Ricerc@Sapienza

The practices of protest participation in urban centres are progressively including among their
aims the safeguarding of cultural spaces (theatres, cinemas, etc.) to protect them from real estate
speculation and to establish the right to access cultural heritage (sites, materials, content, etc.).
Although this kind of protest usually has been antagonistically framed through rhetorical
discourses, languages and symbols that are produced by both the social movements themselves
and the mass media, new more inclusive collective actions are emerging from the grassroots.
This article discusses the case of “Cinema America Occupato” in Rome, a collective action that
is particularly interesting when compared to other protests because of its identity building process
and storytelling management: the CAO group, exclusively made up of young people, strongly
separated from any ideological positions, has gained resonance, visibility and a following that had
never been achieved before by similar actions, thanks to an inclusive and engaging representation
of both the group and the protest.
By analysing (through both a qualitative and quantitative approach) the CAO’s efficient and
pragmatic use of social media – and in particular Facebook – in promoting social engagement and
grassroots participation, the article investigates the structures of feelings activated in relation to
the individuals engaged in the collective action.