Paolo Cottone is an associate professor at the Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education & Applied Psychology of the University of Padua. After obtaining his PhD in Social Psychology and Personality, he has worked and now directs the activities of the laboratory Interaction and Culture. Teaches courses in Social Psychology and Intercultural Psychology and is a member of the Doctoral Committee of the PhD. School in Social Sciences (Interactions, Communication, and Cultural Constructions) at the University of Padua.

Is the author of national and international papers and a speaker at many national and international conferences, mostly in the field of Cultural Psychology and focused on cooperation and communication, as social processes, with special attention on new media and intercultural aspects. He is a member of the International Society for Cultural and Activity Research, the International Association for Intercultural Education, and the Association for Computing Machinery. He is also a member of the Energy and Society international network. He is co-editor of the special issue on European energy transition for the journal Energy Research and Social Science.

In the early 2000s, he participated in European Project IST-2000-25323 “Telemedicine and Portable Virtual Environments for Clinical Psychology” and Project IST-2001-39192 “Engaging Media For Mental Health Applications” as a senior researcher for the research unit of Padua University. Subsequently, he participated in the European Project DAPHNE-4000001348, “Empowerment of Women Environment Research,” and in several national projects on issues related to citizenship and migration. In 2010 he participated as a local unit manager in the FIRB project: “Socio-constructivist analysis of the Italian sustainable energy communities”. From 2020 he participates, as head of a local unit, in the Horizon 2020 project entitled: “TIPPING - Enabling positive tipping points towards clean-energy transitions in coal and carbon-intensive regions”.

His research interests are mostly in the field of Cultural Psychology and are focused on cooperation and communication, as social processes, with special attention on intercultural aspects. The main characteristics of these studies are the application and studying of new technologies as social artefacts able to modify the interaction modalities and able to define new action contests for communication and cooperation processes. The methodologies used in the research are taken from ethnographic studies. They are mostly qualitative such as discourse analysis applied to media and newspapers and gesture analysis applied to everyday interactions.

Since 2000, he published over 70 works in peer-reviewed Journals and edited books, co-edited the special issue 2016 on Energy transitions in Europe for Energy Research and Social Science. He also presented his work at many international and national conferences.

Scopus metrics: Articles: 24; Citations: 400; h-index: 10

Biddau, F., Rizzoli, V., Cottone, P., Sarrica, M. “These industries have polluted consciences; we are unable to envision change“: Sense of place and lock-in mechanisms in Sulcis coal and carbon-intensive region, Italy (2024) Global Environmental Change, 86, art. no. 102850.

Iudici, A., Colombo, L., Caravita, S.C.S., Cottone, P., Neri, J. The Invisible Discrimination: Biases in the Clinical Approach Regarding Migrants: A Study to Help Ethnopsychology Services and Clinicians (2024) Behavioral Sciences, 14 (3), art. no. 155,

Hochdorn, A., Oliveira, R.J., Cottone, P., de Morais Santos, N., Iglesias, F., Valerio, P., Vitelli, R. Managing, surveying and assisting transgender people in prison: A comparative analysis of staff-members’ positioning toward transgender inmates among different correctional facilities in Italy (2024) International Journal of Transgender Health,

Sarrica, M., Cottone, P., Biddau, F. Tipping Points. Deep Roots and Contemporary Challenges in Psychology (2024) Springer Climate, Part F2470, pp. 43-58.

Tàbara, J.D., Mangalagiu, D., Frantal, B., Mey, F., Maier, R., Lilliestam, J., Sarrica, M., Mandel, A., Lieu, J., Cottone, P., Veland, S., Martínez-Reyes, A. Transformative Emergence: Research Challenges for Enabling Social-ecological Tipping Points Toward Regional Sustainability Transformations (2024) Springer Climate, Part F2470, pp. 325-343.

Antloga, C., Sarmet, M., do Carmo, M.M., Albuquerque, V., Andrade, P., Cottone, P.F. Quality of Work Life: Comparative Analysis Between two Public Workers Groups [Qualidade de Vida no Trabalho: Análise Comparativa Entre dois Grupos de Servidores Públicos] (2023) Psicologia: Teoria e Pesquisa, 39, art. no. e39502.

de Morais Santos, N., Cottone, P.F., Antloga, C., Hochdorn, A., Carvalho, A.M., Barbosa, M.A.
Female entrepreneurship in Brazil: how scientific literature shapes the sociocultural construction of gender inequalities (2022) Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 9 (1), art. no. 360, . Cited 4 times.

Biddau, F., Brondi, S., Cottone, P.F. Unpacking the Psychosocial Dimension of Decarbonization between Change and Stability: A Systematic Review in the Social Science Literature (2022) Sustainability (Switzerland), 14 (9), art. no. 5308, . Cited 8 times.

Testoni, I., Palazzo, L., Ronconi, L., Donna, S., Cottone, P.F., Wieser, M.A. The hospice as a learning space: a death education intervention with a group of adolescents (2021) BMC Palliative Care, 20 (1), art. no. 54, . Cited 12 times.

Kiekens, A., Mosha, I.H., Zlatić, L., Bwire, G.M., Mangara, A., Dierckx de Casterlé, B., Decouttere, C., Vandaele, N., Sangeda, R.Z., Swalehe, O., Cottone, P., Surian, A., Killewo, J., Vandamme, A.-M.
Factors associated with hiv drug resistance in dar es salaam, tanzania: Analysis of a complex adaptive system (2021) Pathogens, 10 (12), art. no. 1535, . Cited 10 times.

Stocco, N., Gardona, F., Biddau, F., Cottone, P.F. Learning processes and agency in the decarbonization context: A systematic review through a cultural psychology point of view (2021) Sustainability (Switzerland), 13 (18), art. no. 425, . Cited 4 times.

Testoni, I., Zanellato, S., Iacona, E., Marogna, C., Cottone, P., Bingaman, K. Mourning and Management of the COVID-19 Health Emergency in the Priestly Community: Qualitative Research in a Region of Northern Italy Severely Affected by the Pandemic (2021) Frontiers in Public Health, 9, art. no. 622592, . Cited 11 times.

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I miei interessi di ricerca sono principalmente nel campo della Psicologia Culturale e focalizzati sulla cooperazione e sulla comunicazione, come processi sociali, con particolare attenzione ai nuovi media e gli aspetti interculturali.
Attualmente sono impegnato in due linee di ricerca su sostenibilità energetica e realtà virtuale.
Inoltre, nell’ambito delle attività del laboratorio Interaction and cultureIl il mio contributo è principalmente di tipo metodologico nell’applicazione dall’analisi del discorso è della conversazione.

Metodologie qualitative per le scienze sociali
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