This Winter School critically examines digital methods for researching communities and issues at risk of invisibility, with examples including (but not limited to) migrant experiences, LGBTQIA+ identities, underrepresented forms of knowledge, disability rights, gender-based violence, and political activism. It frames media ecologies as dynamic spaces of informal learning where identities are negotiated, knowledge is produced, and cultural practices may reinforce or challenge dominant narratives.

The school emphasizes the need to problematize how digital methods are used, looking beyond their technical application to their epistemological, methodological, ethical, and political dimensions. By drawing on perspectives from media ecology, critical pedagogy, and feminist epistemologies, participants will explore how digital environments both constrain and enable visibility, voice, and agency.

Through a combination of seminars, workshops, and collaborative discussions, the program fosters reflection on the role of digital media in processes of inclusion and exclusion, and offers hands-on engagement with qualitative approaches—from exploratory observation to dataset construction and analysis.

Designed for Master’s degree holder, PhD students as well as early-career researchers, the Winter School provides conceptual grounding and practical tools to carry out socio-educational research attentive to issues of marginalization, visibility, and epistemic justice.

• (In)visibility, marginalization, and media ecologies
• Pedagogical practices of resistance and identity formation
• Digital spheres, fragmentation, and polarization
• Platforms, imaginaries, and everyday uncertainties
• Ethics, vulnerability, and agency in digital research
• Constructing and managing qualitative datasets
• Analyzing ethnographic material in digital contexts
• Coding, interpretation, and meaning-making in qualitative research
• Epistemic justice and socio-educational research in digital ecologies  

Group work

Daily seminars and workshops will guide participants through collaborative activities aimed at refining research questions, exploring digital environments, and working with qualitative data. The overall objective is to develop a research proposal on the topics of the Winter School, with the final output presented and discussed on the closing day.

We welcome applicants who already hold a Master’s degree, PhD students, and early-career researchers in the human and social sciences who are interested in media ecologies and in exploring digital methods—alone or in combination with other approaches—within projects that address less visible topics and communities at risk of marginalization, from pedagogical, anthropological, social, psychological, or interdisciplinary perspectives.

The application form should include:

• a cover letter (500-600 words) describing your motivation to participate in the Winter School and any related research projects you are currently pursuing or plan to develop,
• an Academic CV

Following the selection process, a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 15 participants will be admitted to the Winter School.
 

The Winter School is a five-day intensive program combining theoretical reflection and practical application.

Morning seminars, led by international scholars and faculty members, introduce key theoretical and methodological perspectives related to media ecologies, marginalized communities, and underexplored topics.

Afternoon workshops provide interactive spaces where participants work closely with tutors and peers to develop their research proposals.

The program begins with a welcome session and conceptual framing, followed by an initial workshop on identifying research topics. In the following days, morning lectures will present case studies and methodological reflections. At the same time, afternoon workshops will guide participants through refining research questions, exploring digital contexts, and experimenting with qualitative methods.

On the final day, participants will present their research proposals in a public session, receiving feedback and engaging in collective reflection, before concluding with an informal gathering.

• November 20, 2025 - Application
• November 30, 2025 - Notification of acceptance
• December 10, 2025 - Registration

Chiara Bove, Davide Cino, Paolo Grassi, Cristina Palmieri, Mario Vergani, Paolo Monti, Alessandra Mussi, Valentina Pagani, Maddalena Sottocorno, Anna Chinazzi, Monica Facciocchi, Petar Vasilev Lefterov, Marco Sassaro, Daniele Ciocca, Leonardo Lapomarda, Erica Neri, Tazio Morandini. The Winter School is also organized in collaboration with the PhD Programs in Education in the Contemporary Society (Prof. Chiara Bove), Cultural and Social Anthropology (Prof. Alice Bellagamba), and Intangible Heritage in Socio-Cultural Innovation (Prof. Franca Zuccoli). 

• Cover letter
• Academic CV
• ID card or Passport

Application and registration are two different steps. 

First, candidates are invited to submit their application through the dedicated form by 20 November 2025. A selection of between 10 and 15 participants will be made, and the outcome will be communicated via email no later than 30 November 2025.

Those admitted will then move on to the second step, completing a separate registration form by 10 December 2025. Registration fees are generously covered by CAPTED – Center for Educational Changes and Potentials in the Digital Transition, Department of Human Sciences for Education “Riccardo Massa”, University of Milano-Bicocca.

The Winter School will take place at the University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Human Sciences for Education “Riccardo Massa”, Piazza dell’Ateneo Nuovo, 1 – 20126 Milan, Italy, U6 Building, 4th floor.

Participants will be notified of the specific seminar and workshop rooms closer to the start of the program. 

The spectre of digital capitalism is haunting the world.
The so-called “AI boom” of the past few years has now taken centre stage in the public debate, scientific research, and in the political agendas of international institutions.
As the Global North seems to have embarked on a relentless journey towards the digital restructuring of our societies, the digital transition has given rise to new problems regarding the societal and political implications of new technologies.

Is a new form of digital capitalism emerging from the interplay of digital technology and pre-existing social relations? What is the direct impact of digital technology on human labour? How does this affect our life as a whole? And how is it revolutionising the public sphere?
More urgently, what is the role of emancipatory politics in this scenario?
These are some of the questions that tech enthusiasts and technophobes alike are ill-prepared to address.

The third edition of the Lake Como Summer School in Critical Theory of Society will gather scholars of renowned reputation to discuss these issues from different perspectives.

• Marxism, Luddism, and the Future of Work
• Capitalism and Technology: The Persistence of Taylorism
• Algorithms of Resistance: The Everyday Fight against Platform Power
• Algorithms of Resistance: A Methodological Reflection

Workshops

• Opaque Technologies, Black Boxes, and Digital Power: Journalism and the Critical AI Beat
• Crypto-economies, Speculative Futures and Post-capitalist Desires

The Summer School will extend for four days, alternating lectures and seminars. Each day will be structured into a morning session and an afternoon session. Only one session will be held on the first and final day. The morning and afternoon sessions will be chaired by different speakers and separated by a lunch break and one or more coffee breaks in order to elicit more informal conversations.

Friday, 24 May 2024 at 11:59 p.m. CET (UTC + 01:00)

• Luca Basso (University of Padua)
• Giorgio Bertolotti (University of Milano-Bicocca)
• Svenja Bromberg (Goldsmiths, University of London)
• Giorgio Cesarale (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)
• Maria Chehonadskih (Queen Mary University of London)
• Luisa Lorenza Corna (University of the West of England)
• Filippo Del Lucchese (University of Bologna)
• Lucie K. Mercier (Université de Fribourg)
• Stefano Petrucciani (Sapienza University of Rome)
• Natalia Romé (University of Buenos Aires)
• Andrés Saenz De Sicilia (Northeastern University—London)
• Marco Vanzulli (University of Milano-Bicocca)

• Villa Gallia - Via Borgovico 154, Como
• Spazio Natta - Via Natta 18, Como 
   

This Winter School is promoted, organized, and funded by CAPTED—Center for Educational Changes and Potentials in the Digital Transition, as part of the project “Cambiamenti e Potenzialità Educative e Socioculturali connessi alla Transizione Digitale” (CAPTED), carried out within the Dipartimenti di Eccellenza 2023–2027 program at the “Riccardo Massa” Department of Human Sciences for Education, University of Milano-Bicocca (ID IRIS 2023-NAZ-0209).