October 9, 2023 – h. 10.00

Sala Europa, IRPPS via Palestro 32 – Rome

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming people’s life in unprecedented ways. AI models have human or superhuman abilities in multiple tasks, e.g., gaming, driving, conversation, and content organization. In biomedical research, however, AI demonstrated as much promise, e.g., in molecular drug design, as much disappointment, e.g., in clinical drug repurposing or public health intervention. One of the reasons is that the datasets AI feeds on –sourced from real world databases such electronic health records (EHR)– are often littered with bias. Such bias might be irrelevant to predict the happening of health conditions, but it influences any strategy to prevent such conditions from happening. In this talk, we will take a dive into the promises and perils of AI in healthcare, and its troubled relationship with data, bias, and causality. We will explore novel causal AI methodologies able to both provide accurate individual health predictions as well as interventions. Finally, we will present use cases of causal AI on large, integrated EHR data, and an eagle’s view of EHR consortia in the USA.

Short biographies

Mattia Prosperi, PhD, FAMIA, is Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, and Associate Dean of AI and Innovation in the College of Public Health and Health Profession at University of Florida. His background is in computer science engineering, with expertise in machine learning, bio-health informatics, and epidemiology. His research leverages technology and data intelligence to develop prediction and intervention models for improving future health and lives. In his administrative role, his mission is to expand AI infrastructure, training, research and expertise capacity in public health and health professions.

Yi Guo, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Health Outcomes, Policy and Biomedical Informatics, College of Medicine, University of Florida. He has a multi-disciplinary background in the analysis of real-world data, including electronic health records and administrative claims, experimental and observational study design, predictive modeling (e.g., statistical and machine learning), causal modeling, and analysis of patient-reported outcomes in clinical and public health applications, and among various populations, especially vulnerable populations.

In September, the research group involved in the VIVA project (Evaluation and Analysis of interventions for the prevention and combating of violence against women) participated in important opportunities for discussion with the scientific community, sharing perspectives and results as a starting point for upcoming qualitative investigations on the empowerment of women victims of violence and on Centers for perpetrators of violence.

Two posters were presented at the European Conference on Domestic Violence (ECDV) in Reykjavik.

The first – Networking to prevent and combat male violence against women by Francesca Proia, Maria Dentale, Pietro Demurtas, Alice Mauri – presents data relating to the analysis of the Italian anti-violence system as a complex and diversified universe.

Fig. 1 The poster Networking to prevent and combat male violence against women

The second – Defining the effectiveness of perpetrator programs from a practice-based perspective by Pietro Demurtas and Caterina Peroni – shows some of the results of the recently completed survey on Centers for Male Perpetrators of Violence (CUAV).

Fig. 2 The poster Defining the effectiveness of perpetrator programs from a practice-based perspective

Within the framework of the XVI ESPAnet Italia Conference, Beatrice Busi and Angela Toffanin also presented a contribution on conditionality in economic, employment, and social empowerment measures in anti-violence policies.

Visit the VIVA project website.

Edited by Monia Torre, with scientific support from Pietro Demurtas, Alice Mauri, Angela Toffanin.

The journal Welfare&Ergonomia (Class A, Anvur, published by Franco Angeli) has opened the call for papers No. 1, 2024, “Labor exploitation, rights and health in contemporary society,” edited by Marco Omizzolo.

This issue of W&E will investigate the organization, dissemination, and evolution of the labor exploitation system and its effects on psycho-physical health and the welfare system in Italy. Proposals may be either theoretical or empirical.

For submission, an abstract of approximately 3,000 characters (including spaces) must be sent by October 13, 2023, to omizzolomarco@gmail.com; welfarergonomia.rel@irpps.cnr.it.

Call for abstracts (pdf)
Call for abstracts EN (pdf)

The preliminary results of the second survey on Centers for Men who Perpetrate Violence—conducted as part of the VIVA project—were presented to the Observatory on the Phenomenon of Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence.

Within the framework of the FOSSR project – Fostering Open Science in Social Science Research (PNRR-IR 0000008) and the DASSI/CESSDA Joint Research Unit, IRPPS contributes to:

• 2 (two) scholarships for attendance of the PhD program in “Social and Statistical Sciences” – XXXIX CYCLE – University of Naples Federico II for conducting research activities on the following research topic: “Improvement of open cloud services envisaged by the FOSSR project and DASSI databases, the Italian node of CESSDA”.
  Deadline August 2, 2023 Call for applications (pdf), how to apply.
  
• 1 scholarship for attendance of the PhD program in “Economic Sociology, Organization and Labor (ESOL)” – XXXIX CYCLE – University of Milan for conducting research activities: “computational social science methods for population-based research on relevant socio-economic phenomena”.
  Deadline July 26, 2023 Call for applications (pdf), how to apply.

On the occasion of World Population Day, we gathered three different perspectives on population studies at our Institute.

With Angela Paparusso, a demographer in the Population and Migration group, we discussed demographic aging, family models, and migration.
With Patrizia Grifoni, an engineer in the Social Informatics and Technology Assessment group, we focused on the various social implications of the spread of information and communication technologies (ICT).
We asked Daniele Archibugi, an economist in the Globalization, Research and Innovation group, about the current relationship between demographic dynamics and the economy.

The bicycle is experiencing a new era. Sales data, the expansion of cycle tourism, the widespread urban use of bikes and alternative vehicles—somehow linked to new forms of mobility in environments that are not very bike-friendly—and a new cultural sensitivity toward the ecological transition are among the indicators of its rediscovery. In the memory of many, the bike is associated with pleasant experiences of exploration and freedom. The bicycle is considered a convivial technology (Illich, 1973; Pivato, 2021), capable of creating balanced modes of relationship with the environment. Many cities and regions have invested in cycling and encouraged speed moderation in urban spaces. On World Bicycle Day, however, it is important to remember that cycling practice is not as widespread as one might expect.

The delay in cycle mobility

To understand the reasons for the ‘delay’ in the spread of cycle mobility—which are particularly significant in our country, despite commendable exceptions and a notable increase in the number of bicycles in circulation since the lockdown period—a national research network has been developed through the collaboration between researchers from IRPPS CNR, the University of Naples ‘Federico II’, the University of Turin, the University of Padua, the University of Siena, the University of Salerno, and the FIAB Research Center. This emerging network has given rise to a successful series of online seminars that can still be viewed today; it has also produced a ‘special issue’ in the journal Eracle (Landri & Tirino, 2022) and is currently working on a book about bikes and society. The network, as has been understood, is unique and tends to follow ‘in miniature’ the international Cycling & Society network, which has been the reference point for scientific production in this sector for several years (Cox, 2020; Cox & Bunte, 2018; Equality & Cox, 2020).

The theme of cycle mobility is expanding in terms of the number of publications. It can, therefore, already be observed that the ‘delay’ in the spread of the bicycle runs parallel to the ‘delay’ in the development of academic communities that look at the bicycle. In comparison, scientific literature on the car is widely diffused. The rediscovery of the bike, even on an academic level, essentially confronts us with a given fact: contemporary societies are car-centric (Urry, 2004) and present varying degrees of sensitivity toward cycling practice (Belloni, 2019).

Countries can, in fact, differ in relation to national cycling cultures. Italy has a sporting cycling culture, but not a widespread cycling culture (except in some regions), as in other countries like the Netherlands or Belgium. Cycling cultures, however, are not immutable; they can regenerate, evolve over time, and emerge where they are not present. Analyzing the cultural dimension, as emerged during the special issue edited by two researchers from the research network on bikes and society (Landri & Tirino, 2022), is a promising research path to understand what encourages cycle mobility.

Media encourages cycle mobility

Among the factors that encourage it, the media plays a prominent role. The epic narrative of cycling emerged in our country precisely in relation to the processes of building the national state. Today, that narrative is giving way to the dynamic storytelling of cyclists on social media. On one hand, social platforms capture cycling within the extractivist logic of digital capitalism; on the other, they create new sporting practices such as virtual cycling (which is now one of several e-Sports), but also favor the emergence of new subjectivities (women, LGBT+ communities), broadening cycling practice. Unlike traditional media that aimed at creating the epic deeds of champions, social media, by encouraging the circulation of knowledge among practitioners, allows for an increase in connections, sociality, and communication, lowering the barriers to entry for the practice. In short, by democratizing knowledge, they act as positive incentives for the spread of cycling.

Media is necessary, but not sufficient. Building bike-friendly societies is actually also a scientific challenge that requires a constant flow of empirical research and theoretical reflection. It is, in fact, about generating knowledge to foster minimum conditions for cyclability in environments that are predominantly designed in a car-centric way. It is not just a technical matter; rather, as is emerging from the network’s work, it requires the development of a sociology of the bicycle, understood as the search for a virtuous concatenation between knowledge, techniques, and society.

Edited by Paolo Landri (on the occasion of World Bicycle Day, June 3, 2023)

Bibliographic references

Belloni, E. (2019). Quando si andava in velocipede. Storia della mobilità ciclistica in Italia (1870-1955). Franco Angeli.

Cox, P. (2020). Cycling: A Sociology of Vélomobility. Routledge.

Cox, P., & Bunte, H. (2018). Social practices and the importance of context. Framing the Third Cycling Century, 122–131. https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/sites/default/files/medien/1410/publikationen/181128_uba_fb_third_cycling_century_bf_small.pdf

Equality, I., & Cox, P. (2020). The politics of cycling infrastructure. The Politics of Cycling Infrastructure, 5940. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvvsqc63

Illich, I. (1973). Tools for conviviality. Harper and Row.

Landri, P., & Tirino, M. (2022). Media, Society and Cycling Cultures: Editorial. Eracle. Journal of Sport and Social Sciences, 5(1), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.6093/2611-6693/9612

Pivato, S. (2021). La felicità in bicicletta. Il Mulino.

Urry, J. (2004). The ‘System’ of Automobility. Theory, Culture & Society, 21(5), 25–39. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276404046059

On May 18, philosopher Nancy Fraser visited IRPPS for a meeting entitled “Is feminism an unrecognized labor movement? A heretical question inspired by W.E.B. Du Bois”.

Fraser is Professor of Philosophy and Politics at the New School for Social Research in New York City. In her work, grounded in Critical Theory and Feminism, she has addressed issues of power, identity, emancipation, capital, justice, and oppression, particularly in relation to the functioning of liberalism.

The meeting, organized by Daniele Archibugi, was characterized by a fruitful dialogue between the philosopher and the IRPPS research community, particularly researchers Teresa Pullano, Angela Toffanin, and Beatrice Busi, who introduced her presentation, highlighting how Fraser’s work provides interpretive tools for understanding domestic violence in Italy and processes of subjectivation in contemporary democracies.

Available: introductory comments, event recording, and image gallery.

• Introductory comment by Angela Toffanin (pdf)
• Introductory comment by Beatrice Busi (pdf)
• Introductory comment by Teresa Pullano (pdf).

As part of the PNRR-FOSSR project (PNRR-IR 0000008 FOSSR – Fostering Open Science in Social Science Research), IRPPS in collaboration with Bocconi University has launched a call for 1 fellowship for a PhD in SOCIAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE – CNR.

The planned duration of the doctorate is 4 years.

Application closing date: June 12, 2023.

Research must be consistent with the activities of the European research infrastructure known as JRU DASSI/CESSDA. This includes aspects such as research to use and further develop the FOSSR open cloud services, as well as use and further develop the Social Science Data Archives of Italy (DASSI).

Disciplinary fields covered during the PhD: SECS-P/01 (Political Economy), SECS-P/02 (Economic Policy), SECS-P/07 (Business Administration), SECS-P/12 (Economic History), SPS/04 (Political Science), SPS/07 (Sociology), SECS-S/04 (Demography).

All information related to the SPS-CNR fellowship is included in the official call.

More information and application procedure on unibocconi website.