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Cosmos

The Centre on Social Movement Studies

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Publications

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Social movements and referendums from below. Direct democracy in the neoliberal crisis

Monograph - 2017

Author: Donatella Della Porta, Francis O'Connor, Martin Portos and Anna Subirats Ribas

Over recent years, social movements formed in response to European neoliberal austerity measures have played an increasingly important role in referendums. This is the first book to bridge the gap between social movement studies and research on direct democracy. It draws on social movement theory to understand the nature of popular mobilisation in referendums. Co-authored… more
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Where Did the Revolution Go? Contentious Politics and the Quality of Democracy by Donatella della Porta

Monograph - 2017

Author: Donatella della Porta

Book description Where Did the Revolution Go? considers the apparent disappearance of the large social movements that have contributed to democratization. Revived by recent events of the Arab Spring, this question is once again paramount. Is the disappearance real, given the focus of mass media and scholarship on electoral processes and 'normal politics'? Does it… more

Deliberative Democracy and Social Movements. Transition Initiatives in the Public Sphere

Monograph - 2016

Author: Andrea Felicetti

Deliberative democracy is increasingly central in democratic theory and its concepts are employed in a growing number of fields, including social movement studies and environmental politics. At the same time, contemporary citizen activism seems to feature some forms of engagement that resonate with deliberative democratic ideas.This book provides an in-depth investigation of the qualities of… more
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Vite di Lotta Armata. Storie di attivismo nella Provisional IRA

Monograph - 2016

Author: Lorenzo Bosi

Quali sono i percorsi che portano alcune donne e uomini ad abbracciare la lotta armata? Qual è la loro esperienza e cosa sostiene il loro impegno all'interno dei gruppi armati, anche a fronte di lunghi periodi di prigionia? Come escono dalla lotta armata e quali conseguenze sulla loro storia di vita attribuiscono a quella scelta?… more
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Social movements in times of austerity : bringing capitalism back into protest analysis

Monograph - 2015

Author: Donatella della Porta

Recent years have seen an enormous increase in protests across the world in which citizens have challenged what they see as a deterioration of democratic institutions and the very civil, political and social rights that form the basis of democratic life. Beginning with Iceland in 2008, and then forcefully in Egypt, Tunisia, Spain, Greece and… more
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Can democracy be saved? Participation, deliberation and social movements

Monograph - 2013

Author: Donatella della Porta

Financial crisis, economic globalization and the strengthening of neoliberal policies present stark challenges to traditional conceptions of representative democracy. Yet, at the same time, new opportunities are emerging that propose alternative visions for the future of democracy. In this highly articulate book, Donatella della Porta analyses diverse conceptions and practices of participatory and deliberative democracy,… more
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Enfoques y metodologías en las ciencias sociales : una perspectiva pluralista

Monograph - 2013

Authors: Donatella della Porta; Michael Keating

Este es un nuevo y revolucionario manual que ofrece a profesores y estudiantes de ciclos superiores los principales enfoques y metodologías de investigación en el campo de las ciencias sociales. Escrito por un destacado conjunto de investigadores y avalado por su éxito como instrumento de estudio, permite a los estudiantes elegir su propio enfoque de… more
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Media Practices and Protest Politics: How precarious workers mobilise

Monograph - 2012

Author: Alice Mattoni

How do precarious workers employed in call-centres, universities, the fashion industry and many other labour markets organise, struggle and communicate to become recognised, influential political subjects? "Media Practices and Protest Politics: How Precarious Workers Organise" reveals the process by which individuals at the margins of the labour market and excluded from the welfare state communicate… more
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Mobilizing on the Extreme Right: Germany, Italy, and the United States

Monograph - 2012

Authors: Manuela Caiani; Donatella della Porta; Claudius Wagemann

Research on the extreme right is rare, and the extreme right has even more rarely been analysed as a social movement. In this volume, the extreme right is compared in Italy, Germany, and the United States using concepts and methods developed in social movement studies. In particular, the book describes the discourse, action, and organizational… more
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The Hidden Order of Corruption: An institutional approach

Monograph - 2012

Authors: Donatella della Porta; Alberto Vannucci

The Hidden Order of Corruption investigates the hidden order of corruption, looking at the invisible codes and mechanisms that govern and stabilize the links between corrupters and corruptees. When corruption is exposed, unknown aspects are revealed which allow us to better understand its structures and informal norms. This book is theoretically informed and based on… more

News

03/05/2025

Regole e mercato del lavoro, flexicurity, reddito dagli anni 90 a oggi
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24/04/2025

Reclaiming narrative: understanding Palestinian politics with Palestinian voices
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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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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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