Margins in Motion: Platformization, Polarization, and the New Public Sphere – Rome, 15 January 2026

Gen 11, 2026 | Events

The results of the PRIN CoRiT project will be presented and discussed at this event.

Margins in Motion: Platformization, Polarization, and the New Public Sphere

15 January 2026 

Aula Oriana, via Salaria 113 Roma

This seminar explores how the “margins” of public discourse – fringe platforms, peripheral communities, low-visibility spaces – have become key sites where political imaginaries, narratives and styles are tested, amplified and sometimes normalized. Rather than treating the fringe as a residual “outside” to be integrated into an already given center, the seminar asks how platformization and algorithmic mediation continuously redraw the boundaries between margins and center.

Drawing on the research developed within the PRIN PNRR project “Countering Online Radicalization and incivility in ITaly: from fringe to mainstream – CORIT” on fringe democracy, the sessions will unpack the multiple ways in which marginal actors and spaces shape the mainstream: from the circulation of disinformation and affective polarization to new forms of digital activism, counter-publics and experimental uses of AI in political communication. The aim is to understand the fringe not only as a risk factor for democratic erosion, but also as a laboratory where alternative practices of participation, critique and care can emerge.

Margins in Motion: Empirical Insights from the CoRiT Project on Fringe Democracy
9:00-10:15

Chair: Alberto Marinelli – Sapienza University of Rome

Giovanni Boccia Artieri – University of Urbino Carlo Bo
Sara Bentivegna – Sapienza University of Rome
Rossella Rega – University of Siena
Stefano Brilli – University of Urbino Carlo Bo
Elisabetta Zurovac – University of Urbino Carlo Bo

Discussion

Roundtable: Margins in Motion: Platformization, Polarization, and the New Public Sphere
10:30-12:30

Introduction: Giovanni Boccia Artieri – University of Urbino Carlo Bo
Discussants: Sara Bentivegna – Sapienza University of Rome, Rossella Rega – University of Siena 

  • Axel Bruns – Queensland University of Technology Brisbane
  • Katarina Bader – Hochschule der Medien in Stuttgart
  • Raquel Recuero – Universidade Federal de Pelotas (UFPEL) and Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)
  • Eugenia Siapera – University College Dublin
  • Marc Tuters – University of Amsterdam
  • Augusto Valeriani – University of Bologna

Open discussion