Tales of Love and Pandemic

The main argument of the chapter is the analysis of the reading and writing behaviour on Wattpad during the phases of lockdown in Italy for the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic represents the first great event of ‘data society' reactions making several authors reflect on various aspects and thoughts about social impact of tech ecosystems. Nowadays, it becomes essential to understand the role that digital technologies and media have had to soothe feelings related to social isolation and physical distancing measures. Thus, as widely acknowledged, besides providing data for social research in many aspects of life, the digital context also suggests above all innovated methods enforced by the physical distancing. This research has explored about 600 stories edited on Wattpad that have been selected through the query “Covid.” The aim of the analysis is to map collective imaginary of users about the COVID-19 pandemic within a digital medium for fanfiction, combining three fundamental approaches of digital methods.

The Future of ‘Digital Research'

Sociology is a discipline inevitably based on interpretative categories of social reality derived from a specific historical phase. In a period that is increasingly defined as a new era or digital society, can sociological knowledge not be upset by this overload of changes of every kind and nature? And can these changes not involve all identity components of sociology, namely theory, research, and the usability of its knowledge? Given this, it seems rather evident that this volume is the sign of the times and testify the variety and flexibility of digital methods. The author limits to dealing schematically with two methodological components that are constitutive of the digital revolution: the shift from the traditional and glorious ethnography to the new and emerging netnography, especially as regards the qualitative side, and, on the more properly quantitative side, the overwhelming and boundless spread of big data. A brief and selective description of these “transitions” will be complemented by a thoughtful evaluation of their potential for the future in the peculiar field of inquiry.

Fostering Imagined Economies on Twitter

Startups are entrepreneurial organisations that aim to develop a scalable and disruptive business. However, these small ventures operate in an environment of extreme uncertainty. The startup economy takes place in the present but is directed towards the future. This chapter critically investigates in online and offline realms the circulation of imagined futures that create causal links to bridge the gap between the present economic scenario and potential futures in the Italian startup food economy. This work adopted a mixed-method approach framed in a qualitative exploratory strategy which was designed to integrate qualitative techniques and digital methods. This work concludes by highlighting the co-evolutionary process between online and offline realms. On the one hand, online narratives allow economic actors to perform in radical uncertain economic contexts, while, on the other hand, the offline practices give legitimacy and credibility to these potential future scenarios.

The Ethnographic Approach in the Digital Scenario

In this chapter, the goal is to formalize the main differences between the applications of ethnographic techniques when they are framed in virtual or digital methods. To be more systematic in presenting these differences, a synoptic table will be offered. This table will examine the main breaking points between the methods and will be used to organize a marked comparison between studies chosen from the most cited articles of the last 20 years. In addition to testing the effectiveness of the proposed classification scheme, the purpose of the comparison conducted between the most cited articles will be to highlight where the changes that have occurred can lead to advances in the method and where these changes have become new limits on which it is necessary to continue to reflect in order to develop the methods involved and place them clearly in line with the evolution of the digital scenario.

Who Wants an Automated Vehicle?

New advancements in vehicle automation, electrification, data connectivity, and digital methods of sharing—known collectively as New Mobility—are poised to revolutionize transportation as it is known today. Exactly what results this disruption will lead to, however, remains unknown, as indeed the technologies and their uses are still taking shape amidst myriad interests. The impacts of this shift to New Mobility could be enormous, shaping economies, cities, and the lives of people in them. It is therefore vitally important for public interests to play a strong role in the development and deployment of these technologies. With the current trajectory of these technologies warning of the potential for increased energy use, environmental costs, and social inequity, interests at the community level need to be included and influential as soon as possible.

What Happens When the Way to “Follow the Medium” Changes?

Digital methods allow social researchers and IT professionals to work together to produce instruments to comprehend current social phenomena. To develop these tools, they felt the need to “follow the medium” by reorganizing their data collection and analysis strategies on what they learned from the medium. For many years, digital research has been based on application programming interfaces (APIs) querying, an approach based on the extraction of records of data made available by the platforms through their programming interfaces. But what happens when the way to “follow the medium” changes? This contribution addresses the methodological challenges and the potential alternatives in research activities that affect the researchers' role due to recent restrictions. Two examples of research experience conducted before the APIs' closure are proposed in order to lead towards an initial reflection on its critical effects.

Ethical Benefits and Drawbacks of Digitally Informed Consent

As organizations steadily adopt remote and virtual capabilities, informed consent processes are increasingly managed by digital technologies. These digital methods are generating novel opportunities to collect individuals' permissions for use of private information but are blurring traditional boundaries of consent communication and documentation. Therefore, the rapid growth of digital technologies used for informed consent as well as the sheer volume of data resulting from electronic data capture are generating complex questions about individual engagement and data practices. This chapter presents emerging risks, benefits, and ethical principles about digital informed consent methods and technologies. For the areas where digital informed consent creates ethical uncertainties, ethical guidelines and user-design recommendations are provided.