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Cosmos

The Centre on Social Movement Studies

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Summer Schools

2023 ECPR-COSMOS Summer School on Methods for the Study of Political Participation and Mobilisation

Date: 05/06/2023 - 16/06/2023

Place: Palazzo Strozzi, Florence

Category: Summer School

Abstract:

 

2019 ECPR-COSMOS Summer School on Methods for the Study of Political Participation and Mobilisation

Date: 03/06/2019 - 14/06/2019

Place: Dipartimento di Scienze Politico-Sociali, Palazzo Strozzi, Firenze

Category: Summer School

Abstract:

 

Summer School on Youth Political Participation in Times of Inequalities

Date: 17/07/2018 - 22/07/2018

Place: Florence

Category: Summer School

Abstract:

EURYKA and COSMOS invite applications for the upcoming Summer School on “Youth Political Participation in Times of Inequalities” which will be held in Florence (Italy) in July 2018, from Tuesday 17th to Sunday 22nd.

 

Summer School on Concepts and Methods for Research on Far-Right Politics

Date: 25/06/2018 - 29/06/2018

Place: Scuola Normale Superiore, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence

Category: Summer School

Abstract:

The ECPR Standing Group on Extremism & Democracy is holding its first Summer School on ‘Concepts and Methods for Research on Far-Right Politics’ at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence, 25-29 June 2018.

 

Building from elsewhere. Platformization and the continuing struggle for political change – Keynote Speech, Prof. Nick Couldry (LSE)

Date: 29/06/2017

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

Category: Summer School

Abstract:

In the framework of the Summer School on Media in Political Participation and Mobilization, Prof. Nick Couldry (LSE) will give a keynote speech on the paradoxes and challenges of political mobilization in commercial social media platforms.

 

Democracy, Communication and social movement studies – Keynote Speech, Prof. Donatella della Porta (SNS)

Date: 26/06/2017

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

Category: Summer School

Abstract:

In the framework of the Summer School on Media in Political Participation and Mobilization, Prof. Donatella della Porta will give a keynote speech on democracy, communication and social movement studies.

 

Summer School on Media in Political Participation and Mobilization

Date: 26/06/2017 - 30/06/2017

Place: Istituto di Scienze Umane e Sociali, Scuola Normale Superiore, Firenze

Category: Summer School

Abstract:

COSMOS and the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Scuola Normale Superiore invite applications for the upcoming Summer School on “Media in Political Participation and Mobilization” which will be held in Florence (Italy) in June 2017, from Monday 26th to Friday 30th included.

 

2015 ECPR-COSMOS Summer School

Date: 14/08/2015 - 25/09/2015

Place: Palazzo Strozzi, Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence

Category: Summer School

Abstract:

The Summer School will last 10 teaching days for a total of 60 hours of didactic activities, from the 14th to the 25th of September 2015. The Summer School will cover the following topics through 2 and 4 hours teaching slots: archival research; comparative historical studies and methods; participant observation; doing fieldwork during violent conflicts; interviewing activists; discourse analysis in social movement research; frame analysis in social movement research; social network analysis, how and when in social movement research; protest event analysis; surveys in political participation and mobilization; online tools and digital methods for the study of mobilizations; visuals in the study of social movements.

 

2013 ECPR-COSMOS Summer School

Date: 16/09/2013 - 27/09/2013

Place: European University Institute

Category: Summer School

Abstract:

The Summer School focuses on how to analyze present and past forms of grassroots participation activated by social movement and civil society actors at the local, regional and transnational level. More in general, it aims at disseminating knowledge on how to investigate processes and mechanisms that sustain the active citizens’ participation to and mobilization in the realm of politics.

 

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.
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Faculty of Political and Social Sciences Scuola Normale Superiore Palazzo Strozzi Piazza degli Strozzi 50123 Firenze Italy
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