Donatella della Porta is professor of sociology at the European University Institute, where she directs the Center on Social Movement Studies (Cosmos). She is also directs a major ERC project Mobilizing for Democracy, on civil society participation in democratization processes in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. Among her very recent publications are:
Methodological Practices in Social Movement Research (Oxford University Press, 2014) |Can Democracy be Saved? (Polity Press, 2013) |Clandestine Political Violence (Cambridge University Press, 2013) | Blackwell Encyclopedia on Social and Political Movements (with D. Snow, B. Klandermans and D. McAdam eds., Blackwell, 2013) | Mobilizing on the Extreme Right (with M. Caiani and C. Wagemann, Oxford University Press, 2012) | Meeting Democracy (ed. with D. Rucht, Cambridge University Press, 2012) |The Hidden Order of Corruption (with A. Vannucci, Ashgate 2012)
In 2011, she was the recipient of the Mattei Dogan Prize for distinguished achievements in the field of political sociology.
Cosmos, the Centre on Social movement studies at the Department of Political and Social Sciences of the European University Institute, is glad to invite you to the following lecture:
On November 28, in the Theatre, at 11am– 1 pm
Prof. Mario Diani (University of Trento) will speak on The Emergence of a European Social Movement Research Field.
The talk illustrates the emergence and consolidation of research on social movements and grassroots collective action within European social science. Rather than on intellectual debates, it focuses on the growth of a distinct professional and organizational field, connected through collaborations that include, among others, co-authorships, conduction of major research projects, promotion of specific journals, and the like. Basic network analytic tools enable us to map the evolution of collaborations between social movement researchers in Europe over three phases, corresponding to the years 1978-1990, 1991-2001, and 2003-2012.
Cosmos, the Centre on Social movement studies at the Department of Political and Social Sciences of the European University Institute, is glad to invite you to the following lecture:
On November 26, in Seminar room 2, at 3 – 5pm
Prof. Bob Clifford (Duquesne University) will speak on Rights as Weapons in Political Conflict.
Rights are usually viewed as defensive concepts representing mankind’s highest aspirations to protect and uplift the vulnerable. But since the Enlightenment, political combatants have also used rights belligerently–to batter despised communities, demolish existing institutions, and smash opposing ideas. Examining historical and contemporary conflicts, this paper describes how activists sharpen rights into weapons: by naturalizing, absolutizing, universalizing, and depoliticizing them. The paper shows how they wield rights: to camouflage ulterior motives, break rival coalitions, attack policies, and explode societies. Finally, the paper analyzes how targets repulse the assault, often by fashioning contrary rights. Comparing key episodes in rights’ rise, the paper raises troubling new questions about a concept we thought we knew. Among contemporary cases considered are the use of animal rights, gay rights, and women’s rights in settings as diverse as the Catalan nationalist movement, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the Afghanistan war.
A Lecture from Prof. Susanne Staggenborg (University of Pittsburgh)
This event is part of the activities organised by COSMOS, the Consortium on Social Movements.
5 June 2012, from 11 AM to 5 PM, Seminar Room 4, Badia Fiesolana
Focusing on social movements as part of broader contentious politics, it promotes theoretically-driven empirical analyses on forms, dimensions, causes and impacts of social movements, in established democracies as well as authoritarian regimes. In order to improve synergies and networking among researchers in social movement studies, Cosmos organizes conferences, colloquia, public lectures, seminar series and other public events that will bring together expertise from the EUI as well as from other universities.
Cosmos is born!
Inaugural event of the Centre on Social Movement Studies
On the 30th April 2012, 15:00-17:00 – Theatre, Badia Fiesolana
The Centre on Social Movement Studies (Cosmos) is the first research centre of the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute. It focuses on social movements as part of broader contentious politics.
Donatella della Porta will chair this inaugural event, during which László Bruszt will give a welcome speech representing the department of Social and Political Sciences. The main speaker, professor Sydney Tarrow of the Cornell University, will give a talk on “Occupying America: Lessons for Social Movement Theory”.
On 5th February 2013 Professor della Porta gave a public lecture at the London School of Economics, entitled ‘Can democracy be saved? Participation, deliberation and social movements’.
Audio of the lecture, which was organised by the prestigious Ralph Miliband Programme, can be downloaded here
Danilo de Biasio, journalist of the network Radio Popolare, interviewed Donatella della Porta during the program #qualcosadisinistra on the topic:
“I movimenti possono sostituire i partiti?” (Can movements replace parties?)
The video of the interview, broadcasted on the 14th February, is online on the website of Radio Popolare.
Donatella della Porta published two opinion pieces in the website of “Sbilanciamoci!”, an Italian umbrella organization dealing with globalization, peace and alternatives to the current budgetary policies. In these articles she expressed her point of view on the re-election of Giorgio Napolitano as Head of state, on the formation of the new Italian government sustained by a large coalition that includes both Berlusconi’s party and the center-left, and on the future of the Partito Democratico.
The article “Il governo Bunga-Bunga e la protesta dentro al PD” focuses on the possible negative consequences of this choice for the Italian Democratic Party and on the increasing distance between the party elites and its supporters, voters and militants, with a comparative reference to the previous cases of the Greek PASOK and of the Italian Socialist Party. The text has been translated in Greek on the website rednotebook.gr.
The article “L’elezione di Napolitano e l’inciucio” describes the complicate context of the last election of the President of Italy, focusing on the different political solutions represented by the four main candidates Marini, Prodi, Napolitano and Rodotà, abut also on the (broken) dialectic between the Partito Democratico’s bureaucratic elites and its mobilized militants. This article is available also in spanish on the website sinpermiso.info.
Donatella della Porta has been awarded the prestigious title of Doctor honoris causa in Political and Social Science from the University of Lausanne. The conferring ceremony will take place on 23 May 2014 in Lausanne.
The Department of Government Comparative Politics of the London School of Economics and Political Science invited Donatella della Porta to held a public lecture on “Social Movements, Political Violence and the State” on 17 February 2014. The podcast of the lecture is available online.
Download the Audio of the Event
Speaker(s): Professor Donatella Della Porta
Chair: Dr Omar McDoom
From Gezi Park in Istanbul to Tahrir Square in Cairo, as well as in the heart of Europe, threatened regimes have faced down massive protests with brutal repression. But when do mass social movements go underground and choose violence? Della Porta brings to bear her extensive research into left-wing, right-wing, ethnonationalist, and religious forms of political violence to answer this question. The comparison of quite different cases of escalation allows to single out the competitive dynamics of radicalization both inside social movements and between them and the state.
Donatella Della Porta is professor of political science and political sociology at the European University Institute with a distinguished record of research into social movements and political violence.
Omar McDoom is assistant professor in comparative politics in the Department of Government at LSE.
Event organiser: Department of Government Comparative Politics, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Sidney Tarrow, Emeritus Professor of Government at Cornell University inaugurated the academic year at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence with a Lectio Magistralis entitled “War, States and Movements: Lessons for the New Century”. Prof. Donatella della Porta , Director of COSMOS and Professor at Scuola Normale Superiore, introduced the lecture.
A video of the entire inagural event, held on 21st October 2014 at Palazzo Strozzi, is now available on Youtube at the following URL:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07Xsbh2uT-M&list=UUaTK_MP4BC2_MvXx2xlj7kg
The Lectio Magistralis starts after 1h 27′, and it is preceded by the intervention of other invited speakers.
Initial list of invited speakers:
Fabio Beltram (Director of Scuola Normale Superiore)
Dario Nardella (Mayor of Florence)
Alberto Tesi (Dean of the University of Florence)
Stefano Fantoni (President of ANVUR – Agenzia Nazionale di Valutazione del Sistema Universitario e della Ricerca)
The Post-graduate Program in Sociology of the Rio Grande do Sul Federal University (Brazil), in partnership with the Centre for the Study and Documentation of Post-Secular Societies of the Università di Roma – Tor Vergata (Itlay), organized an International School for Advanced Studies dedicated to the fields of civil society, democracy and contention.
The first aim of the international school, hosted in Porto Alegre from 24th to 27th November 2014, is to celebrate thirty years of democracy in Brasil. Twenty distinguished invited scholars will present their research on the relationship between democracy and protest, with a particular focus on social movements. In particular, the director of COSMOS Donatella della Porta will intervene in the fifth section of the school, focused on “Protest, Police and Violence”, on Tuesday 25th November at 6:30 PM local time (9:30 PM in Italy).
The entire program of the school is available on the website of the event.
The event can be followed in private Live Streaming on Youtube.
Interested users can send an email to contato@socionautas.com.br to access to the videos, or to preguntas@socionautas.com.br to send a question to the speakers.
The association “Libertá e Giustizia”, in collaboration with the trade union of knowledge workers “FLC CGIL” and with the organization “Libera”, will organize on 27 and 28 February a conference dedicated to the current threats to democracy, with a particular focus on the Italian and European situation.
The event will host a roundtable dedicated to the recent book of the COSMOS director Donatella della Porta “Can Democracy Be Saved”, published by Polity Press. The author will discuss the themes rised in the book with Sandra Bonsanti (Libertá e Giustizia), Gustavo Zagrebelsky, Sergio Labate (University of Macerata) and Elisabetta Rubini Tarizzo (Lawyer).
For further information and to register to the event, please send an email to info@libertaegiustizia.it.
The Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence and the University of Bologna offer five fully funded PhD positions in Political Science and Sociology.
The programme focuses on the following three research areas:
The grant is of three years. A fourth year can be added based on merit. Full coverage of research expenses (conferences, summer schools, research periods abroads) is provided.
The Faculty is exclusively devoted to PhD teaching and supervision. The activities will be held at the seat of Florence of the Scuola Normale Superiore (Institute of Human and Social Sciences)
For more information please visit the following URLs:
http://phd.sns.it/en/political-science-and-sociology
http://phd.sns.it/en/call-applications/
Deadlines: 31 August 2015
Movimenti del Mondo is a series of debates and documentaries/movies promoted by the Scuola Normale Superiore and organized by Lorenzo Bosi (SNS), Donatella Della Porta (SNS/EUI) and Alice Mattoni (EUI).
The first event of the series focuses on the 2013 Turkish protests that initially emerged to oppose the construction of a mall in Gezi Park, Istanbul. These protests had a strong international and national resonance, shifting during the following months to more generic political issues, and successfully spreading to the rest of the country.
Location : Palazzo Strozzi, Sala “L’Altana” Scuola Normale Superiore, Firenze
Date : 21 May 2015, 3:30-7 PM
Early afternoon roundtable (3:30 – 4:30 PM)
Chair : Elias Steinhilper (SNS)
Speakers: Erdem Yorük (Koç University, Turkey), Semih Celik (EUI) and Donatella della Porta (SNS/EUI)
Late afternoon/evening session (5-7 PM)
Chair: Kivanc Atak (EUI)
Projection of the documentary “Love Will Change the Earth”
21/03/2024
16/05/2023
22/02/2023
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10/01/2022
16/07/2021
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Monograph - 2023
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