Donatella Alessandra Della Porta

Donatella Della Porta is professor of political science, founding dean of the Faculty  of Political and Social Sciences  and Director of the PhD program in Political Science and Sociology at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence, where she also leads the Center on Social Movement Studies (Cosmos). Among the main topics of her research: social movements, political violence, terrorism, corruption, the police and protest policing. She has directed a major ERC project Mobilizing for Democracy, on civil society participation in democratization processes in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. In 2011, she was the recipient of the Mattei Dogan Prize for distinguished achievements in the field of political sociology; in 2021, she received the Research Awards of the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung in recognition of her lifetime’s research activities. In 2022, she has been nominated International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and, in 2023, member of the Accademia dei Lincei. In 2024, she has received the John D. McCarthy Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Scholarship of Social Movements and Collective Behavior, She is Honorary Doctor of the universities of Lausanne, Bucharest, Goteborg, Jyvaskyla, Cyprus and the University of Peloponnese. She is the author or editor of 100 books and more than150 journal articles and 150 contributions in edited volumes (h Index 101; 57000 citations). Among her recent books are: Guerra all’antisemitismo? Il panico morale cme strumento di repressione politica (Altreconomia, 2024) Partecipare e comunicare durante una pandemia (Il Mulino, 2024): Contentious Politics in Emergency Critical Junctures (Cambridge University Press, 2022); Labour conflicts in the digital age (Bristol University Press 2022, with  R. Chesta and L. Cini), The encyclopedia of political and social movements (Wiley, 2^nd edition. 2022, with D. Snow, D. McAdam and B. Klandermans), Resisting the Backlash: Street Protest in Italy (Routledge, 2022), with  Alberto Vannucci, La corruzione come sistema  (Il Mulino, 2021), with Elias Steinhilper (eds.), Contentious Migrant Solidarity (Routledge, 2021), with Lorenzo Cini and Cesar Guzman (eds.),  Student Movements in Late Neoliberalism. Forms of Organization, Alliances, and Outcomes (Springer, 2021);  Social Movements: An introduction, 3^rd edition (Blackwell, 2020); Can Social Movements Save Democracy? (Polity, 2020), Über das Potenzial sozialer Bewegungen Die schoene neue Demokratie. Ueber das potentiale soziale Bewegungen (Campus  Verlag, 2020), with Lorenzo Cini and Cesar Guzman, Contesting Higher Education (Bristol University Press, 2020), with  Pietro Castelli Gattinara, Andrea Felicetti, Konstantinos Eleftheriadis, Discoursive Turns and Critical Junctures, Oxford University Press, 2020).
 

5 Most recent publications

1. Della Porta, Donatella Contentious Politics in Emergency Critical Junctures (Cambridge University Press, 2022),
2. Della Porta, Donatella Labour conflicts in the digital age (Bristol University Press 2022, with R. Chesta and L. Cini),
3. Della Porta, Donatella The encyclopedia of political and social movements (Wiley, 2^nd edition. 2022, with D. Snow, D. McAdam and B. Klandermans),
4. Della Porta, Donatella and Mario Diani, Social Movements: An introduction, 3rd edition, Blackwell, 2020
5. Della Porta, Donatella, Can Social Movements Save Democracy?, Polity, 2020.

Relevant previous projects:

2022-2023 Pro3, “The politics and policy of climate change”, Ministero della Ricerca, approximately 200,000 euros.

2022-2025 “Feminist Movements Revitalizing Democracy in Europe”, European Commission, Horizon Europe, approximately 2 million di euros.

2021-2025. “Enacting citizenship and solidarity in Europe from below”, Volkswagen Stiftung approximately 500000 euros.

2021-2023, “Partecipare e comunicare nella Pandemia”, Regione Toscana, approximately 200,000 euros.

2021-2023 “Transnational Political Contention in Europe”, TRAPOCO, European commission, approximately 300,000 euros.

2016-2022 “Corruzione politica e criminalità organizzata”, Regione Toscana, approximately 800,000 euros.

2018-2020 “Labour organization in Industry 4.0”, Regione Toscana, approximately 60,000 euros.

2016-2020 DEMOS, SNS 150,000 euros.

2015-19, CRY_OUT, Miur, 150,000 euros.

2015-2016 “The Contentious Politics of Education”, SNS 50,000 euros.

2011-2016. “Democracy in Europe and the Mobilization of the Society” European Research Council, Advanced Grant, 1,800,000 euros.

2011-2016. Anticorrp, European Commision, 7^th FP project approximately 8,000,000 euros.

2006-2010. Start Project, University of Pennsylvania, US Dollars 150,000.

2003-2006. “Democracy in Europe and the mobilization of the society, financed by the EU, 1,000,000 euros.

2003—2005, “Democrazia discorsiva”, Ministero per l’Università e la ricerca scientifica, 60,000 euros.

2002—2005, “The Contentious Politics of Unemployment in Europe: Political Claim-Making, Policy Deliberation and Exclusion from the Labour Market”,European Commission. 70,000 euros.

Since September 2001, “The Transformation of Political Mobilisation and Communication in European Public Spheres”, European Commission 100,000 euros.

December 2001-December 2003, “Partecipazione politica e rappresentanza: I comitati spontanei dei cittadini e le politiche pubbliche dei governi locali”, Ministero per l’Università e la ricerca scientifica.  50,000 euros.

1998-2001, “The Transformation of Environmental Activism”, European Union. Lire 50,000,000

RESEARCH INTERESTS AND Phd SUPERVISION

Methodological competences include in-depth interviews, focus groups, participant observation, life histories, protest event analysis, surveys.

Donatella della Porta is open to supervising students in areas related to:

• Social movements
• Political participation
• Democratic theory
• Political corruption
• Political parties
• Political violence

Supervisees SNS

1. Caciagli, Carlotta (defended)
2. Sigillò, Ester (defended)
3. Aksahu, Huda (defended)
4. Ana, Alexandra (defended)
5. Stefanowski, Ivan (defended)
6. Steinhilper, Elias (defended)
7. Balunovic, Filip (defeded)
8. Bazurli, Raffaele (defeded)
9. Ruzhantsou, Aljaksandr (defeded)
10. Selivanova, Galina (defeded)
11. Christou, Stella (defeded)
12. Goldman, Bartosz (defeded)
13. Gunzelmann, Hans-Jonas (defeded)
14. Meier, Larissa (defeded)
15. Westerheuser, Linus (defeded)
16. Bonu, Giada (defeded)
17. Hofstetter, Joana (defeded)
18. Kralj, Karlo (defeded)
19. Lundstedt, Mans (defeded)
20. Reinhard, Tobias
21. Adami, Angela (submitted)
22. Barone, Anastasia
23. Burc, Rosa
24. Lo Piccolo, Alessandra (submitted)
25. Mannino, Carla
26. Stagni, Federica (submitted)
27. Saenko, Valerii (submitted)
28. Wathne, Sophia (submitted)
29. Elmasry, Sarah
30. Eren, Batuhan
31. Stragapede, Maria Nicola
32. Cugnata, Giuseppe
33. Franceschelli, Maria Chiara
34. Platania, Giuseppe
35. Velotti, Lorenzo
36. Carl, Florian
37. El Mauttaki, Ismail
38. Filippini, Stefano
39. Freire Saray, Rosario
40. Lipari, Giuseppe
41. Svennson, Anders
42. Van der Horst, Jorinde
43. Karazarifi, Lydia