MAGAUDDA PAOLO

Paolo Magaudda is Associate Professor of Sociology of Culture and Communication at the University of Padua, where he has coordinated the PhD Programme in Social Sciences since 2025 and is a member of the PaSTIS research unit (Padova Science, Technology and Innovation Studies) within the Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psychology (FISPPA). He obtained his PhD in Sociology from the same university in 2007, with a dissertation on the social processes of technological appropriation in everyday life, focusing particularly on media use. He has been a visiting scholar at the Department of History of Science and Technology at the University of California, Berkeley (2011), and at the Department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University in Montréal (2006). In 2020, he obtained the Italian National Scientific Qualification (Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale) as Full Professor (first tier) in the field of Sociology of Cultural and Communicative Processes (14/C2).
His research explores the intersections between culture, technology and society through an interdisciplinary approach combining cultural sociology, science and technology studies (STS), media studies and consumer culture. His work focuses especially on digital platforms, music media, technological infrastructures, and grassroots innovation processes.
Throughout his academic career, he has held several leadership roles. He has been a member of the PhD Programme Committee in Social Sciences since 2019 and has served as the teaching coordinator since 2022. From 2010 to 2021, he was Editor-in-Chief of Tecnoscienza: Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies (indexed in Scopus/WOS, Classe A), which he co-founded, and from 2019 to 2024 he served as Co-Editor-in-Chief of Studi Culturali (Il Mulino, Scopus, Classe A). He currently serves on the Editorial Board of Sociologica (University of Bologna Press) and on the International Advisory Board of Dancecult.
He is the author or co-author of ten monographs, including Platformed! How Streaming, Algorithms and Artificial Intelligence Are Shaping Music Cultures (Palgrave, 2024, with T. Bonini), Young People and the Smartphone (Palgrave, 2022, with M. Drusian and M. Scarcelli), and History of Digital Media (Routledge, 2018, with G. Balbi). He has edited 15 collective volumes or special issues and published over 130 peer-reviewed journal articles in Italian and international journals, including Journal of Consumer Culture, Cultural Sociology, Science as Culture, Annals of the ICA, Sociologica, and Tecnoscienza.
He has actively organized academic conferences and summer schools, serving as Conference Chair for several major events, including the VII STS Italia Conference: Technoscience from Below (University of Padua, 2018), the conference Co-creation in Techno-scientific Innovation: Responsibility, Public Participation and Social Value (Politecnico di Milano, 2023), and the international workshop Digital Reconfigurations: Exploring the Interplay Between Data, Infrastructures and Social Processes (University of Padua, 2025).
He has delivered keynote lectures in several international academic contexts, including Music Scenes as Infrastructures at Central European University (Budapest, 2017), How is Music Consumption Changing with Platforms, Algorithms and AI? at the University of Ljubljana (2023), and Tensions and Frictions in Innovation within the Bicycle Industry at the Probing Innovation Summer School (University of Lausanne, 2023).
He is a regular participant in international conferences held by scholarly associations such as 4S (Society for Social Studies of Science), EASST (European Association for the Study of Science and Technology), IASPM (International Association for the Study of Popular Music), SHOT (Society for the History of Technology), ESA (European Sociological Association), and ISA (International Sociological Association).
He has coordinated and participated in numerous research projects, including several with international relevance. He was unit coordinator for En-RRI – Enhancing Responsible Research and Innovation in Bottom-Up Co-Creation of Science and Technology (Funded by Fondazione Cariplo, 2020–2023) and was part of the Italian team for the European H2020 project RRI-Practice (2016–2019). Between 2008 and 2010, he also participated in the EU-funded project Euro-Festival: Art Festivals and the European Public Culture, promoted by the Carlo Cattaneo Research Foundation. Since 2021, he has served as an expert evaluator for the European Commission (Horizon Europe programmes) as well as for other international institutions such as the Swiss National Science Foundation (since 2022), and the Research Excellence Council of Hungary (since 2024).