Gianni Piazza

Local contention, global framing: The protest campaigns against the TAV in Val di Susa and the bridge on the Messina Straits

Abstract Two cases of long-lasting environmental conflicts in Italy – one against the construction of a high-speed railway in Val di Susa, the other against the building of a bridge across the Messina Straits – are analysed. Recent social scientific literature has considered such conflicts as either Not in My Back Yard (NIMBY), egotistical and anti-modernist, or as a progressive defence of the quality of life in a territory. A characteristic of both these strands of literature is to consider interests as exogenous. We concentrate instead on the definition of the identity of the protestors, the stakes of the conflict, and the solutions to them as they emerge through cognitive conflicts.

Between political opportunities and strategic dilemmas: the choice of ‘double track’ by the activists of an occupied social centre in Italy

Abstract According to the political opportunity structure (POS) framework, mobilization tends to intensify when channels of access to the authorities open, leading the protest actors to hope for success. This happened during the protest campaign aimed at the reopening of the occupied Social Centre ‘Experia’ in Catania (Italy), after the eviction by police, because unexpectedly moderate centre-left political actors supported mobilization and the centre-right local government accepted to put the issue on the institutional agenda; nevertheless the social centre was not reopened. In order to explain why the mobilization was unsuccessful, we analysed the protest campaign combining the POS framework with the approach to strategic dilemmas by James Jasper; if opportunities and restraints of the political system influence the choices and behaviours of unconventional actors, in their turn the actions and decisions made by movement activists affect the POS. In this case, the social centre activists filtered the constraints and opportunities of the local political system through their cognitive lenses and faced some dilemmas (Naughty or Nice?, Extension, Shifting goals), whose strategic choices extended or reduced these constraints and opportunities, thus affecting the opening and closure of the POS. The failure of the solution attempted by the social centre activists to keep both options of the various dilemmas, i.e. the strategy of ‘double track’, demonstrates how it is very difficult to be successful by maintaining dilemmas rather than making the strategic choices they demand, when the local institutional POS is substantially closed.

‘Locally unwanted land use’ movements: the role of left-wing parties and groups in trans-territorial conflicts in Italy

In recent years in Italy there have been numerous conflicts related to locally unwanted land use (‘Lulu’). Some have taken on a political dimension that goes beyond the local, becoming ‘trans-territorial’, as they link with similar conflicts elsewhere. This article analyses the role of various left-wing parties and groups (moderate, radical, antagonist) in these conflicts, examining four specific Lulu movements: those against the high-speed rail line (TAV) in Val di Susa; those against the bridge over the Strait of Messina; those against the extension of the US military base in Vicenza (Dal Molin); and those against the construction of a refuse site in the district of Chiaiano (Naples). Analysis of these cases shows that independent variables related to the well-established ‘political opportunity structure’ (POS) model do not fully explain the role played by the various organisations of the left. Other factors ultimately have greater explanatory power: the policy-making that triggers Lulu conflicts, from ...

More than Four Decades of Squatting: Cycles, Waves and Stages of Autonomous Urban Politics in European Cities

This chapter aims at comparing different periods of squatting in nine European cities. Due to the disparities in the data and development of each squatters’ movement, the analysis is mainly focused on the Central-Northern Europe cities (Berlin, Copenhagen and Paris), on the one hand, and the Southern Europe cities (Madrid, Barcelona, Seville and Rome), on the other. This geographical distinction finds significant similarities among the squatters’ movement of each group of cities. Piazza and Martinez summarise the nature, duration, patterns and continuity/discontinuity of the protest cycles, waves of contention and the specific stages that signalled the evolution of the squatters’ movements. They also identify socio-spatial and political opportunity structures in order to explain the cyclical shifts of squatting.

Come decidono gli attivisti all’interno dei Centri Sociali? Uno studio comparato delle occupazioni in una città italiana

The Social Centres in Italy are autonomous groups set up by left-wing radical activists, who occupy and/or self-manage unused buildings, where they organize political campaigns, social and countercultural activities. In this article, a typology of decision-making and internal democracy models, based on decisional method and preferences’ treatment adopted (Consensual vs. Majoritarian), is here proposed and tested through the binary comparison of two Social Centres, as empirical cases, in the same city (Catania in Sicily), with the most dissimilar characteristics (campaigns/activities, political ideological orientations, national networks, legal position, attitude towards institutions). The research, methodologically founded on participant observation, the analysis of self-produced documents and a set of semi-structured interviews, provided unexpected findings, entailing an explanation through the procedure of re-identification and/or cultural recollocation of Pizzorno. As a consequence, the diverse models of decisionmaking and internal democracy adopted by activists of the two Social Centres seem to be depended on their different ends, collective identities and political-ideological orientations