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The Centre on Social Movement Studies

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Tackling Eurosceptic/Illiberal Narratives from Below

Date: 01/04/2022

Place: Scuola Normale Superiore, Palazzo della Carovana, Pisa

Category: Other

Abstract:

 

Discourse Theory in Populism Research: Method, Theory, Concepts, Yannis Stavrakakis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Date: 16/10/2019

Place: 13-15, Department of Political and Social Sciences, Palazzo Strozzi (5th floor), Piazza Strozzi, Florence.

Category: Other

Abstract:

 

Europe’s vote. A discussion on the results and consequences of the European elections

Date: 06/06/2019

Place: 1pm - Aula Filippo Strozzi, Scuola Normale Superiore, Palazzo Strozzi

Category: Other

Abstract:

 

Perspectives and Practices on Participatory Action Research in Social Movements

Date: 12/04/2019

Place: 2:30pm - Aula Simone del Pollaiolo, Scuola Normale Superiore, Palazzo Strozzi

Category: Other

Abstract:

An open session based on the World Cafè discussion methodology to share different experiences and understandings of Participatory Action Research in social movements settings.

 

Workshop on Participatory Action Research and Social Movements

Date: 11/04/2019 - 12/04/2019

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

Category: Other

Abstract:

A two day workshop on participatory action research to investigate social movements and grassroots political participation.

 

Digital media (and beyond) in the daily life of politics – Final workshop of the PiCME research project

Date: 21/03/2019 - 22/03/2019

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

Category: Other

Abstract:

A discussion on the cross-country comparative analysis of how activists engage with media at large during their daily political work in Greece, Italy and Spain.

 

The Cultural Side of Populism. Politics, Emotions, Subcultures and Music in populist times

Date: 04/03/2019

Place: 10am - Scuola Normale Superiore, Palazzo Strozzi, Firenze

Category: Other

Abstract:

This workshop contributes to the debate about cultural aspects and emotions in the study of politics and populism in particular, by addressing the topic from an interdisciplinary perspective (political science and political sociology, together with cultural and media studies and musicology) and from a standpoint of methodological pluralism.

 

The Persistence of Global Masculinism – Lucy Nicholas, Swinburne University, Australia

Date: 14/11/2018

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

Category: Other

Abstract:

A seminar co-hosted by the Florence Intersectionality and Gender (FIG) Working Group at the Scuola Normale Superiore and the LGBTQI+ Caucus at the European University Institute – 14th of November from 2pm to 4pm in Aula Simone del Pollaiolo, Scuola Normale Superiore, Palazzo Strozzi

 

The Direct Parliament: The Impact of Digital Democracy on Political Representation

Date: 08/06/2018

Place: Department of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, , Room Altana, h. 9.30am-7pm

Category: Other

Abstract:

The Direct Parliament is the closing conference of the research project “Scalable Democracy”, which is coordinated by Dr. Marco Deseriis as part of a Marie Curie research grant funded by the European Commission. It will bring together scholars, software developers, and party activists from Spain, Germany, New Zealand, United States, and Italy to discuss a range of critical questions

 

Colin Crouch – “Can we solve the problem of precarious work?”

Date: 28/05/2018

Place: Department of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore – Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Room Simone del Pollaiolo, h. 1pm-3pm

Category: Other

Abstract:

​Colin Crouch ​ will give a Lunch seminar on Monday 28 May h.13-15, Sala del Pollaiolo, on ​”Can we solve the problem of precarious work?”

 

Workshop on Aesthetics of Protest. The intersections between art, protest, politics and social media

Date: 06/12/2017

Place: Palazzo Strozzi, Scuola Normale Superiore, Room Filippo Strozzi - 9:30am/4:30pm

Category: Other

Abstract:

The workshop Aesthetics of Protest will take place from 9:30am to 4:30pm on December the 6th. Participants will discuss how visual culture, aesthetics and communication interplay with protest today.

 

Andrea Pirro – “The populist politics of Euroscepticism in times of crisis”

Date: 07/06/2017

Place: Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore - Palazzo Strozzi, Florence - Room Filippo Strozzi

Category: Other

Abstract:

On June 7 – h. 13:00 – 14:30, Andrea Pirro (Scuola Normale Superiore), will discuss his research by presenting a paper entitled: “The populist politics of Euroscepticism in times of crisis”

 

Conference – Un’America “all’italiana”? La democrazia populista nell’età di Trump

Date: 04/05/2017

Place: Aula Kessler, Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento (via Verdi, 26)

Category: Other

Abstract:

The public conference “Un’America ‘all’italiana’? La democrazia populista nell’età di Trump” will host Prof. Sidney Tarrow (Cornell University), one of the most prominent scholars in the field of colective action, social movements, and contentious politics studies.

 

The 2017 “Mauro Rostagno Lectures in Contentious Politics”, Prof. Sidney Tarrow

Date: 26/04/2017 - 03/05/2017

Place: Department of Sociology and Social Research, Univertsity of Trento, Via Verdi 26

Category: Other

Abstract:

From April 26th to May 5th, 2017, Prof. Sidney Tarrow will hold a series of seminars at the Deaprtment of Sociology and Social Research fo the University of Trento

 

Protest Media Ecologies: Communicative Affordances for Social Change in the Digital Era

Date: 20/04/2017 - 21/02/2017

Place: Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore - Palazzo Strozzi, Firenze - Room Filippo Strozzi

Category: Other

Abstract:

From the 20th to the 21st of April, at the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences in the Room Filippo Strozzi: a two day workshop on activists media practices in protest media ecologies from anti-austerity movements in Southern Europe to global perspectives on movements and digital technologies.

 

News

22/02/2023

15 fully funded PhD positions

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The Faculty of Political and Social Sciences at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence, Italy is pleased to announce 15 PhD fellowships beginning on November 1, 2023. The deadline for applications is April 13, 2023.

16/02/2023

Applications now open! Fourth Edition of the ECPR-COSMOS Summer School on Methods for the Study of Political Participation and Mobilisation

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Applicants must send their application materials no later than March the 17th 2023.

10/01/2022

SNS announces 14 fully-funded PhD positions

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The Faculty of Political and Social Sciences at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence, Italy is pleased to announce 14 PhD fellowships beginning on November 1, 2022.

16/07/2021

Prof. della Porta to lead VolkswagenStiftung-funded ECSEuro project

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Reflecting the European challenge of transnational cooperation and multiple crises, this project asks how local political initiatives across Europe enact citizenship and solidarity and contribute to the vision of a more democratic Europe from below.

09/07/2021

SNS announces 7 fully-funded PhD positions

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The Faculty of Political and Social Sciences at the Scuola Normale Superiore announces 7 fully-funded PhD positions. Deadline for applications: 21 August 2021.

28/09/2020

Four post-doctoral research positions on the pandemic

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The Scuola Normale Superiore announces four post-doctoral positions to be activated as part of the research project “After the coronavirus pandemic: The effects of the health emergency on society and knowledge.” 

Publications

Journal Article - 2023

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

Pietro Castelli Gattinara, Caterina Froio & Andrea Pirro
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

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

Edited Volume - 2021

Contentious Migrant Solidarity. Shrinking Spaces and Civil Society Contestation

Donatella della Porta & Elias Steinhilper
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

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.