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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.

Turning Centripetal Politics on its Head: How Italian Polarization in the 1950s and 1960s Helps to Understand America’s Crisis Today, Sidney Tarrow, Cornell University

Date: 25/10/2022

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:

 

On the edge of democracy: elections and social movements in Brazil, Rosana Pinheiro Machado (University College Dublin) e Alfredo Saad-Filho (King’s College London)

Date: 19/10/2022

Place: 14:00-16:00, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Palazzo Strozzi (5th Floor), Piazza degli Strozzi, Firenze

Category: COSMOS Talk

Abstract:

 

Conspiracist and far-right mobilization in Saxony: Insights from Telegram groups and channels, Johannes Kiess, Universität Siegen e Universität Leipzig

Date: 12/10/2022

Place: 11:30-13:00, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Palazzo Strozzi (5th Floor), Piazza degli Strozzi, Firenze

Category: COSMOS Talk

Abstract:

 

The Legacy of Lynching as State-Sanctioned Racial Terror, Gianluca De Fazio, James Madison University

Date: 05/10/2022

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:

 

Contested Legitimacies: Repression and Revolt in Post-Revolutionary Egypt, Janis Grimm, Freie Universität Berlin

Date: 21/06/2022

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:

 

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:

 

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

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).

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.

Journal Article - 2022

Casting a new light on the democratic spectator
Andrea Felicetti
Scholarship in relation to democratic theory tends to see spectatorship as a state in which citizens are politically uninterested, isolated, and passive. In this article, the author shows that positive spectatorship occurs when citizens show an interest in one or more political problems and, together with others, strive to understand them better.

Journal Article - 2022

Far right: The significance of an umbrella concept
Andrea Pirro
This contribution makes the case for a shift in boundaries between the (populist) radical right and the extreme right, arguing for the systematic use of the term ‘far right’.

Journal Article - 2022

Performing (during) the Coronavirus crisis: The Italian populist radical right between national opposition and subnational government
Andrea Pirro
The first year of COVID-19 confirmed the standing of the populist radical right in Italy. While sitting in opposition at the national level, Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy and Matteo Salvini's League shared common criticism of the Conte II government but experienced diverging trajectories in terms of popularity. These changes can be partly attributed to the different agency of their leaderships. Overall and collectively considered, the Italian populist radical right broke even during the first year of COVID-19, but the crisis exposed the first cracks in Salvini's leadership.

Monograph - 2022

Contentious Politics in Emergency Critical Junctures
Donatella della Porta
Based on existing research on the first phases of the pandemic Covid-19, this Element addresses the ways in with the health emergency had an impact on the repertoire of action, the organizational networks and the collective framing of progressive social movements that adapted to the pandemic conditions and the related crises, but also tried to transform them.

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.
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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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