Emiliana Armano is a sociologist and independent researcher with a PhD in Economic Sociology from the University of Milan. Her research focuses on digital capitalism, platform work, and labor transformations in the digital economy, using co-research and engaged research approaches. She examines the intersection of work processes and the production of subjectivity and precariousness in contemporary capitalism. Recent publications include Digital Platforms and Algorithmic Subjectivities (University of Westminster Press, 2022), co-edited with Marco Briziarelli and Elisabetta Risi.
Inquiry and Co-Research Today
Contemporary Practices and Perspectives
Abstract
In an age of platform capitalism, algorithmic management, and precarious subjectivity, how can social research maintain its transformative power? This groundbreaking collection opens vital conversations about critical approaches to knowledge production, weaving together diverse practices and perspectives to chart new paths forward. Bridging historical insight with urgent contemporary analysis, this volume explores how Alquatian concepts —“class composition”, “hyperindustrialization”, and “co-research”— illuminate the complex interplay between active combination of human capacity and capital means in our digital era.
The contributions of Part One dissect platform capitalism, algorithmic management in education and food delivery, and the exploitative machinery of creative industries and journalism, revealing how inquiry practices remain powerfully relevant to today’s socioeconomic landscape. The centerpiece of Part Two is Romano Alquati’s seminal essay Co-Research and Workers’ Inquiry, presented with critical commentaries that illuminate the epistemological foundations distinguishing co-research from other forms of militant inquiry while affirming its vital role in producing knowledge “from below”.
This work shows how engaged research can disrupt conventional epistemological hierarchies while fostering collective understanding and transformative action. Essential reading for researchers, activists, and anyone seeking to understand how critical inquiry serves emancipatory purposes in the age of digital capitalism.
Suggested citation:
Armano, E. (editor) (2025) Inquiry and Co-Research Today, Buenos Aires: Teseo. URL: https://www.teseopress.com/inquiryandcoresearchtoday
About the editor
Table of Contents
Part 1: Interpretations of the Present
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- Co-Research in a Time
of Platform Capitalism (Emiliana Armano) - Enhancement or Impoverishment? (Emiliana Armano, Andrea Cavazzini and Rosanna Maccarone)
- Algorithmic Management
in Food Delivery Platforms (Emiliana Armano, Daniela Leonardi and Annalisa Murgia) - Autonomy, Free Labor, and Passions
as Devices of Creative Capitalism (Cristina Morini, Kristin Carls and Emiliana Armano)
- Co-Research in a Time
Part 2: Insight and Trajectories of Analysis
