Fabrizio Li Vigni has been a postdoctoral student at the IFRIS since October 2019. His current research project – entitled “Can civic tech help democracy to be democratized?” – is on digital political participation platforms. He specifically looks at how political parties implement devices allowing them to co-construct laws and decisions hand-in-hand with citizens over the internet. The platforms that he is examining are “Parlement & Citoyen” (a cross-party initiative promoted by a subset of French elected officials), “Decidim” (an initiative of the Barcelona en comù party which has governed Barcelona since 2015), and “Rousseau” (an initiative of the catch-all Movimento 5 Stelle party which has governed Italy since 2018). His approach combines STS, political sociology, and the sociology of argumentation for the purpose of answering the following two questions:
- To what extent do citizens’ arguments in an online environment differ from those expressed in-person, and how do the online and offline worlds interact with one another? How is power distributed? Moreover, how is the debate structured and constrained by the materiality of digital infrastructure?
- What are platform developers’ cultural and material anchors and how do these developers treat citizens’ online contributions? What worldview do algorithms convey and how is this translated in software code?
Fabrizio Li Vigni has a PhD in sociology from the EHESS Paris. His thesis (defended in November 2018), titled Les systèmes complexes et la digitalisation des sciences. Histoire et sociologie des instituts de la complexité aux États-Unis et en France (https://www.theses.fr/2018PSLEH134), looks at the relationship between contemporary scientific cultures and the increasing use of computers to produce knowledge. The subject is the scientific field founded in the 1980s by the Santa Fe Institute (SFI) in the United States, namely complex systems science. Using a sociological perspective rooted in STS and a pragmatist approach, his thesis raises questions surrounding the socio-epistemic status of this field, the administration of evidence in this knowledge based on digital simulation, and the epistemic commitments of complex systems specialists.
Recent publications:
- “Normativité des modèles et régimes du futur Trois communautés d’anticipation dans les sciences de la complexité”. Revue d’anthropologie des connaissances, 14-1, 2020: https://journals.openedition.org/rac/4261.
2. “Le projet épistémique des sciences des systèmes complexes”. Philosophia scientiæ, 24-1, 2020: https://journals.openedition.org/philosophiascientiae/2201.
3. “‘Traveling Codes’ Leuphana Workshop – 30-31 March 2017”. Bulletin de Méthodologie Sociologique, 2017, Vol. 136 74–81. Online at: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0759106317725650
4. “Agent Cultures and Zombielands – 23-25 June 2016 Leuphana Conference”. Bulletin de Méthodologie Sociologique, 2017, Vol. 133 71–77. Online at: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0759106316681086
5. “Il pensiero complesso tra epistemologia e impegno civile. Introduzione al Metodo di Edgar Morin”. Physis. Rivista internazionale di Storia della Scienza, Vol. L, Nuova Serie, Fascicoli 1-2, 2015, pp. 389-400. Online at: https://www.academia.edu/25658079/Il_pensiero_complesso_tra_epistemologia_e_impegno_civile._Introduzione_al_Metodo_di_Edgar_Morin
6. (with Jean Foyer and Christophe Bonneuil). “Entretien avec Edgar Morin”. Complejidad, No. 20, July-September 2013, pp. 53-62. Online at: http://www.academia.edu/4973142/Entretien_avec_Edgar_Morin_Complejidad
7. “Les non-humains peuvent-ils être des porte-parole ?” COMMposite, Vol. 16, N. 1, 2013. Online at: http://www.commposite.org/index.php/revue/article/view/143/139
Personal website: https://fabriziolivigni.wordpress.com/