COSMOS is pleased to announce that the Scuola Normale Superiore will hold the Summer School “War, Peace and the World Order”, from 29 September to 3 October  at the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence. The School brings together 20 international speakers and discussants, including from Cosmos, and 50 participants – mainly PhD students ­– […]

(Professor Della Porta gave a long interview to DIE ZEIT, here the first part translated in English) Mass protests are flaring up again and again in different parts of the world. Currently, tens of thousands of people are taking to the streets in Serbia and Indonesia to protest against their governments, while new nationwide protest […]

3-4-5 June 2026  COSMOS, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence, Italy The theoretical and methodological tools which have been essential components of research in social  movement studies are incessantly challenged as multiple crises intersect, transforming our social, political and  cultural landscapes. As neoliberalism, pandemics, war, genocide, climate change, right-wing backlash  challenge […]

“A few weeks ago, a San Francisco police report described an incident involving an e-bike and a Zoox, one of Amazon’s self-driving robo-taxis. Let’s call the rider Raja—a name that represents the hundreds of workers I’ve spoken to over the past fifteen years while studying on-demand labor. According to witnesses, Raja got up, gathered his […]

Lucia Amorosi, Iraklis Dimitriadis, Sarrah Kassem, Vincenzo Maccarrone, Nicola Quondamatteo, Stefano Tortorici It has been more than ten years since the platform economy began to take hold around the world. According to the estimates of the European Commission, nearly 28 million people in the EU worked for one or more digital platforms in 2021. By […]

 Lucia Amorosi, Iraklis Dimitriadis, Sarrah Kassem, Vincenzo Maccarrone, Nicola Quondamatteo, Stefano Tortorici Sono passati più di dieci anni da quando l’economia delle piattaforme ha cominciato a prendere piede in tutto il mondo. Secondo le stime della Commissione Europea, nei paesi dell’Unione Europea quasi 28 milioni di persone avevano lavorato per una o più piattaforme digitali […]

A statement of the Academic senate of the Scuola Normale Superiore, condemning Israeli violations of human rights and international law, refusing collaborations with Israeli universities involved directly or indirectly in those violations, calling for the end of the atrocities in Gaza and Palestine, pledging to develop collaborations with Palestinian universities, call for a recognition of […]

“Quel che sta succedendo in California sembra tratto da un manuale dell’autoritarismo: creare una giustificazione legale per invocare maggiori poteri. Quelle di Los Angeles erano proteste sostanzialmente pacifiche fino all’invio della Guardia Nazionale. Trump le usa per capire fino a quando e dove può usare la forza per reprimere il dissenso affermando falsamente che sia […]

Professor Scott Cummings was visiting and teaching at the Cosmos Lab during the month of May. We interviewed him on his work, asking the first question on what was happening in California where the Immigration and Custom Enformcement (ICE) is raiding communities.  ‘What is happening in California seems to be taken from an authoritarianism manual: […]

The book “I porti e le mafie” by our post-doc research fellow  Marco Antonelli on organised crime penetration in Italian ports has won a special mention for the Paginedamare prize. Three short questions on Antonelli’s work. Why it is useful, interesting and important to observe how crime infiltrates ports The results of this research show […]

An international conference COSMOS – The Centre on Social Movement Studies Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence, Italy November 13-14,  2025 (all practical information, deadlines, etc. at the end of this post)   Keynote speakers Andrew Hoskins, Personal Chair of AI, Memory and War, University of Edinburgh Jenny  Wüstenberg, Professor of […]

The conference “Reclaiming Power: Bridging Social Movements and Industrial Relations in Labour Mobilisation” held at in Florence on May 26-27, 2025 was also an opportunity to present the first findings from the second International Strike Report, a work that involves scholars from eleven countries from both the global North and South, a group of countries […]

(On May, 7th, researchers and PhD students gathered to discuss the recent wave of protests in Serbia. We publish Aida Kapetanovic contribution, The event was organized to discuss the student-led mobilization in Serbia, that for six months by now has involved thousands of citizens from different sectors of the society, leading to the resignation of […]

Che effetto hanno avuto le numerose riforme del mercato del lavoro che si sono susseguite in Italia a partire dagli anni ’90? Volendo semplificare molto questa è la domanda che si poneva la discussione promossa dalla Classe di Scienze Politiche e sociali della Scuola Normale Superiore cui hanno partecipato l’ex Ministro del Lavoro, presidente del […]

‘‘Beyond Humanitarianism: Social and Political Perspectives from Gaza and the West Bank”, 28 April, 15-18, Sala Altana at Palazzo Strozzi, Florence. Donatella Della Porta, SNS Francesco Saverio Leopardi, Università di Padova Karim Abualroos, Independent researcher Federica Stagni, SNS   “Internal division and political paralysis: a focus on Gaza”, 29 April, 16-18, School on Transnational governance, […]