Cosmos
The Centre on Social Movement Studies
Journal Article - 2020
Author: Mattia Zulianello and Diego Ceccobelli
The growing popularity of Greta Thunberg has led an increasing number of pundits and scholars to consider her message to be an instance of ‘climate’ or ‘environmental’ populism. Following a qualitative content analysis of key speeches by the young activist, this paper challenges this view, and argues that her message is far from being a… moreJournal Article - 2020
Author: Manuela Caiani & Enrico Padoan
This article introduces the conceptual and analytical framework for the special issue, which explores the cultural side of populism: the relationships between politics, emotions, music, and subcultures in populist contexts. We highlight the role that cultural and symbolic 'products' (such as music, emotions, narratives, and visual symbols) play in the emergence and spread of populism.… moreJournal Article - 2020
Author: Raffaele Bazurli
Contemporary cities are both creators and receptors of global-scale collective problems. City-dwellers must cope with such far-reaching transformations that affect their communities and yet lie beyond the full jurisdiction of local administrations. Starting from this conundrum, this article seeks to answer the following questions: What is distinctive about urban policy making? What are its typical… moreJournal Article - 2020
Author: Martín Portos, Lorenzo Bosi, Lorenzo Zamponi
Drawing on electoral participation and social movement studies, we develop a typologyof abstainers on the basis of their forms of non-electoral participation, and explore thedeterminants that drive belonging to each of these sub-groups. Although there is a positive correlation between electoral turnout and non-electoral participation, throughapplying latent class analyses and regressions we find that there… moreJournal Article - 2020
Author: Jacopo Custodi
This article provides an empirical exploration of the relation between nationalism and populism on the left of the political spectrum. The Spanish party Podemos is a key case study for such an analysis, as it is a left‐populist actor that has made extensive use of nationalist rhetoric in its discourse. Through a discourse analysis on… moreJournal Article - 2020
Author: Andrea Pirro & Donatella della Porta
The article draws on social movement theory to understand collective action against corruption in Hungary. While offering a perspective on anti-corruption activism, the article demonstrates its limits against a set of unfavourable factors. Our enquiry reveals that the political context in which anti-corruption activism develops, that is, Hungary under Viktor Orbán, critically affects its mobilising… moreJournal Article - 2020
Author: Lorenzo Bosi, Lorenzo Zamponi
Heterogeneous collective actors often select the same form of action, but there is no academic investigation into how and when this happens. This article does so focusing on direct social action, that is, a form of collective action that does not primarily focus upon claiming something from the state but instead focuses upon directly transforming… moreJournal Article - 2020
Author: Pietro Castelli Gattinara, Lorenzo Zamponi
This article focuses on the migration policy crisis in France to illustrate how social movements contribute to the epistemic construction of ‘crises’ of European Integration. To tackle politicization, we compare the framing and mobilization choices by grassroots actors in solidarity with asylum-seekers and groups aiming to defend national borders from them. Using original Protest Event… moreJournal Article - 2020
Author: Manuela Caiani & Enrico Padoan
This article, focusing on Italy, aims to broaden our understanding of the recent striking electoral fortunes of (differing types of) populism in the country, by locating them within multiple crises (political, economic, migration) that have shocked Europe in the last two decades. By combining individual-level survey data on voters with organizational-level interviews conducted with national… moreJournal Article - 2020
Author: Marco Deseriis
This article advances a new theory of the digital democratic affordance, a concept first introduced by Lincoln Dahlberg to devise a taxonomy of the democratic capacities of digital media applications. Whereas Dahlberg classifies digital media affordances on the basis of preexisting democratic positions, the article argues that the primary affordance of digital media is to… moreJournal Article - 2025
Journal Article - 2023
Journal Article - 2023
Journal Article - 2023
Journal Article - 2023
Monograph - 2023
Monograph - 2022
Monograph - 2022
Journal Article - 2021
Journal Article - 2021
