Cosmos

The Centre on Social Movement Studies

COSMOS Roundtables

The COSMOS Roundtables bring in conversation two or three visiting scholars, from senior professors to junior PhD researchers. The COSMOS Roundtables are thought as an informal venue in which the speakers do not present their latest research, and focus instead on the exchange of ideas on current mobilizations across the world as well as on topical political moments of our times.

La partecipazione ai tempi del ddl 1660

Date: 22/11/2024

Place: Palazzo Strozzi, Sala Altana

Category: COSMOS Roundtable

Abstract:

Comparative political ecology: theories and methodologies for mapping and analysing social conflicts

Date: 14/06/2022

Place: 10:30-13:30, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Palazzo Strozzi (5th Floor), Piazza degli Strozzi, Firenze

Category: COSMOS Roundtable

Abstract:

Blended democracy: Democratic innovation at the dawn of the twenties

Date: 19/05/2021

Place: Faculty of Political and Social Sciences

Category: COSMOS Roundtable

Abstract:

Boğaziçi University Protests: An Unexpected Challenge to Authoritarianism

Date: 01/03/2021

Place: 15.00-16.30 (CET), Online Roundtable, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore

Category: COSMOS Roundtable

Abstract:

Lebanon’s October Uprising: A Revolutionary Rupture?

Date: 26/02/2021

Place: 15:00-16:30 (CET), Online Roundtable, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore.

Category: COSMOS Roundtable

Abstract:

Struggling for women’s rights in Poland

Date: 29/01/2021

Place: 17:00-18:00 (CET), Online Roundtable, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore.

Category: COSMOS Roundtable

Abstract:

Change, continuity or whatever? Bolivia After the New Democratic Turn

Date: 04/12/2020

Place: 17:00-18:00, Online Talk. Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore

Category: COSMOS Roundtable

Abstract:

Constituent Movements? Chile erasing Pinochet Constitution

Date: 20/11/2020

Place: 17:00-18:00, Online Talk. Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore.

Category: COSMOS Roundtable

Abstract:

Protest for a future: una ricerca sugli scioperi per il clima

Date: 22/11/2019

Place: 3:00-5:00 PM, Department of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Palazzo Strozzi (5th Floor), Piazza Strozzi, 50123 Firenze

Category: COSMOS Roundtable

Abstract:

Mobilization for independence in Catalonia, its discontents, opportunities and prospects.

Date: 06/12/2017 - 06/11/2017

Place: Room Simone del Pollaiolo, Scuola Normale Superiore, Palazzo Strozzi - 5pm-7pm

Category: COSMOS Roundtable

Abstract:

On Wednesday 6th December, Donatella della Porta (chair), Ferrán Giménez, Martín Portos, Anna Subirats, Lucrecia Rubio and Guillem Vidal will participate in a COSMOS Roundtable about mobilization for independence in Catalonia, its discontents, opportunities and prospects.

Feminism(s) today from a grassroots perspective

Date: 22/11/2017

Place: Aula Simone del Pollaiolo, Scuola Normale Superiore, Palazzo Strozzi, Firenze - 2pm

Category: COSMOS Roundtable

Abstract:

On the 22nd of November, from 2pm to 4pm, Anna Lavizzari, Arianna Mainardi, Elena Pavan, Stefania Voli, and Zorica Sirocic will join us for a COSMOS roundtable to discuss about feminism(s) today from a grassroots perspective.

Between right-wing and left-wing mobilizations. Anti-government protests in Central and Eastern Europe.

Date: 24/05/2017

Place: Aula Filippo Strozzi, Scuola Normale Superiore, Palazzo Strozzi, Firenze

Category: COSMOS Roundtable

Abstract:

On the 24th of May, from 2pm to 4pm, Laszlo Bruszt (European University Institute), Ondrej Cisar (Charles University, Prague) and Andrea Pirro (Scuola Normale Superiore) will join us for a COSMOS roundtable to discuss about the recent anti-government protests in Central and Eastern European countries.

Rebellious politics in the United States. The rise of the grassroots opposition to the Trump administration

Date: 27/04/2017

Place: Aula Simone del Pollaiolo, Palazzo Strozzi, Scuola Normale Superiore, Firenze

Category: COSMOS Roundtable

Abstract:

On the 27th of April, from 2pm to 4pm, James Jaspers (CUNY) and Kenneth Roberts (Cornell University) will join us for a COSMOS roundtable to discuss about the current grassroots opposition to the Trump administration in the United States.

News

08/12/2024

A Nation gripped by moral panic, an essay by Donatella Della Porta

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05/12/2024

The movement in solidarity with Palestine in comparative perspective, the Cosmos conference

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13/11/2024

International Research Workshop – Call for abstracts: Social movements and the law: Legal mobilisation in a comparative perspective

07/11/2024

Feminism as a Method, short introduction to the conference

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21/10/2024

What war on antisemitism in Germany?

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16/10/2024

Professor Della Porta is the winner of the 2024 "John D. McCarthy Award"

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Publications

Journal Article - 2023

Resisting right-wing populism in power: a comparative analysis of the Facebook activities of social movements in Italy and the UK

Niccolò Pennucci

This paper aims to present a comparative study of the civil society reaction to right-wing populism in power through social media, by looking at cases in Italy and the United Kingdom.

Journal Article - 2023

Emotions in Action: the Role of Emotions in Refugee Solidarity Activism

Chiara Milan

This article investigates the different types of emotions that result from participation in refugee solidarity activism, investigating how they change over time and to what extent they explain why individuals remain involved in action in spite of unfavorable circumstances.

Journal Article - 2023

‘Love is over, this is going to be Turkey!’: cathartic resonance between the June 2013 protests in Turkey and Brazil

Batuhan Eren

This study addresses the question of why and how a protest can inspire individuals in distant countries. Taking the June 2013 protests in Turkey and Brazil as cases, it investigates the reasons why the Turkish protests were framed as one of the inspirational benchmarks by some Brazilian protesters.

Journal Article - 2023

Mutual aid and solidarity politics in times of emergency: direct social action and temporality in Italy during the COVID-19 pandemic

Lorenzo Zamponi

From the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and the social distancing measures introduced created a series of social problems and needs that were partially addressed in Italy as well as in other countries by grassroots mutual aid initiatives. While many of these initiatives were strongly rooted in the Italian social movement and civil society landscape and the choice to engage in mutual aid activities was the result of long years of reflection and planning, the article shows how strongly the temporality of emergency affected the nature of these initiatives, their development and their outcomes, in particular with regard to the extraordinary number of people who volunteered and their relationship with politicisation processes.

Monograph - 2023

Populism and (Pop) Music

Manuela Caiani, Enrico Padoan

The book provides a detailed account of the links between production of popular culture to the rise of populism and contributes to studies on populism and popular culture in Italy, using a comparative approach and a cultural sociology perspective

Monograph - 2022

Labour conflicts in the digital age

Donatella della Porta, Riccardo Emilio Chesta, Lorenzo Cini

From Deliveroo to Amazon, digital platforms have drastically transformed the way we work. But how are these transformations being received and challenged by workers? This book provides a radical interpretation of the changing nature of worker movements in the digital age, developing an invaluable approach that combines social movement studies and industrial relations. Using case studies taken from Europe and North America, it offers a comparative perspective on the mobilizing trajectories of different platform workers and their distinct organizational forms and action repertoires.

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 - 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.

Monograph - 2021

Migrant Protest. Interactive Dynamics in Precarious Mobilizations

Elias Steinhilper

This book explores the interactions and spaces shaping the emergence, trajectory, and fragmentation of migrant protest in unfavorable contexts of marginalization.

Journal Article - 2021

Populism between voting and non-electoral participation

Andrea Pirro & Martín Portos

The article focuses on a neglected aspect of populist mobilisation, i.e. non-electoral participation (NEP), and elaborates on the extent to which populist party voters engage politically outside the polling station. While challenging common understandings of populism as inherently distrustful and apathetic, and protest as an exclusive practice of the left, the study critically places NEP at the heart of populism in general, and populist right politics in particular.