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The Centre on Social Movement Studies

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Rape as a Practice of War

The talk develops a general typology of political violence that illuminates differences between violence that occurs as a practice or as a strategy and analyzes the conditions under which rape is likely to be prevalent as a practice and different forms of rape as a practice. I

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Speaker : Elisabeth Jean Wood (University of Yale). Discussants : Juan Masullo Jimenez (EUI) and Alexandra Ana (SNS)

Much of the literature assumes that when rape occurs frequently on the part of an armed organization, it is a strategy. If by “strategic rape,” we mean a pattern of rape purposefully adopted in order to realize group objectives, the definition begs consideration of rape that occurs but is not purposefully adopted by the organization. In contrast to the prevailing literature, I argue that many armed groups that engage in frequent rape do so as a practice: it is not ordered (even implicitly) but is tolerated by commanders. Indeed, commanders may even perceive it as costly for the realization of the organization’s goals, but do not prevent it, possibly because they judge its effective prohibition more costly still. The category includes not only opportunistic rape (for private motives, a category present in the literature) but also rape that arises from the social interactions of units on the ground. I develop a general typology of political violence that illuminates differences between violence that occurs as a practice or as a strategy. I analyze the conditions under which rape is likely to be prevalent as a practice and different forms of rape as a practice. I conclude with an assessment of the argument’s implications for researchers and policy-makers, emphasizing that commanders are legally responsible for rape as a practice when the usual conditions under international law are met.

The talk will take place at the EUI Seminar room (ground floor), Villa Pagliaiuola , Via delle Palazzine 17-19  on the 21st of May from 11:00AM to 12:30 PM

News

22/02/2023

15 fully funded PhD positions

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Publications

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Reflective Inclusion: Learning from Activists What Taking a Deliberative Stance Means.

Andrea Felicetti, Markus Holdo
We propose to adopt a principle we call “reflective inclusion,” which allows us to engage abductively with new actions that might expand and deepen our understanding of what deliberation may look like.

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

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 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

(Water) Bottles and (Street) Barricades: The Politicisation of Lifestyle-Centred Action in Youth Climate Strike Participation

Lorenzo Zamponi, Anja Corinne Baukloh, Niccolò Bertuzzi, Daniela Chironi, Donatella della Porta, Martín Portos
This article explores the forms of action adopted by participants in two Fridays For Future (FFF) strikes, focusing on the repertoires of action of (young) climate justice protesters. Drawing on protest survey data, it shows demonstrated that young protesters do not participate less in claim-based action than older cohorts. Furthermore, a process of politicisation can be seen to be unfolding that leads to increased commitment in both lifestyle and political forms of participation – at least among active milieus.

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.

Journal Article - 2021

Far-right protest mobilisation in Europe: Grievances, opportunities and resources

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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.

Monograph - 2021

Migrant Protest. Interactive Dynamics in Precarious Mobilizations

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Edited Volume - 2021

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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

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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.