Researching emotions, affect and the libidinal economy has emerged as an important area of research in the context of internet cultures of identity formation, virtual relationships and the mediatization of everyday life. In 2013 Prof Joanne Garde-Hansen published Emotion Online: Theorising Affect on the Internet with Prof Gorton (York) and since then a research strand has developed around romance, love and digital identities. The work of Dr Carolina Bandinelli on digital love has been crucial to the development of this strand. Her research explores dating apps' affective and symbolic economies as well as their significance in the formation of contemporary romantic cultures. She was awarded a small grant from Warwick's Centre for Digital Inquiry to investigate the impact of Covid-19 and digital technologies on romantic scripts. At Warwick's Centre for Digital Inquiry, Dr Bandinelli curated the Summer of Love, a series of dialogues on digital romance that was open to researchers from many disciplines.

Selected Publications

Bandinelli, C., Bandinelli, A. (2021). What does the app want? A psychoanalytic interpretation of dating apps’ libidinal economy. Psychoanalysis Culture and Society https://doi.org/10.1057/s41282-021-00217-5

Bandinelli C. and Gandini A. ‘Dating apps: an irrational love market’. Cultural Sociology (forthcoming).