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Cosmos

The Centre on Social Movement Studies

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Summer School on Media in Political Participation and Mobilization

COSMOS and the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Scuola Normale Superiore invite applications for the upcoming Summer School on “Media in Political Participation and Mobilization” which will be held in Florence (Italy) in June 2017, from Monday 26th to Friday 30th included.

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The Summer School will explore the complex relationship between media and diverse instances of political participation and mobilization. More in particular, the lectures during the Summer School will revolve around three main themes on which literature flourished in the past few years, providing new perspectives on the relationship between media and political participation/mobilizations: (1) media cultures; (2) media materialities; and (3) media practices.

Participants (up to 15) will be given the possibility to present their ongoing research and project activities during afternoon sessions. Other participants and speakers will provide feedback and suggestions. Participants will also have the possibility to schedule a meeting with the Summer School invited lecturers to discuss more in details their work and receive targeted advices.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS AND ACADEMIC PROGRAMME

The Summer School will include two keynote speeches on media and political participation and mobilization. Confirmed keynote speakers are: Prof. Donatella della Porta (Scuola Normale Superiore); Prof. Nick Couldry (London School of Economics). This is the preliminary academic programme, that includes a detailed overview of the summer school, confirmed instructors and lectures topics.

DATES AND LOCATION

The Summer School will last 5 teaching, from the 26th to the 30th of June 2017. The Summer School will take place at the Istituto di Scienze Umane e Sociali, Scuola Normale Superiore, in Florence, Italy.

APPLICATION

The Summer School is open to 15 graduate and master students as well as early career researchers with a specialized interest in media in political participation and mobilization in different fields of study, including political science, political sociology, political communication, and political anthropology from throughout European and beyond.

Applicants must email a cover letter in which they explain how the Summer School would be beneficial for their research, a 500-word abstract of their proposed paper, and an updated curriculum vitae no later than 17th of March 2017 to media_summerschool@sns.it

Applicants will be informed of the outcome by email as soon as possible and no later than 7 April 2017. Selected applicants shall confirm their participation and pay the enrollment fee within 15 days, after which places may be offered to applicants on the reserve list.

REQUIREMENTS

Students will be required to write and submit a 5.000-6.000 words paper before the starting of the Summer School. The paper will be then presented and discussed during one of the afternoon sessions. Students will be also required to complete the mandatory readings for morning lectures and to actively participate in discussion during morning and afternoon sessions.

Successful participation in the Summer School will be accredited a certificate of participation.

English will be the working language of the Summer School. Therefore students are expected to have a good command of written and spoken English.

ENROLLMENT FEES

Full fees for the Summer School are €350 and cover tuition costs, academic materials, lunches, welcome aperitivo & farewell dinner, use of library, computing and internet facilities.

Fees will not cover travel and accommodation costs.

Details of how to pay the fees and book the room will be emailed to all selected participants. Once paid, fees are not reimbursable.

AUDITORS

PhD students enrolled at the Scuola Normale Superiore can participate as auditors in the Summer School with no need to pay any enrollment fees.

A limited number of PhD students based in other academic institutions might be admitted as auditors in the Summer School paying a reduced fee of €250 that will cover academic materials, lunches, welcome aperitivo & farewell dinner, use of library, computing and internet facilities.

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Director: Donatella della Porta

Co-director: Alice Mattoni

Scientific Committee: Diego Ceccobelli, Marco Deseriis, Lorenzo Mosca, Elena Pavan, Andrea Pitrioni, Emiliano Treré, Lorenzo Zamponi

CONTACTS

Email contact for application, questions and clarifications about the Summer School: media_summerschool@sns.it

FINANCIAL AND LOGISTIC SUPPORT

The Summer School is kindly supported by:

  • European Consortium for Political Research – ECPR and its Standing Group on Political Participation and Mobilization
  • Istituto di Scienze Umane e Sociali, Scuola Normale Superiore;
  • Centre on Social Movement Studies (COSMOS) at the Scuola Normale Superiore;
  • PiCME – Political Participation in Complex Media Environments, a research project funded by the SIR grant 2014 of the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research.

News

01/07/2024

Le basi istituzionali di un panico morale

alt
Attraverso una lunga rassegna di casi concreti, Donatella Della Porta, direttrice di Cosmos, descrive il processo per cui la lotta istituzionale all'antisemitismo in Germania, inizialmente promossa dalla società civile progressista, si è trasformata nella costruzione di un apparato statale e di una struttura di potere ufficiale come strumento di razzializzazione e repressione.

Publications

Journal Article - 2023

Resisting right-wing populism in power: a comparative analysis of the Facebook activities of social movements in Italy and the UK

Niccolò Pennucci
This paper aims to present a comparative study of the civil society reaction to right-wing populism in power through social media, by looking at cases in Italy and the United Kingdom.

Journal Article - 2023

Emotions in Action: the Role of Emotions in Refugee Solidarity Activism

Chiara Milan
This article investigates the different types of emotions that result from participation in refugee solidarity activism, investigating how they change over time and to what extent they explain why individuals remain involved in action in spite of unfavorable circumstances.

Journal Article - 2023

‘Love is over, this is going to be Turkey!’: cathartic resonance between the June 2013 protests in Turkey and Brazil

Batuhan Eren
This study addresses the question of why and how a protest can inspire individuals in distant countries. Taking the June 2013 protests in Turkey and Brazil as cases, it investigates the reasons why the Turkish protests were framed as one of the inspirational benchmarks by some Brazilian protesters.

Journal Article - 2023

Mutual aid and solidarity politics in times of emergency: direct social action and temporality in Italy during the COVID-19 pandemic

Lorenzo Zamponi
From the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and the social distancing measures introduced created a series of social problems and needs that were partially addressed in Italy as well as in other countries by grassroots mutual aid initiatives. While many of these initiatives were strongly rooted in the Italian social movement and civil society landscape and the choice to engage in mutual aid activities was the result of long years of reflection and planning, the article shows how strongly the temporality of emergency affected the nature of these initiatives, their development and their outcomes, in particular with regard to the extraordinary number of people who volunteered and their relationship with politicisation processes.

Monograph - 2023

Populism and (Pop) Music

Manuela Caiani, Enrico Padoan
The book provides a detailed account of the links between production of popular culture to the rise of populism and contributes to studies on populism and popular culture in Italy, using a comparative approach and a cultural sociology perspective

Monograph - 2022

Labour conflicts in the digital age

Donatella della Porta, Riccardo Emilio Chesta, Lorenzo Cini
From Deliveroo to Amazon, digital platforms have drastically transformed the way we work. But how are these transformations being received and challenged by workers? This book provides a radical interpretation of the changing nature of worker movements in the digital age, developing an invaluable approach that combines social movement studies and industrial relations. Using case studies taken from Europe and North America, it offers a comparative perspective on the mobilizing trajectories of different platform workers and their distinct organizational forms and action repertoires.

Monograph - 2022

Resisting the Backlash: Street Protest in Italy

Donatella della Porta, Niccolò Bertuzzi, Daniela Chironi, Chiara Milan, Martín Portos & Lorenzo Zamponi
Drawing interview material, together with extensive data from the authors’ original social movement database, this book examines the development of social movements in resistance to perceived political "regression" and a growing right-wing backlash.

Journal Article - 2021

Learning from Democratic Practices: New Perspectives in Institutional Design

Andrea Felicetti
Drawing from literature on democratic practices in social movements and democratic innovations, the article illustrates three ways to advance institutional design in the wake of the systemic turn.

Monograph - 2021

Migrant Protest. Interactive Dynamics in Precarious Mobilizations

Elias Steinhilper
This book explores the interactions and spaces shaping the emergence, trajectory, and fragmentation of migrant protest in unfavorable contexts of marginalization.

Journal Article - 2021

Populism between voting and non-electoral participation

Andrea Pirro & Martín Portos
The article focuses on a neglected aspect of populist mobilisation, i.e. non-electoral participation (NEP), and elaborates on the extent to which populist party voters engage politically outside the polling station. While challenging common understandings of populism as inherently distrustful and apathetic, and protest as an exclusive practice of the left, the study critically places NEP at the heart of populism in general, and populist right politics in particular.