CFP: BASTA! Patterns of Protest in Modern Italy: History, Agents and Representation - London 11/12
The Association for the Study of Modern Italy (ASMI) 23.11.2012-24.11.2012, London, University of London - Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies (IGRS)
Deadline: 15.07.2012
The great number and variety of protests around the globe that have defined the year 2011, provide the focus of the Annual ASMI conference 2012 on the topic of protest in Italy: How does Italy protest - throughout its history and in the present? How do individuals, organisations and institutions express their opposition and protest?
Which forms of protest (e.g. civil, political, folkloristic, intellectual, ideological, organisational, legal, illegal) have been established with time and which other forms have developed recently?
What are the issues, topics and conditions that make Italians turn to protest?
The Oxford Handbook of Political Science (2007) defines protest in everyday language as the "symbolic and/or physical expression of dissent to something or somebody". In this broad sense, protest can occur in apparent and hidden, and manifest and virtual/digital forms and places.
Protest can be articulated for example individually, collectively, spontaneously, organised and through political, social, cultural or media institutions and campaigns, and citizens. Throughout Italy's modern history there have been political and social counter-movements such as the brigantaggio during the Risorgimento, the centurioni during the 1830s and 1840s, the movimento divisionista italiano of the 1880s and 1890s and the resistenza during Fascism, or revolutions such as the Neapolitan Revolution of 1799. In recent years the country has experienced forms of protest and opposition such as civil protest (e.g. demonstrations, internet groups), media opposition from within the system and from outside (e.g. television shows such as Anno zero and publications such as Il fatto quotidiano), terrorism (e.g, brigate rosse) against and for a variety of social and political issues, for example globalization (e.g. G8), and anti-capitalist movements (e.g. Occupy movement), governmental policies (e.g. girotondi, il popolo della pace, il popolo viola), corruption (e.g. mani pulite), the Mafia, the Vatican or the commitment to women's rights, sustainability and protection of the environment.
The purpose of the conference is to bring together scholars from different disciplines and to investigate the historical, political, sociological and cultural roots and forms of expression of protest and protest movements and their dynamics and reception in Italy - topics surprisingly unexplored by academia. Issues like the contents, strategies, agents, participants, promoters, social dynamics or social and political consequences of protest have been hardly analysed so far.
Possible topics, themes and historical periods include
- Forms and spaces of protest (e.g. social activism, civil, organised, spontaneous, legal, illegal, and digital/virtual protests, demonstrations, campaigns, the arts, rites and traditions such ascarnevale) and their development since the Risorgimento
- Agents of protest (e.g. organisations such as political parties, labour unions, media and cultural institutions or social movements, individuals such as Beppe Grillo, Roberto Saviano and Peppino Impastato, collective forms such as pupils' and students' protests, protests of minorities (e.g. women, foreigners, homosexuals)
- Impact of protest (e.g. on politics, legislation, individuals)
- Historic periods during which protest occurred more strongly (e.g. Risorgimento, 1968, since 2011)
- Protest movements and organisations, their history and strategies (e.g. il popolo della pace, centri sociali)
- The emergence of a national civil society, democratic participation and the impact/relevance of protest (e.g. demonstrations, upheavals, revolutions, "grassroots" movements)
- Protest and opposition in and throughout the arts and media (e.g.literature, painting, caricatures, political cabaret, theatre, film, television, internet, music)
- Academic re-consideration of protest and its differentiation between revolution, riots, upheavals, resistance, opposition, terrorism
- Theoretical approaches in the re-consideration of protest in Italy (e.g. Gramsci, Foucault, Habermas, new social movement theory)
Scholars and researchers from a variety of disciplines (e.g. Italian studies, film, media and communication studies, literature studies, cultural studies, politics, sociology, history, law) are invited to contribute papers discussing case studies, overview papers exploring developments in protest types/categories as well as contributions of theoretical approaches to the topic.
All speakers whose proposals are accepted will be required to register for the conference and pay the conference fee by 1 November 2012.
Please send your 200-250 word proposals and information about your institutional affiliation and status (100 words) by 15 July 2012 via Email to:
- Dr. Rada Bieberstein, University of Tuebingen, Institute of Media Studies,
Email: rada.bieberstein [at] uni-tuebingen.de
- Anne Bruch, M.A., University of Hamburg, Department of History,
Email: anne.bruch [at] uni-hamburg.de
[Cross-posted, with thanks, from H-Soz-u-Kult]