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Cosmos

The Centre on Social Movement Studies

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Leonidas Oikonomakis

Leonidas Oikonomakis is a writer, political activist, a late PhD Candidate & a member of the Greek hip hop formation “Social Waste”. When he is not in Greece crafting socio-political rap songs with his group, and unless he has enough money to go on fieldwork, he transforms himself into a library rat spending his time in the EUI library, on the hills of San Domenico, Italy. From there, overlooking old-Florence resting on her past grandeur, he studies, writes, and makes plans concerning his PhD research (and other projects) that he is conducting under the supervision of Professor Donatella della Porta. His research focuses on the political strategies of two Latin American social movements: the Zapatistas of Mexico and the cocaleros of Bolivia. His other passions -that in academia are called “research interests”- include theories and practices of social change, social movements and their political strategies, international development and sustainability, as well as political ethnography. In terms of what we have been used to call “qualifications”, Leonidas holds a B.A. in International and European Studies from the University of Piraeus (2005), and an M.A. in International Development: Poverty, Conflict, and Reconstruction from the University of Manchester (2006). He has also been a research associate of the University of Crete, as well as of the Center for European Studies of Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. Besides his native Greek and English, his articles have been translated into French, Urdu, Hindi, Arabic, Bahasa, Indonesia, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Turkish

Research interests: social movements, guerrilla warfare, political ethnography, international development, hip hop movement.

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