Computational Social Research Lab · University “G. d’Annunzio” of Chieti-Pescara
Understanding society in the age of platforms and artificial intelligence
CSRLab studies how digital platforms and generative artificial intelligence are reshaping conflict, identity, inequality and institutions, and develops rigorous computational methods to measure their effects.
Socio-technical transformations and social change
Digital platforms have profoundly reconfigured the production and circulation of information, the forms of public participation, the construction of social ties and the dynamics of conflict. Today generative artificial intelligence is accelerating social change as never before, transforming work and communication, interpersonal relationships and identity systems, access to rights, the way institutions operate and the relationship between society and the environment.
CSRLab is an interdisciplinary, interdepartmental research group that studies these processes from sociological, anthropological, political and legal perspectives. We combine big data, machine learning and network analysis with digital ethnography and fieldwork to produce knowledge that matters for institutions, civil society and citizens.
Research topics
AI and social change
How generative AI enters everyday life, work, relationships and institutions; uses and risks for young and vulnerable people; regulation, accountability and rights.
Platforms, hate and radicalisation
Mapping hate speech, online misogyny, the manosphere and digital subcultures, and the networks that produce and spread them.
Democracy and institutions
Electoral campaigns, propaganda, polarisation and populism in the digital public sphere; open data, digitalisation and AI in public administration.
Futures Studies and decision support
Possible, probable and preferable futures: foresight, scenarios, complexity analysis and Delphi techniques, also AI-supported, to inform strategic decisions and public policy.
Migration, vulnerability and rights
Trafficking and exploitation, climate migration, protection of minors and vulnerable people; the impact of digital technologies and AI on border control, integration and migration policies.
Law, data and AI
Personal data protection, online protection of minors and vulnerable people, regulation of and liability for the use of artificial intelligence systems.
Computational methods
Building and validating NLP, topic modelling, network analysis and Bayesian tools, and testing LLMs as research instruments.
Data, methods, social impact.