Laura Sartori

 

Education 

1997: Laurea cum laude in Sociology, Faculty of Sociology, University of Trento, major in Economic sociology, dissertation on “Polesine local development: industrialization without autonomy?”. 

2002: Phd in Sociology and social research, University of Trento, dissertation on “Consumption and daily life in the age of the Internet”.

Other educational activities:

1994: one week course “La metodologia CATI nelle scienze sociali”, Università di Trento.

1996: one week course “La ricerca quantitativa nelle scienze sociali”, Università di Trento.

1996: 2 months course “La ricerca qualitativa nelle scienze sociali”, Università di Trento.

1998: Master post laurea “Esperto in comunicazione e new media”, Fondazione CUOA –Altavilla Vicentina (VI).

1999: Summer school in  “Social science data analysis” (logistic regression and latent analysis courses), University of Essex, Uk.

2012 (4-10 February): Winter School “Fundamentals and methods for impact evaluation of public policies”, IRVAPP – Istituto per la ricerca valutativa sulle politiche pubbliche, Trento, – http://irvapp.fbk.eu/it - Impact analysis fundamentals; Counterfactual analysis

2012 (13-17 August): Summer School “Internet privacy and identity, trust and reputation mechanisms”, University of Oxford, Uk.

2014 (14-19 July): Summer School “From smart cities to engaged citizens”, University of Volos, Greece.

Employement

- May 2002 – June 2004: Fellowship in Sociology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Bologna. Research title “Internet and daily life: individualism or new forms of social networks? Concepts of community, time and consumption in the age of the Internet”.

- July 2004 - April 2005: Fellowship in Political and social sciences, Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Bologna. Research title “Social capital and the Internet”.

- April 2005 - October 2012: Assistant professor, Department of Communication, University of Bologna.

- October 2012 - October 2014: Assistant professor, Political and Social sciences department, University of Bologna.

- October 2014 - September 2024: Associate professor, Political and Social sciences department, University of Bologna.

October 2024 - present: Full professor, Political and Social sciences department, University of Bologna.

 Research interests

- Artificial intelligence (AI): public and social perception; social and political implications;

- Information society; Digital divide; Digital inequalities; Digital Competences;

- Complementary currencies; Systems of mutual credit; Social meaning of money; Nature of money;

- Sociology of disasters;

- Smart cities and Urban transformations; 

- Political sociology; New forms of political participation;

  

Teaching activity:

Sociology; Society and Economics; Information society; Organizational sociology; Social change; Sociology of new media; Methodology for social research.

Mobility Grants

- August 2000 - July 2001: Visiting scholar at COI (Center on Organizational Innovation) – director Professor David Stark and ISERP (Institute for Social and Economic Research Policies), Department of Sociology, Columbia University, New York. http://www.coi.columbia.edu/.

- April 2007 – September 2007: Visiting professor (Marco Polo fellowship) at the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3), Universidad Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain http://in3.uoc.edu

- April 2010 - May 2010: Visiting professor at Stanford University, Sociology Dept., Usa.

- May 2010 - June 2010: Visiting professor at Washington University, Communication Dept., Usa, Global Universities Program fellowship.

- December 2013 - January 2014: Visiting professor at London School of Economics (LSE), London, Uk, EINS Mobility Grant.

- June 2019: Visiting researcher at Data&Society, New York, https://datasociety.net, SPS Excellence Mobility Grant.

Selected conferences:

11-13 June 2008, Expert consultant at the Eris@ Annual Conference 2008, "Opportunities and Rewards for Regional Development through ICT: New Paradigms – New Challenges", Cardiff, Uk. http://www.ianis.net/about/conferences/cardiff2008/

5-8 September 2008, Invited paper at the First International Sociological Association Forum on Sociology, Barcelona, ES, http://www.isa-sociology.org/barcelona_2008/

4-6 February 2009, Bridge-IT Kick off meeting, European Project on Migrants and Ict, Bridge-it Network, Universidad de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.

30 June 2009, Workshop “Study on the social impact of Ict”, Smart Project 2007/0068, Invited evaluator, Brussels.

30 October 2009, Migrants, Ict and Labour market, Bridge-it Network's seminars, University of Florence, Italy.

29 June -4 July 2010, Presenting a research paper with Paolo Parigi on Italian legislative process in the 70's, at Lago di Garda, Italy, International Sunbelt Social Network Conference (INSNA).

17 January 2011, Laboratorio Urbano, “Progettare la città digitale”, Invited talk “Dal digital divide alla città digitale”, Università di Bologna.

20-21 July 2011, Fifth International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media, Barcelona.

10-12 November 2011, Italian Internet Governance Forum (IGF), Invited talk “Political participation in the Internet era”, Trento.

25 May 2012, Invited talk “Open data for better government”, Province of Rome, Rome.

18-22 October 2012, Italian Governance Forum (IGF), Invited talk “New digital divides at the European level”, Torino.

20 November 2012, A validation workshop DIGCOMP: descriptors of Digital Competence, Ipts, Seville.

4 December 2012, Internet, Trust, Reputation, Identity and Privacy', TRIP Workshop, Under the Eins network of excellence, Lausanne, Switzerland.

16-18 January 2013, II EINS Plenary Meeting, Thessaloniki, Greece.

10-11 April 2013, International conference on Internet Science, Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts , Brussels. Presentation with Paolo Dini (LSE) of a Peer reviewed paper “Science as Social Construction. A Dialogue between Two Internet Scientists on the Inter-Epistemological Structure of Internet Science, Part 1.

http://internetscienceconference.eu/

1 May 2013: “A two cultures dialogue”, Eins workshop on Internet science and web science synergies, Palais des Congres, Paris, www.websci13.org/workshops/wk6-internet-science-and-web-science-synergies/ 

23 May 2013: “Digital Agenda and gender divide: where is the link?”, WISE Forum meeting Europe Conversation's series - http://www.comune.bologna.it/europedirect/

28 May 2013: “How to liberate women's resources for innovation”, Forum PA, Palazzo dei Congressi, Roma, http://portal.forumpa.it/

9 July 2013: Invitation to the “Online Manifesto” Discussion, European Commision, DG INSFO, Brussels, http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/onlife-initiative

4-7 September 2013: ECPR Bordeaux General Conference, accepted paper: "Online and offline activists: are there more similarities tha differences? Some empirical evidences from the Italian context" in the Panel "Offline and Online Political participation: comparing forms and logics".

12-14 September 2013: SISP General Conference, Florence, accepted paper "Né tempo né voglia? La partecipazione politica delle donne tra condizionamenti strutturali e culturali" in the Panel "Genere e partecipazione", Section 6 "Partecipazione e movimenti sociali".

 

10-14 September 2014 (with Paolo Dini), From an idea to a scalable working model: merging economic benefits with social values in Sardex, Conference paper,http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/59406/, Winir Inaugural Conference www.winir.org (World Interdisciplinary Network for Institutional Research)    

4-5 December 2014, with Marco Prandini, Why electronic voting?, CedemASIA, Hong Kong, Conference Proceedings,  http://www.donau-uni.ac.at/

10-12 December 2014, with Marco Prandini, Research directions in E-voting, Peer reviewed accepted short paper at 5th Internet Technologies & Society 2014 Conference (ITS 2014), http://www.its-conf.org.

 

26 February 2015, Rethinking the role of SSH in Horizon2020, International Workshop, EU-persperctive, organized by the University of Bologna, Bruxells, http://www.unibo.it/en/notice-board/rethinking-the-role-of-social-sciences-and-humanities-ssh-towards-a-reflective-and-generative-perspective-1 .

27-30 March 2015, Sociological insights for complementary currencies, ETH, Zurich, COMPARE Symposium for Self-organization, http://compare-network.net/zurich/.

27-29 May 2015, Internet Science International Conference, TPC Chair, Bruxelles, http://internetscienceconference.eu/

2-4 July 2015, Sardex, from parallel currency to institution: a micro-macro case study, SASE Annual conference, LSE, London, UK. 

 

19-20 May 2016, Societies in Transition. Social and Solidarity Economy, the Commons, Public Action and Livelihood, EMES Network, Paris.

7-9 July 2016; EGOS (European Group for Organizational Studies). Conference Paper ‘Sardex, a Complementary Currency that Shapes a New Financial Space’, SubTheme ‘Organizing in the Shadow of Financial Power’, General Theme ‘Organizing in the Shadow of Power’, University of Naples, www.egosnet.org

5-7 September 2016, ISIRC (Interdisciplinary Social Innovation Research Conference), Conference Paper ‘Self-Funded Social Impact Investment: An Interdisciplinary Analisys of the Sardex Mutual Credit System, with Paolo Dini (LSE) and Wallis Motta (LSE), Glasgow, Uk, www.isircconference2016.com

12-14 September 2016, 3^rd Internet Science International Conference. Conference Paper ‘Public Transportation, IoT, Trust and Urban Habits’, General Theme ‘Openness, Collaboration and Collective Action’, University of Florence, http://insci2016.complexworld.net

 

2017 2-4 February Panel Discussant, ‘Usi e abusi del femminismo’ coordinato da Sveva Magaraggia (UNIMIB), VII Congresso della Società Italiana delle Storiche, Pisa.

2017 10-14 May, Paper presentation ‘Sardex, a complementary currency that shapes a new financial space through trust and coordination’, IV International Conference on Social and Complementary Currencies: Money, Consciousness and Values for Social Change, Universidad Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona.

2017 23 May, ‘Innovation, social innovation and digital social innovation: what is new?’, at Digital Social Innovation Manifesto – CAPSSI, Rimini, Italy, https://www.dsimanifesto.eu/workshop/agenda

2017 2-4 November, Paper presentation ‘The social roots of the gender gap in political participation’, International conference on ‘Trends in inequality: social, economic and political issues’, Fondazione Istituto Cattaneo, Bologna, with Dario Tuorto and Rossella Ghigi (Unibo).

2019 31 January-February 2nd, ‘Development and Inequalities: from North to South’, University of Naples, SISEC Annual Conference, panel organizer, ‘L’innovazione diseguale tra economia di piattaforma, trasformazione digitale e sharing economy’

2019, 27-29 June, SASE (Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics) Annual Meeting “Fathomless Futures: Algorithmic and Imagined”, NYU University, NYC, Co-organized Mini-Conference with Prof. Gina Neff (Oxford Univ): The Future of Algorithmic Inequalities and Organizational Dynamics.

 

Affiliations and ongoing research

 
2014-2016: Expert Sociologist in the funded Project on 2012 Emilia Earthquake, 'Energie. Studiare il terremoto per ricostruire meglio', coordinated by the Dipartimento di Economia, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, www.energie.unimore.it .

2014-2015: Eu funded project COMPARE (Interdisciplinary explorations of self-organization in practice: the case of complementary currencies).

2012 - 2015: EU's funded Network of Excellence, EINS (Emerging Internet Science); Co-leader for WP JRA8 - Internet for Sustainability.

2013 - 2014: Reviewer For Eu Project on Healthy Ageing SEACW - www.seacw.org

2013: Invited Expert for the launch of "Onlife Manifesto" - DG CNECT Brussels

2012: Invited Expert for "DIGICOMP" - A framework for measuring digital competences - IPTS Seville.

March 2014 – present: Member of the Scientific Committee for ‘Pane e Internet’, a program on digital competences in Emilia-Romagna, Regione Emilia-Romagna.

July 2017 - present: (Alternate) Member of the Standing Working Group (SWG) on Gender in Research and Innovationof the European Research Area and Innovation Committee (ERAC), Miur Italian representative.

2018-2021: Editor-in-chief of Polis – Journal of Research on Society and Politics, (A class for 14/A2, 14/C1, 14/C2, 14/C3, 14/D1) https://www.rivisteweb.it/issn/1120-9488

March 2019 – September 2024: Member of steering committee of Institute of Advanced Studies (ISA), University of Bologna.

 

PHD

October 2014 – March 2017: Member of the PhD Program in‘Sociology and Methodology of Research’, University of Milan.

March 2017 - 2022: Member of the Phd Program in ‘Data Science and Computation’, University of Bologna and Fondazione Golinelli in collaboration with Polytechnic of Milan, INFN, IIT, ISI Foundation.

October 2023 – present: Member of the PhD Program in‘Sociology and Methodology of Research’, University of Milan.