Grassroots participation and radical democracy have been at the center of the public and political debate in 2011 and 2012, when a new wave of contention crossed the entire world: from the Arab countries to North America; from Latin America to European countries. The emergence of a new wave of contention requires scholars to reflect on the research strategies and methodologies that are employed to study grassroots participation and radical democracy.

Although there is a considerable amount of research done on how social movements and civil society actors mobilize, specialized literature on how to actually investigate this phenomena is rare, although increasingly necessary with the recent wave of contention that mobilized citizens in the Arab, European and American countries. The Summer School addresses this gap discussing how to apply the most common methods in the social sciences to investigate political participation and mobilization.

ACADEMIC PROGRAMME

The Summer School will last 10 teaching days for a total of 60 hours of didactic activities. Here you can find the academic programme.

20 Phd and Master students will present and discuss their papers on current social movements in a number of countries across the world. Here you can find the the students’ short bios and paper abstracts.

OPEN KEYNOTE SPEECHES

Three keynote speeches on social movements and research methods will be organized during the Summer School that are open to the EUI community:

• Methodological Pluralism in Social Movement Research – Prof. Donatella della Porta, EUI

Monday, 16 September 2013, 10 am – 12 am, Theatre, Badia Fiesolana

• Modes of coordination of collective action – Prof. Mario Diani, University of Trento and ICREA-UPF Barcelona

Friday, 20 September 2013, 10 am-12 am, Sala Triaria, Villa Schifanoia

• Varieties of models and methods to study demonstrations and individual participation to it – Prof. Olivier Fillieule, University of Lausanne

Thursday, 26 September 2013, 10 am -12 am, Hotel San Gallo Palace, Via Lorenzo il Magnifico, 2, Firenze

If interested, those who are not enrolled in the Summer School should register with Adele Battistini (adele.battistini@eui.eu), specifying the speech you wish to attend, no later than 13 September 2013.

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Director Prof. Donatella della Porta (European University Institute);

Co-directors Dr. Francesca Forno (University of Bergamo);
Dr. Alice Mattoni (European University Institute);
Prof. Michele Micheletti (Stockholm University);

Academic Assistant Lorenzo Zamponi (European University Institute)

FINANCIAL AND LOGISTIC SUPPORT

The Summer School is kindly supported by:

• The Standing Group on Participation and Mobilization of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR)

• Centre on Social Movement Studies (COSMOS) at the European University Institute

• Political and Social Sciences Department at the European University Institute

APPLICATION