Paola MARTINO | International Lab for innovative social research

Description

The International Lab for Innovative Social Research (ICIS), established within the Department of Humanities, Philosophy and Education is an interdisciplinary centrefor social research.

The lab 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 lab offers also methodological services for the scientific community of the University of Salerno supporting in the research design, data collection, generation and storage, pre-­‐testing, questionnaire building, sampling, dataset creation and data analysis.

Main research areas

• Social research methods
• Online research methods
• Media and communication
• Migration
• Gender and Sexuality
• Culture and Lifestyles
• Generations
• Local development
• Sustainable development, quality of life, social cohesion
• Health
• Family
• School and Education

Purpose

The lab has three main aims:

1. The scientific dissemination of innovative social theories and research practices through hosting visiting scholars and organizing meetings (e.g. lectio magistralis, seminars, workshops and conferences) with prominent scholars;
2. The design of project proposals about theoretical and empirical social research actions in partnership with other international actors to be submitted under national and international funding programs for scientific research;
3. The design and implementation of empirical research at an international level through innovative research methodologies and online research methods.

Scientific Activities

Theoretical, epistemological and methodological meetings with outstanding national and international social science scholars (e.g. seminars, workshops, conferences and lectio magistralis) addressed to researchers and social scholars;

Research design classes: training courses on goals setting and research question definition, conceptual specification through the use of concept maps, operational definition, indicators selection and questionnaire building;

Methods classes: training courses on new social research methods (big data analysis, content analysis, netnography, etc.);

Technique classes: training courses on new social research techniques (multilevel modeling, GIS analysis, etc.);

Data analysis classes: training courses on the use of data analysissoftware;

International exchanges with foreign universities aimed at hosting visiting professors in the field of social sciences;

Design of complex scientific research projects;

Empirical research on the main research streams of the ILIS.

Publications

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Contacts

Tel: +39 089962309

e-mail: gmasullo@unisa.it