My main research interests have been on political sociology and historical sociology where my studies have primarily focused on social movements and political violence.
This study explores how young activists in Italy responded to the first wave of the Covid-19 pand... more This study explores how young activists in Italy responded to the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic using sixteen longitudinal qualitative interviews conducted in 2018 and 2020. Our fieldwork suggests that the Covid-19 crisis did not resonate with any significant shift in the trajectory of participation. At the same time, three major empirical observations with regard to time reappropriation, care practices, and digital activism were made, all of which worked in different ways according to the interviewees’ trajectories of participation. This research extends beyond the Covid-19 crisis and contributes to the literature on political participation by providing a way of investigating how activists respond to critical events in different ways depending on their trajectories of participation.
This paper draws on a study of the life course of 40 young people (aged 18–35) in Bologna (Italy)... more This paper draws on a study of the life course of 40 young people (aged 18–35) in Bologna (Italy), who are active in eight different political organizations. It explores whether the political organization, given that the city's political context is the same for all participants, affects the variation of their pathways. It does so by answering the following question: which phases in the lives of young participants are interconnected with the political organizations they are engaged in? To evaluate the impact of the organizational context on young participants, we will take into consideration three dimensions: the degree of bureaucratization, forms of action, and political orientation. Situated at the intersection of youth and social movement studies, this paper aims to advance our understanding of the connections between primary and political socialization processes in shaping young participants’ mobilization and sustained participation within different political organizations. Our empirical findings show that, if the degree of bureaucratization was constantly salient in the two phases, on the other hand political orientation was more salient during participants' mobilization and the forms of action during participants' sustained participation. In the conclusion, the paper critically discusses the empirical findings of our analysis of the respondents’ narratives.
Heterogeneous collective actors often select the same form of action, but there
is no academic in... more Heterogeneous collective actors often select the same form of action, but there is no academic investigation into how and when this happens. This article does so focusing on direct social action, that is, a form of collective action that does not primarily focus upon claiming something from the state but instead focuses upon directly transforming some specific aspects of society. Building on conceptual categories developed by social movements’ scholars (context, organization, and identity) and relying on rich qualitative and quantitative data from collective actors in Italy in a time of crisis, this article identifies four paths toward direct social actions (DSA): the social path, the political-social path, the social-political path, and the political path. In doing so, our analysis shifts from the search for causal factors to the reconstruction of the dynamic, patterned sequences of events by which collective actors progress in adopting a certain form of action. The implications of these findings extend beyond studies of DSA in times of crisis in Italy, to an analysis of collective action in general. Capturing these multiple paths also has important implications for understanding how the same form of action is differently implemented and received when it is adopted by different actors.
Recent scientific studies have reached the near-unanimous conclusion that the media produce a ste... more Recent scientific studies have reached the near-unanimous conclusion that the media produce a stereotypical representation of young people. However, research in this area has not often scrutinized whether there are any significant differences in the coverage of the subject matter. Notably, this article examines whether the political leaning of newspapers has any impact on the levels of plurality in the news coverage of youth. On the basis of political claim analyses of six newspapers from three countries (Greece, Italy, and Spain), we find that the coverage of youth in the public debate is very similar if we compare center-right to center-left newspapers. This suggests that the social construction of the concept of youth dominates in the adult world, regardless of any political differences. Nonetheless, differences emerge when young people are given the opportunity to speak for themselves; center-left newspapers are more likely to recognize the agency of, and give a voice to, young people.
Drawing on electoral participation and social movement studies, we develop a typology of abstaine... more Drawing on electoral participation and social movement studies, we develop a typology of abstainers on the basis of their forms of non-electoral participation, and explore the determinants that drive belonging to each of these subgroups. Although there is a positive correlation between electoral turnout and non-electoral participation, through applying latent class analyses and regressions we find that there is a subset of abstainers who decide not to cast a vote but take part in non-electoral political activities. These 'alternative voicers' are critical of the institutional system and do not feel represented by it, but they are politically involved. Based on their patterns of non-electoral participation, we propose a more nuanced typology of alternative voicers (e-activists, super-activists, and consumerists) and explore their drivers relative to other abstainers. We use data from the original LIVEWHAT survey conducted in 2015 across nine European countries (N = 18,367).
Political violence by non-state actors, whether in the form of clandestine groups, riots, violent... more Political violence by non-state actors, whether in the form of clandestine groups, riots, violent insurgencies, or civil wars, often emerges in the context of social movements, can shift back to non-violent methods of contentious collective action, and in many cases does not mark a new and separate phase of contention but proceeds in parallel with street protests, marches, boycotts, and strikes. At the same time, different forms of political violence are interlinked and are part of a continuum of repertoires of actions-rather than representing discrete and mutually exclusive types-and often occur successively or simultaneously during processes of conflict escalation (when violence increases in scale, type, and scope) or de-escalation (when violence overall decreases).
Alternative action organizations (AAOs) are collective bodies engaged in carrying out alternative... more Alternative action organizations (AAOs) are collective bodies engaged in carrying out alternatives to dominant socioeconomic and cultural practices through actions that aim to provide people with alternative ways of enduring day-today difficulties and challenges in hard economic times. They are often interpreted as merely " philanthropic " actors, although it is not rare to see them go beyond the provision of direct services to people in need and end up pursuing political goals through political means. This article focuses on the process of politicization, that is, the transition of issues from the private to the public sphere and thus the use of public forms of contention (e.g., protest) proposing public solutions at the collective level instead of private solutions at the individual level. We argue for the role of the crisis in the politicization of AAOs. In particular, we show that the appropriation of the context as a context of economic crisis in the discourse of AAOs has a visible effect on their politicization, in terms of both repertoire of actions and goals. Furthermore, we show that social solidarity organizations, those that are not inherently politicized, are the main protagonists of this crisis-triggered transition. The article draws on statistical analysis of the data collected through the coding of AAOs' websites in Greece, Italy, and Spain.
This paper argues that micro-mobilization into armed activism is strongly
motivated by the enactm... more This paper argues that micro-mobilization into armed activism is strongly motivated by the enactment of an identity that people already have prior to their mobilization as a way to strongly assert and emphasize individual agency in the face of major changes in the political context. Empirically, it advocates that those who joined the Provisional IRA between 1969 and 1972 did so in order to respond to a need for action by a northern nationalist community that stemmed from a perceived, alleged or actual, sense of second-class citizenship. We suggest that the importance of identity rather than ideology can also help us to explain why IRA members and former members overwhelmingly accepted the compromise peace settlement of the 1990s despite the fact that core ideological goals had not been realized. We conclude by suggesting avenues for future research outside the Irish context.
This article investigates the causation of transformative events by taking competition between ri... more This article investigates the causation of transformative events by taking competition between rival strands of the same social movements as a window onto the role played by agency in this process. It presents a paired comparison of two very different transformative events in twentieth-century Ireland — the Easter Rising of 1916 and the Long March from Belfast to Derry in 1969 — and the strategic interactions preceding them. The comparison shows how agency and structure can interface around transformative events: high levels of agency were instrumental in making the events; but while the events brought powerful structural forces to the boil, those forces might well have remained dormant had it not been for that initial agency. We also see that the balance between structure and agency is dynamic, sometimes shifting from one moment to another rather than remaining constant.
Drawing both on social movement studies and labour studies, this article investigates the kind of... more Drawing both on social movement studies and labour studies, this article investigates the kind of people who join trade union-staged marches during the current crisis, looking at the presence of (politicized) grievances, collective identity and the embeddedness of mobilization. Data were taken from surveys conducted during 13 marches organized by the main trade unions in five European countries. They show that participants in union-staged demonstrations in countries in which a corporatist model dominates and trade unions have a tradition of business unionism (Belgium and the Netherlands) are characterized by higher political trust, more moderate positions on the left– right continuum and stronger organizational ties. On the other hand, in countries in which unions are less institutionally recognized and with a tradition of oppositional unionism (Italy and Spain), participants in union-staged demonstrations are more mistrustful of politics, located more to the left and rely more upon informal social networks to mobilize. The United Kingdom falls between these two poles.
This article systematizes a research perspective that assesses how different types of social move... more This article systematizes a research perspective that assesses how different types of social movement outcomes mutually influence one another over time. This should offer a different perspective on the consequences of social movements by shifting the focus from single outcomes to processes of social change generated by the interaction between different types of effects. The variety of ways in which movement outcomes potentially influence each other in the short-term, or over an extended period of time, will be broken down into six hypothetical processes. Empirically, through a process tracing approach, in this article I investigate how the British state responses at the policy level toward the disruptive mobilization of the Catholic community in Northern Ireland and to the armed campaign of the PIRA have shaped the post-movement life of PIRA volunteers.
This chapter shows how, in the case of the Northern Ireland conflict (1968-1998, also known as th... more This chapter shows how, in the case of the Northern Ireland conflict (1968-1998, also known as the 'troubles'), the British counter-terrorist policies and reintegration programs have produced the external factors and forces that have in part shaped the post-armed activism lives of the Provisional IRA (henceforth PIRA) volunteers. The majority of activists did not followed British reintegration programmes in the way they were designed to function, that is, by integrating disengaged Republicans into state structures and/or transform them into obedient, passive, citizens of the British state. Rather the large majority of former PIRA activists formed their post-armed activism lives with their own agency and previous skills learned while in the armed group and in prison, and became involved in community activism.
We do so through a political claim analysis conducted on the most important newspapers of each co... more We do so through a political claim analysis conducted on the most important newspapers of each country between 2005 and 2014. We show that the economic crisis, as a shared experience able to produce consequences on political processes, does matter, but not as one monolithic factor that generates homogeneous outcomes. Different countries are characterized by specific features, which need to be taken into account to understand the relationship between economic crisis and political change. We identify four different " crises " (the global financial crisis, the public debt and austerity crisis, the industrial productive crisis, and the political legitimacy crisis) and propose interpretations on the relationship between their relative visibility, structural factors, and political change.
Over the last decade there has been an increased focus on social movement outcomes.1 This increas... more Over the last decade there has been an increased focus on social movement outcomes.1 This increased attention has led to calls for the improvement of our theoretical and conceptual arguments, the more effective implementation of methodological tools, and more ...
This study explores how young activists in Italy responded to the first wave of the Covid-19 pand... more This study explores how young activists in Italy responded to the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic using sixteen longitudinal qualitative interviews conducted in 2018 and 2020. Our fieldwork suggests that the Covid-19 crisis did not resonate with any significant shift in the trajectory of participation. At the same time, three major empirical observations with regard to time reappropriation, care practices, and digital activism were made, all of which worked in different ways according to the interviewees’ trajectories of participation. This research extends beyond the Covid-19 crisis and contributes to the literature on political participation by providing a way of investigating how activists respond to critical events in different ways depending on their trajectories of participation.
This paper draws on a study of the life course of 40 young people (aged 18–35) in Bologna (Italy)... more This paper draws on a study of the life course of 40 young people (aged 18–35) in Bologna (Italy), who are active in eight different political organizations. It explores whether the political organization, given that the city's political context is the same for all participants, affects the variation of their pathways. It does so by answering the following question: which phases in the lives of young participants are interconnected with the political organizations they are engaged in? To evaluate the impact of the organizational context on young participants, we will take into consideration three dimensions: the degree of bureaucratization, forms of action, and political orientation. Situated at the intersection of youth and social movement studies, this paper aims to advance our understanding of the connections between primary and political socialization processes in shaping young participants’ mobilization and sustained participation within different political organizations. Our empirical findings show that, if the degree of bureaucratization was constantly salient in the two phases, on the other hand political orientation was more salient during participants' mobilization and the forms of action during participants' sustained participation. In the conclusion, the paper critically discusses the empirical findings of our analysis of the respondents’ narratives.
Heterogeneous collective actors often select the same form of action, but there
is no academic in... more Heterogeneous collective actors often select the same form of action, but there is no academic investigation into how and when this happens. This article does so focusing on direct social action, that is, a form of collective action that does not primarily focus upon claiming something from the state but instead focuses upon directly transforming some specific aspects of society. Building on conceptual categories developed by social movements’ scholars (context, organization, and identity) and relying on rich qualitative and quantitative data from collective actors in Italy in a time of crisis, this article identifies four paths toward direct social actions (DSA): the social path, the political-social path, the social-political path, and the political path. In doing so, our analysis shifts from the search for causal factors to the reconstruction of the dynamic, patterned sequences of events by which collective actors progress in adopting a certain form of action. The implications of these findings extend beyond studies of DSA in times of crisis in Italy, to an analysis of collective action in general. Capturing these multiple paths also has important implications for understanding how the same form of action is differently implemented and received when it is adopted by different actors.
Recent scientific studies have reached the near-unanimous conclusion that the media produce a ste... more Recent scientific studies have reached the near-unanimous conclusion that the media produce a stereotypical representation of young people. However, research in this area has not often scrutinized whether there are any significant differences in the coverage of the subject matter. Notably, this article examines whether the political leaning of newspapers has any impact on the levels of plurality in the news coverage of youth. On the basis of political claim analyses of six newspapers from three countries (Greece, Italy, and Spain), we find that the coverage of youth in the public debate is very similar if we compare center-right to center-left newspapers. This suggests that the social construction of the concept of youth dominates in the adult world, regardless of any political differences. Nonetheless, differences emerge when young people are given the opportunity to speak for themselves; center-left newspapers are more likely to recognize the agency of, and give a voice to, young people.
Drawing on electoral participation and social movement studies, we develop a typology of abstaine... more Drawing on electoral participation and social movement studies, we develop a typology of abstainers on the basis of their forms of non-electoral participation, and explore the determinants that drive belonging to each of these subgroups. Although there is a positive correlation between electoral turnout and non-electoral participation, through applying latent class analyses and regressions we find that there is a subset of abstainers who decide not to cast a vote but take part in non-electoral political activities. These 'alternative voicers' are critical of the institutional system and do not feel represented by it, but they are politically involved. Based on their patterns of non-electoral participation, we propose a more nuanced typology of alternative voicers (e-activists, super-activists, and consumerists) and explore their drivers relative to other abstainers. We use data from the original LIVEWHAT survey conducted in 2015 across nine European countries (N = 18,367).
Political violence by non-state actors, whether in the form of clandestine groups, riots, violent... more Political violence by non-state actors, whether in the form of clandestine groups, riots, violent insurgencies, or civil wars, often emerges in the context of social movements, can shift back to non-violent methods of contentious collective action, and in many cases does not mark a new and separate phase of contention but proceeds in parallel with street protests, marches, boycotts, and strikes. At the same time, different forms of political violence are interlinked and are part of a continuum of repertoires of actions-rather than representing discrete and mutually exclusive types-and often occur successively or simultaneously during processes of conflict escalation (when violence increases in scale, type, and scope) or de-escalation (when violence overall decreases).
Alternative action organizations (AAOs) are collective bodies engaged in carrying out alternative... more Alternative action organizations (AAOs) are collective bodies engaged in carrying out alternatives to dominant socioeconomic and cultural practices through actions that aim to provide people with alternative ways of enduring day-today difficulties and challenges in hard economic times. They are often interpreted as merely " philanthropic " actors, although it is not rare to see them go beyond the provision of direct services to people in need and end up pursuing political goals through political means. This article focuses on the process of politicization, that is, the transition of issues from the private to the public sphere and thus the use of public forms of contention (e.g., protest) proposing public solutions at the collective level instead of private solutions at the individual level. We argue for the role of the crisis in the politicization of AAOs. In particular, we show that the appropriation of the context as a context of economic crisis in the discourse of AAOs has a visible effect on their politicization, in terms of both repertoire of actions and goals. Furthermore, we show that social solidarity organizations, those that are not inherently politicized, are the main protagonists of this crisis-triggered transition. The article draws on statistical analysis of the data collected through the coding of AAOs' websites in Greece, Italy, and Spain.
This paper argues that micro-mobilization into armed activism is strongly
motivated by the enactm... more This paper argues that micro-mobilization into armed activism is strongly motivated by the enactment of an identity that people already have prior to their mobilization as a way to strongly assert and emphasize individual agency in the face of major changes in the political context. Empirically, it advocates that those who joined the Provisional IRA between 1969 and 1972 did so in order to respond to a need for action by a northern nationalist community that stemmed from a perceived, alleged or actual, sense of second-class citizenship. We suggest that the importance of identity rather than ideology can also help us to explain why IRA members and former members overwhelmingly accepted the compromise peace settlement of the 1990s despite the fact that core ideological goals had not been realized. We conclude by suggesting avenues for future research outside the Irish context.
This article investigates the causation of transformative events by taking competition between ri... more This article investigates the causation of transformative events by taking competition between rival strands of the same social movements as a window onto the role played by agency in this process. It presents a paired comparison of two very different transformative events in twentieth-century Ireland — the Easter Rising of 1916 and the Long March from Belfast to Derry in 1969 — and the strategic interactions preceding them. The comparison shows how agency and structure can interface around transformative events: high levels of agency were instrumental in making the events; but while the events brought powerful structural forces to the boil, those forces might well have remained dormant had it not been for that initial agency. We also see that the balance between structure and agency is dynamic, sometimes shifting from one moment to another rather than remaining constant.
Drawing both on social movement studies and labour studies, this article investigates the kind of... more Drawing both on social movement studies and labour studies, this article investigates the kind of people who join trade union-staged marches during the current crisis, looking at the presence of (politicized) grievances, collective identity and the embeddedness of mobilization. Data were taken from surveys conducted during 13 marches organized by the main trade unions in five European countries. They show that participants in union-staged demonstrations in countries in which a corporatist model dominates and trade unions have a tradition of business unionism (Belgium and the Netherlands) are characterized by higher political trust, more moderate positions on the left– right continuum and stronger organizational ties. On the other hand, in countries in which unions are less institutionally recognized and with a tradition of oppositional unionism (Italy and Spain), participants in union-staged demonstrations are more mistrustful of politics, located more to the left and rely more upon informal social networks to mobilize. The United Kingdom falls between these two poles.
This article systematizes a research perspective that assesses how different types of social move... more This article systematizes a research perspective that assesses how different types of social movement outcomes mutually influence one another over time. This should offer a different perspective on the consequences of social movements by shifting the focus from single outcomes to processes of social change generated by the interaction between different types of effects. The variety of ways in which movement outcomes potentially influence each other in the short-term, or over an extended period of time, will be broken down into six hypothetical processes. Empirically, through a process tracing approach, in this article I investigate how the British state responses at the policy level toward the disruptive mobilization of the Catholic community in Northern Ireland and to the armed campaign of the PIRA have shaped the post-movement life of PIRA volunteers.
This chapter shows how, in the case of the Northern Ireland conflict (1968-1998, also known as th... more This chapter shows how, in the case of the Northern Ireland conflict (1968-1998, also known as the 'troubles'), the British counter-terrorist policies and reintegration programs have produced the external factors and forces that have in part shaped the post-armed activism lives of the Provisional IRA (henceforth PIRA) volunteers. The majority of activists did not followed British reintegration programmes in the way they were designed to function, that is, by integrating disengaged Republicans into state structures and/or transform them into obedient, passive, citizens of the British state. Rather the large majority of former PIRA activists formed their post-armed activism lives with their own agency and previous skills learned while in the armed group and in prison, and became involved in community activism.
We do so through a political claim analysis conducted on the most important newspapers of each co... more We do so through a political claim analysis conducted on the most important newspapers of each country between 2005 and 2014. We show that the economic crisis, as a shared experience able to produce consequences on political processes, does matter, but not as one monolithic factor that generates homogeneous outcomes. Different countries are characterized by specific features, which need to be taken into account to understand the relationship between economic crisis and political change. We identify four different " crises " (the global financial crisis, the public debt and austerity crisis, the industrial productive crisis, and the political legitimacy crisis) and propose interpretations on the relationship between their relative visibility, structural factors, and political change.
Over the last decade there has been an increased focus on social movement outcomes.1 This increas... more Over the last decade there has been an increased focus on social movement outcomes.1 This increased attention has led to calls for the improvement of our theoretical and conceptual arguments, the more effective implementation of methodological tools, and more ...
This workshop aims to explore innovative ways of thinking about the effects of social movements. ... more This workshop aims to explore innovative ways of thinking about the effects of social movements. In particular, it looks at how different types of effects relate to each other. In doing this we suggest to shift the focus from single outcomes to processes of social change generated by the interaction between different types of effects. The workshop will address the following questions: How do different types of effects of social movements relate to each other? What are the processes and mechanisms underlying the interrelations between different types of effects or between the same type of effect over time? Under what conditions does each process and mechanism work, fail to occur, or even reverse? Are some processes and mechanisms more frequently observed than others? How do such processes and mechanisms vary across different types of social movements? How should such processes and mechanisms be studied methodologically? Reflecting on how different types of outcomes interact promises to open up the path towards new ways of conceptualizing and analysing the consequences of social movements. We believe that the interrelated effects agenda can draw participants from different sub-disciplines and stimulate interdisciplinary exchange. In particular, we hope to bring together scholars working on public policies, public opinion and contentious politics, three fields that have long remained separate. The workshop welcomes papers addressing three main issues: (1) conceptual and theoretical thinking about how the effects of social movements influence each other; (2) methodological reflections about the study of the interrelated effects of social movements and how to avoid the obstacles that have hindered previous research, from both a quantitative and a qualitative perspective; (3) empirical analyses of different types of social movements, whether in-depth cases studies or comparative analyses encompassing different types of conflicts and/or countries. Submissions will be evaluated according to quality, specific fit with the overall theme of the workshop, and potential for reaching a wider audience.
This Section explores the cutting edge of new interpretive approaches to the study of political v... more This Section explores the cutting edge of new interpretive approaches to the study of political violence. Recent years have seen the introduction of several new interpretive approaches into this highly contested space, approaches that choose different places at which to draw the boundaries between war and terror, between politics and violence, and between ideology and interests. While different interpretations overlap much more than they did in the past, each has its own epistemological presumptions, methodological tendencies, and canonical truths. The Section will be structured to emphasize enduring and influential interpretations in the literature on political violence, while drawing attention to key, contemporary debates. This should serve as both a theoretical grounding and a map of the field, with the intention of highlighting exciting areas for further investigation.
This section explores the cutting edge of new interpretive approaches to the study of political v... more This section explores the cutting edge of new interpretive approaches to the study of political violence, a field which is characterised by intense struggle over its boundaries and terms of debate. Recent years have seen the introduction of several new interpretive approaches into this highly contested space, approaches that choose different places at which to draw the boundaries between war and terror, between politics and violence, and between ideology and interests. While different interpretations overlap much more than they did in the past, each has its own epistemological presumptions, methodological tendencies, and canonical truths. The section will be structured to emphasize enduring and influential interpretations in the literature on political violence, while drawing attention to key, contemporary debates. This should serve as both a theoretical grounding and a map of the field, with the intention of highlighting exciting areas for further investigation.
We welcome panel proposals from a wide variety of perspectives that apply, or reflect on, competing interpretive approaches to political violence, including, but not limited to: - Rationalist interpretations; - Cultural interpretations; - Social Movements Studies interpretations; - Gender Studies interpretations; - Geographical interpretations; - Security/counter-insurgency interpretations;
The section aims to bring together distinguished scholars and younger researchers not only from political science, but from related disciplines, including economics, sociology, geography, anthropology, psychology, historical science, international relations, and area studies. In organising this section we seek to further the development of research on political violence in Europe and globally, to contribute to the further development of an international network of scholars working in this field and to promote the publication of outputs such as co-edited books or special issues of international journals.
Co-direction and co-edition with Dr. Simon Prince: “Writing the Sixties into Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland into the Sixties”, The Sixties, 2 (2), 2009
L’Italia della crisi appare come un paese a metà tra l’inerzia e la guerra tra poveri: da una par... more L’Italia della crisi appare come un paese a metà tra l’inerzia e la guerra tra poveri: da una parte, l’accettazione supina e fatalista di politiche improntate all’austerità e dall’altra una miscela esplosiva di rabbia e risentimento pronta a essere scaricata sui capri espiatori più svariati. Eppure, non è tutto qui. L’idea alla base di questo studio è che, scegliendo di guardare in basso, si possano vedere forme di resistenza che raramente emergono sulla scena pubblica, ma che rimaterializzano e riterritorializzano l’azione collettiva, e riposizionano l’individuo nella sfera pubblica: le forme di azione sociale diretta. Si tratta di un campo di attori vasto ed eterogeneo, dalle grandi organizzazioni sociali alle occupazioni abitative, dai gruppi di acquisto solidale alle fabbriche recuperate, passando per i circoli culturali e le sperimentazioni di welfare dal basso. Gli autori analizzano i loro percorsi all’interno della crisi con lo sguardo e gli strumenti delle scienze sociali, a questi attori danno voce, intervallando l’analisi con lunghi passaggi delle interviste che hanno condotto.
Quali sono i percorsi che portano alcune donne e uomini ad abbracciare la
lotta armata? Qual è la... more 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? Il libro risponde a queste domande basandosi su venticinque testimonianze di donne e uomini che fra il 1969 e il 1972, in Nord Irlanda, entrarono a far parte della Provisional Irish Republican Army.
This volume, by considering a wide range of empirical cases, introduces and elaborates on specifi... more This volume, by considering a wide range of empirical cases, introduces and elaborates on specific dimensions of context that shape political violence and that – although taken into consideration – has been neither fully conceptualised nor theorised in the literature. Accordingly, it relocates political violence within the contexts of time, space, and milieu.
Dynamics of Political Violence examines how violence emerges and develops from episodes of conten... more Dynamics of Political Violence examines how violence emerges and develops from episodes of contentious politics. By considering a wide range of empirical cases, such as anarchist movements, ethno-nationalist and left-wing militancy in Europe, contemporary Islamist violence, and insurgencies in South Africa and Latin America, this pathbreaking volume of research identifies the forces that shape radicalization and violent escalation. It also contributes to the process-and-mechanism-based models of contentious politics that have been developing over the past decade in both sociology and political science.
Chapters of original research emphasize how the processes of radicalization and violence are open-ended, interactive, and context dependent. They offer detailed empirical accounts as well as comprehensive and systematic analyses of the dynamics leading to violent episodes. Specifically, the chapters converge around four dynamic processes that are shown to be especially germane to radicalization and violence: dynamics of movement-state interaction; dynamics of intra-movement competition; dynamics of meaning formation and transformation; and dynamics of diffusion.
Contents: A contentious politics approach to the explanation of radicalization, Lorenzo Bosi, Chares Demetriou and Stefan Malthaner. Part I Dynamics of Interaction between Oppositional Movements/Groups and the State: The mechanisms of emotion in violent protest, Hank Johnston; A typology of backfire mechanisms, Lasse Lindekilde; Processes of radicalization and de-radicalization in Western European prisons (1965-1986), Christian G. De Vito. Part II Competition and Conflict: Dynamics of Intra-Movement Interaction: Competitive escalation during protest cycles: comparing left-wing and religious conflicts, Donatella della Porta; Intra-movement competition and political outbidding as mechanisms of radicalization in Northern Ireland, 1968-1969, Gianluca De Fazio; The limits of radicalization: escalation and restraint in the South African liberation movement, Devashree Gupta. Part III Dynamics of Meaning Formation: Frames and Beyond: Contentious interactions, dynamics of interpretations, and radicalization: the Islamization of Palestinian nationalism, Eitan Y. Alimi and Hank Johnston; Radical or righteous? Using gender to shape public perceptions of political violence, Jocelyn Viterna; From national event to transnational injustice symbol: the three phases of the Muhammad cartoon controversy, Thomas Olesen. Part IV Dynamics of (Transnational) Diffusion: Radicalization from outside: the role of the anarchist diaspora in coordinating armed actions in Franco’s Spain, Eduardo Romanos; Protest diffusion and rising political violence in the Turkish ’68 movement: the Arab-Israeli war, ‘Paris May’ and the hot summer of 1968, Emin Alper; The evolution of the al-Qaeda-type terrorism: networks and beyond, Ekaterina Stepanova; Conclusion, Martha Crenshaw; Index.
"Intra-movement dynamics over strategic events: The relation between structure and agency in Irish contentious politics". (Co-authored with Lorenzo Bosi.) European Sociological Association general conference, University of Turin, August 31st, 2013.
Direct social action (DSA) is a form of collective actions that is structurally part of the reper... more Direct social action (DSA) is a form of collective actions that is structurally part of the repertoire of contention. Along with DSAs the literature (Bosi and Zamponi 2015) refers to forms of collective actions that do not primarily focus upon claiming something from the state or other power holders, but that instead focus upon directly transforming some specific aspects of society by means of the very action itself as part of everyday politics. What distinguishes these forms of collective action from volunteering is their political potential: DSAs include the purpose of directly seeking to challenge a social problem perceived as unfair. The concept of DSA brings together practices that are different from one another, such as solidarity actions, mutual-aid initiatives, political consumerism, alternative finance, social clinics, food cooperatives, community-supported agriculture, housing occupations, self-management, social kitchens, free legal advice, and medical services, to mention just a few. Despite being different, these practices are used for some common purposes: they are direct as they aim to have a nonmediated impact on their object, and they are social as they address society, or at least some parts of it, rather than the state. Different fields have approached the issue of practice-based and society-oriented forms of action with different purposes and in the context of different debates, including third sector, solidarity economy, economic activism, political consumerism and sustainable community movements, alternative forms of resilience, prefigurative politics, specifically in the anarchist and post-autonomous tradition, environmentalism, basismo in Latin America, lifestyle politics, commons, feminism and movement abeyance, active citizenship and social innovation, and mutual aid. The concept of DSA stands out on this background because of two main elements: first, it refers to a wide set of forms of action, as different from each other as petitioning and striking are in the context of claim-based collective action, while the aforementioned strands of social research focus in most cases on subsets of the phenomena we consider as DSAs; second, its organizing principle is based on the form collective action takes on, rather than focusing on the ideological background of the actors that chose this form of action, or on the meanings that are attached to it, or on the context in which it develops. Within the repertoire of contention, but different Social movement scholars have studied DSA as an outcome of a cycle of contention, as a way of coping with a decline in mobilization, as forms of collective action capable to promote pre-political prerequisites to political participation or in interaction with other forms of actions, whether moderate or radical ones. The study of DSA, among social movement scholars, has been revitalized during recent critical events, such as the 2008 economic crisis, the long summer of migration, climate change, or the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, when these forms of collective action have proliferated.
Collective action is an inherently dynamic phenomenon. Social movements, protest campaigns, or ep... more Collective action is an inherently dynamic phenomenon. Social movements, protest campaigns, or episodes of political violence, as well as the trajectories of movement leaders and grassroot activists unfold over time, in sequences of events, which not only entail changes in the forms of action, but also the transformation of identities, goals, and the political setting in which they take place. Arguing that "temporal objects should be subjected to processual analysis" (Bidart, Longo, and Mendez 2013, 743), processual perspectives seek to reconstruct the dynamics and intertwined trajectories of episodes of collective action or of activists' lives, how they unfold in interactions shaped by strategy, conjuncture, and contingency, and as situated in their particular historic context, in social time and space. Processual perspectives, then, stand in contrast to static or a-temporal variable-based approaches, which presume fixed entities, unambiguous meanings, the absence of sequence effects, and independence of context. As Nick Crossley (2016, 157) has importantly pointed out, processual ontologies are closely linked to relational ontologies, which means that collective actors, such as social movement organizations, armed groups, grassroot associations, political parties, or trade unions, are not seen as stable entities punctuated by episodes of change, but as fluid, perpetually becoming, interactively produced, and defined by shifting relationships within specific contexts. Moreover, the sequence and timing of events matter, since "what happens, how it happens, why it happens, what results it brings about is dependent on when it happens, the location in the processual sequence, the place in the rhythm of events characteristic for a given process" (Pettigrew 1997, 339). By emphasizing complex temporal-and interaction-effects as well as contingency, processual perspectives also stand in contrast to perspectives based on teleological or linear conceptions of change over time, as evolving in fixed, invariant sequences of steps (e.g. "modernization"). Instead, the underlying conception of processes is that they possess "autonomous causal efficacy" (Bosi, Demetriou, and Malthaner 2014, 3-4); that is, that processes of collective action are shaped by dynamics that they themselves generate. While recognizing the relevance of structural conditions, processual approaches emphasize their less-than-determining character and the need to look at the relational processes put in motion by the strategic choices of multiple collective actors in dynamic configurations. They attribute an important role to agency and to the creativity of collective actors, who can start new processes and take unexpected decisions, with a capacity to transform social structures, while also recognizing the limits of this creativity. Processual perspectives do not aim to test hypotheses or seek determinant external and internal factors, nor do they search for single grand theories, but they rather aim to provide plausible analytical explanations of how the interactions of multiple actors shift, unfold, and change over time, producing particular outcomes or patterns of transformation.
and what has followed, the contested term "radicalization" increasingly began to be used as imply... more and what has followed, the contested term "radicalization" increasingly began to be used as implying that radical ideas are a proxy for violent behavior, conflating the "radical" concept with that of "radicalization." This argument has often supported governmental strategies encompassing surveillance of specific groups of the population, a focus on security questions, and assessment of risk and community engagement, becoming "the master signifier of the late 'war on terror'" (Coolsaet 2008, 230). In the field of political violence and terrorism, "radicalization came to be understood predominantly as the gradual adoption of 'extremist' ideas that promote and eventually lead to acts of terrorism, thus focusing attention on processes of cognitive and ideological transformation, mainly at the individual level" (Malthaner 2017, 370). The popularity of the term "radicalization" within and outside of academia has attracted the attention of social movements scholars interested in investigating political violence (della Porta 2018). These scholars have challenged the dominant normative use of conflating radical beliefs with violent means and have started to refer to radicalization as an individual or organizational process that leads to a shift from nonviolent forms of action to violent ones in order to promote or oppose political, social, and/or cultural change. Situations of conflictual escalation have been shown to unfold over time or in the immediate aftermath of an event, acting as a turning point. The term "violence" refers to "any observable interaction in the course of which persons or objects are seized or physically damaged in spite of resistance" (Tilly 1978, 176). The term
Life history interviews have been conducted in a wide range of social science disciplines (i.e. a... more Life history interviews have been conducted in a wide range of social science disciplines (i.e. anthropology, criminology, folkloristic studies, education, ethnology, feminist research, geography, linguistics, psychology, political science and sociology) and with remarkable variation. 1 Some researchers are predominantly interested in using life history interviews in order to investigate how stories are told (life story) (Portelli 1991; Slim and Thompson 1993); what interests us here, instead, is how the story subjective reconstruction relates to what has happened in the respondent's life trajectory and, specifically, on activists' dynamic trajectories. Rather than relying on static approaches to data collection, such as large-scale sample surveys, which focus on structural factors in an a-temporal moment, by disconnecting activists from their life history and context, and representing them as static actors, life history interviews provide an impressive methodological tool allowing to focus on the permanent dialectic process between agency and structure; to articulate micro-, meso-and macro-levels of analysis in order to contextualize activists' dynamic trajectories; to place political participation diachronically, as a long-lasting social activity articulated through the transformation of different phases of a life trajectory (dispositions, primary and secondary socialization, partnering and marriage, parenthood, working, retirement, and so on); and 1 Life history interviewing is not the only method used for biographical research that seeks to understand the unfolding lives of individuals within their social context (Denzin 1989). There exist other biographical approaches, such as: oral histories, personal narratives, autobiographies, autoethnography, life narratives and interpretative biography. At the same time, many types of interviews, that focus on the life trajectories of individuals vary according to the author and the theoretical tradition: narrative interviews, biographical interviews, retrospective interviews, in-depth interviews, and so on. While it is not the aim of this chapter to describe different types of biographical methods and interviews (Tierney and Lanford 2019), we should be aware of the fact that this richness has often produced "a certain terminological confusion in the field" of life history research and biographical interviews (Bertaux 1981: 7).
In the first section of this chapter we present three Italian generations of social movement scho... more In the first section of this chapter we present three Italian generations of social movement scholars. In the following section we introduce the principal areas of empirical research on social movements considering academic articles and books that have been published since the 1990s, thus updating the mapping exercise of Diani and Melucci (1988). In the concluding section we briefly present a research agenda stressing some relevant issues that, we believe, still need to be an- swered by Italian social movement scholars.
Le molte forme di solidarietà e mutualismo dal basso che si sono manifestate in questi anni, sia ... more Le molte forme di solidarietà e mutualismo dal basso che si sono manifestate in questi anni, sia nel contesto della crisi economica sia in risposta alla pandemia di Covid-19, dalle grandi organizzazioni sociali alle occupazioni abitative, dai gruppi di acquisto solidale alle fabbriche recuperate, passando per i centri sociali e le sperimentazioni di welfare dal basso, sono state spesso interpretate come fenomeni del tutto spoliticizzati, forme di «resilienza» incapaci di produrre resistenza e alternativa, risposte automatiche di un corpo sociale che si adatta a contesti emergenziali senza sviluppare pensiero critico e traiettorie di attivazione collettiva di lungo periodo. Questo articolo propone uno sguardo più complesso su questi fenomeni, concentrandosi su quelli più strettamente legati a un background e una prospettiva di movimento, e analizzandoli dal punto di vista dello studio dell'azione collettiva, trattandoli come casi di azione sociale diretta. L'analisi, basata su un lungo lavoro di ricerca sul campo, permette di far emergere i processi di interazione tra percorsi di politicizzazione di lungo periodo e momenti di attivazione di massa emergenziale. Un quadro d'insieme che indica alcune tendenze di fondo di trasformazione dell'azione collettiva all'inizio XXI secolo.
Given the growing interest in how collective action matters, this special issue seeks to push our... more Given the growing interest in how collective action matters, this special issue seeks to push our understanding of collective action outcomes beyond the present state of knowledge and stimulate further developments. In doing this, it looks to improve and expand the theoretical and conceptual tools for studying the topic, suggest and explore methodological innovations to solve previous research problems and investigate new settings across various movements and countries.
Partecipazione e Conflitto [Participation and Conflict], 2021
Given the growing interest in how collective action matters, this special issue seeks to push our... more Given the growing interest in how collective action matters, this special issue seeks to push our understanding of collective action outcomes beyond the present state of knowledge and stimulate further developments. In doing this, it looks to improve and expand the theoretical and conceptual tools for studying the topic, suggest and explore methodological innovations to solve previous research problems and investigate new settings across various movements and countries.
The concept of 'young radicals' is gaining ground in a context of generalized discontent-often, t... more The concept of 'young radicals' is gaining ground in a context of generalized discontent-often, this is due to the fact that young people engage increasingly in unconventional forms of political activism. Much less is known about young people holding radical political attitudes. This article advances our understanding of those young people who place themselves on the extremes of the ideological scale and investigates how those with radical right attitudes differ from those with radical left ones. Drawing on a survey that gathers data from nine European countries, with a sample of young people aged 18-35, we test those factors that have been used to explain why people use violent repertoires of action: social background, gender, political values, and prior experience in protest activism. The results relate 'radicalness' to experienced economic difficulties and the more contentious political activism. The difference between the young 'radicals' in right and left are, however, defined by gender and adherence to authoritarian values.
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Papers by lorenzo bosi
is no academic investigation into how and when this happens. This article does
so focusing on direct social action, that is, a form of collective action that does
not primarily focus upon claiming something from the state but instead focuses upon
directly transforming some specific aspects of society. Building on conceptual categories
developed by social movements’ scholars (context, organization, and identity)
and relying on rich qualitative and quantitative data from collective actors in Italy in a
time of crisis, this article identifies four paths toward direct social actions (DSA): the
social path, the political-social path, the social-political path, and the political path. In
doing so, our analysis shifts from the search for causal factors to the reconstruction
of the dynamic, patterned sequences of events by which collective actors progress
in adopting a certain form of action. The implications of these findings extend beyond
studies of DSA in times of crisis in Italy, to an analysis of collective action in general.
Capturing these multiple paths also has important implications for understanding how
the same form of action is differently implemented and received when it is adopted by
different actors.
motivated by the enactment of an identity that people already have prior
to their mobilization as a way to strongly assert and emphasize individual
agency in the face of major changes in the political context. Empirically,
it advocates that those who joined the Provisional IRA between 1969 and
1972 did so in order to respond to a need for action by a northern nationalist
community that stemmed from a perceived, alleged or actual, sense of
second-class citizenship. We suggest that the importance of identity rather
than ideology can also help us to explain why IRA members and former
members overwhelmingly accepted the compromise peace settlement of
the 1990s despite the fact that core ideological goals had not been realized.
We conclude by suggesting avenues for future research outside the Irish
context.
strands of the same social movements as a window onto the role played by agency in this process. It
presents a paired comparison of two very different transformative events in twentieth-century Ireland —
the Easter Rising of 1916 and the Long March from Belfast to Derry in 1969 — and the strategic
interactions preceding them. The comparison shows how agency and structure can interface around
transformative events: high levels of agency were instrumental in making the events; but while the events
brought powerful structural forces to the boil, those forces might well have remained dormant had it not
been for that initial agency. We also see that the balance between structure and agency is dynamic,
sometimes shifting from one moment to another rather than remaining constant.
is no academic investigation into how and when this happens. This article does
so focusing on direct social action, that is, a form of collective action that does
not primarily focus upon claiming something from the state but instead focuses upon
directly transforming some specific aspects of society. Building on conceptual categories
developed by social movements’ scholars (context, organization, and identity)
and relying on rich qualitative and quantitative data from collective actors in Italy in a
time of crisis, this article identifies four paths toward direct social actions (DSA): the
social path, the political-social path, the social-political path, and the political path. In
doing so, our analysis shifts from the search for causal factors to the reconstruction
of the dynamic, patterned sequences of events by which collective actors progress
in adopting a certain form of action. The implications of these findings extend beyond
studies of DSA in times of crisis in Italy, to an analysis of collective action in general.
Capturing these multiple paths also has important implications for understanding how
the same form of action is differently implemented and received when it is adopted by
different actors.
motivated by the enactment of an identity that people already have prior
to their mobilization as a way to strongly assert and emphasize individual
agency in the face of major changes in the political context. Empirically,
it advocates that those who joined the Provisional IRA between 1969 and
1972 did so in order to respond to a need for action by a northern nationalist
community that stemmed from a perceived, alleged or actual, sense of
second-class citizenship. We suggest that the importance of identity rather
than ideology can also help us to explain why IRA members and former
members overwhelmingly accepted the compromise peace settlement of
the 1990s despite the fact that core ideological goals had not been realized.
We conclude by suggesting avenues for future research outside the Irish
context.
strands of the same social movements as a window onto the role played by agency in this process. It
presents a paired comparison of two very different transformative events in twentieth-century Ireland —
the Easter Rising of 1916 and the Long March from Belfast to Derry in 1969 — and the strategic
interactions preceding them. The comparison shows how agency and structure can interface around
transformative events: high levels of agency were instrumental in making the events; but while the events
brought powerful structural forces to the boil, those forces might well have remained dormant had it not
been for that initial agency. We also see that the balance between structure and agency is dynamic,
sometimes shifting from one moment to another rather than remaining constant.
We welcome panel proposals from a wide variety of perspectives that apply, or reflect on, competing interpretive approaches to political violence, including, but not limited to:
- Rationalist interpretations;
- Cultural interpretations;
- Social Movements Studies interpretations;
- Gender Studies interpretations;
- Geographical interpretations;
- Security/counter-insurgency interpretations;
The section aims to bring together distinguished scholars and younger researchers not only from political science, but from related disciplines, including economics, sociology, geography, anthropology, psychology, historical science, international relations, and area studies. In organising this section we seek to further the development of research on political violence in Europe and globally, to contribute to the further development of an international network of scholars working in this field and to promote the publication of outputs such as co-edited books or special issues of international journals.
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? Il libro risponde a queste domande basandosi su venticinque
testimonianze di donne e uomini che fra il 1969 e il 1972, in Nord Irlanda,
entrarono a far parte della Provisional Irish Republican Army.
Chapters of original research emphasize how the processes of radicalization and violence are open-ended, interactive, and context dependent. They offer detailed empirical accounts as well as comprehensive and systematic analyses of the dynamics leading to violent episodes. Specifically, the chapters converge around four dynamic processes that are shown to be especially germane to radicalization and violence: dynamics of movement-state interaction; dynamics of intra-movement competition; dynamics of meaning formation and transformation; and dynamics of diffusion.
Contents: A contentious politics approach to the explanation of radicalization, Lorenzo Bosi, Chares Demetriou and Stefan Malthaner. Part I Dynamics of Interaction between Oppositional Movements/Groups and the State: The mechanisms of emotion in violent protest, Hank Johnston; A typology of backfire mechanisms, Lasse Lindekilde; Processes of radicalization and de-radicalization in Western European prisons (1965-1986), Christian G. De Vito. Part II Competition and Conflict: Dynamics of Intra-Movement Interaction: Competitive escalation during protest cycles: comparing left-wing and religious conflicts, Donatella della Porta; Intra-movement competition and political outbidding as mechanisms of radicalization in Northern Ireland, 1968-1969, Gianluca De Fazio; The limits of radicalization: escalation and restraint in the South African liberation movement, Devashree Gupta. Part III Dynamics of Meaning Formation: Frames and Beyond: Contentious interactions, dynamics of interpretations, and radicalization: the Islamization of Palestinian nationalism, Eitan Y. Alimi and Hank Johnston; Radical or righteous? Using gender to shape public perceptions of political violence, Jocelyn Viterna; From national event to transnational injustice symbol: the three phases of the Muhammad cartoon controversy, Thomas Olesen. Part IV Dynamics of (Transnational) Diffusion: Radicalization from outside: the role of the anarchist diaspora in coordinating armed actions in Franco’s Spain, Eduardo Romanos; Protest diffusion and rising political violence in the Turkish ’68 movement: the Arab-Israeli war, ‘Paris May’ and the hot summer of 1968, Emin Alper; The evolution of the al-Qaeda-type terrorism: networks and beyond, Ekaterina Stepanova; Conclusion, Martha Crenshaw; Index.