Direct Social Action, Welfare Retrenchment and Political Identities. Coping with the Crisis and Pursuing Change in Italy


Abstract


In the context of the economic crisis, research on collective action has increasingly focused direct social actions, that escape the traditional state-addressing repertoires of action and focus on a self-changing society: boycotts, solidarity action, political consumerism, alternative finance (e.g. crowdfunding, food banks), collective purchasing groups, occupations, self-management, free legal advice and medical services, to mention just a few. This article aims to address the issue of direct social action as a response to welfare retrenchment in the context of the economic crisis in Italy, focusing in particular on actors with a background in protest and social movement milieus. How do these actors keep protest and direct social action together? How do they justify the choice to engage in direct social action? How do they make sense of the contradiction between service-providing and claim-making? And what are the consequences of the choice of these forms of action on their identity? The article answers these questions through the analysis of 20 qualitative interviews to representatives of organisations engaging in direct social actions in Italy. The analysis shows that investigating the transition in the form of action as a political process, rooted in the decline of political participation, and aiming at reconstructing identity and politicisation, is helpful to understand how actors address the risk of substitution and to assess the outcomes of direct social action.

DOI Code: 10.1285/i20356609v12i2p382

Keywords: collective identity; direct social action; economic crisis; repertoire of action; welfare re-trenchment

References


Agyeman, J. et al. (2016). Trends and directions in environmental justice: from inequity to everyday life, community, and just sustainabilities. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 41.

Barkin, D. (2012). Communities constructing their own alternatives in the face of crisis: Economic globalization in mountain regions. Mountain Research and Development 32:S12–S22.

Beck, U. (2000). I Rischi Della Libertà. L’individuo Nell’era Della Globalizzazione. Bologna: Il Mulino.

Bennett, A. (1999). Subcultures or neo-tribes? Rethinking the relationship between youth, style and musical taste. Sociology 33:599–617.

Blee, K.M. and Taylor, V. (2002). Semi-structured interviewing in social movement research. Methods of social movement research 16:92–117.

Bosi, L. and Zamponi, L. (2015). Direct Social Actions and Economic Crises: The Relationship between Forms of Action and Socio-Economic Context in Italy. Partecipazione e Conflitto 8:367–391.

Bosi, L. and Zamponi, L. (2019). Resistere in Tempi Di Crisi. I Percorsi Dell’azione Sociale Diretta. Bologna: Il Mulino.

Breines, W. (1989). Community and Organization in the New Left, 1962-1968: The Great Refusal. Rutgers University Press.

Buechler, S.M. (1990). Women’s Movements in the United States: Woman Suffrage, Equal Rights, and Beyond. Rutgers University

Press. Burnham, P. (2017). Neo-liberalism, Crisis and the Contradictions of Depoliticisation. Partecipazione e Conflitto 10:357–380.

Burnham, P. (2001). New Labour and the politics of depoliticisation. The British Journal of Politics & International Relations 3:127–149.

Carcano, M. (2016). Mutualismo e nuovo welfare. In: Antoniazzi, S., Carcano, M. and Zaninelli eds. Il Mutualismo. Per Un Nuovo Stato Sociale. Milano: Jaca Book, pp. 85–112.

Castells, M., Caraça, J. and Cardoso, G. eds. (2012). Aftermath: The Cultures of the Economic Crisis. Oxford University Press.

De Angelis, M. (2017). Omnia Sunt Communia. On the Commons and the Transformation to Postcapitalism. London: Zed Books.

Diani, M. (2015). The Cement of Civil Society. Cambridge University Press.

Dobernig, K. and Stagl, S. (2015). Growing a lifestyle movement? Exploring identity-work and lifestyle politics in urban food cultivation. International journal of consumer studies 39:452–458.

English, P. et al. (2016). Convergence on Crisis? Comparing Labour and Conservative Party Framing of the Economic Crisis in Britain, 2008-14. Politics & Policy 44:577–603.

Ferrera, M., Fargion, V. and Jessoula, M. (2012). Alle Radici Del Welfare All’italiana: Origini e Futuro Di Un Modello Sociale Squilibrato. Venezia: Marsilio.

Flinders, M. and Buller, J. (2006). Depoliticisation: Principles, tactics and tools. British Politics 1:293–318.

Forno, F. and Graziano, P.R. (2014). Sustainable community movement organisations. Journal of Consumer Culture:1469540514526225.

Gamson, W.A. (1995). Constructing social protest. In: Johnston, H. and Klandermans, B. eds. Social Movements and Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 85–106.

Gamson, W.A. (1992). Talking Politics. Cambridge University Press.

Giugni, M. (2004). Personal and Biographical Consequences. In: Snow, D. A. et al. eds. The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements. pp. 489–507.

Goldstone, J.A. and McAdam, D. (2001). Contention in Demographic and Life-Course Context. In: Aminzade, R. R. et al. eds. Silence and Voice in the Study of Contentious Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 195–221.

Holloway, J. (2002). Change the World Without Taking Power: The Meaning of Revolution Today. Pluto Press.

Jasper, J. (2004). A strategic approach to collective action: Looking for agency in social-movement choices. Mobilization: An International Quarterly 9:1–16.

Jasper, J. (2015). Introduction: playing the game. In: Duyvendak, J. W. and Jasper, J. eds. Players and Arenas: The Interactive Dynamics of Protest. 1 edition. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, pp. 9–35.

Jasper, J. (1997). The Art of Moral Protest: Culture, Biography, and Creativity in Social Movements. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Kousis, M., Giugni, M. and Lahusen, C. (2018). Action Organisation Analysis: Extending Protest Event Analysis using Hubs-retrieved Websites. American Behavioral Scientist 62:739–757.

Kousis, M. and Paschou, M. (2017). Alternative Forms of Resilience. A typology of approaches for the study of Citizen Collective Responses in Hard Economic Times. Partecipazione e Conflitto 10:136–168.

Leach, D.K. and Haunss, S. (2009). Scenes and Social Movements. In: Johnston, H. ed. Culture, Social Movements, and Protest. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., pp. 255–276.

LIVEWHAT (2014). Integrated Report on Policy Responses to Crises. [Online]. Available at: http://www.livewhat.unige.ch/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/LIVEWHAT_D2.4.pdf.

Magalhães, P.C. (2012). After the bailout: responsibility, policy, and valence in the Portuguese legislative election of June 2011. South European Society and Politics 17:309–327.

Marcon, G. (2004). Le Utopie Del Ben Fare: Percorsi Della Solidarietà: Dal Mutualismo al Terzo Settore, Ai Movimenti. L’ancora del Mediterraneo.

Martin, G. (2009). Subculture, style, chavs and consumer capitalism: Towards a critical cultural criminology of youth. Crime, Media, Culture 5:123–145.

McAdam, D. (1999). The Biographical Impact of Social Movements. In: Giugni, M., McAdam, D. and Tilly, C. eds. How Social Movements Matter. Minneapolis: University Of Minnesota Press, pp. 117–146.

Melucci, A. (1989). Nomads of the Present: Social Movements and Individual Needs in Contemporary Society. London: Hutchinson Radius.

Membretti, A. (2003). Leoncavallo: Spazio Pubblico Autogestito: Un Percorso Di Cittadinanza Attiva. Milano: Mamme del Leoncavallo.

Milbourne, L. (2013). Voluntary Sector in Transition. Policy Press.

Pavolini, E. et al. (2015). From austerity to permanent strain? The EU and welfare state reform in Italy and Spain. Comparative European Politics 13:56–76.

Pianta, M. (2012). Nove Su Dieci. Perché Stiamo (Quasi) Tutti Peggio Di 10 Anni Fa. Roma-Bari: Laterza.

Polletta, F. (1999). “Free spaces” in collective action. Theory and society 28:1–38.

Polletta, F. and Jasper, J.M. (2001). Collective Identity and Social Movements. Annual Review of Sociology 27:283–305.

Sacchi, S. (2015). Conditionality by other means: EU involvement in Italy’s structural reforms in the sovereign debt crisis. Comparative European Politics 13:77–92.

Scharpf, F. (2011). Monetary Union, Fiscal Crisis and the Preemption of Democracy. Cologne: Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.

Schlosberg, D. and Coles, R. (2016). The new environmentalism of everyday life: Sustainability, material flows and movements. Contemporary Political Theory 15:160–181.

Staggenborg, S. (1998). Social Movement Communities and Cycles of Protest: The Emergence and Maintenance of a Local Women’s Movement. Social Problems 45:180–204.

Taylor, V. (1989). Social Movement Continuity: The Women’s Movement in Abeyance. American Sociological Review 54:761.

Taylor, V. and Van Dyke, N. (2004). ‘Get up, stand up’: Tactical repertoires of social movements. In: Snow, D. A. et al. eds. The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements. pp. 262–293.

Taylor, V. and Whittier, N. (1992). Collective identity in social movement communities: Lesbian feminist mobilization. In: Morris, A. D. and Mueller, C. M. eds. Frontiers in Social Movement Theory. New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 104–129.

Thorhallsson, B. and Kirby, P. (2012). Financial crises in Iceland and Ireland: does European Union and euro membership matter? JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies 50:801–818.

Tilly, C. (1978). From Mobilization to Revolution. Mcgraw-Hill College.

Vitale, T. (2009). Discorso pubblico e legittimazione dell’innovazione sociale. In: Vicari Haddock, S. and Moulaert, F. eds. Rigenerare La Città. Pratiche Di Innovazione Sociale Nelle Città Europee. Bologna: il Mulino, pp. 132–162.

Whittier, N. (2016). Aggregate-level biographical outcomes for gay and lesbian movements. In: Bosi, L., Giugni, M. and Uba, K. eds. The Consequences of Social Movements. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 130–156.

Yates, L. (2015). Everyday politics, social practices and movement networks: daily life in Barcelona’s social centres. The British journal of sociology 66:236–258.

Zamponi, L. (2012). ‘Why don’t Italians Occupy?’ Hypotheses on a Failed Mobilisation. Social Movement Studies 11:416–426.


Full Text: PDF

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.
کاغذ a4
Bookmark and Share


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 3.0 Italia License.