2,830 research outputs found
How social movements can save democracy : democratic innovations from below
No full textThe birth of democracies owes much to the interventions and mobilizations of ordinary people. Yet many feel as though they have inherited democratic institutions which do not deliver for the people – that a rigid democratic process has been imposed from above, with increasing numbers of people feeling left out or left behind.
In this well-researched volume, leading political sociologist Donatella della Porta rehabilitates the role social movements have long played in fostering and deepening democracy, particularly focusing on progressive movements of the Left which have sought to broaden the plurality of voices and knowledge in democratic debate. Bridging social movement studies and democratic theory, della Porta investigates contemporary innovations in times of crisis, particularly those in the direction of participatory and deliberative practices – ‘crowd-sourced constitutions’, referendums from below and movement parties – and reflects on the potential and limits of such alternative politics.
In a moment in which concerns increase for the potential disruption of a Great Regression led by xenophobic movements and parties, the cases and analyses of resistance in this volume offer important material for students and scholars of political sociology, political science and social movement studies
Clandestine political violence
No full text'Clandestine Political Violence' compares four types of clandestine political violence: left-wing (in Italy and Germany), right-wing (in Italy), ethnonationalist (in Spain) and religious fundamentalist (in Islamist clandestine organizations). Oriented toward theory building, Della Porta develops her own definition of clandestine political violence. Building on the most recent developments in social movement studies, Della Porta proposes an original interpretative model. Using a unique research design, she singles out some common causal mechanisms at the onset, during the persistence and at the demise of clandestine political violence. The development of the phenomenon is located within the interactions among social movements, countermovements and the state. She pays particular attention to the ways different actors cognitively construct the reality they act upon. Based on original empirical research as well as existing research in many languages, this book is rich in empirical evidence on some of the most crucial cases of clandestine political violence.1. Political violence and social movements: an introduction
2. Escalating policing
3. Competitive escalation during protest cycles
4. The activation of militant networks
5. Organizational compartmentalization
6. Action militarization
7. Ideological encapsulation
8. Militant enclosure
9. Leaving clandestinity? Reversing mechanisms of engagement
10. Clandestine political violence: some conclusion
Extreme Right and Populism: A Frame Analysis of Extreme Right Wing Discourses in Italy and Germany. IHS Political Science Series No. 121, July 2010
No full textThis paper addresses the interactions between the extreme right and populism, looking at right wing discourses in Italy and Germany, focusing on different types of extreme right organizations (political parties, violent subcultural/young right wing groups, and political movements), and adopting a social movement perspective. Through a frame analysis conducted on several types of organizational documents (newspapers, websites, online guest books and forums, and other forms of publications), covering a period from 2000-2006, for a total of 4000 frames, it explores empirically the aspect of the conceptualization of the populism by the extreme right, showing the bridging of the appeal to the people with some traditional frames of the extreme right, such as nativism and authoritarianism, and stressing how the central populist frames (the people versus the elite) are linked to the extreme right definition of the 'us' and the 'them', when developing diagnoses, prognoses and motivations to action. A political opportunity and discursive approach will be useful in explaining the different configurations of populist frames depending on country and organizational type
Grandi opere e protesta: sindome Nimby o riappropriazione della politica? (Intervista a cura di Cesare Panizza)
No full textIn this interview, the author discusses some topics addressed in her volume (with Gianni Piazza), Le ragioni del No (Milano, Feltrinelli, 2008). The interview addresses the conditions for the development of local conflicts as well as their evolutionary trends. It addresses the organizational networks involved in these protests, the framing of social problems and collective identities, the repertoire of actions and structures of alliance
Globalizzazione e movimenti sociali
No full textGli ultimi anni hanno visto un’espansione senza precedenti dei movimenti sociali che criticano la globalizzazione neoliberista. Qual è la natura di questi movimenti? Che possibilità hanno di incidere sulle politiche globali, sugli assetti economici, sugli squilibri planetari? E che idea di società veicolano? Risultato della ricerca collettiva di un qualificato gruppo di studiosi, il volume indaga i diversi aspetti del movimento dei movimenti, dalla cooperazione comunicativa attraverso le reti alla riprogettazione del territorio e dell’ambiente, dall’analisi critica dei nuovi assetti giuridici sovranazionali allo scontro con gli organismi che governano i processi economici mondiali, tracciando i contorni di una nuova opposizione sociale
Patterns of diffusion and the transnational dimension of protest in the movements of the crisis : an introduction
No full textDemocrazie
No full textIl volume presenta una sintesi critica e aggiornata delle diverse concezioni di democrazia che si contrappongono sulla scena politica contemporanea. Quella "liberale" presuppone identità già formate fuori dal processo democratico, che deve limitarsi a garantire il loro libero gioco. La concezione "partecipativa" presume interessi collettivi esterni al sistema democratico, ma propone il coinvolgimento dei cittadini al di là del momento elettorale. Per la concezione "deliberativa" la democrazia coincide con il riconoscimento della fondatezza dell'opinione altrui, nel dibattito pubblico.This volume introduces to the debate on challenges and opportunities for contemporary democracies, presenting also results of empirical research on recent transformations. After developing a typology of conceptions and practices of democracy, the author discusses normative definitions as well as empirical evidences on representative, participatory and deliberative forms. The volume closes with some reflections on e-democracy as well as global democracy
Communications in Movements. Social Movement as Agents of Participatory democracy
No full textLiterature on social movements, mass media and democracy have rarely interacted. More recently, however, in all three fields of knowledge, some opportunities for reciprocal learning and interactions developed, moved by some exogenous, societal changes as well as disciplinary evolution. The author argues that looking at the intersection of democracy, media and social movements could be particularly useful within a relational and constructivist, that takes normative positions by the different actors into account. More broadly, this would mean to pay attention to the permeability of the borders between the three concepts, as well as between the three fields they tend to separate. The article does this by looking first at the debate on recent transformations of democracy, described by labels such as post-democracy or counterdemocracy, as well as on the New Media and social movements, and then at what recent research on social movements can add to them
Mobilizing for democracy: comparing 1989 and 2011
No full textStrangely enough, while the pictures used to illustrate the most recent wave of protests for democracy in North Africa represent mass protest, research on social movements and democratization have rarely interacted. This volume aims at filling this gap by looking at episodes of democratization through the lenses of social movement studies. Without assuming that democratization is always produced from below, the author singles out different paths of democratization by looking at the ways in which the masses interacted with the elites, and protest with bargaining: eventful democratization, participated pacts and troubled democratization. The main focus is on the first of this path: eventful democratization, that is cases in which authoritarian regimes break down following-often short but intense-waves of protest. Recognizing the particular power of some transformative events, the analysis locates them within the broader mobilization processes, including the multitude of less visible, but still important protests that surround them. Cognitive, affective and relational mechanisms are singled out as transforming the contexts in which dissidents act. In all three paths, mobilization of resources, framing processes and appropriation of opportunities develop in action, in different combinations. The comparison of different cases of civil society mobilization within two waves of protests for democracy, in Central Eastern Europe in 1989 and in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in 2011, allows describing and theorizing about causal mechanisms and conditions as they emerge in mobilizations for democracy
Shrinking Spaces and Civil Society Contestation : An Introduction
No full textIn the context of both the financial crisis and the crisis of European migration politics, the notion of solidarity has gained renewed prominence and – as we argue in this book – its practice has become increasingly contentious. A series of intersecting crises have sharpened social and political polarization and have contracted simultaneously the space for migrant and minority rights as well as the rights around political dissent. This introduction builds upon social movement and migration studies to develop a theoretical framework on the two sides of “contentious solidarity”: a shrinking civic space and its contestation. It thereby maps the variety of repressive means (physical, legal, administrative, and discursive) employed by governmental and non-governmental against migrant solidarity, but also on how civil society organizations react to it through both moderation and increasing contention
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