Protesting for justice and democracy: Italian Indignados?

Abstract

This article analyses anti-austerity protest in Italy as a sort of ‘functional equivalent’ of the Indignados movements in other countries. While the typical forms of action of these movements, the acampada, were not very widespread in Italy in 2011, there were mobilisations for social justice and participatory democracy which indeed resonated with the frames that developed in Spain, Greece and the United States. Research based on surveys at three protest events indicates in fact that, in Italy too, protest concerning social issues is linked with extremely low and declining levels of trust in institutions, but also with calls for more political intervention to address social inequalities. After briefly presenting the methodology used in the surveys, the authors empirically substantiate this statement by looking at the political positions as well as the framing processes of the protestors interviewed. While similar capitalist evolution and cross-national diffusion explain the similarities, some peculiar features of the Italian movement are linked with the specific political opportunities present in the Italian case.

Keywords:

• protest
• Italian politics
• democracy

Notes

1. See http://occupywallst.org/.

2. Unfortunately, there are no recent data on ‘images of the EU’ among Italians. In 2001, however, only 13% (according to the Eurobarometer) agreed that the EU represents ‘A way to protect the rights of citizens’, though 45% agreed that ‘It is a way to create a better future for young people’, and 26% that it was ‘A way to create jobs’ (see http://ec.europa. eu/public_opinion/cf/showtable.cfm?keyID=14&nationID=8,&startdate=2001.05&enddate= 2001.05).

3. For an analysis of the social construction of the working class, see Thompson (1980); and for the importance of symbolic construction in new social movements see Melucci (1996). Hunt, Benford and Snow (1994) provided a theoretical framework for the identity formation through framing process.

4. Gerhards and Rucht call this function ‘cultural integration’ (1992, 559).

5. Gamson claims that ‘collective action frames are injustice frames’ (1992, 68).

6. It is interesting to note that ‘tradition’ is evoked also in the relatively new event of the Euromayday: one of the participants answered that they participated ‘for traditional reasons and because I believe that the 1 May Labour Day commemoration is important’.

7. Interestingly, this frame is also apparent in the traditional trade unions-lead protest events, such as the general strike. As one of the participants observed, ‘separate agreements should stop, we need trade-union unity’; and one in the May Day demonstration in Florence said, ‘trade unions are to be blamed as well’.

8. Finally, 6.6% of respondents (also) gave answers that could not be classified.

9. A master frame is the dominant frame in a specific context and emerges when different actors come to see problems in the same way (Snow et al. 1986; Andretta 2005).

10. Source: http://www.cgil.it/Archivio/EVENTI/Sciopero%20Generale%20%206%20maggio%202011/volantino%20A4%20ultimo%204colori%20QRcode.pdf.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Donatella della Porta

Donatella della Porta is professor of sociology in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute and professor of political science at the Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane (on leave of absence). At the EUI, she has launched COSMOS (the Consortium on Social Movement Studies). She is now starting a major ERC project Mobilizing for Democracy, on civil society participation in democratization processes in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. She is co-editor of the European Political Science Review (ECPR-Cambridge University Press). In 2011, she was the recipient of the Mattei Dogan Prize for distinguished achievements in the field of political sociology, and she directed the Demos project, devoted to the analysis of conceptions and practices of democracy in social movements in six European countries. Her main fields of research are social movements, the policing of public order, participatory democracy and political corruption.

Massimiliano Andretta

Massimiliano Andretta is assistant professor at the University of Pisa, where he teaches political science, comparative politics, political communication, political participation and social movements and international relations. He has participated in several national and international research projects.