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December 2008 - February 2015
December 2008 - present
September 2004 - present
Publications
Publications (77)
The Case of the Five Star Movement 85 We wish to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on a previous version of this article and Sergio Splendore for his valuable suggestions. We are also grateful to Fred Paxton for a careful reading of the manuscript and his excellent feedback. ABSTRACT The rise of populist parties has often bee...
One of the main ‘promises’ that populist parties seek to deliver is to bring politics closer to the ‘people’. While the literature focused mainly on the relationship between voters and those parties, less attention has been given to the role of members’ priorities in shaping parties’ legislative activity. In this paper, we focus on a paradigmatic t...
The Five Star Movement (FSM) was born in 2009 after a wave of protests (so called “V days”) against the political establishment initiated by a famous Italian comedian, Beppe Grillo. Because of its hybrid nature, with one foot in the party system and the other one in the social movement arena, the FSM has been considered a “movement party,” displayi...
In the context of a society where digital technologies have come to pervasively intermediate most social, cultural and economic processes, algorithms represent an important socio-technical component of ‘the social’. Unsurprisingly, algorithms also hold an important role in the formation of public opinion. The way people access news and informationa...
In many countries, movement parties have gained traction among the electorate. This special issue spotlights the communication of movement parties as an avenue for researching their purchase on democratic politics. Through a combination of empirical studies and commentaries, the issue covers multiple countries where movement parties have establishe...
ABSTACT
Drawing on the concept of critical juncture, in this article we argue that the scale and impact of an ‘extraordinary’ event such as the Covid-19 pandemic cannot be understood in full without acknowledging the pre-existing conditions of a country and its path-dependent trajectory. Against this background, we first assess the institutional le...
Populist parties are often argued to be very skilled in using digital media to attract supporters and strengthen linkages with their followers. However, only rarely has research shown this linkage empirically. This study explores whether arguments about the relation between digital platforms and populist voting can be substantiated using comparativ...
Are digital parties the future of party organization? A symposium on The Digital Party: Political Organisation and Online Democracy by Paolo Gerbaudo - Katharine Dommett, Jasmin Fitzpatrick, Lorenzo Mosca, Paolo Gerbaudo
Born in 2009, the Five Star Movement (FSM) has been one of the most electorally successful European populist parties since 2013. While its classification as a populist party is unanimously accepted, some have considered it close to left-libertarian positions, others as an anti-immigrant far right party, and still others have simply deemed it as unc...
Social Business Intelligence (SBI) is the discipline that combines corporate data with social content to let decision makers analyze the trends perceived from the environment. SBI poses research challenges in several areas, such as IR, data mining, and NLP; unfortunately, SBI research is often restrained by the lack of publicly-available, real-worl...
Digital technologies have been considered as generating new opportunities to enhance democratic politics. However, political parties have generally been latecomers in appropriating digital media in their every day life. The case of the Italian Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S) represents an interesting example of innovative use of digital technologies in po...
In this contribution, we discuss the role of the digital public sphere in social and political mobilisations in Italy and Spain since the beginning of 2000. Both countries experienced the emergence of successful parties relying heavily on digital media, linked to previous social mobilisations and protest milieu. We highlight the changing role of di...
In recent years ‘movement parties’ such as Syriza in Greece, the Movimento 5 Stelle in Italy, Podemos in Spain and—to a lesser extent—Bloco de Esquerda in Portugal shook national party systems, breaking the consolidated dynamics of political competition. Despite growing interest in movement parties, there has been scant attention to the role of cit...
Based on original post-electoral surveys held after the 2014 European elections on representative samples of citizens with internet access in Italy, Germany and the UK, we explore the relationship between the exposure to different sources of information and attitudinal and behavioural dimensions of Euroscepticism. We distinguish respondents in occa...
The World Social Forum quickly became the largest political gathering in human history and continues to offer a direct challenge to the extreme inequities of corporate-led globalisation. It has expanded its presence and continues to be an exciting experiment in global and participatory democracy. The book’s contributors have participated in World S...
In the course of a three-year research project comparing social media and political participation across the European Union, we collected data on representative samples of internet users from Germany, Italy and the UK. Online users were surveyed just after the May 2014 European elections. The three countries have been selected as they differ not on...
Subterranean Politics (SP) was the initial idea behind the studies presented in this volume — but what does this really mean in the Italian context? The idea was to go beyond the study of ‘civil society’ or ‘social movements’ in order to focus on all that was extra-institutional in the recent protests that have swept across Europe. Rather than look...
Since its founding and throughout all its developmental stages, the Movimento Cinque Stelle (M5S) has been characterised, among Italian parties, by its reliance on the Web as a tool for organisation, decision-making, communication, and identity-building. In this chapter, we analyse three dimensions of the Web’s role for the M5S against the backdrop...
Civil society organizations (CSOs) operating in the field of youth unemployment and precarious working conditions promote a wide offer of political activities that range from providing information and expertise during the process of policy design and implementation to engaging in more confrontational actions such as calling for collective mobilizat...
La vicinanza ai movimenti sociali è ovviamente solo un aspetto tra quelli che contribuiscono a definire l'identità del Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S). Tuttavia, uno dei motivi del successo del M5S consiste indubbiamente nella sua capacità di nutrirsi dei conflitti locali per generare risorse e catalizzare il voto di protesta. Ci sono almeno 3 dimensioni...
The enduring economic crisis, austerity measures and corruption scandals have created a favourable environment for the advent of new political actors all over Europe. During the last general elections (February 2013), Italy was shocked by the inexorable rise of the Five Star Movement. Beppe Grillo’s creature upset the political system, occupying po...
In what has been described as a ‘movement society’ (Meyer & Tarrow, 1998), and as an historical phase in which the protest (Norris, 2002) and its participants (Van Aelst & Walgrave, 2001) have been normalized, communication by non-party actors, such as social movements, acquires considerable importance.
La Giornata della Democrazia (GdD) si è svolta il 29 settembre 2013 a compimento di un percorso avviato nell'autunno del 2012 dalla giunta comunale della città di Parma. Dopo una serie di assemblee tenutesi a livello di quartiere e aperte a tutti i residenti, si è passati ad un'assemblea cittadina che ha richiesto l'individuazione di una location i...
This chapter focuses on the political use of the internet considering both individual and organisational use. Firstly, looking at how individuals which took part in the Athens European Social Forum (ESF) use the internet politically. Secondly, shedding light on how social movements, families and organisations mobilized in the Italian Global Justice...
This chapter looks at the most important actors engaged in social and political conflict in Italy during 2012, linking conflicts to policy arenas and the change in policy style of the government. The study is based mostly on a qualitative analysis of the most important national newspapers.
The actors examined are the mobilization of students, the t...
Capace di suscitare entusiasmi e speranze pari ai timori e alle ripulse, il «grillismo» sembra più di una meteora del costume: forse sarà un nuovo protagonista degli equilibri politici italiani, forse – come promette e minaccia – li farà saltare. In ogni caso, sarà bene conoscere il fenomeno più da vicino, al di là del clamore giornalistico. Con l’...
Il libro presenta una riflessione sulla politica online in Italia, interrogandosi sul se e sul come internet contribuisca a ridefinire i confini, i processi e gli attori dell’arena politica. Proponendo il termine webpolitica, ci si focalizza sull’uso di internet da parte di alcuni dei principali attori del sistema politico italiano, presentando i r...
This article focuses on the political use of the Internet by the Italian Global Justice Movement (GJM) considering both the organisations and the individuals involved in the movement. First, a definition of the concept ‘political use of the internet’ and its operationalization is provided. Second, light is shed on how the internet is used political...
Not availablePresentation José Manuel Robles Abstract of Information and American Democracy. Cambridge University Press, 2003 Bruce Bimber From Regimes to Ecologies: Globalizing Bruce Bimber’s Model of Information and Politics Steven Livingston Internet, new forms of power and democracy José Luís Garcia Internet: A Technological Tool and Changes in...
Mentre in tutte le democrazie occidentali si assiste a un processo di ridefinizione profonda delle pratiche di partecipazione politica e civica, i media digitali stanno modificando i modi con cui i cittadini si informano ed entrano in contatto con istituzioni, partiti e movimenti e sembrano offrire loro nuove opportunità per far sentire la propria...
Considered an innovation because of its capacity to develop transnational processes, the World Social Forum however also has strong local roots as well as effects on organizational models and collective identities at the domestic level. Focusing on the Italian case, this article shows how local social forums, as
arenas for exchanges of ideas, playe...
This article focuses on the political use of the Internet by the Italian Global Justice Movement (GJM) considering both the organizations and the individuals involved in the movement. First, a definition of the concept ‘political use of the Internet’ and its operationalization is provided. Second, light is shed on how the Internet is used political...
Drawing upon a common conceptual framework of political webcampaigning the book offers theoretical reflections on Internet-based campaign politics. It provides a comparative overview on the use of the Internet as a campaigning instrument by diverse intermediary political actors. Taking the empirical findings of Internet appropriations into consider...
Notwithstanding a growing interest in online politics, the analysis of web sites' qualities by social movement organizations (SMOs) has received little attention in social research. In creating their sites, SMOs often underline the capacity of new technologies to involve members and sympathizers in organizational processes and internal decision-mak...
Please address all the numbered queries on this page which are clearly identified on the proof for your convenience. Thank you for your cooperation Q1 'the authors also show as the WSF becomes a new outlet for claiming international communication rights': please check the syntax/sense here.
In una fase di profonda trasformazione dei governi locali, in cui alle tradizionali difficoltà legate alla scarsità di risorse e alla complessa gestione dei servizi pubblici si aggiungono nuove polemiche sui costi della politica, i comuni, in particolare quelli di piccole e medie dimensioni, sono messi alla prova da crescenti vincoli e pressioni. L...
As with other communication technologies, the Internet influences the behaviour of individuals and organizations, intervening on the mode of interaction at the individual and collective levels. Even more than with other means of communication — such as press, telegraph, radio, television, telephone, fax, and so on — it seems that social scientists...
Con questo fascicolo prende avvio il progetto editoriale di Partecipazione e Conflitto. Un progetto ambizioso che nasce dall’esigenza di creare uno spazio di approfondimento autonomo dedicato allo studio delle dinamiche di trasformazione dei sistemi politici contemporanei, con un focus specifico sull’analisi della partecipazione e dei conflitti pol...
“Davos” has become synonymous with everything bad about globalization—capitalist imperialism, elitism, secrecy, and antidemocratic operations. Dating from the first confrontations at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in 2001, the World Social Forum has become the largest political gathering in human history and offers a direct challen...
Interest in the Internet’s impact on political participation has grown over thelast five years. The main claim of most social scientists is to consider theInternet as a new resource for political engagement. However, this claimhas not always been backed up by empirical analysis. The aim of thisarticle is to provide empirical evidence on a subject th...
Abstract In this article we explore the process of ‘contamination’ (namely cross-fertilization) in the development of the Global Justice Movement in Italy during the 1990s. We focus on two specific organizational sectors of this movement: labour organizations and associations for solidarity with the global South. We concentrate on a stage of the pr...
Citizens' committees have become an increasingly frequent, relevant phenomenon in Italian local politics and policy over the last decade or so. This article examines protest campaigns concerning traffic policies in four medium-size cities in which such committees have played a pivotal role. Though the ability of such actors to successfully impose t...
An in-depth look at the Genoa G8 summit and the European Social Forum, from the protesters’s point of view.
Presenting the first systematic empirical research on the global justice movement, Globalization from Below analyzes a movement from the viewpoints of the activists, organizers, and demonstrators themselves. The authors traveled to Genoa with...
Este artículo se focaliza en una campaña europea en contra de la precariedad laboral, el EuroMayDay. La relevancia de esta movilización reside en sus rasgos juveniles y en su dimensión transnacional. En una primera parte, se presentan algunos datos relativos a la situación actual del mercado laboral así como de la participación política de los jóve...
This article focuses on the use of Computer-Mediated Communication by the movement for global justice, with special attention to the organisations involved in the movement and its activists. We examined data collected during two supranational protest events: the anti-G8 protest in Genoa in July 2001 and the European Social Forum (ESF) in Florence i...
Bettenparaden gegen die Gesundheitsreform, radical cheerleading in Genua, weiße Overalls als Symbol der multitude - die originellen Aktionen von ATTAC, Pink-Silver, Tute Bianche und Co. erregen Aufsehen. Aber wer sind diese Globalisierungskritiker eigentlich? Diese Studie gibt Aufschluss über die neue Bewegung.
Citizens' committees have become an increasingly frequent, relevant phenomenon in Italian local politics and policy over the last decade or so. This article examines protest campaigns concerning traffic policies in four medium-size cities in which such committees have played a pivotal role. Though the ability of such actors to successfully impose t...
Le origini del movimento italiano contro la globalizzazione neoliberista, la sua organizzazione, la sua identità, le sue strategie, le sue interazioni con l’establishment, in particolare con il governo e l’opposizione, in uno dei primi studi di sintesi che ne mette in luce la novità politica.
Gli 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 politche globali, sugli assetti economici, sugli squilibri planetari? E che idea di società veicolano? Risultato della ricerca di un gruppo di s...
