1,720,974 research outputs found
Una protesta senza movimento? L’animalismo in Italia e la centralità dell’advocacy individuale
No full textThe article investigates forms of organized interest for animal rights and wellbeing. The field consists in a variegated composition of individual and collective actors, quite different in terms of ideological values and action strategies. The author presents a historical overview of the phenomenon during the twentieth century. However, the main focus of the paper is on the present situation, and specifically on the importance assumed by the personal action frames and individual repertoires of contention. Through an online survey (704 responses) and 20 semi-structured interviews, the author frames animal advocacy within a number of typical characteristics of modernity, and especially the process of individualization. Considering these elements, the forms of protest and advocacy are widespread, while an actual movement identity is in crisis
The individualization of political activism: A reflection on social movements and modernization, starting from the case of Italian animal advocacy
No full textPurpose: The study aims to investigate a relevant topic, but still underestimated by sociological studies: animal advocacy, namely, the organized interest in non-human animals' life, rights and well-being. The Italian case is discussed, with a twofold objective: to highlight the evolution of some repertoires of contention and to use this study to analyze the changes of contemporary collective mobilizations and their relation with the modernization process. Design/methodology/approach: The analysis is based on an online survey (704 responses nationwide), 24 semi-structured interviews with relevant members of groups and associations and a protest event analysis. Furthermore, a vast empirical archive and some academic studies concerning Italian animal advocacy in its historical dimension have been consulted. Findings: The paper underlines the current specificities of Italian animal advocacy, compared to past decades. The great importance assumed by personal action frames and repertoires of contention emerged as characterizing elements. Activism is always more individual and less related to collective organizations: the central role of veganism and of the internet as protest tool is underlined. Both the increasing possibilities offered by better discursive opportunities structure, but also the possible incorporation of more radical frames within consumer market dynamics emerged from the interviews and the survey. Originality/value: The phenomenon of animal advocacy (and, more generally, the activities of contemporary social movements) is contextualized within some typical characteristics of modernity, looking both at structural “opportunities” (e.g.: the diffusion of post-materialist values) and “constraints” (e.g.: veganwashing operations). Based on previous definitions coming from social movements studies and following a debate hosted by this journal, the role of collective organizations and especially the centrality assumed by individual activism is critically analyzed, evaluating the new possibilities, but also the possible negative sides. Not only cultural changes, but also political and legal contexts matter. In this sense, both a focus on Italy and more general reflections on western modernities are proposed, trying to go beyond animal advocacy and reflecting on social movements and collective mobilizations more widely
The Italian Animal Advocacy Archipelago and the Four Animalisms
No full textItalian animal advocacy is extremely divided and fragmented: in this article, we focus on its political dimension. Based upon prior studies, we expected the Italian animal advocacy archipelago to be clustered into three strata: old welfare, new welfare, and animal rights. Quantification of our survey (704 respondents throughout Italy) instead indicated a dichotomy between the animal rights area and both types of welfarists, particularly in terms of ethical values and localization on a progressive/conservative political axis. However, when we used qualitative interviews to probe the views of Italian animal advocates in greater depth, we detected a greater fragmentation and identified four ideal types of activism, defined as follows: political animalism, anarchist animalism, anti-political animalism, and moderate animalism. These ideal types are separated primarily along two dimensions: relationship with neo-liberal societal and economic structure, and degree of intersectional approach with other social movements. In the conclusions, we also offer general reflections on the coexistence of lobbying and protest, the phenomenon on NGOization, and the influence of individual activism and frame personalization on contemporary social movements.<br /
Cattura del linguaggio e patologizzazione della protesta. Dai movimenti ecologisti alla critica delle politiche pandemiche.
No full textInvestigating Vaccine Controversies during the Covid-19 Pandemic
No full textCovid-19 represented a total social fact, especially for that part of the world (the so-called Global North and in particular its wealthier component) which is less used to face dramatic crises able to affect fundamental rights and provoke health threats on a daily basis. While acknowledging its enormous impact on individual biographies, political systems and socio-economic equilibria around the planet, however we contrast those interpretations that have tended to naturalize the pandemic event, reading it as unpredictable, unique, disconnected from the dynamics that guide the (mainstream) Western lifestyle and mode of production. On the contrary, the genesis and above all the management of Covid-19 are the result and the mirror of broader dynamics linked to modernity, colonialism, capitalism, in one word of the Capitalocene. For this reason, it is even more correct to speak of a syndemic, to underline the environmental determinants of health, and the social and economic inequalities (re)produced by Covid-19. We therefore consider that interpreting the pandemic/syndemic (and its governance) as a state of exception is at least partial, being instead more useful to identify its unveiling function, able to make some latent or less visible dynamics manifest. Based on such premises, we focus on some nodes of the syndemic governance, highlighting how this contributed to give continuity and accelerate typical dynamics of a neoliberal governance and worldvision. We deal in particular with four key issues: the treatment of “science” by the media; the political history of “public health” and its relationship to the modern state; the construction of legitimate dissent vs. the constructed irrationality of “conspiracy theory”; the outcomes of social protests and in particular their pathologization in the mediatic and public debate. These are also among the main topics which are critically discussed in the thirteen papers that compose this Special Issue, from a variety of disciplinary fields, and with diverse epistemological perspectives and methodological tools
LULUs movements in multilevel struggles: A comparison of four movements in Italy
No full textLULUs movements are regaining visibility in the Italian public discourse. While focusing on local issues, they develop multi-level strategies, addressing local, but also national and transnational targets. Developing upon some classical approaches of social movement studies, we aim at explaining the ways in which opportunities are framed at various levels along the policy process. The research is based on a crosscase analysis of four LULU movements: 1) No Tav, against the construction of the high-speed railway line in Val di Susa; 2) No Muos, contrary to the US Navy geosatellite communication system in Niscemi; 3) No Tap, against the construction of the Trans-Adriatic Gas pipeline in San Foca-Melendugno; 4) No Large Ships, adverse to the transit of cruise ships in the Venetian lagoon
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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