Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

#ioricordo, Beyond the Genoa G8: Social Practices of Memory Work and the Digital Remembrance of Contentious Pasts in Italy

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Social Movements, Cultural Memory and Digital Media

Part of the book series: Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies ((PMMS))

Abstract

This chapter addresses the practices of social remembrance that take place in digital social media. The chapter analyses such dynamics in the almost 5000 tweets published with the hashtag #ioricordo (‘I remember’, in Italian) between 2011 and 2016. The hashtag was launched by two activists to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the anti-G8 mobilisation of 2001 in Genoa. In the following months and years, the hashtag has been used in reference to many different memories, rooted in different communities and milieus. The case of #ioricordo provides a rather complex and multifaceted depiction of the ways in which memory activism finds a place in social media.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Adamo, S. (2015). Vittime restituite alla memoria. «Placido Rizzotto», «I cento passi» e una diversa prospettiva sui film di mafia. L’avventura, 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Affuso, O. (2014). La memoria culturale della mafia. Il trauma mafioso e la graphic novel italiana. Studi Culturali, 2. https://doi.org/10.1405/77807

  • Albanese, M., & del Hierro, P. (2016). Transnational Fascism in the Twentieth Century: Spain, Italy and the Global Neo-Fascist Network. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Armstrong, E. A., & Crage, S. M. (2006). Movements and memory: The making of the Stonewall myth. American Sociological Review, 71(5), 724–751.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Assmann, J. (2008). Communicative and cultural memory. In A. Erll, A. Nünning, & S. B. Young (Eds.), Cultural Memory Studies: An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook (pp. 109–118). Berlin and New York: De Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barassi, V. (2015). Social media, immediacy and the time for democracy: Critical reflections on social media as temporalising practices. In L. Dencik & O. Leistert (Eds.), Critical Approaches to Social Media Protest: Contentions and Debates. London: Rowman & Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barassi, V. (2017). Digital citizens? Data traces and family life. Contemporary Social Science: Journal of the Academy of Social Sciences, 12, 84–95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barberá, P., Jost, J. T., Nagler, J., Tucker, J. A., & Bonneau, R. (2015). Tweeting from left to right: Is online political communication more than an Echo Chamber? Psychological Science, 26(10), 1531–1542. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615594620

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baumgarten, B. (2017). The children of the Carnation Revolution? Connections between Portugal’s anti-austerity movement and the revolutionary period 1974/1975. Social Movement Studies, 16(1), 51–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2016.1239195

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baumgarten, B., Daphi, P., & Ullrich, P. (Eds.). (2014). Conceptualizing Culture in Social Movement Research. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, W. L., & Segerberg, A. (2011). Digital media and the personalization of collective action. Information, Communication & Society, 14(6), 770–799. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2011.579141

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Betta, E. (2009). Memorie in conflitto. Autobiografie della lotta armata. Contemporanea: Rivista Di Storia Dell’800 e Del’900, 12(4), 673–702.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruno, N. (2011, June 23). “Io Ricordo”, il racconto collettivo online del G8 di Genova. SkyTg24. Retrieved from https://tg24.sky.it/cronaca/2011/06/23/genova_g8_io_ricordo.html

  • Bull, A. (2007). Italian Neofascism: The Strategy of Tension and the Politics of Nonreconciliation. New York: Berghahn Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daphi, P. (2017). Becoming a Movement. Identity, Narrative and Memory in the European Global Justice Movement. London: Rowman & Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daphi, P., & Zamponi, L. (2019). Exploring the movement-memory nexus: Insights and ways forward. Mobilization, 24(4), 399–417.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Luna, G. (2011a). La Repubblica del dolore: le memorie di un’Italia divisa. Milano: Feltrinelli Editore.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Luna, G. (2011b). Le ragioni di un decennio: 1969–1979. In Militanza, violenza, sconfitta, memoria. Milano: Feltrinelli Editore.

    Google Scholar 

  • Della Porta, D. (Ed.). (2007). The Global Justice Movement: Cross-national and Transnational Perspectives. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • della Ratta, F., Ioppolo, L., & Ricotta, G. (2012). L’immaginario degli studenti italiani sui fatti di Mafia. In A. Dister, D. Longrée, & G. Purnelle (Eds.), JADT 2012. 11es Journées internationales d’analyse statistique des données textuelles, 13–15 juin 2012 (403–416). Liége & Brussells: LASLA-SESLA Université de Liège—Facultés Universitaries Saint-Louis Bruxelles. Retrieved from https://iris.uniroma1.it/handle/11573/474831?mode=full.6#.WzsrnLh9jb0

  • Doerr, N. (2014). Memory and culture in social movements. In B. Baumgarten, P. Daphi, & P. Ullrich (Eds.), Conceptualizing Culture in Social Movement Research (pp. 206–226). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Erll, A. (2008). Literature, film and the mediality of cultural memory. In A. Erll, A. Nünning, & S. B. Young (Eds.), Cultural Memory Studies: An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook (pp. 389–398). Berlin and New York: De Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Farthing, L., & Kohl, B. (2013). Mobilizing memory: Bolivia’s enduring social movements. Social Movement Studies, 12(4), 361–376.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fenton, N., & Barassi, V. (2011). Alternative media and social networking sites: The politics of individuation and political participation. The Communication Review, 14(3), 179–196. https://doi.org/10.1080/10714421.2011.597245

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferree, M. M., Gamson, W. A., Gerhards, J., & Rucht, D. (2002). Shaping Abortion Discourse: Democracy and the Public Sphere in Germany and the United States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ferron, M., & Massa, P. (2014). Beyond the encyclopedia: Collective memories in Wikipedia. Memory Studies, 7(1), 22–45. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750698013490590

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flaxman, S., Goel, S., & Rao, J. M. (2016). Filter bubbles, echo chambers, and online news consumption. Public Opinion Quarterly, 80(1), 298–320. https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfw006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Focardi, F. (2012). La guerra della memoria: la Resistenza nel dibattito politico italiano dal 1945 a oggi. Bari: GLF Editori Laterza.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallerano, N. (1995). Storia e uso pubblico della storia. In N. Gallerano (Ed.), L’uso pubblico della storia. Milano: Franco Angeli.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garde-Hansen, J., Hoskins, A., & Reading, A. (Eds.). (2009). Save as… Digital Memories. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ginsborg, P. (1990). A History of Contemporary Italy, Society and Politics 1943–1988 (Vols. 1–1). London: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giugni, M. G. (1998). Social movements and culture. Sociological Forum, 13(2), 365–375. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022102218675

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gongaware, T. B. (2011). Keying the past to the present: Collective memories and continuity in collective identity change. Social Movement Studies, 10(1), 39–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gordon, R. S. C. (2006). The Holocaust in Italian Collective Memory: Il giorno della memoria, 27 January 2001. Modern Italy, 11(2), 167–188. https://doi.org/10.1080/13532940600709270

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Halbwachs, M. (1992). On Collective Memory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Harris, F. C. (2006). It takes a tragedy to arouse them: Collective memory and collective action during the civil rights movement. Social Movement Studies, 5(1), 19–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haskins, E. (2007). Between archive and participation: Public memory in a digital age. Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 37(4), 401–422.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hess, A. (2007). In digital remembrance: Vernacular memory and the rhetorical construction of web memorials. Media, Culture & Society, 29(5), 812–830.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoskins, A. (2009a). Digital network memory. In A. Erll & A. Rigney (Eds.), Mediation, Remediation, and the Dynamics of Cultural Memory (pp. 91–106). Berlin and New York: De Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoskins, A. (2009b). The mediatization of memory. In J. Garde-Hansen, A. Hoskins, & A. Reading (Eds.), Save as… Digital Memories (pp. 27–43). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hoskins, A. (Ed.). (2017a). Digital Memory Studies: Media Pasts in Transition. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoskins, A. (2017b). Memory of the multitude: The end of collective memory. In A. Hoskins (Ed.), Digital Memory Studies—Media Pasts in Transition (pp. 85–109). New York and London: Routledge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hoskins, A. (2017c). The restless past: An introduction to digital memory and media. In A. Hoskins (Ed.), Digital Memory Studies—Media Pasts in Transition (pp. 1–24). New York and London: Routledge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, C. R. (2012). ICTs and remembering the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in Britain: An occasion for celebration or remorse? Journal of Historical Sociology, 25(2), 223–243.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Io Ricordo Genova. (2011, 21 June). La memoria è un ingranaggio collettivo. Io Ricordo Genova. Retrieved from http://ioricordogenova.altervista.org/blog/la-memoria-e-un-ingranaggio-collettivo/

  • Jansen, R. S. (2007). Resurrection and appropriation: Reputational trajectories, memory work, and the political use of historical figures. American Journal of Sociology, 112(4), 953–1007.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnston, H. (Ed.). (2009). Culture, Social Movements, and Protest. Farnham and Burlington, VT: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnston, H., & Klandermans, B. (Eds.). (1995). Social Movements and Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaprāns, M. (2016). Hegemonic representations of the past and digital agency: Giving meaning to “The Soviet Story” on social networking sites. Memory Studies, 9(2), 156–172. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750698015587151

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaun, A., & Stiernstedt, F. (2014). Facebook time: Technological and institutional affordances for media memories. New Media & Society, 16(7), 1154–1168. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444814544001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kavada, A. (2015). Creating the collective: Social media, the occupy movement and its constitution as a collective actor. Information, Communication & Society, 18(8), 872–886.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koopmans, R. (2004). Protest in time and space: The evolution of waves of contention. In D. A. Snow, S. A. Soule, B. Klandermans, & D. McAdam (Eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements (pp. 19–46). Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Libera. (2018). Giornata della memoria e dell’impegno. Retrieved 15 July 2018, from Libera.it website: http://www.libera.it/schede-190-giornata_della_memoria_e_dell_impegno_in_ricordo_delle_vittime_innocenti_delle_mafie

  • Margry, P. J., Sánchez-Carretero, C., & Puccio-Den, D. (2011). ‘Difficult Remembrance’: Memorializing Mafia Victims in Palermo. In P. J. Margry & C. Sánchez-Carretero (Eds.), Grassroots Memorials: The Politics of Memorializing Traumatic Death (pp. 51–70). Berghahn Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marschall, S. (2013). The virtual memory landscape: The impact of information technology on collective memory and commemoration in Southern Africa. Journal of Southern African Studies, 39(1), 193–205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McAdam, D. (1995). “Initiator” and “spin-off” movements: Diffusion processes in protest cycles. In M. Traugott (Ed.), Repertoires and Cycles of Collective Action (pp. 217–240). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Melucci, A. (1989). Nomads of the Present: Social Movements and Individual Needs in Contemporary Society. London: Hutchinson Radius.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merrill, S. (2017). Walking together? The mediatised performative commemoration of 7/7’s tenth anniversary. Journalism. OnlineFirst, 1–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merrill, S., & Lindgren, S. (2018). The rhythms of social movement memories: The mobilization of Silvio Meier’s activist remembrance across platforms. Social Movement Studies. OnlineFirst, 1–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer, D. (2006). Claiming credit: Stories of movement influence as outcomes. Mobilization: An International Quarterly, 11(3), 281–298.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Milan, S. (2015). Mobilizing in times of social media. From a politics of identity to a politics of visibility. In L. Dencik & O. Leistert (Eds.), Critical Perspectives on Social Media and Protest (pp. 53–70). London: Rowman & Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mosca, D. (2011, June 28) Genova 2001: e voi dove eravate? L’Espresso. Retrieved from http://espresso.repubblica.it/attualita/cronaca/2011/06/28/news/genova-2001-e-voi-dove-eravate-1.33286

  • O’Leary, A. (2009). Moro, Brescia, Conspiracy: The Paranoid Style in Italian Cinema. In P. Antonello & A. O’Leary (Eds.), Imagining Terrorism: The Rhetoric and Representation of Political Violence in Italy 1969–2009 (pp. 48–62). Oxford: Legenda.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olick, J. K. (1999). Collective memory: The two cultures. Sociological Theory, 17(3), 333–348.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olick, J. K., & Robbins, J. (1998). Social memory studies: From “collective memory” to the historical sociology of mnemonic practices. Annual Review of Sociology, 24, 105–140.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pariser, E. (2011). The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You. New York: Penguin UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pentzold, C. (2009). Fixing the floating gap: The online encyclopaedia Wikipedia as a global memory place. Memory Studies, 2(2), 255–272.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peri, Y. (1999). The media and collective memory of Yitzhak Rabin’s remembrance. Journal of Communication, 49(3), 106–124.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pezzini, I. (2009). Television and terrorism in Italy: Sergio Zavoli’s ‘La notte della repubblica’. In P. Antonello & A. O’Leary (Eds.), Imagining Terrorism: The Rhetoric and Representation of Political Violence in Italy 1969–2009 (pp. 77–87). Oxford: Legenda.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, K. R., & Reyes, G. M. (2011). Surveying global memoryscapes: The shifting terrain of public memory studies. In K. R. Phillips & G. M. Reyes (Eds.), Global Memoryscapes: Contesting Remembrance in a Transnational Age (pp. 1–26). Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pleyers, G. (2010). Alter-Globalization: Becoming Actors in the Global Age. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Polletta, F. (2006). It Was Like a Fever: Storytelling in Protest and Politics. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Polletta, F., & Jasper, J. M. (2001). Collective identity and social movements. Annual Review of Sociology, 27(1), 283–305. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.283

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prey, R., & Smit, R. (2018). From personal to personalized memory. Social media as mnemotechnology. In Z. Papacharissi (Ed.), A Networked Self and Birth, Life, Death (pp. 209–223). New York and London: Routledge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Pupo, R., & Spazzali, R. (2003). Foibe. Milano: Mondadori Bruno.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ravveduto, M. (2018). La toponomastica della seconda Repubblica: Falcone e Borsellino, vittime della mafia. Memoria e ricerca, 57, 157–174.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reiter, H., Andretta, M., della Porta, D., & Mosca, L. (2007). The Global Justice Movement in Italy. In D. della Porta (Ed.), The Global Justice Movement: Cross-National and Transnational Perspectives (pp. 52–78). Boulder: Paradigm Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Renga, D. (2013). Unfinished Business: Screening the Italian Mafia in the New Millennium. University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rootes, C. A., & Sotirakopoulos, N. (2013). Global Justice Movement. In D. Della Porta, D. A. Snow, & B. Klandermans (Eds.), The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Santino, U. (2001). Peppino Impastato: la memoria difficile. Meridiana, 40, 21–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz, B. (1996). Memory as a cultural system: Abraham Lincoln in World War II. American Sociological Review, 61, 908–927.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smit, R., Heinrich, A., & Broersma, M. (2018). Activating the past in the Ferguson protests: Memory work, digital activism and the politics of platforms. New Media & Society, 20(9), 3119–3139. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444817741849

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spillman, L. (1998). When do collective memories last?: Founding moments in the United States and Australia. Social Science History, 22(4), 445–477.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tarrow, S. (1991). Struggle, Politics, and Reform: Collective Action, Social Movements, and Cycles of Protest. Occasional Paper No. 21. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tarrow, S. (1994). Power in Movement: Social Movements, Collective Action and Mass Politics in the Modern State. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, V. (1989). Social movement continuity: The women’s movement in abeyance. American Sociological Review, 54(5), 761–775. https://doi.org/10.2307/2117752

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tota, A. L. (2003). La città ferita. Memoria e comunicazione pubblica della strage di Bologna, 2 agosto 1980. Bologna: Il Mulino.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tota, A. L. (2007). Geopolitiche del passato: memoria pubblica, trauma culturale e riconciliazione. In M. Rampazi & A. L. Tota (Eds.), La memoria pubblica. Trauma culturale, nuovi confini e identità nazionali (pp. 7–23). Torino: UTET.

    Google Scholar 

  • Treré, E. (2015). Reclaiming, proclaiming, and maintaining collective identity in the #YoSoy132 movement in Mexico: An examination of digital frontstage and backstage activism through social media and instant messaging platforms. Information, Communication & Society, 18, 901–915.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turi, G. (2011). IL GIORNO E I GIORNI DELLA MEMORIA. Belfagor, 66(2), 155–163.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Dijck, J. (2007). Mediated Memories in the Digital Age. Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Dijck, J. (2011). Flickr and the culture of connectivity: Sharing views, experiences, memories. Memory Studies, 4(4), 401–415.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vicari, S. (2015). The interpretative dimension of transformative events: Outrage management and collective action framing after the 2001 anti-G8 Summit in Genoa. Social Movement Studies, 14(5), 596–614.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vivienne, S. (2016). Digital Identity and Everyday Activism: Sharing Private Stories with Networked Publics. Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whittier, N. (2004). The consequences of social movements for each other. In D. A. Snow, S. A. Soule, B. Klandermans, & D. McAdam (Eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements (pp. 531–551). Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zamponi, L. (2008). I circuti della memoria. Giornali, TV e la narrazione delle foibe 1946–2007 (Tesi di laurea magistrale in Comunicazione delle Organizzazioni Complesse). Università degli Studi di Padova.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zamponi, L. (2013). Collective memory and social movements. In D. della Porta, D. A. Snow, & B. Klandermans (Eds.), The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9780470674871.wbespm040/full

  • Zamponi, L. (2018). Social Movements, Memory and Media. Narrative in Action in the Italian and Spanish Student Movements. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Zamponi, L., & Daphi, P. (2014). Breaks and continuities in and between cycles of protest. Memories and legacies of the global justice movement in the context of anti-austerity mobilisations. In D. della Porta & A. Mattoni (Eds.), Spreading Protest: Social Movements in Times of Crisis (pp. 193–225). ECPR Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zelizer, B. (1995). Reading the past against the Grain: The shape of memory studies. Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 12(2), 214–239.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zerubavel, E. (1996). Social memories: Steps to a sociology of the past. Qualitative Sociology, 19(3), 283–299.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The author is thankful to Claudia Vago for her contribution in starting #ioricordo and for her generosity in sharing her story.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence, Italy

    Lorenzo Zamponi

Authors
  1. Lorenzo Zamponi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lorenzo Zamponi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Samuel Merrill

  2. Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK

    Emily Keightley

  3. Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany

    Priska Daphi

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Zamponi, L. (2020). #ioricordo, Beyond the Genoa G8: Social Practices of Memory Work and the Digital Remembrance of Contentious Pasts in Italy. In: Merrill, S., Keightley, E., Daphi, P. (eds) Social Movements, Cultural Memory and Digital Media. Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32827-6_6

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation