What happened during Latin America turn to the left and how did it end, what was the reaction from the opposite political side? What kind of polarization has occurred in individual countries? These, in a nutshell, are the questions that Santiago Anria, political scientist from Cornell University, tried to answer in his talk during the […]

This Mobilization special issue explores legal mobilization, the strategic use of legal tools by social movements to drive social and political change. As a key repertoire of contentious action, legal mobilization has generated substantial interdisciplinary scholarship, particularly within civil rights and environmental movements. Despite its increasing importance amid growing repression and far-right backlash, comparative analyses […]

Antisemitism is being weaponized against those who have taken the streets against the war in Gaza (Cosmos director Donatella Della Porta wrote about the case of Germany). There are many examples of the induced moral panic since the start of the war. Neve Gordon, who is professor of international law and human rights at Queen […]

The intensification of protests in Italy to present and some general reflections on what came to be known
as a global social movement for a free Palestine

What is the trend in armed conflicts around the world? Siri Aas Rustad, from the Peace Research Institute in Oslo, presented data on conflict trends gathered by the The data are gathered by the Uppsala Conflict Data Program  at the Summer School on War, Peace and the World Order. Before watching at the data, it […]

Europe and Ukraine recent history, how we got there and how the Russian invasion has changed the Union. These were the important issues touched by the panel on “The Russia-Ukraine war and the European order” at the War, Peace and the World Order Summer School. The panel included Lazslo Andor, economist, the Secretary General of […]

(Come leggere le enormi mobilitazioni delle ultime settimane? In un’intervista con il Fatto Quotidiano, la direttrice di Cosmos, Donatella Della Porta, analizza il percorso delle mobilitazioni) Ci sono voluti due anni e una notte per riempire le strade d’Italia di manifestazioni senza precedenti. Per di più su un tema fisicamente lontano, le bombe su Gaza. […]

(Questo è un resoconto sintetico della sessione pomeridiana della Summer School “War, Peace and the World Order” tenutasi a Palazzo Strozzi dal 29 settembre al 3 ottobre 2025. Altri resoconti e articoli saranno pubblicati nei prossimi giorni sulla pagina di Cosmos.) In un certo senso, la sessione pomeridiana del secondo giorno della Summer School dedicata […]

(This is a brief report of the afternoon session of the War, Peace and the World Order Summer School held at Palazzo Strozzi from Sept 29 to Oct 3 2025, more reports and papers will be published on the Cosmos page in the coming days) In some way the afternoon session of second day school […]

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 […]