Keywords
memory politics
Giorno del ricordo
Italy
Slovenia
X
online news
contested memories
How to Cite
Abstract
The article examines agonistic engagement in debates on the Giorno del ricordo in Italy and Slovenia across three communication environments: X, online news, and survey responses. Drawing on agonistic memory theory and discourse-quality indicators, it analyses how contested memories are articulated as antagonistic, agonistic, or deliberation-compatible discourse. The findings show that X is dominated by conflict and contains little agonistic engagement, whereas Slovenian online news displays stronger agonistic framing than Italian news. Survey responses reveal a gap between respondents’ declared support for plural, respectful debate and the more antagonistic dynamics of social media.
References
Assmann, Aleida (2011): Cultural Memory and Western Civilization: Functions, Media, Archives. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Bächtiger, André & John S. Dryzek (2024): Deliberative Democracy for Diabolical Times: Confronting Populism, Extremism, Denial, and Authoritarianism. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Bächtiger, André, Shikano, Susumu, Pedrini, Seraina & Mirjam Ryser (2009): Measuring Deliberation 2.0: Standards, Discourse Types, and Sequenzialization. Paper presented at the ECPR General Conference, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.
Ballinger, Pamela (2000): Who Defines and Remembers Genocide after the Cold War? Contested Memories of Partisan Massacre in Venezia Giulia in 1943–1945. Journal of Genocide Research, 2, 1, 11–30.
Ballinger, Pamela (2004): Exhumed Histories: Trieste and the Politics of (Exclusive) Victimhood. Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans, 6, 2, 145–159.
Berger, Stefan & Wulf Kansteiner (eds.) (2021): Agonistic Memory and the Legacy of 20th Century Wars in Europe. Cham, Palgrave Macmillan.
Bull, Anna Cento & Hans Lauge Hansen (2016): On Agonistic Memory. Memory Studies, 9, 4, 390–404.
Canute, Matt, Jin, Mali, Holtzclaw, Hannah, Lusoli, Alberto, Adams, Philippa, Pandya, Mugdha, Taboada, Maite, Maynard, Diana & Wendy Hui Kyong Chun (2023): Dimensions of Online Conflict: Towards Modeling Agonism. In: Bouamor, Houda, Pino, Juan & Kalika Bali (eds.): Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics. Singapore, Association for Computational Linguistics, 12194–12209.
Castro de Azevedo, Alana (2025): When ‘Memory Work’ Becomes ‘Memory Protest’: Exploring Ant/Agonistic Conflicts in Memory Initiatives. PhD Thesis. Amsterdam, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Cattunar, Alessandro (2012): Le fonti orali sulla frontiera italo-slovena: proposte per una ricerca sulle identita dei confini e sui confini fra le identita. Acta Histriae, 20, 1-2, 151–174.
Cattunar, Alessandro (2014): Il confine delle memorie. Storie di vita e narrazioni pubbliche tra Italia e Jugoslavia (1922–1955). Firenze, Le Monnier- Mondadori education.
D’Alessio, Vanni (2012): Rituality, Ideology and Emotions. Practices of Commemoration of the Giorno del Ricordo in Trieste. In: Pauković, Davor, Pavlaković, Vjeran & Višeslav Raos (eds.): Confronting the Past: European Experiences. Zagreb, Political Science Research Centre, 285–309.
Dato, Gaetano (2010): Le celebrazioni per gli eroi di Bazovica (1945–1948): alcuni risultati di una ricerca in corso. Acta Histriae, 18, 3, 471–498.
Deufel, Nicole (2017): Agonistic Interpretation: A New Paradigm in Response to Current Developments. Anthropological Journal of European Cultures, 26, 2, 90–109.
Enrici, Andrea (2025): Remembrance or Revisionism? IPS-Journal, 7. 2. 2025, https://www.ips-journal.eu/topics/democracy-and-society/remembrance-or-revisionism-8071/ (last access: 2025-04-24).
Focardi, Filippo (2016): Il cattivo tedesco e il bravo italiano: La rimozione delle colpe della seconda guerra mondiale. Roma – Bari, Laterza.
Gobetti, Eric (2021): E allora le foibe?. Bari, Editori Laterza.
Gobetti, Eric (2025): La guerra contro la guerra di Liberazione. MicroMega, 21. 4. 2025, https://www.micromega.net/la-guerra-contro-la-guerra-di-liberazione-
resistenza?fbclid=IwY2xjawJ27c1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHk90pxBCFVJCsU5n6fLwACuuvNJvb-Ja41VlscTbS_FWGsBDOXQXO2uXcPAX3_aem_hjt-CAuuSazYjYkQR8Ri30Q (last access: 2025-04-24).
Gwet, Kilem Li (2014): Handbook of Inter-Rater Reliability: The Definitive Guide to Measuring the Extent of Agreement Among Raters. 4th ed. Gaithersburg, MD, Advanced Analytics, LLC.
Hodgkin, Katharine & Susannah Radstone (eds.)(2003): Contested Pasts: The Politics of Memory. London – New York, Routledge.
Horvat, Marjan (2026): From Memory Regimes to Discursive Modes: A Theory-driven Framework for Analysing Cultural Memory in Hybrid Public Spheres. Zenodo, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18787238 (last access: 2026-03-12).
Hrobat Virloget, Katja (2015): Breme preteklosti. Spomini na sobivanje in migracije v slovenski Istri po drugi svetovni vojni. Acta Histriae, 23, 3, 531–554.
Jaidka, Kokil (2022): Developing A Multilabel Corpus for the Quality Assessment of Online Political Talk. In: Calzolari, Nicoletta, Béchet, Frédéric … & Stelios Piperidis (eds.): Proceedings of the Thirteenth Language Resources and Evaluation Conference. Marseille, European Language Resources Association, 5503–5510.
Kisić, Višnja (2021): Heritage Research in the 21st Century: Departing from the Useful Futures of Sustainable Development. In: Stegmeijer, Eva & Loes Veldpaus (eds.): A Research Agenda for Heritage Planning: Perspectives from Europe. Cheltenham, Edward Elgar Publishing, 21–38.
Klabjan, Borut (2012): “Partizanska pokrajina”: Partizanski spomeniki in komemoriranje partizanov na Tržaškem. Acta Histriae, 20, 4, 669–692.
Klabjan, Borut (2017): “Our Victims Define Our Borders”: Commemorating Yugoslav Partisans in the Italo-Yugoslav Borderland. East European Politics and Societies, 31, 2, 290–310.
Knittel, Susanne C. (2015): “Basta con le rimozioni!” Le foibe nella televisione italiana. In: Jansen, Monica & Maria Bonaria Urban (eds.): Televisionismo: Narrazioni televisive della storia italiana negli anni della seconda Repubblica. Venezia, Edizioni Ca’Foscari, 69–82.
Koražija, Jure, Lampe, Urška, Horvat, Marjan, Ergaver, Angelika & Darko Darovec (2026): “Agonistic Engagement in Memory Politics (Slovenia & Italy, 2022–2024): Annotated X and News Data, Coding Schemes, and LLM Prompts”. Zenodo, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18767959 (last access: 2026-03-12).
Kosmač, Miha (2015): Organizirana izselitev prebivalstva iz Pulja: problematika meje in “obramba italijanstva”. Acta Histriae, 23, 3, 511–530.
Kosmač, Miha (2017): “Etnično homogena Evropa”: preselitve prebivalstva v Istri in Sudetih 1945–1948. Koper, Annales ZRS.
Meyer, Erik (2008): Memory and Politics. In: Erll, Astrid & Ansgar Nünning (eds.): Cultural Memory Studies: An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook. Berlin – New York, de Gruyter, 173–180.
Mouffe, Chantal (1999): Deliberative Democracy or Agonistic Pluralism. Social Research, 66, 3, 745–758.
Mouffe, Chantal (2013): Agonistics: Thinking the World Politically. London – New York, Verso.
Olick, Jeffrey K. (2007): The Politics of Regret: On Collective Memory and Historical Responsibility. New York – London, Routledge.
Orlić, Mila (2015): Se la memoria (non) mi inganna ... L’Italia e il “confine orientale”: riflessioni sulla storia e sul suo uso pubblico. Acta Histriae, 23, 3, 475–486.
Pagella politica (2020): Sui social i politici parlano delle foibe molto piu che della Shoah. Pagella politica, 12. 2. 2020, https://pagellapolitica.it/articoli/sui-social-i-politici-parlano-delle-foibe-molto-piu-che-della-shoah (last access: 2025-04-24).
Pagella politica (2021): Sui social dei politici le foibe sono passate di moda. Pagella politica, 16. 2. 2021, https://pagellapolitica.it/articoli/sui-social-dei-politici-le-foibe-sono-passate-di-moda (last access: 2025-04-24).
Pagella politica (2022): Solo Salvini e Meloni ricordano piu le foibe della Shoah sui social. Pagella politica, 11. 2. 2022, https://pagellapolitica.it/articoli/solo-salvini-e-meloni-ricordano-piu-le-foibe-della-shoah-sui-social (last access: 2025-04-24).
Pirjevec, Jože (2009): Foibe. Una storia d’Italia. Torino, Einaudi.
Rawski, Tomasz (2024): Contested Memory. In: Betti, Lucas M. & Martin Pogačar (eds.): The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Memory Studies. Cham, Springer Nature Switzerland, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93789-8_84-1 (last access: 2025-04-24).
Reynolds, Chris (2021): The Symbiosis of Oral History and Agonistic Memory: Voices of 68 and the Legacy of the Past in Northern Ireland. Journal of the British Academy, 9, s3, 73–94.
Steenbergen, Marco R., Bächtiger, André, Spörndli, Markus & Jürg Steiner (2003): Measuring Political Deliberation: A Discourse Quality Index. Comparative European Politics, 1, 1, 21–48.
Steiner, Jürg, Jaramillo, Maria Clara, Maia, Rousiley & Simona Mameli (2017): Deliberation Across Deeply Divided Societies: Transformative Moments. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Širok, Kaja (2010): Spomin in pozaba na obmejnem območju: predstave o goriški preteklosti. Acta Histriae, 18, 1-2, 337–358.
Širok, Kaja (2012a): Kolektivni spomin, pričevalec in zgodovina: diskurzivne konstrukcije preteklosti. Acta Histriae, 20, 1-2, 137–150.
Širok, Kaja (2012b): Identitete, zgodovina in dediščina prostora – prakse spominjanja in komemoracije na goriškem v XX. stoletju. Acta Histriae, 20, 4, 631–646.
Širok, Kaja (2012c): Kalejdoskop goriške preteklosti. Zgodbe o spominu in pozabi. Ljubljana, Založba ZRC.
Tenca Montini, Federico (2014): Fenomenologia di un martirologio mediatico. Le foibe nella rappresentazione pubblica dagli anni Novanta ad oggi. Udine, Kappa vu.
Törnberg, Petter (2022): How Digital Media Drive Affective Polarization through Partisan Sorting. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119, 42. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2207159119 (last access: 2025-04-24).
Verovšek, Peter (2021): Caught between 1945 and 1989: Collective Memory and the Rise of Illiberal Democracy in Postcommunist Europe. Journal of European Public Policy, 28, 6, 840–857.
Wüstenberg, Jenny (2017): Civil Society and Memory in Postwar Germany. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Zec, Slavica, Soriani, Nicola, Comoretto, Rosanna & Baldi, Ileana (2017): High Agreement and High Prevalence: The Paradox of Cohen’s Kappa. The Open Nursing Journal, 11, 211–218.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2026 Urška Lampe, Marjan Horvat, Jure Koražija, Angelika Ergaver, Darko Darovec