Gian Marco Campagnolo

Lecturer & Alan Turing Inaugural Fellow

g.campagnolo@ed.ac.uk

+44 (0)131 650 2843

https://twitter.com/campagnolo_g/

Office 2.88

Old Surgeons' Hall

High School Yards

Edinburgh

EH1 1LZ

Background

Director of Online Learning Strategy & Development

I am Lecturer in Science & Technology Studies and Turing Inaugural Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, where I research and teach in the sociology of data science. In my research I empirically focused on ICT market intermediaries (salespeople, global IT vendors, industry analysts & management consultants) and their interaction with clients and user organisations (click the publications tab above for my latest papers). When business turned heavily to analytics, I became interested in 'data science' applications with a view on how 'big data' is made visible and turned into pictures. I recently completed a ten year-long research programme on the sociology of business knowledge applying a mixed methods approach (including micro-empirical, computational and sequence analysis) to identify the dynamics of expertise in Information Technology markets. The picture below is the cover of my latest book that summarises this programme.

New book website: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030603571

My current research empirically focuses on 'big data' and its role in high velocity environments, including sport. Methodologically, my continued focus is to demonstrate the role of micro-empirical social research in the development of the new discipline of social data science. Facilitated by domain expertise (I have UEFA B coaching licence from the Italian Football Association (FIGC) and a Match Analyst Certificate from SICS) I take football analytics as a field to develop a sociology of data science. I am currently studying the use of random forest algorithms to analyse football data. As part of a work that looks at the distribution of data science expertise in professional football, I am writing with Giolo Fele (University of Trento) on how sport data is used in TV broadcasting.

Follow my blog for more: https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/footballanalytics/

Teaching

Undergraduate Teaching

Marketing Technical Products (MAEE09003)

Postgraduate Teaching

I have been pioneering online teaching delivery in the School of Social and Political Science and contributed to develop a Science, Technology and Innovation pathway in the Data Science, Technology and Innovation Msc, an cross-college with 220 on course students.

Within that programme I teach the popular online 20 credit course Understanding Data Visualisation (PGSP11484) in Semester 2 and the 10 credit Managing Digital Influence (PGSP11441) in Semester 1.

Publications

Recent Book

Campagnolo, G.M (2020) Social Data Science Xennials: Between Analogue and Digital Social Research, Palgrave.

Recent Papers

Campagnolo, G.M. (2019) Participative epistemology in social data science: combining ethnography with computational and statistical approaches ().

Campagnolo, G.M., The Nguyen, H., Williams, R. (2019), “The temporal dynamics of technology promises in government and industry partnerships for digital innovation: the case of the Copyright Hub”, Technology Analysis & Strategic Management.

Campagnolo, G.M., Franklin, M., Giannatou, E., Stewart, J., Williams, R., (2018) “Revolution Remixed? The emergence of Open Content Filmmaking as a viable component within the mainstream film industry ”, Information, Communication & Society.

Giannatou, E., Campagnolo, G.M., Stewart, J., Williams, R., (2018) "Revolution Postponed? Tracing the Development and Limitations of Open Content Filmmaking", Information, Communication & Society.

Campagnolo, G.M., Pollock, N. & Williams, R. (2015) “Technology as we do not know it: the extended practice of global software development”, Information & Organization. Volume 25, Issue 3 , July 2015, Pages 150–159.

Johnson, M., Mozaffar, H., Williams, R., Campagnolo, G.M., Hyysalo, S., Pollock, N. (2014) “The managed prosumer: Evolving knowledge strategies in the design of information infrastructures”. Information, Communication & Society, Published Online. 17:7, 795-813.

Campagnolo, G.M. (2013) “The Evolution of Client-Consultant Relationships: A Situational Analysis of IT Consultancy in the Public Sector”. Financial and Accountability Management, 29(2), 161-185.

Campagnolo, G.M., Fele, G., (2010) "From Specifications to Specific Vagueness: How Enterprise Software Mediates Engineering Relations". Engineering Studies, 2(3), 221-243.

Research interests

Social Studies of Information and Communication Technologies Studies of information and communication technology

Valuation Studies, Social Data Science, Sociology of Images, Big data, Football

Current Projects

My current research programme progresses from qualitative to more data intensive approaches to map out expertise in the area of performance measurement, empirically addressing the field of professional football (see project micro-site). This programme already promoted interdisciplinary collaborations with applied mathematics (Andrew Duncan, Imperial College and Jacopo Diquigiovanni, University of Padua). I have been PI of the Alan Turing Institute Data Study Group "Player pathways: Understanding career paths that deliver success for professional football players and clubs" run in partnership with transfer market intelligence company PlayerLens. With a team of data scientists I took part to the first data hackathon a Football Association ever organised (Oct 18) and the publication of the report was seen on Twitter by more than 5,000 people within the first three weeks and got nearly 300 downloads on Edinburgh Research Explorer. Ours was the only team of academics invited to present to the prestigious Opta Pro Analytics Forum 2018, in front of an audience of Premier League club analysts and sport directors. This is a web application based on our study developed by a group of Edinburgh University students: https://dfd-fifa18.herokuapp.com/fifa18/home.

Completed Projects

In team with Beatrice Alex, Gil Viry and Duncan Chapple I developed research that builds links between interpretive/qualitative and data intensive/quantitative research for the study of careers and expertise (see micro-website). By applying a combination of techniques including text mining, sequence analysis and ethnography, the project explores new ways to respond to the question: how do workers build careers across organisations? This large-scale study of career patterns provides insights into how professional background contributes to acquiring the skills and relationships necessary to build successful careers.

Other research activities

I also coordinate the social science input to the Edinburgh Data Science virtual campus. Previously, I have been visiting research fellow at Ecole des Mines in Paris and post-doc fellow at University of Trento (Italy), where I have also been consultant for the government’s digital agenda. I am interested in supervising PhD research addressing data science applications in policy-making and sport science.

PhD Topics

I am currently interested in supervising postgraduate students wanting to undertake ethnographic studies of 'data science' applications, qualitatively analysing the full data life-cycle from production, to analysis, consumption, data presentation and related controversies. I am open to consider PhDs wanting to address this topic with empirical cases from different fields, from marketing to policy making to performance measurement including sport. Potential PhD topics are: - the impact of digital objectivity on coach ‘trained judgement’; - the implications of information overload on player performance; - data, gender and sport; - the promises of new analytics techniques applied to sport data; - the public perception of decision-aid technologies in sport; - the relationship between gaming and sport; - digital world and the future of sport; the embedded nature of player knowledge; - the interaction between different forms of data in sport (including social media data); - the use of data in injury prevention, transfer market analytics and player valuation.

Find out more about the programmes that I am involved with:

PhD in Science and Technology Studies (opens in new window)

Works within

Science, Technology and Innovation Studies

Thursdays 1pm on MS Teams by appointment

Publication	Research Explorer link
Campagnolo GM. Participative epistemology in social data science: Combining ethnography with computational and statistical approaches. International Journal of Social Research Methodology. 2021 Mar 1. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2021.1892379	View
Campagnolo GM, Sharkey E. Algorithmic encounters: An interactional approach to the AI accuracy vs interpretability trade-off. 2021.	View
Campagnolo GM. Social Data Science Xennials: Between Analogue and Digital Social Research. 1 ed. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. 106 p. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60358-8	View
Fele G, Campagnolo GM. Expertise and the work of football match analysts in TV sport broadcasts. 2020.	View
Campagnolo G, Giannatou E, Franklin M, Stewart J, Williams R. Revolution remixed? The emergence of Open Content Film-making as a viable component within the mainstream film industry. Information, Communication and Society. 2019 Nov 10;22(13):1871-1888. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2018.1465109	View
Campagnolo G, Nguyen H, Williams R. The temporal dynamics of technology promises in government and industry partnerships for digital innovation: The case of the Copyright Hub. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management. 2019 Aug;31(8):972-985. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537325.2019.1580358	View
Campagnolo GM. Fledgling data science: A study of the freelance football analytics community. 2019.	View
Williams R, Campagnolo G, Stewart J, Giannatou E, Franklin M. Revolution postponed? Tracing the development and limitations of open content filmmaking. Information, Communication and Society. 2018 Apr 25;1 -21. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2018.1464590	View
Duncan A, Diquigiovanni J, Papastathopoulos I, Zygalakis K, Campagnolo G. Predicting FIFA World Cup 2018 key role and playing style features. 2018.	View
Campagnolo G, Williams R, Alex B, Acerbi A, Chapple D. Sensitizing social data science: combining empirical social research with computational approaches to influencer detection. 2017.	View
Campagnolo G, Williams R, Alex B, Acerbi A, Chapple D. Sensitizing social data science: Combining empirical social research with computational approaches to the analysis of career data. 2017, p. 1-49. https://doi.org/20.500.11820/5d00df5f-3359-4188-afc2-4ebadf8d826e	View
Pollock N, Campagnolo GM. Subitizing practices and market decisions: The role of simple graphs in business valuations. In Kornberger M, Justesen L, Koed-Madsen A, Mouritsen J, editors, Making Things Valuable. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2015. p. 89-108 https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198712282.001.0001	View
Campagnolo GM, Pollock N, Williams R. Technology as we do not know it: The extended practice of global software development. Information and Organization. 2015 Jul;25(3):150-159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infoandorg.2015.06.001	View
Johnson M, Mozaffar H, Campagnolo GM, Hyysalo S, Pollock N, Williams R. The Managed Prosumer: Evolving Knowledge Strategies in the Design of Information Infrastructures. Information, Communication and Society. 2014 Jun;17(7):795-813. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2013.830635	View
Campagnolo GM. The Evolution of Client-Consultant Relationships: A Situational Analysis of IT Consultancy in the Public Sector. Financial Accountability and Management. 2013 May;29(2):161-185. https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.12011	View
Jacucci G, Campagnolo GM. Social Practice Design. In Campagnolo GM, Viscusi G, Curzi Y, editors, Phenomenology, Organizational Politics, and IT Design: The Social Study of Information Systems. Information Science Reference. 2012. p. 273-288. (Premier Reference Source).	View
Viscusi G, Campagnolo GM, Curzi Y. Phenomenology, organizational politics, and IT design: the social study of information systems. Hershey, Pa: Information Science Reference, 2012.	View
Campagnolo GM, Fele G. From Specifications to Specific Vagueness: How Enterprise Software Mediates Relations in Engineering Practices. Engineering Studies. 2010 Dec 1;2(3):221-243. https://doi.org/10.1080/19378629.2010.520015	View
Campagnolo GM, Ducati S. Changing Spaces for Social Learning in ERP Implementation in SMEs: A Situational Analysis. In D'Atri A, De Marco M, Braccini AM, Cabiddu F, editors, Management of the Interconnected World. Heidelberg: Springer Physica. 2010. p. 97-104. (ItAIS: The Italian Association for Information Systems).	View
Campagnolo GM. La prospettiva actor-network. In Fabbri TM, editor, Organizzare: concetti e metodi. Carocci. 2010	View
Jucucci G, Campagnolo GM. L'approccio Social Practice Design alla promozione del cambiamento organizzativo, applicato nel progetto MAPPER: come intodurre nella manifattura distribuita la modellazione d'impresa per la gestione dei processi produttivi. In Fabbri TM, editor, Organizzare: concetti e metodi. Carocci. 2010	View
Liberman K, Fele G, D'Andrea V, Campagnolo GM, Curzi Y, Viscusi G. Phenomenology and the Social Study of Information Systems: Conversations with Kenneth Liberman. University of Trento, 2009.	View
Campagnolo GM. Multi-sited Ethnography and Comparative Case Studies on Technological Implementation in the Manufacturing Industry. In Comacchio A, Pontiggia A, editors, L’organizzazione fa la Differenza?. Rome: Carocci. 2008	View