COURSE PROGRAM

Schedule

6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th February 2017

Social movements have been affected by transformations in democracy and, at the same
time, they have contributed to them. They have not only challenges the dominant liberal
model of democracy, but also developed alternative theories and practices oriented towards
ideals of participation and deliberation. The aim of this seminar is to investigate the complex
relations between normal and contentious politics, focusing on some new trends, but also
some silences in social movement theories.

The aim of the seminar is to stimulate participation in debates around recent research and
theorization on new areas in social movement studies. By presenting research-in-progress
the seminar also aims at linking theoretic and empirical dimensions. By involving SNS faculty
and post-doctoral fellows, it is expected to introduce a plurality of points of view on both
theory and research. Participants are expected to have read the assigned papers and be
ready to discuss them as well as the implication of the various topics for their own work.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES

Monday, 6th Febraury 2017: 11am-1p & 2-4pm

Session 1: Memory in movements (with the participation of Lorenzo Zamponi)

Readings

D. della Porta, Legacies, Memory and Movements, forthcoming.

D. della Porta, Eventful times, in Where did the revolution go?, forthcoming.

Zamponi, L. 2013. Collective memory and social movement. In D. Snow, D. della Porta, B.
Klandermans and D. McDam (eds.), Blackwell Enciclopaedia on Political and Social
Movements, Blackwell.

Session 2: Communication in/by movement (with the participation of Emiliano Trer and
Marco Deseriis)

readings:

Della Porta, Donatella, 2010, Communications in Movements. Social Movement as Agents of

Participatory democracy, in Information, Communication and Society, 14 (6), 800-819.
Mattoni, A. & Trer, E., 2014. Media Practices, Mediation Processes, and Mediatization in
the Study of Social Movements. Communication Theory, 24(3), pp.252271.

Additional readings

Della Porta, D. & Mattoni, A., 2012. Cultures of Participation in Social Movements. In A.
Delwiche & J. Jacobs Henderson, eds. The Participatory Cultures Handbook. London:
Routledge, pp. 170181.

Tuesday, 7th Febraury 2017: 11am-1p & 2-4pm

Session 3: Frames and narratives (with the participation of Pietro Castelli and Andrea
Felicetti)

Readings

Donatella della Porta and Dieter Rucht, Meeting Democracy, Cambridge University Press,
Chapter 1 and 2

D. della Porta, The Charlie Hebdo debate, forthcoming

Session 4: Repertories of action (with the participation of Loris Caruso)

Readings

William Sewell, 1996, Political Events as Structural Transformation, in Theory and Society,
25, 841-881.

Donatella della Porta, Eventful Protests, Global Conflicts, in Distinktion. Scandinavian Journal
of Social theory, no. 17, 2008, pp. 27-26.

Wednesday, 8th Febraury 2017: 11am-1p & 2-4pm

Session 5: Knowledge in Movements (with the participation of Elena Pavan)

Readings:

Donatella della Porta and Elena Pavan, 2016, Knowledge in Movements , forthcoming

Session 6: Space (with the participation of Lorenzo Bosi)

Readings:

della Porta, D., Maria Fabbri and Gianni Piazza, 2013, Sites of Mobilization: Putting protest in
place: contested and liberated spaces in three campaigns, in Spaces of Contention, Edited by
Walter Nicholls, Byron Miller, and Justin Beaumont, Ashgate

2
Auyero, Javier. 2006. Spaces and Places as Sites and Objects of Politics. Pp. 564-78 in The
Oxford Handbook of Contextual Political Analysis, edited by Robert Goodin and Charles Tilly.
New York: Oxford University Press.

Walter Nicholls, Byron Miller, and Justin Beaumont 2013. Introduction: conceptualising the
spatiality's of social movements. in Spaces of Contention, Edited by Walter Nicholls, Byron
Miller, and Justin Beaumont, Ashgate.

Thursday, 9th Febraury 2017: 11am-1p & 2-4pm

Session 7 & 8 (11-13 and 14-16): Parties and movements (with the participation of Ken
Roberts)

Readings:

Della Porta, Donatella, Joseba Fernandez, Hara Kouki and Lorenzo Mosca, Movement Parties
in Times of Austerity, Polity, 2017, chapter 1 and 6.

Roberts, Kenneth 2013 Market Reform, Programmatic (De-)Alignment, and Party System
Stability in Latin America. Comparative Political Studies. 46(11) 14221452.

Roberts, Kenneth (2016) Populism and Social Movements. In: della Porta, Donatella and
Diani, Mario (eds.). Oxford Handbook on Social Movements. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Friday, 10th Febraury 2017: 11am-1p & 2-4pm

Session 9: Shifting paths of repression (with the participation of Kivanc Atak)

Readings

Della Porta, D., Clandestine Political Violence, Cambridge University Press, chap. 2.

Della Porta, D. and Tarrow, S., 2011. Interactive Diffusion: The Coevolution of Police and
Protest Behavior With an Application to Transnational Contention. Comparative Political
Studies, xx, 1-34.

Session 10: Social structures and contentious politics (with the participation of Lorenzo Cini)

readings:

D. della Porta, Late neoliberalism and its discontents, Palgrave, Introduction and Conclusion.

Cini, Lorenzo, Daniela Chironi, Eliska Dropalova e Federico Tomaselli, "Refocusing the
Analysis of Mobilizations, Capitalism in Social Movement Research" forthcoming in
Anthropological Theory.

3
 BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES
November 4
11-13: Session 1. Liberal and Illiberal Democracies: An introduction
Reading:
Della Porta, D. and M. Keating (eds.). The paradox of democracy, in Report of the
International Panel on Social progress. https://comment.ipsp.org/chapter/chapter-9-
paradoxes-democracy-and-rule-law
14-18: Session 2. Policing research: Surveillance, repression and the academia. A round
table withJoseph Saunders (Human Rights Watch); Francesca Coin (University of Venice);
Ilyas Saliba (WZB Berlin)
Reading:
Della Porta, Donatella, Can democracy be saved?, Oxford, Polity Press, 2013, cap. 8
November 7
11-13. Session 3. Democracy in the South.
Guest speaker: John Holloway, Autonomous University of Puebla talking on Now is the
moment to learn hope: The grammar of revolt and research (paper available)
November 14: Challenges to representative Democracy
11-13: Session 4. Postdemocracy
Readings:
Colin Crouch, Postdemocracy. Polity, chap. 1, 4, 5, 6
Della Porta, Donatella, Can democracy be saved?, Oxford, Polity, 2013, chap. 1, 2,
14-16: Session 5. Counter-democracy
Readings :
Rosanvallon Pierre, Counter-democracy. Politics in an age of distrust..Cambridge :
Cambridge University Press. Introduction and part 1
November 18th: Democracy and the Market
14-16: Session 6. Democracy and the Market. Guest Speaker : Lucio Baccaro, University of
Geneva
Armiggeon, Klaus and Lucio Baccaro 2012. Political Economy of the Sovereign Debt
Crisis: The Limits of Internal Devaluation, Industrial Law Journal 41(3): September
2012.
November 21. Democracy and society
11-13 Session 7. Social movements and participation
Readings:
Della Porta, Donatella, Can democracy be saved?, Oxford, Polity Press, chap. 3

4
14-16 Session 8. Deliberation in movements
Readings:
Della Porta, Donatella, Can democracy be saved?, Oxford, Polity Press, 2013, cap. 4
Della Porta, Donatella, Social Movements in Times of Austerity. Oxford, Polity Press, 2015,
cap. 5.
November 28. Democracy and innovation
15-17 Session 9. Deliberative experiments
Readings:
Smith, Graham, 2010, Democratic Innovation. Designing Institutions for Citizens
Participation, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, chap. 1 e 5.
Della Porta, Donatella, Can democracy be saved?, Oxford, Polity Press, 2013, cap. 4
17-19. Session 10. Researching deliberative experiments (guest speaker: Andrea Felicetti)
Readings :
Bchtiger, A., Grnlund, K. & Setl, M. 2014. Towards a New Era of Deliberative Mini-
Publics. In: KIMMO GRNLUND, A. B., MAIJA SETL (ed.) Deliberative Mini-
Publics: Involving Citizens in the Democratic Process. ECPR Press.
Goodin, R. E. & Dryzek, J. S. 2006. Deliberative impacts: the macro-political uptake of
mini-publics. Politics & Society, 34, 219.
November 29. Constitutionalism from Below
15.30-19.30. Session 11. Movements of the World, Guest Speakers :Jon Gunnar Bernburg,
University of Iceland ; screening of the documentary : Blueberry Soup: How Iceland
Changed the Way we Think about the World, discussion with the film-maker Eileen Jerret.
December 5. Democracy and globalization
11-13 Session 13. Europeanization and the democratic deficit
Readings :
Della Porta, Donatella, Can democracy be saved?, Oxford, Polity Press, 2013, cap. 6
Della Porta, Donatella et al, Neoliberalism and it Discontents, Palgrave, 2016, chapter 1.
14-16 Session 14. Global conceptions of democracy (Guest speaker Raffaele Marchetti,
Luiss)
Marchetti, Raffaele. 2011. "Models of Global Democracy: In Defence of Cosmo-
Federalism." In Global Democracy: Normative and Empirical Perspectives, edited by
Daniele Archibugi, Mathias Koenig-Archibugi and Raffaele Marchetti, 22-46. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Marchetti, Raffaele. 2016. Global Strategic Engagement. States and Non-State Actors in
Global Governance. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, chap. 6.
December 13: Democracy and Communication
5
11-13 Session 12.

14-16 Session 13.

(Guest speakers : Alice Mattoni and Elena Pavan)
Readings:
Couldry, Nick (2008) Digital storytelling, media research and democracy: conceptual
choices and alternative futures. In: Lundby, Knut, (ed.) Digital Storytelling, Mediatized
Stories: Self-Representations in New Media. Digital formations(52). Peter Lang
Publishing, Inc., New York, NY, USA, pp. 41-60. ISBN 9781433102745
Della Porta, Donatella, Can democracy be saved?, Oxford, Polity Press, 2013, cap. 5
Papacharissi, Zizi (2015): Affective publics and structures of storytelling: sentiment, events
and mediality, Information, Communication & Society.