Dr. Carolina Bandinelli

Associate Professor in Media and Creative Industries Director: MA Global Media and Communication Centre for Cultural & Media Policy Studies Administrative roles Director of the MA in Global Media and Communication Director of Research Environment Co-Director of the Centre for Digital Inquiry

About

Carolina Bandinelli is Associate Professor in Media and Creative Industries. She joined the Centre for Cultural and Media Policy Studies in 2019 and directs the MA in Global Media and Communication. She is the Director of Research Environment at CCMPS, and the co-director of Warwick's Centre for Digital Inquiry. Her research is concerned with emerging forms of subjectivity and sociality in digital societies and cultures, which she investigates combining ethnographic methods with discourse and textual analysis.

Research Interest

Currently, my research focuses on the digital culture of love. I am investigating digital technologies of love and the ways in which these shape emerging cultural tropes in the dimensions of romance, sexuality and intimacy. Initial findings of this ongoing project are published in articles for Psychoanalysis Culture and Society, Cultural Sociology, International Journal of Cultural Policy, and Sexualities. In 2021, I curated the series of events Summer of Love: dialogues on digital romance, hosted by Warwick's Centre for Digital Inquiry. My work on digital love has featured in prominent media outlets, including the NYT, The financial Times, The Atlantic, and the BBC.

My role as Director of Research environment involves curating and organising research events to nurture the community of students and researcher at CCMPS and beyond. Our series of seminar is available hereLink opens in a new window. As part of our public engagement activities, I cohost the Media WhateverLink opens in a new window Podcast. As co-director of the Centre for Digital inquiry, I have co-designed and co-run the CDI TVLink opens in a new window Stream, an experimental hybrid format to create and communicate knowledge within and beyond academia.

In recent years, I have published on the organisation and significance of work in the creative industries. In particular, I have contributed to the debates on self-branding, coworking and collaborative economies. My monograph Social Entrepreneurship and Neoliberalism: Making Money While Doing Good (Rowman and Littlefield International), offers an analysis of social entrepreneurs, which I interpret as a new generation of creative workers who express their values and virtues by means of a business. The close intertwinement between ethics and economy is also the focus of my article ‘The Production of Subjectivities in Neoliberal Culture Industries: The Case of Coworking Spaces’, published in The International Journal of Cultural Studies.

I participated as Senior Researcher for the AHRC project CREATe, as part of a team led by Prof. Angela McRobbie. Part of our findings can be found in a co-authored article on ‘Feminism and the Politics of Creative Labour: Fashion Micro-enterprises in London, Berlin and Milan’, in Australian Feminist Studies, and the book Fashion as Creative Economy, co-authored by McRobbie, Strutt and myself (Polity, 2022)

Selected publications

• Bandinelli, C. (2024). Romantic opportunism: Doing the work of structures in post-feminist creative industries. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/13675494241228813
• Bandinelli, C., & Cossu, A. (2023). Bye bye romance, welcome reputation: An analysis of the digital enclosure of dating. Sexualities, 0(0).
• Bandinelli, C (2022) Dating apps: towards post-romantic love in digital societies, International Journal of Cultural Policy, 28:7
• McRobbie, Strutt, bandinelli (2022) Fashion as Creative Economy. London: Polity.
• Bandinelli C, & Gandini A. (2022) Dating Apps: The Uncertainty of Marketised Love. Cultural Sociology. 2022. doi:10.1177/17499755211051559
• Bandinelli, C., & Bandinelli, A. (2021) What does the app want? A psychoanalytic interpretation of dating apps’ libidinal economy. Psychoanalysis Culture and Society 26, 181–198. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41282-021-00217-5
• Bandinelli, C. (2020a) Social Entrepreneurship: Making Money While Doing Good. London: Rowman and Littlefield International.
• Bandinelli, C. (2020b) ‘The Production of Subjectivities in Neoliberal Culture Industries: The Case of Coworking Spaces, in International Journal of Cultural Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877919878449
• McRobbie, A., Strutt, D. and Bandinelli, C. (2019) ‘Feminism and the Politics of Creative Labour: Fashion Micro-Enterprises in London Berlin and Milan’, in Australian Feminist Studies 34:100, 131-148.
• Bandinelli, C. and Gandini, A. (2019) ‘Creative hubs versus creative networks’, in Gill, R. Pratt, A. Virani, T. (eds.) Creative Hubs. Palgrave, London.
• Gandini, A. Bandinelli, C. and Cossu, A. (2017) ‘Collaborating, Competing, Coalescing, Coworking’, in Graham, J. and Gandini, A. (eds.) Collaborative Production in the Creative Industries. University of Westminster Press, London.
• Ardvisson, A. Gandini, A. Bandinelli, C. (2016) ‘The Ethics of Self­ Branding Amongst Freelance Knowledge Workers’, in Crain, M. Poster, W. Cherry, M. (eds) Invisible Labor: Hidden Work in the Contemporary World. University of California Press, Oakland.
• McRobbie, A. Strutt, D. Bandinelli, C. Springer, B. (2016) Fashion Micro­ Enterprises in London Berlin Milan. CREATe Report Phase I. Goldsmiths and CREATe, Glasgow, London.
• Bandinelli, C. (2015) Il Miglior Lavoro del Mondo: Lo Strano Caso dell’Imprenditoria Sociale. [The best job in the word: the strange case of social entrepreneurship]. Doppiozero/Che­ Fare: Milan.
• Bandinelli, C. and Arvidsson, A. (2013) ‘Brand yourself a changemaker!’, in Journal of Macromarketing, 33(1).

 

Teaching I teach on the following modules: Technology Culture and Creativity (MA) Media Creative and Cultural Industries (BA) The Major Project (BA and MA)

Research supervision I would be interested in supervising postgraduate students who wish to research cultures of love and sexuality in digital societies, and emerging forms of work in the creative industries. I welcome projects that foster a gendered perspective and inventive methods.