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Cosmos

The Centre on Social Movement Studies

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COSMOS Talks

The COSMOS Talks are public discussions on cutting edge contentious politics research from across various theoretical, methodological and disciplinary traditions. They aim to provide feedback on preliminary results of current research projects, future research projects proposals and drafts of forthcoming papers, articles and book chapters. The COSMOS Talks also aim at improving synergies and networking among researchers from the COSMOS community as well as from other universities.

We ask presenters to send a paper (of no more than 30 pages) to the organizers, no later than a week before the scheduled talk. Each session lasts for two hours. Paper givers are given maximum 20 minutes to introduce their works. Preselected discussants are given about 10 minutes each to give constructive feedback. The floor will then be open to the public. All participants are asked to read the paper in advance.

Marginal environmentalism: Local environmental activism and global trends in the European neighborhood

Date: 18/05/2022

Place: 15:00-16:30, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Palazzo Strozzi (5th Floor), Piazza degli Strozzi, Firenze

Category: COSMOS Talk

Abstract:

 

In Defense of Liberal Democracy: Countering Ethnopopulism and Authoritarian Rule in the European Union (Milada Vachudova)

Date: 11/05/2022

Place: 14:00-15:30 (CET), Online Talk

Category: COSMOS Talk

Abstract:

 

Deniable Contact: Back-Channel Negotiation in Northern Ireland, Niall O’Dochartaigh, National University of Ireland, Galway

Date: 04/05/2022

Place: 12:30-14:00, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Palazzo Strozzi (5th Floor), Piazza degli Strozzi, Firenze

Category: COSMOS Talk

Abstract:

 

Spillover as movement agenda setting, Jennifer Earl, University of Arizona

Date: 27/04/2022

Place: 12:00-13:30, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Palazzo Strozzi (5th Floor), Piazza degli Strozzi, Firenze

Category: COSMOS Talk

Abstract:

 

Framing reality, choosing the tactic. The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine and the Second Intifada (2000-2005), Antonella Acinapura, Queen’s University Belfast

Date: 08/04/2022

Place: 14:00-15:30, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Palazzo Strozzi (5th Floor), Piazza degli Strozzi, Firenze

Category: COSMOS Talk

Abstract:

 

Molecular changes in social activism in MENA countries since 2011: A Gramscian reading, Alessandra Marchi, University of Cagliari

Date: 06/04/2022

Place: 12:00-14:00 (CET), Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Palazzo Strozzi, Piazza degli Strozzi

Category: COSMOS Talk

Abstract:

 

Feminism as a Method: Feminist and Queer Epistemologies, Methodologies and Methods in Social Sciences

Date: 10/12/2021

Place: 16:00-18:00 (CET), Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Palazzo Strozzi (5th Floor), Piazza degli Strozzi, Firenze

Category: COSMOS Talk

Abstract:

 

Public Discourses about Youth and Their Impact, Marco Giugni, University of Geneva

Date: 03/12/2021

Place: 14:00-15:30 (CET), Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Palazzo Strozzi (5th Floor), Piazza degli Strozzi, Firenze

Category: COSMOS Talk

Abstract:

 

The Spectacle of the Strongman, Nicole Curato, University of Canberra

Date: 22/11/2021

Place: 14:00-15:30 (CET), Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Palazzo Strozzi (5th Floor), Piazza degli Strozzi, Firenze

Category: COSMOS Talk

Abstract:

 

Troubled Waters: Resisting Privatization in Europe, Andreas Bieler, University of Nottingham

Date: 08/11/2021

Place: 14.30-16:00 (CET), Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Palazzo Strozzi (5th Floor), Piazza degli Strozzi, Firenze

Category: COSMOS Talk

Abstract:

 

Understanding Insurgency. Popular Support for the PKK in Turkey, Francis O’Connor, Wageningen University

Date: 20/10/2021

Place: 14.30-16:00 (CET), Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Palazzo Strozzi (5th Floor), Piazza degli Strozzi, Firenze

Category: COSMOS Talk

Abstract:

 

The Neoliberal Republic: Corporate Lawyers, Statecraft and the Making of Public-Private France, Antoine Vauchez, Université Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne

Date: 18/06/2021

Place: 15.00-16:30 (CET), Online Talk, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences

Category: COSMOS Talk

Abstract:

 

For the love of humanity: The World Tribunal on Iraq, AYÇA ÇUBUKÇU, London School of Economics and Political Science

Date: 14/05/2021

Place: 15:00-16:30 (CET), Online Cosmos Talk, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore

Category: COSMOS Talk

Abstract:

 

The micro-politics of corporate responsibility: How companies shape protest in mining communities, Paul Haslam, Ottawa University

Date: 23/04/2021

Place: 15:00-16:30 (CET), Online Talk, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore

Category: COSMOS Talk

Abstract:

 

A Bigger Box: Studying Social Movements as Civic Action, Paul Lichtermann, University of Southern California

Date: 12/03/2021

Place: 17.00-18:30, Online Talk, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore

Category: COSMOS Talk

Abstract:

 

News

10/01/2022

SNS announces 14 fully-funded PhD positions
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The Faculty of Political and Social Sciences at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence, Italy is pleased to announce 14 PhD fellowships beginning on November 1, 2022.

16/07/2021

Prof. della Porta to lead VolkswagenStiftung-funded ECSEuro project
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Reflecting the European challenge of transnational cooperation and multiple crises, this project asks how local political initiatives across Europe enact citizenship and solidarity and contribute to the vision of a more democratic Europe from below.

09/07/2021

SNS announces 7 fully-funded PhD positions
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The Faculty of Political and Social Sciences at the Scuola Normale Superiore announces 7 fully-funded PhD positions. Deadline for applications: 21 August 2021.

28/09/2020

Four post-doctoral research positions on the pandemic
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The Scuola Normale Superiore announces four post-doctoral positions to be activated as part of the research project “After the coronavirus pandemic: The effects of the health emergency on society and knowledge.” 

26/02/2020

CFP Athens conference "Capitalism, Democracy, Contention: A Decade of Crisis" 13-15 May 2020
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Aspiring to shed light on the Greek experience in the era of crisis in a comparative, inter-disciplinary perspective, the Laboratory on Contentious Politics (Department of Political Science and History, Panteion University, Athens), the Centre on Social Movement Studies (Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence) and the Hellenic Political Science Association are organizing an international conference to be held at Panteion University, on 13, 14 and 15 May 2020.

12/12/2019

Prof. Donatella Della Porta to Be Awarded Honorary PhD
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On Friday 13, 2019, the University of the Peloponnese (PSIR) will award an honorary doctorate to Professor Donatella Della Porta, Dean of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at the Scuola Normale Superiore.

Publications

Journal Article - 2022

Forging, bending, and breaking: Enacting the “illiberal playbook” in Hungary and Poland
Andrea Pirro & Ben Stanley
We first argue that illiberal changes are ideologically founded and identify how both populism and nativism figure in the policymaking of illiberals in power. We then show how these practices emerge from a common “illiberal playbook”—a paradigm of policy change comprising forms of forging, bending, and breaking—and elaborate on the notion that illiberal governments are using legalism to kill liberalism.

Journal Article - 2022

Populists in power and conspiracy theories
Andrea Pirro & Paul Taggart
Looking at three cases of populists in government – Orbán in Hungary, Trump in the United States, and Chávez in Venezuela – we examine the definition of conspiring elites (who), the circumstances under which conspiracy theories are propagated (when), and the ultimate purpose of conspiratorial framing (why).

Journal Article - 2022

The Three Faces of Populism in Power: Policy, Policies and Politics
Manuela Caiani & Paolo Graziano
The article explores the consequences of the increasing presence of both left- and right-wing populist parties in government, critically reflecting on the recent scholarship on the topic, underlining promising venues for future research and outlining a conceptual framework which constitutes the background of this special issue entitled ‘Populism in Power and its Consequences’.

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 - 2022

The mobilization for spatial justice in divided societies. Urban commons, trust reconstruction and socialist memory in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Chiara Milan
The article contributes to the urban studies literature and the study of social movements in divided societies by disclosing the distinctive features and mobilizing potential that the notion of urban commons retains in a war-torn society with a socialist legacy.

Edited Volume - 2021

Contentious Migrant Solidarity. Shrinking Spaces and Civil Society Contestation
Donatella della Porta & Elias Steinhilper
Building upon social movement and migration studies, this book maps the two sides of ‘contentious solidarity’: a shrinking civic space and its contestation by civil society.

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.

Journal Article - 2021

Far-right protest mobilisation in Europe: Grievances, opportunities and resources
Pietro Castelli Gattinara, Caterina Froio & Andrea Pirro
In this article, we bridge previous research on the far right and social movements to advance hypotheses on the drivers of far-right protest mobilisation based on grievances, opportunities and resource mobilisation models. We use an original dataset combining novel data on 4,845 far-right protest events in 11 East and West European countries (2008–2018), with existing measures accounting for the (political, economic and cultural) context of mobilisation.

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.

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.
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Faculty of Political and Social Sciences Scuola Normale Superiore Palazzo Strozzi Piazza degli Strozzi 50123 Firenze Italy
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