From global to glocal. Sustainable Community Movement Organisations (SCMOs) in times of crisis

ABSTRACT

The paper is aimed at understanding how collective action has been organised, sustained and transformed in the wake of the 2008 economic crisis by looking at three different Italian cases of Sustainable Community Movement Organisations (SCMOs): the Gruppi di Acquisto Solidale (solidarity-based consumer groups or solidarity purchasing groups – SPGs), Addiopizzo (a relatively new anti-racket organisation which literally means ‘goodbye to protection money’ or ‘pizzo’ solicited by organised crime) and Rimaflow (an Italian factory ‘recovered’ by its workers in 2013). More specifically, the paper aims to discuss whether, how and why Sustainable Community Movement Organisations have grown even in times of crisis. Data for the analysis come from semi-directive interviews with key actors from the three SCMOs, surveys among activists and participant observation. Our findings suggest that pre-existing crises (social and political) have provided a context for new networks of solidarity-based economy to emerge – such as in case of SPGs and Addiopizzo – but the economic crisis has either provided a way to consolidate such experiences (as in the two cases mentioned above) or it has provided an opportunity for new actions to emerge and rapidly consolidate – such as in the case of Rimaflow.

KEYWORDS:

• Sustainable community movement organisations
• alternative economic practices
• social movements
• political consumerism
• Italy

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to Sebastian Koos and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable and useful comments and suggestions to improve a first version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributor

Francesca Forno is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Trento. Her research interests include political consumerism and sustainable community movement organisations. She has published on civic participation and social movements, conducting research on political consumerism, grassroots initiatives on social eco-innovation and alternative food networks (AFNs). Her work has appeared in the following journals, among others: the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the Journal of Consumer Culture, the International Journal of Consumer Studies, South European Politics and Society, British Food Journal, and collections of essays published by Oxford University Press, Wiley-Blackwell, and Zed Books.

Paolo Graziano is Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of Padua and Research Associate at the European Social Observatory, Brussels. He has published several authored and edited volumes and journal special issues on Europeanisation, comparative social policy, political consumerism and sustainable community movement organisations. His work has appeared or will soon appear in journals such as: Governance, European Journal for Political Research, West European Politics, Journal of European Public Policy, Journal of European Social Policy, Journal of Social Policy, International Political Science Review, Journal of Consumer Culture, Global Social Policy, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

Notes

1 The survey was conducted in 2011–2013 within a larger research project entitled ‘Inside Relational Capital’ under the scientific supervision of Francesca Forno, Cristina Grasseni and Sivana Signori.

2 The survey was supported by the Swedish Research Council under Grant [2010-1309]. Data was collected by Francesca Forno, Carina Gunnarson and Giulio Pizzuto, in October-December 2011, and in April 2012.

3 A total of 64 cases were found, spanning from 1982 to the present day. The vast majority has emerged after the 2008 crisis. Six of these cases, however, are no longer active, while two are struggling to survive. Emilia Romagna and Tuscany host the greatest number of cases, respectively 17 and 15 (Veneto has 7, Lombardy 6, Lazio 5, Marche Umbria Campania and Sicily 3 each, Friuli and Puglia 1 each) (Orlando 2015).