This research focuses on meaning-making discourses developed by Master’s 2 students within private higher education institutions. Based on a qualitative approach grounded in semi-structured interviews and reflexive fieldwork, the study analyses how university communication devices contribute to the production and narration of student trajectories. The findings highlight a strong capacity among students to articulate their aspirations, doubts and professional projects. Far from being the spontaneous expression of individual interiority, these discourses also appear as the product of institutional frameworks that encourage reflexivity and self-presentation. Drawing on the works of Erving Goffman, Pascal Lardellier and Hartmut Rosa, the article shows how pedagogical interactions, academic rituals and support mechanisms contribute to the construction of meaning in student trajectories. This reflection leads to questioning the limits of institutionalised reflexivity and to emphasising the importance of the mediation of interactions and relational resonance in renewing social ties within higher education.

Social robots constitute a significant component of therapeutic mediation tools used with children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Predominantly anthropomorphic, these robots are designed to facilitate interaction by relying on the simplicity of their expressive modalities, achieved through simplified and predictable behaviors. Their interactional simplicity makes them particularly valuable tools for healthcare professionals. Numerous studies highlight their potential benefits in supporting joint attention, imitation, and emotion recognition. Are anthropomorphic robots, however, truly an adequate means of addressing children’s difficulties? In this article, we show that although the anthropomorphic approach currently dominates the field, it presents several limitations that must be addressed. These limitations concern the cost and accessibility of such devices, their acceptability among children and professionals, their limited adaptability to the situated practices of care, as well as the additional technological workload they impose on caregivers. Drawing on an examination of social robotics applied to autism and its limitations, this article proposes to broaden the scope of inquiry by considering a conception of the social that is not restricted to face-to-face interaction but instead encompasses its multiple dimensions. As with any technical object, the design of mediation robots is shaped by networks of human, institutional, and symbolic relations that determine their uses and their effects. Based on a review of the main existing devices and on fieldwork conducted with healthcare professionals, we identify two principal models of mediation. We argue that these models do not always align with care practices and with the situated forms of knowledge on which such practices rely. We propose to explore a complementary pathway in mediation robotics. This approach is being developed within the framework of the Médiations Robotiques en Soins de Santé (MR2S) project. It is grounded in the design of non-anthropomorphic, softer, simpler, and cheaper technical devices that build upon the experience of healthcare professionals. Our approach pays particular attention to an aspect that remains relatively unexplored in social robotics applied to autism: sensoriality. The purpose of the project is to design robotic objects capable of enriching the therapeutic relationship while being sustainably integrated into existing care practices.

This article examines how social robots, or “bots,” have transformed online interactions and information manipulation, particularly on the platform X (formerly Twitter). It retraces their socio-historical evolution—from early chatbots like ELIZA to AI-driven agents capable of realistic human mimicry. Drawing on the Beelzebot research project, the paper proposes a classification of “malicious” bots according to their technical sophistication, intentionality, and interaction strategies. These bots amplify, polarize, and distort public debate through mechanisms such as astroturfing, fake engagement, and echo-chamber exploitation. The integration of generative AI has produced a new generation of adaptive, persuasive “AI bots” blurring human-machine boundaries. The article highlights how these entities shape information flows, foster disinformation, and undermine trust in institutions. It argues for a socio-technical “archaeology” of bots to understand their evolving power in digital public spaces. Finally, it calls for new multidisciplinary tools—technical, educational, and regulatory—to preserve the authenticity of social interaction and democratic deliberation in the AI era.

Once the failure of classical fashion Semiotics (1960-1980) was certified, as it conceived the fashion phenomenon as a system devoid of meaning (Barthes), incapable of communicating (Lotman) and unbearable (Volli), the great designers and marketing strategists began a new period, that of the Pragmatics of Fashion (1980-2000), committed to resemiotizing the system by resorting to prestigious referents for their collections (the history of art and culture) and to the brand, defined as a hypericonema loaded with powerful literal, imaginary and psycho-emotional meanings (Paz Gago). This stage of fashion semiotics is described by Floch and Calefato, scholars of fashion brands as written text, since it is the proper name of the great fashion designers that has become a brand. Both agree on the need to move beyond the more linguistic stage of the discipline to develop a visual semiotics or a plastic semiotics that serves to analyze fashion as an essentially visual phenomenon. With the new millennium, in line with the new digital technologies that colonize and are colonized by fashion, the Neosemiotics of fashion (2000-2020) emerges, mediated by the stories and reels uploaded to social networks such as Instagram or TikTok, as Bianca Terraciano or Victoria Nannini will analyze. Fashion semiotics faces a new challenge today due to the emergence of Artificial Intelligence, which has already colonized all processes in the fashion system: design creation, pattern making, manufacturing, advertising and marketing campaigns, fashion shows, distribution, and marketing can all be implemented through generative Artificial Intelligence applications. These new technological phenomena respond to the semiotic mode I have called Machination, as opposed to the Representation and Simulation characteristic of classic analog and digital technologies.

Citations

• Semiotics of the Manila Shawl (mantón de Manila): From Historical Transformations to its Present Identity Function
  Ana Velasco Molpeceres, Carmen Baniandrés, María Prieto Muñiz
  EPISTÉMÈ.2025; 35: 2.     CrossRef