On July 22nd, we participated in the International Sociological Association (ISA)‘s Mid-term Conference del Research Committee No 48 (RC48), hosted by The University of Huddersfield (UK).
In particular, our consortium members were key-note speakers for Session 9 of the Conference, entitled Radical social collective action in the pre- and post-pandemic periods. The discussion was led by Liana Maria Daher (University of Catania).
The panel aimed at analysing old and new radical collective actors and forms of collective behaviours in the pandemic age, taking advantage of very recent literature and approaches. It also aimed at assessing the benefit of using social movement research and literature in analysing them.
During the session, Francesco Antonelli, Santina Musolino and Valeria Rosato (Università degli Studi Roma Tre) presented Violent Extremism and New Collective actors in a Syndemic Society. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the emerging trends in violent extremism linked to the rise of new social movement actors in a syndemic global society, starting from the first results of the PARTICIPATION Project.
Subsequently, Kevin Mac Donald (Middlesex University) introduced Digital extremism reinventing the future? Challenges to the sociology of social movements, a paper on digital extremism considering the new challenges the sociology of social movements that is confronted with a new context where the mediated world is now a social world, and where paradigms of social movement that emerged half-a-century ago struggle to engage with a radically new world.
Then Maria do Céu Pinto Arena (University of Minho) shared Assessing the Threat of Covid 19-related Right-Extremism in the Western Democracies tring to questioning about how significant the pandemic has been for the rise of right-wing extremism, and the long-lasting implications for democratic governments.
Liana Maria Daher, Augusto Gamuzza and Anna Maria Leonora (University of Catania) presented Micro-meso-macro dimensions of religious extremism through the lens of social movement studies. This work aims to offer a useful theoretical exploration of the different casual mechanisms explaining radicalization as a complex social and collective behavioural phenomenon.
At the end of the session, Giorgia Mavica, Davide Nicolosi and Alessandra Scieri (University of Catania) gave their contribution opening a discussion on on the understanding of No-Green pass / No-Vax protests and profiles related to the factors of radicalization and polarization with the paper No-Vax and No-Green pass demonstrations: new and growing waves of extremist protest in Italy.
We want to thank you the International Sociological Association (ISA) for the great opportunity to share some of the results of the PARTICIPATION project with a wide audience of researchers and practitioners.
