Cosmos

The Centre on Social Movement Studies

Movimenti del Mondo

Movimenti del Mondo (Movements of the World) is a series of events promoted by the Scuola Normale Superiore and organized by Donatella della Porta (SNS) together with COSMOS research fellows and members.

Solidarity at Sea – The Politicization of Search and Rescue in the Mediterranean

Date: 16/05/2019

Place: 5:30pm - Altana, Scuola Normale Superiore, Palazzo Strozzi, Firenze

Category: Movimenti del Mondo

Abstract:

Movimenti del Mondo – Series of debates and documentaries/movies

African youth on the move. The 2011 Senegalese uprising and other protest movements against ‘Presidents for Life’

Date: 06/06/2018

Place: Scuola Normale Superiore, Department of Political and Social Sciences, Conference Hall “l’Altana” - 3.30 p.m. - 6.30 p.m.

Category: Movimenti del Mondo

Abstract:

The Berlinale price-winning documentary film ‘The Revolution won’t be televised’ (2016) is a close-up of the massive youth uprisings that took place in Senegal in 2011 when a new grassroots movement emerged. Led by two rappers and a journalist, thousands took to the streets to state that they were “fed up” (Y’en a marre) with the ruling president Abdoulaye Wade

ICELAND IN MOVEMENT – From the streets to the crowdsourced constitution

Date: 29/11/2016

Place: Sala Altana, Palazzo Strozzi, Piazza degli Strozzi n.1, Firenze

Category: Movimenti del Mondo

Abstract:

The eight event of this series will focus on a decade of political turmoil in Iceland starting from the 2008 financial crisis, to the pots and pans revolution, the crowdsourced constitution of 2011, to the massive protests following the release of the Panama papers in 2016.

Bloody Sunday

Date: 13/10/2016

Place: Room Altana, Palazzo Strozzi, Firenze

Category: Movimenti del Mondo

Abstract:

Work and University after Globalization

Date: 25/05/2016

Place: Istituto di Scienze Umane e Sociali, Scuola Normale Superiore, Conference Hall “l’Altana” - Palazzo Strozzi

Category: Movimenti del Mondo

Abstract:

The event will focus on work and university after globalization with a keynote speech by Guy Standing and a documentary on the Chilean student movement.

Paths of Sustainability, Ethical Consumption and Participation. Towards a New Model of Citizenship

Date: 09/03/2016

Place: Altana Conference Hall, Istituto di Scienze Umane e Sociali, Palazzo Strozzi

Category: Movimenti del Mondo

Abstract:

This event will focus on forms of political participation that are related to consumerism and production.

The Arab Uprising in a Global Context

Date: 02/12/2015

Place: Conference Hall l'Altana, Istituto di Scienze Umane e Sociali, Palazzo Strozzi

Category: Movimenti del Mondo

Abstract:

A debate and documentary screening to reflect on the Arab uprisings in their global context from an historical perspective

The struggle for same sex marriages in Italy and the US. Social Movements, Cultural Artifacts, and Public Opinion

Date: 17/09/2015

Place: Conference Hall l'Altana, Istituto di Scienze Umane e Sociali, Palazzo Strozzi

Category: Movimenti del Mondo

Abstract:

A debate and documentary screening on the struggles for same-sex marriages in Italy and the United States.

Fifteen Years of Water Struggles. Lesson Learned from Bolivia to Italy

Date: 11/06/2015 - 11/05/2016

Place: Istituto di Scienze Umane e Sociali, Scuola Normale Superiore, Conference Hall “l’Altana” - Palazzo Strozzi

Category: Movimenti del Mondo

Abstract:

This event focuses on the mobilizations that are opposing to water privatization in the world, and in particular on the emergence and on the characteristics of the Bolivian and Italian movements that are promoting the idea of water as a common.

Was that just the beginning? Talking about Gezi after two years

Date: 21/05/2015

Place: Altana Conference Room, Istituto di Scienze Umane e Sociali, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence

Category: Movimenti del Mondo

Abstract:

The documentary screening and debate focuses on the 2013 protests in Turkey. These protests, arisen following the decision of building a new mall in the Gezi Park in Istanbul, lately shifted to more generic political issues. In this way the event had a great resonance at the national level, permitting to the protest to spread to the rest of the country.

News

11/04/2025

Politics of Exclusion: Repressing Protests on US Campus

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08/04/2025

Protest politics and democratic struggle: Greece

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07/04/2025

Break free. La migrazione oltre il carcere e la repressione

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31/03/2025

Education as a form of democratic resistance: the FIERCE co-creation labs and the Manual for self-defense

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28/03/2025

From the struggle for housing to touristification: housing and movements, yesterday and today

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24/03/2025

Dal bisogno di un tetto alla turistificazione: casa e movimenti, ieri e oggi

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Publications

Journal Article - 2025

Communication creates partial organization: A comparative analysis of the organizing practices of two climate action movements, Youth for Climate and Fridays for Future Italy

Marco Deseriis, Lorenzo Zamponi, Diego Ceccobelli

This article focuses on a neglected aspect of the climate action movement Fridays for Future, namely, the relationship between its mediated communication practices and its early organizational processes. Drawing from a strand of organizational communication that underscores the constitutive dimension of communication to organizing processes, we analyze the significance of mediatized leadership and networked communication for the foundation and early development of two national chapters of Fridays for Future: Youth for Climate (YFC) Belgium and Fridays for Future Italy (FFFI).

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.

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.