logo

Cosmos

The Centre on Social Movement Studies

logo

Politics in Flux: Continuities and Transformations in Processes of Collective Action

Lorenzo Bosi, Stefan Malthaner

Type: Journal Article
Year: 2024

Phenomena of collective action – of collective political conflict1 – are neither uniform nor stable. They comprise institutional and non-institution- al actors as well as routine, confrontational, or even violent forms of action. They take place in different arenas, change over time and involve individu- als in different ways, roles, and trajectories. This variance and heterogene- ity corresponds to a diversified research landscape, with separate fields of research specializing on different phenomena of collective action, such as social movement organizations, political parties, NGOs, interest groups, and armed groups. As these fields of research have generally preferred to affirm the boundaries between them and to highlight the special relevance and par- ticular nature of the conflicts, actors, and forms of action that they study, the connections and continuities between these phenomena have been under- researched. This neglect is striking, for one thing, because many episodes of political conflict cannot easily be placed in one single category. They are shaped by interactions between very different types of actors, involve a range of different forms of collective action, and can shift between arenas and lev- els of conflict, such as labour struggles transforming into electoral conflicts, accompanied by disruptive protests and violent confrontations. Moreover, neither actors nor repertoires are stable and timeless entities, but are part of dynamic processes, adapt, and change over time. Social movements, for example, may institutionalise into political parties, bringing their goals to the electoral arena; while political parties may seek to draw on extra-institu- tional forms of mobilizations to increase their power. We encounter activists who, at the same time, prepare food for those in need, are on the forefront of public demonstrations for migrants’ rights, and are elected representative within the institutions; and we see collective actors that present themselves in different ways in different arenas, depending on whom they interact with. The politics of collective action, in other words, are in a constant state of flux, with different types of action, actors, and conflicts co-existing, interacting, shifting, and transforming over the course of episodes of political conflict.

In this article, we seek to build upon and further develop processual perspectives that highlight conti- nuities and transformations of collective action across time and within specific contexts, and throughout indi- viduals’ and collective actors’ trajectories. In particular, we aim to improve and expand theoretical and con- ceptual tools for capturing continuity and transforma- tion, emphasizing the need for processual-comparative research to explore related phenomena in different social, political, and cultural settings and across time. We discuss methodological innovations that can help to analyse and explain continuities and transformations in processes of collective action, thus setting the stage for the papers that comprise this special issue and pointing out concerns and arguments that connect them.

https://oajournals.fupress.net/index.php/smp/article/view/15494

News

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.