discount of 10%)
• McGraw-Hill Innovative Social Research series: The Power of Knowledge Production in a Post-Digital Social Research
• IGI Global Handbook series: Rethinking Knowledge Production in the Age of Generative AI and Quantum Inference

References

• Amaturo, E., & Aragona, B. (2021). Critical optimism: A methodological posture to shape the future of digital social research. Italian Sociological Review, 11(4S), 167-167.
• Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Duke University Press.
• Beer, D. (2023). The Data Gaze Revisited: Epistemic Cultures in the Age of AI. Polity.
• Benkler, Y. (2006). The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. Yale University Press.
• Bonini, T., & Treré, E. (2024). Algorithms of resistance: The everyday fight against platform power. MIT Press.
• Couldry, N., & Mejias, U. (2019). The Costs of Connection: How Data Is Colonizing Human Life and Appropriating It for Capitalism. Stanford University Press.
• Crawford, K. (2021). Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence. Yale University Press.
• Fuchs, C. (2021). Social Media and the Metaverse: The Dialectic of Digital Capitalism. Routledge.
• Grassi, E. (2025). The silent revolution of algoagents: relational reconfigurations and emerging paradigms. Sicurezza e Scienze Sociali, 2, 69-79. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17297462
• Kaun, A., & Männiste, M. (2025). Public sector chatbots: AI frictions and data infrastructures at the interface of the digital welfare state. New Media & Society, 27(4), 1962-1985.
• Knorr-Cetina, K. (2007). Culture in Global Knowledge Societies: Knowledge Cultures and Epistemic Cultures. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 32(4), 361–375.
• Leonelli, S. (2016). Data-Centric Biology: A Philosophical Study. University of Chicago Press.
• Lupton, D. (2023). Beyond the Digital: Theorising the Human–Technology–Environment Nexus. Routledge.
• Noble, S. U. (2018). Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. NYU Press.
• Pasquale, F. (2020). New Laws of Robotics: Defending Human Expertise in the Age of AI. Harvard University Press.
• Pickering, A. (1995). The Mangle of Practice: Time, Agency, and Science. University of Chicago Press.
• Plantin, J. C., Lagoze, C., Edwards, P. N., & Sandvig, C. (2018). Infrastructure Studies Meet Platform Studies in the Age of Google and Facebook. New Media & Society, 20(1), 293–310.
• Pronzato, R. & Risi, E. (2025). Research on and through generative AI? An inevitable entanglement. The Lab’s Quarterly, XXVII(3), 167-192.
• Punziano, G. (2025). Adaptive Epistemology: Embracing Generative AI as a Paradigm Shift in Social Science. Societies, 15(7), 205.
• Rogers, R. (2019). Doing Digital Methods. Sage.
• Suchman, L. (2023). The uncontroversial ‘thingness’ of AI. Big Data & Society, 10(2), 20539517231206794.
• Van Dijck, J., Poell, T., & De Waal, M. (2018). The Platform Society: Public Values in a Connective World. Oxford University Press.
• Valsiner, J. (2022). Epistemic Uncertainty and Human Meaning-Making: A Cultural Psychology Perspective. Springer
• Venturini, T. (2024). Interpretive Machines: Algorithms and the Construction of Meaning in Digital Societies. Polity.
• Zohar, D. (2023). Quantum Humanity: The Physics of Consciousness and the Future of the Human Mind. Bloomsbury.

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For any inquiries, please contact: ILIS 2026 Organising Committee at labilis@unisa.it.

The IV International Workshop on “Methodological Advances and Applications in Social Sciences: Quantitative, Qualitative and Computational New Strategies”

and 

The III International Workshop on “Conspiracy Theories and Online Hate Speech Online: Effects on Society and Strategies to counteract them”

will be held at the University of Huelva on 12, 19 and 20 July 2025.

Digital Social Research: Ethical Boundaries and Methodological Biases

7-8 November 2024 @ University of Salerno, Italy

5th International Conference ILIS

Conference topics

Technological innovations create new opportunities and challenges for social research based on digital information. These do not derive exclusively from the digitization of traditional information collection techniques and the use of digital contexts such as websites, email, social media, videoconferencing or messaging platforms for administering questionnaires or conducting interviews, focus groups, etc. They especially derive from natively digital traces both intentionally and unintentionally generated by internet users in their daily use of socio-technical systems. They are not requested but spontaneously released by internet users and “found” by the researcher: these traces exist regardless of the research (unlike information collected from a questionnaire or an interview) (Veltri, 2019). Differently from traditional data, digital traces can be considered as dynamic (vs static), natural (vs provoked and self-reported) and not designed (exist apart from collection) (Delli Paoli, Masullo 2022). Their nature is changing the traditional cycle from theory to empirical research, due to the availability bias which drives towards defining measurement strategies from available data rather than from operatizing theory. This provides several epistemological and methodological implications.

Moreover, the massive use of digital traces entails a variety of possible and unique methodological pitfalls that have only partially addressed in the literature. We can broadly distinguish between epistemic concerns (Mittelstadt et al 2016) related to the biased nature of digital traces and normative concerns (Olteanu et al. 2019) related to the consequences of research.

On the epistemic side, these challenges are related to trustworthiness, generalizability and validity. For some the non-intrusiveness of digital traces plays in favor of data quality and trustworthiness in particular. However, digital information is still affected by some forms of bias common also in traditional survey research and mainly related to selfpresentation strategies, such as the social desirability bias. Most of time, digital content is carefully selected to adhere to one’s idealized self. However, social desirability may also appear in different from those we are used to experience in traditional research: on the internet people may have the need to appear more anti-normative than they actually are. We call this the social undesirability bias, when people emphasize their dissent from normative and social-orientated discourse, also through a deliberately offensive language that defies the codes of political correctness and sometimes takes on the connotations of hate speech. Also the presence of fake accounts or non-human entities, such as bots designed to imitate human behavior, put into question the trustworthiness of digital traces. Digital traces may potentially guarantee very large research samples. However, sample size is not a sufficient (or even necessary) condition for representativeness.

Representativeness is affected by population biases and questioned both with reference to general population and to internet population for the interconnection of different motivations. First, the digital divide. Second, the wrong equivalence between access and participation and the different level of participation of users. Thus, the digital representativeness does not refer neither to the general population nor to the internet population but at maximum it can refer to the internet population leaving digital traces useful for social research. Moreover, the sample creation is affected by selection and accessibility biases. Selection biases derive from the algorithmic mechanisms of information selection which are always opaque. This opacity can in fact produce direct and/or indirect digital discrimination in extraction in the form of inequalities based on income, education, gender, age, ethnicity, and religion because of algorithmic user selection or data mining techniques (Crawford and Schultz, 2014; Barocas and Selbst, 2016). Digital discrimination can in fact affect sampling, which is already complicated online by the over-representation of some subjects in internet use, and the interpretation of results. Digital information may impact also validity. In particular: 1. face-validity and the assumption that digital information can be treated as analogous to the non-digital equivalent (e.g. Facebook friends as similar to actual friends); 2. construct validity: the most easily available measure is not necessarily the most valid since online behavior may be driven by individual motivations but also by technological functionalities, community norms, etc. On the normative side, social research in the digital context also raises several ethical dilemmas that researchers must address. The accessibility of digital data does not necessarily imply that they can be collected and analyzed without any concern. Possible ethical pitfalls include breaching user’s privacy (Goroff 2015) or enabling racial, socioeconomic or gender-based profiling (Barocas and Selbst, 2016). The assumption that publicly data cannot harm because they do not directly impact people’s lives is wrong since they can be combined with other data sets posing serious risks to individuals and communities. While innocuous in themselves, such anonymous public datasets when merged with other may make individuals highly identifiable (Metcalf and Crawford 2016). There are several cases of re-identification of de-identified data. Digital social research subverts existing ethics regulations, their assumptions about responsibility, types of risks and researcher-subject relationship and strategies. Moreover, digital traces pose particular challenges to the practice of informed consent. New ethics framework balancing between privacy and accuracy should be provided against possible harmful outcomes such as stalking, discrimination, black-mailing or identity theft. In the previous editions of this conference, we focused on the theoretical, epistemological and methodological impact of digital methods, on innovative methodological practices (digital ethnography, computational analysis, etc.), on the impact of the digital on traditionally “offline” and face-to-face contexts such as education, policy and politics, sensitive topics and population such as gender and sexualities.

This led to several publications collecting the participants’ contributions:

• 3 special issues in Italian Sociological Review (Class A journal -ANVUR rating) dedicated to the reconceptualization of social research in the digital era:
  • Vol 11, No 4S (2021)
  • Vol 12, No 7S (2022)
  • Vol 14, No 10s (2024)
• A special issue in Frontiers in Sociology – Sociological theory (Class A journal – ANVUR rating) Theories, Methods, Practices, and Fields of Digital Social Research, Vol 7 (2022); Vol 8 (2023)
• A special issue in the Italian Journal of Sociology of Education (Class A journal – ANVUR rating) The impact of digital on research, socialization, and communication processes – Vol. 14, n. 3 (2022)
• A special issue in Mediascapes Cultural Machines – Vol. 20, n. 2 (2022)
• An issue in Sociologia Italiana – Vol. 24 (2024)
• A special issue in International Journal of Social Research Methodology – under review (2024)
• The Handbook of Research on Advanced Research Methodologies for a Digital Society (2021), IGI Global
• The Handbook on Digital challenges for social research methods in a changing world: new methods and new analytical frontiers (2024), McGraw Hills
• 2 special issues in Cultura e Studi del Sociale (Scientific journal – ANVUR rating):
  • Between Infodemic and Pandemic: On-line Researches in the Time of COVID-19 – Vol. 6, n. 1, Special (2021);
  • Exploring Everyday Digital Life – Vol. 7, n. 1 (2022)
• A book dedicated to ethnography and netnography

Leveraging on the previous editions, this conference will explore the main epistemic, methodological and ethical challenges digitalization poses to social research and researchers.

Thus, it especially (but not exclusively) calls for contributions that shed new light also through discussion of digital research experiences and case studies on the following topics:

• The nature of digital data;
• The impact of digitalization on research design;
• Digital data collection
• Digital biases;
• Feedback algorithms in different research areas;
• Digital discriminations;
• Ethical choices in digital social research;
• Ethical boundaries and dilemmas in digital social research;
• Ethical strategies and ethics frameworks in digital social research;
• Artificial intelligence: practices, knowledge and contaminations.

Abstracts need to be limited to 500 words and include goals, research methods and main findings. Please use the abstract form and send it as an attached file to: labilis@unisa.it

Conference publications

The scientific committee of the conference will select best papers from those regularly submitted by the deadline for publication in:

• The special issue Theoretical, methodological and ethical boundaries of Digital Social Research to be published on the AIS Journal of Sociology (Issue n. 1-2025) (Class A journal -ANVUR rating)
• An edited book to be published on the book series Innovative Social Research (McGraw Hill)
• Other special issues on international Class A journals to be proposed according to the papers submitted to the conference.

Best paper award

The conference awards up to two best paper prizes which serve to celebrate well written papers that make significant contributions to their fields. One is devoted to early career researcher (best paper from early career researcher). The other is reserved to significant contribution in Digital Social Research (best digital social research paper).

Registration

The registration deadline for presenters is 18 October 2024.

• The fee for online conference is 80€;
• The fee for onsite conference is 100€;
• The fee for students is 50€ both online and onsite.

At least one fee for each paper should be paid. The fee is associated with the presenter. In papers where there is at least one author with a fixed position (researchers, associate professors, full professors, etc.) the fee due is 100 €. In papers where all the authors have a non-fixed position (students, research fellows, etc.) the fee due is 50 €. Please note that the maximum number of papers for author is two. It is possible to submit only one paper as a corresponding author and participate as a co-author in only one another paper. In case more than one author is onsite it will be necessary to pay the registration fee for all the others in presence as well, according to their position.

After acceptance further information about payment will be provided.

Authors with insufficient funding will be eligible for partial fee support.

Please, apply for the fee support by writing to labilis@unisa.it and motivating your request.

Conference organisation

The conference is organised by International Lab for innovative social research (ILIS) of the University of Salerno in partnership with the “Magna Graecia” University of Catanzaro and the Indiana University. The lab is an interdisciplinary centre for social research established within the Department of Humanities, Philosophy and Education. It aims to stimulate theoretical and methodological discussions, as well as empirical studies, on emerging trends in social research: from theoretical challenges faced by new social issues to innovative methodological approaches to understand them. The lab’s mission is to promote theoretical, epistemological, and methodological advances in the social sciences through continuous exchanges with national and international scholars.

The research interests focus on social processes ranging from educational, migratory, identity and cultural processes, to gender, generational and health issues drawing special attention to the social research methods.

The main goal is to offer an integrated research system to direct scientific actions towards an innovative theoretical and empirical knowledge of the processes transforming our societies.

From the scientific point of view, the centre aims to combine the understanding of contemporary social processes with emerging trends in social research methods which have innovated traditional approaches and have introduced alternative data collection and analysis methods together with new methods for representing information (such as in the case of e-methods and big data analysis).

The conference will be held on: the 7th and 8th of November 2024 in a hybrid format (online and in-presence).

Call for abstract

• Deadline to submit abstracts: 14 July 2024
• Author Notification: 20 July 2024
• Payment Deadline: 18 October 2024
• Deadline to submit papers: 18 October 2024
• Conference dates: 7-8 November 2024

Executive Board

Felice Addeo, Angela Delli Paoli, Giuseppe Masullo (University of Salerno, IT), Gabriella Punziano, (University of Naples Federico II, IT)

Organizing Team

Valentina D’Auria (coordinator), Miriam Matteo, Francesco Notari (University of Salerno, IT), Noemi Crescentini, Giuseppe Michele Padricelli (University of Naples Federico II, IT), Marco Di Gregorio (University of Turin, IT)

References

• Addeo F., and Masullo G. (2021). Studying the digital society: digital methods between tradition and innovation in social research. Italian Sociological Review (in publication).
• Amaturo E., and Aragona B. (2019). Methods for big data in social sciences. Mathematical Population Studies, 26:2, pp. 65-68.
• Barocas, S. (2014). “Data mining and the discourse on discrimination,” in KDD Workshop on Data Ethics (New York, NY: ACM).
• Barocas, S., and Selbst, A.D. (2016). Big data’s disparate impact. Calif. Law Rev. 104:671. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.2477899
• Caliandro, A. (2018). Digital Methods for Ethnography: analytical concepts for ethnographers exploring social media environments. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 47(5), 551-578.
• Crawford, K., and Schultz, J. (2014). Big data and due process: toward a framework to redress predictive privacy harms. Boston Coll. Law Rev. 55:93.
• Criado, N., and Such, J.M. (2019). Digital Discrimination in “Algorithmic Regulation”. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Delli Paoli, A. (2022). The Potential of Digital Ethnography for Sensitive Topics and Hidden Population. Italian Sociological Review, 12(7S), 729-247.
• Delli Paoli, A., and Masullo, G. (2022). Digital Social Research: Topics and Methods. Italian Sociological Review 12(7S), 617-633.
• Favaretto, M., De Clercq, E., and Elger, B. S. (2019). Big Data and discrimination: perils, promises and solutions. A systematic review. Journal of Big Data, 6 (12).
• Fuchs, C. (2017). From digital positivism and administrative big data analytics towards critical digital and social media research. European Journal of Communication, 32(1), 37-49.
• Fuchs, C. (2019). What is critical digital social research? Five reflections on the study of digital society. Journal of Digital Social Research, 1(81), 10-16.
• Goroff, D. L. (2015). Balancing privacy versus accuracy in research protocols. Science 347, 479–480.
• Halford, S., and Savage, M. (2017). Speaking sociologically with big data: Symphonic social science and the future for big data research. Sociology, LI, 6, 1132-1148.
• Marres, N., and Weltevrede, E. (2013). Scraping the social? Issues in live social research. Journal of Cultural Economy, 6(3), 313-335.
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The III International Workshop on “Methodological Advances and Applications in Social Sciences: Quantitative, Qualitative and Computational New Strategies”

and 

The II International Workshop on “Conspiracy Theories and Online Hate Speech Online: Effects on Society and Strategies to counteract them”

will be held at the University of Huelva on 24 and 25 September 2024.

The Workshop is structured around the following thematic working areas:

• Computational Social Science and Digital Humanities: Theoretical and Methodological Aspects
• Artificial Intelligence for the Analysis of Narratives of Hatred, Conspiracy and Disinformation
• Mixed Methods, Quantitative and Qualitative: Advances and Applications
• Conspiracy theories, online hate speech, and disinformation: Effects on society and strategies to counter them.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING PROPOSALS FOR PAPERS: 5 September 2024.

ORGANISATION

These Workshops are organized in coordination with the R&D&I project “Conspiracy theories and online hate speech: Comparing patterns in narratives and social networks about COVID-19, immigrants, refugees, and LGTBIQ+ people [NON-CONSPIRA-HATE!]” (Ref. PID2021-123983OB-I00), which is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, the State Research Agency (DOI: 10. 13039/501100011033) and FEDER/EU, as well as by the research group “Social Studies and Social Intervention” (ESEIS), the research center for “Contemporary Thought and Innovation for Social Development” (COIDESO), the research group “Information and Knowledge Engineering” (I2C), the research centre for “Technology, Energy and Sustainability” (CITES) and the “Applied Computational Social Sciences Laboratory” (CISCOA-Lab), all belonging to the University of Huelva.

Other European entities involved in the organization are the Asociación Andaluza de Sociología (Spain), the Narratives & Social Changes – International Research Group (University of Salerno, Italy), the “Centro de Investigación em Sistemas Ciberfísicos de Algarve” (CISCA) and the “Research Centre for Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being” (CinTurs) of the University of the Algarve in Portugal, the “Centro de Investigação em Educação e Psicologia” da Universidade de Évora (CIEP-UE, Portugal) and the “International Lab for Innovative Social Research” (Universitat de Algarve, Portugal).

FUNDING

This Workshop is funded by the Andalusian Sociological Association, the R&D&I project “Conspiracy theories, and online hate speech: Comparing patterns in narratives and social networks about COVID-19, immigrants, refugees and LGTBIQ+ people” [NON-CONSPIRA-HATE! ]’ (Ref. PID2021-123983OB-I00), which is funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation, the State Research Agency (DOI: 10.13039/501100011033) and FEDER/EU. Also, on behalf of the University of Huelva, the research group “Social Studies and Social Intervention” (ESEIS), the research center for “Contemporary Thought and Innovation for Social Development” (COIDESO), and the Research and Transfer Policy Strategy 2024 of the Vice-Rectorate for Research and Transfer.

Rethinking social theories and methods in a digital society

8-9 June 2023 @ University of Finance and Administration, Prague

Conference topics

The conference focuses on the main challenges digitalization poses to different strand of sociological theories and methods particularly investigating the distinctive topics of digital social research and the digital biases. The digitalization raises a number of both theoretical and methodological issues. Theoretically, it permeates the micro, meso and macro areas shaking sociological theories and transforming the most basic assumptions underlying them such as the public-private boundary, identity formation, reflexivity, self-understanding, forms of social ties and relationships, models of community, sources of social capital, organizational forms. Apart from entailing broad societal transformations which need to find a place in sociological theory, the incorporation of technology into our daily materiality, is also transforming social research methods by providing methodological resources for researching social phenomena (both intentionally and unintentionally produced digital data such as social media posts, narratives, storytelling, search engine queries, phone calls, and banking interactions). This opens methodological challenges at different levels of the research process. At the level of data collection where the non-neutrality of algorithms, the identity strategies of self-presentation applied online, the invisibility of the research design in repurposing digital data, need to be taken into account. At the level of research design where new competences are required implying technological proficient researcher able to use a digital language based on the affordances of online environments (the socio-technical architectures of media). At the level of sampling which is complicated on the web by direct digital discriminations (sampling biases deriving from procedures discriminating against minorities or disadvantaged groups based on race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.) and indirect digital discrimination (sampling biases deriving from procedures intentionally or accidentally discriminating against a minority). At the level of data analysis both in qualitative approach due to online narratives being intertextual, transmedial, multimodal and interdiscursive and in quantitative analysis for example in big data-based correlation which are not automatically meaningful and do not tell much about humanity (human motivations, feelings, values, norms, meanings, etc.) failing to understand deep motivations.

Thus, the conference especially (but not exclusively) collects contributions that shed new light on the following topics:

• Digital sociology;
• Revised sociological theories;
• Revised sociological concepts: identity, citizenship, social capital, inequalities, institutions, power, work, community, etc.;
• Revised social research methods and digital transposition of traditional methods;
• Social research methods that incorporate digital and gaming practices, such as the game-based methods;
• Digital biases;
• Digital discriminations.

Scientific Committee

Enrica Amaturo (University of Naples Federico II, IT), Biagio Aragona (University of Naples Federico II, IT), Davide Bennato (University of Catania, IT), Gianmaria Bottoni (City University of London, UK), Alessandro Caliandro (University of Pavia, IT), Nico Carpentier (Charles University Prague, CZ), Marianna Coppola (University of Salerno, IT), Cleto Corposanto (Magna Graecia University of Catanzaro, IT), Paola Di Nicola (University of Verona, IT), Irina Dimitrova (Centrum for forskining om ekonomiska relationer, Mittuniversitet, SE), Wendy Nelson Espeland (Northwestern University, USA), Maria Paola Faggiano (University of Rome La Sapienza, IT), Alessandro Gandini (University of Milan, IT), Anthony Giddens (London School of Economics, UK), Brian Joseph Gilley (University of Indiana Bloomington, USA), Estrella Gualda (University de Huelva, ES), Susanne Halford (University of Bristol, UK), Gennaro Iorio (University of Salerno, IT), Francesca Romana Lenzi (University of Rome Foro Italico, IT), Tomislav Potocký (University of Finance and Administration of Prague, CZ), Carolina Rebollo (University of Huelva, ES), Richard Rogers (University of Amsterdam, NL), Ondřej Roubal (University of Finance and Administration of Prague, CZ), Andrea Salvini (University of Pisa, IT), Claudia Santi (University of Campania Vanvitelli, IT), Monica Scarano (University of Lille, FR), Barbara Segatto (University of Padova, IT), Giulio Sodano (University of Campania Vanvitelli, IT), Sonia Stefanizzi (University of Milan Bicocca, IT), Simona Tirocchi (University of Turin, IT), Stefano Tomelleri (University of Bergamo, IT), Luigi Tronca (University of Verona, IT), Lucia Velotti (City University of New York, USA), Zuzana Virglerová (Bata University, CZ), Debora Viviani (University of Verona, IT).

Peer review statement

The contributions presented at the IV International Conference ILIS have been selected through a double-blind review process. During the presentation of selected contribution presenters receive suggestions for improvements by panel chairs. The revised version of selected papers (post the conference), all focused on future theoretical, epistemological and methodological frontiers for social research in the digital society, will be further reviewed by two members of the organizing and scientific committee of the conference through a double-blind peer-review process. The scientific committee of the conference will select best papers for publications in special issues dedicated to the conference and/or national or international books.

Previous edition of the conference

• 3rd International Conference ILIS
• 2nd International Conference ILIS
• 1st International Conference ILIS

19 April 2023 @ University of Huelva, Spain

Eds Mar Gallego Durán and Giuseppe Masullo