Comizi d’Amore 2.0
Social Research, Digital Methods
2021
Comizi d’Amore 2.0 (link to full report here) investigates the language and political discourse around LGBTQIA+ civil rights in Italy (2021), reinterpreting Pasolini’s Comizi d’Amore (1964) through the lens of digital methods (Rogers, 2013) and controversy mapping (Venturini, 2010). By combining data collection, network analysis, and sentiment mapping, the project translates documentary-style inquiry into computational research practice.
Context
Understanding the dynamics of political debate on LGBTQIA+ rights in Italy requires going beyond traditional media and survey-based approaches. Online discourse is highly fragmented, dispersed across platforms, and often polarized. Capturing these dynamics means facing the challenge of unstructured, large-scale social media data and transforming it into meaningful evidence of how language, sentiment, and communities shape political narratives.
Methodologies
The project adopted digital methods for social research and controversy mapping techniques to analyse public discourse. Using Python and R for data collection and processing, and Gephi for social network visualization, conversations were mapped to reveal clusters of debate, connections between actors, and the circulation of specific narratives. Sentiment analysis and topic modelling were applied to classify and interpret how language framed civil rights issues and to understand emotional dynamics over time.
Results
The research produced a networked map of discourse communities surrounding LGBTQIA+ rights in Italy in 2021. It highlighted how different groups clustered around specific framings, identified influential voices, and showed how sentiment shifted across moments of heightened debate. By translating Pasolini’s journalistic-documentary approach into computational methodologies, Comizi d’Amore 2.0 demonstrated how digital methods can enrich cultural and political analysis. The study contributes both to the understanding of LGBTQIA+ rights discourse and to the growing field of data-driven social research.
Rogers, R. (2013). Digital Methods. MIT Press.
Venturini, T. (2010). “Building on Faults: How to Represent Controversies with Digital Methods.” Public Understanding of Science, 19(3), 258–273.
Context
Understanding the dynamics of political debate on LGBTQIA+ rights in Italy requires going beyond traditional media and survey-based approaches. Online discourse is highly fragmented, dispersed across platforms, and often polarized. Capturing these dynamics means facing the challenge of unstructured, large-scale social media data and transforming it into meaningful evidence of how language, sentiment, and communities shape political narratives.
Methodologies
The project adopted digital methods for social research and controversy mapping techniques to analyse public discourse. Using Python and R for data collection and processing, and Gephi for social network visualization, conversations were mapped to reveal clusters of debate, connections between actors, and the circulation of specific narratives. Sentiment analysis and topic modelling were applied to classify and interpret how language framed civil rights issues and to understand emotional dynamics over time.
Results
The research produced a networked map of discourse communities surrounding LGBTQIA+ rights in Italy in 2021. It highlighted how different groups clustered around specific framings, identified influential voices, and showed how sentiment shifted across moments of heightened debate. By translating Pasolini’s journalistic-documentary approach into computational methodologies, Comizi d’Amore 2.0 demonstrated how digital methods can enrich cultural and political analysis. The study contributes both to the understanding of LGBTQIA+ rights discourse and to the growing field of data-driven social research.
Rogers, R. (2013). Digital Methods. MIT Press.
Venturini, T. (2010). “Building on Faults: How to Represent Controversies with Digital Methods.” Public Understanding of Science, 19(3), 258–273.