THE HISTORY:
The idea of a Standing Group (SG) on “Social Movements and Political Participation” stems from a positive experience during a thematic section at SISP’s conference in Bologna (2006), composed by three panels, eighteen paper givers, and about thirty scholars participating at the debates. After the approval from the SISPS’s Executive Committee, the experience has been replied during the SISP’s annual conference in Catania (2007), where the SG organized a section titled “Social Movements and Participative Democracy”, composed by three panels, twenty-one paper givers, and a round table where the journal “Partecipazione e Conflitto” has been presented. The participation was quite high, with a constant participation of about twenty or thirty scholars, with peaks of fifth participants. On that occasion, the SG had its first internal meeting, during which was formalized the new group, composed by the five proponent scholars (R. Biorcio, D. della Porta, F. de Nardis, F. Forno, G. Piazza), three new members (M. Andretta, L. Mosca, T. Vitale), and four non-members (L. Alteri, A. Cirulli, L. Raffini e S. Tosi). During the SISP’s annual conference in Pavia (2008), the SG organized the thematic section “Participation and Social Movements”, composed by five panel, and twenty-three paper givers. During the SISP’s annual conference in Rome (2009), the SG organized its thematic section “Participation and Social Movements”, composed by four panels and twenty-two paper givers. On this occasion, the SG decided to enlarge its network, accepting papers also from scholars not belonging to the SG, and collaborating with other SISP’s sections, such as “Democracies and Democratizations” and “Political Communication”. The SG’s annual meeting then decided to open its mailing list also to scholars not belonging to the SG. During the following SISP’s annual conference held in Venice (2010), the SG organized its own section, composed by six panels, and thirty-seven paper givers. The SG decided to enlarge its international network, and the SG research interests, including new issues (radicalism, political violence, and terrorism; European squatted social centres; theoretical perspective on the analysis of social movements and political participation; urban and regional conflictual dynamics; migrants and political participation; movements and popular politics in transition processes). The following SISP conference in Palermo (2011) took place at the same time of the ESA’s annual conference. Despite such concomitance, the SG organized its thematic section, composed by four panels (one of which organized with the section “Political Communication”), and about thirty paper givers. The general debate was quite intense and complex, and new issues were addressed (social media and the “Arab Spring”; new social movements and new forms of democracy; urban conflicts and immigrants’ paths of citizenship; religion and political participation). The annual SG’s internal meeting was an occasion to let young researchers meet for the first time, and talk about the SG and the “Partecipazione e Conflitto” journal. On the occasion of the following SISP’s annual conference in Rome (2012), the SG’s section (coordinated by Roberto Biorcio and Lorenzo Mosca), was composed by eighteenth panels and about sixty paper givers. Among the issues addressed: labour conflicts; populism and political participation; religion and social movements, with a special attention to Arab Spring. During the following SISP conference held in Florence (2013), the SG’s section (coordinated by Massimiliano Andretta and Roberto Biorcio) was composed by thirteen panels and forty paper givers. Many attentions were given to anti-austerity movements, political participation during economic crisis, gender and political participation. During the SISP’s annual conference in Perugia (2014), the SG organized its own section, coordinated by Massimiliano Andretta and Roberto Biorcio, composed by ten panels and thirty-two paper givers. One of the main issues discussed was the Five Star Movements and the forms of participation proposed, the relationship among gender and political participation, and, for the first time, an entire panel was focused on extreme right-wing mobilizations in western democracies. During the following SISP’s annual conference (2015), the SG proposed a section formed by seven panels and fifteen paper givers. Most of the attention was on anti-austerity movements. During the SISP’s annual conference held in Milan (2016), the SG’s section (coordinated by Fabio de Nardis and Gianni Piazza), was formed by eleven panels and forty-one paper givers. Many participant scholars were from diverse European universities, a confirm of the internationalization of the SG’s network. On this occasion, the two panels on regime changes and democratization processes were dedicated to the memory of Giulio Regeni, an Italian PhD student at the Cambridge University that was working on independent trade unions in Egypt, that was kidnapped and killed in Egypt in 2016. During the following SISP’s annual conference in Urbino (2017), the SG’s section was composed by nine panels and thirty-two papers. On that occasion, the two panels titled “Research as a job, and the public role of the research” became a moment of reflection on the role of the research in the academia, and the role of researchers within the university. During the SISP’s annual conference in Turin (2018), the SG’s section (coordinated by Lorenzo Mosca and Gianni Piazza) was composed by nine sections and about forty papers. During the following SISP’s annual conference in Lecce (2019), the SG organized a section (coordinated by Massimiliano Andretta and Gianni Piazza) with thirteen panels and fifty-one paper givers. During that SG’s annual internal meeting, Manuela Caiani and Alberta Giorgi became the new coordinators of the SG. In 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the SISP’s annual conference were cancelled. However, the SG decided to maintain its annual conference. Thus, during September 2020, took place “GoingDigital!”, a digital conference organized by the SG, with four panels and twenty-two papers by scholars from many European countries and universities. The main themes were the relation among gender and populism, religion and radical right-wing movements, anti-gender movements, community organizing during the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2021 took place the SISP’s annual conference, in a digital version. On that occasion, the SG’s section was formed by twelve panels and forty papers, and a round table organized with the SISP SG on Gender and Politics. During the SG’s internal meeting, Manuela Caiani was confirmed as coordinator of the standing group, with Giuliana Sorci.
THE ISSUES:
The research on political participation has a long tradition in political science. In this field of studies, the analysis of social movements progressively increased within the study of political participation, most of all starting from the end of Nineties’, when more and more scholars got interested in the study of social movements and political participation, both at a national and international level. With the start of a new cycle of protests between the end of the old millennium, and the begging of the new one, and the emergence of the Global Justice Movement, researchers’ attention on social movements increased a lot. Together with this transnational phenomenon, also the territorial struggles against unwanted land use received many attentions from diverse disciplines, always referring to the study of social movements and unconventional political participation. Such field of research is intertwined with the study of alternative and complementary forms of democracy, such as participative, deliberative, discursive, associative forms of democracies. In contemporary democracies, together with the decrease of conventional political participation, there is an increase of unconventional political participation that is a bottom-up alternative to public decisions, against a top-down model of decisions that is no more legitimized. Moreover, the importance given to the legitimation of political decisions in the public arena is linked with the attention given to the way such new forms of political participation enter in the public sphere. Then, there is the need to research the interaction between the new forms of political participation and actors that mostly use conventional forms of participation, such as political parties, interests’ groups, associations, and trade unions.
AIMS:
The SG wants to promote the study on social movements, political participation (both conventional and unconventional forms), transformations processes of political actors and contemporary political system (with a special attention on democratization processes and new forms of democracies), and new forms of governance that emerge at a local, national, and trans-national level.
The aims to stimulate research on such themes, most of all among young researchers, are:
- The promotion and elaboration of collective research projects, with a special (but not exclusive) attention to PRIN (Progetti di Ricerca di Interesse Nazionale);
- The share of information on research and bibliography on social movements and political participation;
- The organization of conferences, seminars, and workshops;
- The development of collaborations with national and international journals that are interested in these issues, in particular with “Partecipazione e Conflitto”;
- To build research networks, also inter-disciplinary ones, with other groups and networks at a national (such as the AIS section on similar issues) and international level (such as the ECPR SG “Forms of Participation” and others)
- To have a web site with the main info about the SG, similar groups and journals.
THE STRUCTURE:
The main organization structure of the SG is the assembly made by adherents (bot members and non-members), that generally meets once a year on the occasion of the SISP’s annual conference. During the year, a mailing list is used to keep in touch (sgmovimentipartecipazione@googlegroups.com). The structure is horizontal, participative, and decision are made following a consensual model. The two persons in charge of coordinating the SG are chosen by the assembly every three year. Currently, the two coordinators are Manuela Caiani and Giuliana Sorci
