Political Violence

The group on Political violence brings together social movement scholars working on different – yet often related – aspects of political violence, such as riots and urban violence, processes of radicalization and de-radicalization, ethnic conflict, guerrilla warfare, insurgency, terrorism, rebellion, and civil war. It investigates radicalization process in various types of movements, from religious to ethnic and from left-wing to right-wing. Within this group, political violence is interpreted not as a sui generis and isolated phenomenon, but as part of broader processes of political contention, and placed within the context of social, political, and cultural conflict. The group subscribes to methodological pluralism, placing emphasis on the inherent relevance and intersection of the international, the national, and the local, in the analysis of the breakout, evolution, and ending of political violence. It investigates the shifts from non violent action to political violence and vice-versa, as well as shifts within different forms of political violence across time and space (including research on civil wars). It grounds its research on the relational interplay between socio-political context (macro-level), organization dynamics (meso-level), and individual motivations (micro-level).

Main Projects

  • Democratic Governance, Environmental and Climate Challenges, and Societal Transformation: Deliberation, Inclusiveness, and Citizen Empowerment for Sustainable Food Systems (DEMETRA): is a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Program. The project main aim is to single out means to alleviate tensions between democratic governance and climate and sustainability transitions through an analysis of new deliberative participatory processes (DPPs) such as citizens’ assemblies and e-governance. Director: Lorenzo Bosi
  • Displaced Scholars in Italy: is a pilot project seeking to investigate migration trajectories (pre-during-post displacement stages) of academic researchers who flee from their countries of origin. Drawing  upon qualitative research - and specifically open-ended interviews conducted with displaced academic researchers currently based at Italian universities - the research project will help us to apprehend and analyze forced migration within higher education and how it impacts on scholars’ scientific work, socio-political participation and citizenship. Co-coordinators: Lorenzo Bosi, Sevgi Doogan and Ester Gallo.