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Cosmos

The Centre on Social Movement Studies

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GOLDSTEIN – Debunking Political Uses of Denialisms and Conspiracy Theories in EU

TEAM

Manuela Caiani

START YEAR 2022

END YEAR 2025

DESCRIPTION

In recent years the political uses of new denialisms and conspiracy theories have played a crucial role in the European Union at least in two spheres considered of the utmost importance by the European Commission: the fight against climate change and the overcoming of the Covid-19 epidemic. In both cases, in almost all European countries, especially right-wing nationalist Eurosceptic populist parties have systematically used these logical and political forms, also linked to new forms of antisemitism, in a strategic way in order to mobilize their followers and enlarge their consent. Beginning with new important studies on these burning issues and adopting an interdisciplinary approach founded in political science and political philosophy, this Jean Monnet Module proposal aims to develop, to share and to disseminate a still missing unitarian conceptual and analytical framework that can offer a more comprehensive critical explanation of these phenomena.

TEAM

Manuela Caiani (SNS); external research fellows: Ela Drazkiewic (Institute for Sociology, Slovak Academy of Sciences), Nikolaos Saridakis (Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Greece), Pal Susanszky (Centre for Social Sciences, Budapest)

PROJECT PARTNERS

Marco Solinas, project manager (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna)
Michael Butter, senior expert (University of Freiburg)
Nadia Urbinati, senior expert (Columbia University, New York, and Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna)
Alberto Di Martino, senior expert (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna)
Peter Knight, senior expert (University of Manchester)
Barbara Henry, senior expert (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna)
Uffa Jensen, senior expert (Center for Research on Antisemitism, Technische Universität, Berlin)
Giuseppe Martinico, senior expert (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna)
Anna Loretoni, senior expert (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna)
Stella Levantesi, senior expert (Journalist, Rome)
Giaco

FUNDING

Jean Monnet Programme/Module (2022-25)

 

News

08/12/2024

A Nation gripped by moral panic, an essay by Donatella Della Porta
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05/12/2024

The movement in solidarity with Palestine in comparative perspective, the Cosmos conference
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13/11/2024

International Research Workshop – Call for abstracts: Social movements and the law: Legal mobilisation in a comparative perspective
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07/11/2024

Feminism as a Method, short introduction to the conference
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21/10/2024

What war on antisemitism in Germany?
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16/10/2024

Professor Della Porta is the winner of the 2024 "John D. McCarthy Award"
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Publications

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.

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.

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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