Reclaiming Power: Bridging Social Movements and Industrial Relations in Labour Mobilisation

This conference builds upon a renewed interest in class issues among social movements and labour scholars. The event seeks to expand the dialogue between the two fields of study by inviting researchers and scholars who actively integrate frameworks from both areas in their research. It also intends to explore synergies between different disciplines by focusing on the dynamics of labour mobilisation in contemporary contexts, with particular attention to the (re-)emergence of precarious and exploited workers as central actors in these struggles. Participants will shed light on workers’ strategies for collective action and their role in reshaping labour politics, considering their interaction with various social actors, including mainstream and grassroots unions. This event will provide a platform for in-depth engagement with intersectional and transnational perspectives, contributing to a deeper understanding of the complexities of labour mobilisation in a globalised era.

Programme

Monday 26th

11:00 – 11:30 Welcome and introduction
Room: Sala Altana

11:30 – 13:30 Parallel sessions

Panel 1 - Putting labour struggles in their context.

Chair: Alba Arenales Lope (Scuola Normale Superiore) 

Discussant: Clelia Li Vigni (Scuola Normale Superiore) & Martin Portos (Scuola Normale Superiore)

Room: Aula Simone del Pollaiolo

Marco Betti  (Università di Teramo), Marcello Pedaci (Università di Teramo), Guglielmo Meardi (Scuola Normale Superiore)
Strengthening the Power of Marginalized Migrant Workers: The Case of Prato Industrial district

Daniela Chironi (Scuola Normale Superiore)
Contemporary Workers’ Struggles: The ex-GKN Plant in Florence as a Case Study

Lorenzo Cini (Università Federico II Napoli), Andrea Signoretti  (Università di Trento)
Putting worker mobilizations in (the local) context. Actors, interests, and power relations in the logistics sector in Italy

Paola Imperatore  (Università di Pisa), Massimiliano Andretta  (Università di Pisa)
Industrial Relations at a Crossroads: Ecological Transition and Labour Power in the Automotive Sector

Donatella della Porta (Scuola Normale Superiore), Marco Antonelli (Scuola Normale Superiore)
A chain of worker’s struggles: how labour protests spread in time and space 

Panel 2 – Labour struggles in the logistic sector.

Chair: Vincenzo Maccarrone (Scuola Normale Superiore)

Discussants: Devi Sacchetto (Università di Padova) & Angelo Moro (Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia) 

Room: Sala Altana

Mattia Frapporti (Università  di  Bologna), Adam Mrozowicki (University of Wroclaw), Maurilio Pirone (Università  di  Bologna) and Szymon Pilch (University of Wroclaw) 
"Work Hard, Have Fun, Make History"? Struggles within Amazon in Italy and Poland

Kyoko Tominaga (Ritsumeikan University)
Weapons of the precarious: self-employed small business activists in Japan

Andrea Bottalico  (Università Federico II Napoli), Giuseppe D’Onofrio (Università di Salerno)
“We Were Nothing Before”. The Emergence of Logistics Workers’ Resistance and Unionization in Southern Italy

Francesco Massimo (Università di Bologna)
The politics of (de)mobilisation. Rethinking collective action from the point of view of (Amazon's) management

13:30 - 15:00 lunch break

15:00 - 17:00 Opening Session and Keynotes: Gabriella Alberti (University of Leeds), Katia Pilati (University of Trento) (Room: Sala Altana)

17.00 – 17.15 Break

17.15 - 19.00 - Roundtable (Room: Sala Altana) - interdisciplinary perspectives on Labour Conflict

Chair: Bill Roche (University College Dublin)

Katia  Pilati  (Università  di  Trento),  Sabrina  Perra (Università  di  Cagliari), Donatella Della Porta (Scuola Normale  Superiore), Guglielmo Meardi (Scuola  Normale  Superiore), Beverly Silver (John  Hopkins University; visiting at Ciampi Institute), Giulia Frosecchi (Università di Firenze) 

19:30 Aperitivo - Cibreo Restaurant.

Tuesday 27th

9:00– 11:00 Parallel sessions

Panel 3 - Transnational labour struggles.

Chair: Lucia Amorosi (Scuola Normale Superiore) 

Dicussants: Nicolò Deiana  (Scuola Normale Superiore) & Romane Cauqui (Scuola Normale Superiore) 

Room: Aula Simone del Pollaiolo

Lorenzo Lodi (Scuola Normale Superiore) 
De-fetishising unions in global production: scrutinising workers’ power and labour weakness in the automotive global value chain in Morocco and Tunisia

Darragh Golden (University College Dublin) 
Transnational labour activism in a supranational context

Vincenzo Maccarrone (Scuola Normale Superiore) 
Power Resources in Global Labour Governance

Stephen Gaffney (Université libre de Bruxelles) 
A short march through the institutions? Trans-national efforts to politicise unemployment in the EU during the 1990s

Panel 4 - Mapping and analysing labour protests.

Chair: Marco Antonelli (Scuola Normale Superiore) 

Discussants:  Lorenzo Zamponi (Scuola Normale Superiore) & Lorenzo Bosi (Scuola Normale Superiore) 

Room: Sala Altana

Costanza Galanti (Università di Padova) 
What triggers protests for public healthcare? The role of visible attacks, service popularity and users-workers alliances

Ivaylo Dinev  (Centre for East European Studies) et al.*
Labour movements’ strategies in the context of multiple crises: a comparative perspective of Europe

*_{Noah Vangeel, Ciprian Panzaru, Christina Korkontzelou, Rositsa Makelova, Massimiliano Andretta, Paola Imperatore, Karolien Lenaerts, Gabriela Negoiță, Dimitra Kofti, Lyuboslav Kostov} 

Sabrina Perra (Università di Cagliari), Ruth Milkman (CUNY), Katia Pilati (Università di Trento) 
Strikes Transformed? Comparing Patterns Of Strike Activity In Italy And The United States, 2008-2018

Alba Arenales Lope (Scuola Normale Superiore) 
Mobilising Power Resources in Hospitality: Strategic Use of Pickets, Strikes, and Legal Action in Spain and the UK

11:00 – 11:30 Break

11:30 – 13:30 Parallel sessions

Panel 5 - Feminist and Intersectional perspectives on labour struggles.

Chair: Alba Arenales Lope (Scuola Normale Superiore)

Discussants: Greta Rossi (Scuola Normale Superiore) & Daniela Chironi (Scuola Normale Superiore)

Room: Aula Simone del Pollaiolo

Mahienour El-Massry (Arab Council for the Social Sciences) 
Weaving Together Struggles: How the Samanoud Textile Strike Reinvigorated Feminist–Labor Solidarity in Egypt

Lucia Amorosi (Scuola Normale Superiore), Sarrah Kassem (Scuola Normale Superiore) 
Materialist Intersectionality. Recomposing workers’ fragmented identities at workplaces and beyond

Giada Bonu Rosenkranz  (Scuola  Normale  Superiore), Anastasia  Barone  (Scuola  Normale  Superiore), Inés Campillo 
Poza (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), and Elin Peterson (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) 
Bringing Anti-Capitalism Back In. Framings of Feminist Advocacy and Issues in Italy and Spain

Lucia Pradella (King’s College London) 
Logistics of Solidarity: Palestine, Egypt, and Immigrant Worker Struggles in Italy

Panel 6 -Migrant Mobilisation in the Agro-industry.

Chair: Vincenzo Maccarrone (Scuola Normale Superiore) 

Discussants: Irina Aguiari (Scuola Normale Superiore) & Valeria Piro (Università di Padova)

Room: Sala Altana

Giulia Magnano (Università di Bologna)
Migrant labour in the organic agri-food sector: intermediation, resistance and power dynamics

Karin Astrid Siegmann (International Institute of Social Studies), Stijn Kluck (Dutch Agro-Ecology Network)
Crosspollinating movements for food, migrant and labour justice across the Atlantic

Giulio Iocco (ReOrient onlus/Osservatorio Fairwatch) 
Migrant Workers, Agroecological Farming & Alternative Food Networks in Italy: Exploring achievements and challenges of new forms of social mobilisation for decent work & radical food system change

13:30 - 14:30 Lunch break

14:30 – 16:30 Parallel sessions

Panel 7 - Labour struggles in the care sector.

Chair: Lucia Amorosi (Scuola Normale Superiore) 

Discussants: Stella Christou  (Scuola Normale Superiore) & Sabrina Marchetti (Università di Venezia) 

Room: Aula Simone del Pollaiolo

 Adam Mrozowicki (University of Wroclaw), Luca Villaggi (Università di Padova) 
Workers’ power and the ethos of care: comparing workers’ organising in care and social assistance in Poland and Italy

Laboratorio Welfare Pubblico
Labour Organising in Italy’s Outsourced Social Care Sector

Ayaz Qureshi (University of Edinburgh) 
Political mobilisation of medical professionals in Pakistan

Panel 8 - Migrant labour and collective action.

Chair: Marco Antonelli (Scuola Normale Superiore) 

Discussants: Chiara Milan (Scuola Normale Superiore) & Iraklis Dimitriades (Scuola Normale Superiore) 

Room: Sala Altana

Davide Però (Università di Padova), Valeria Piro (Università di Padova)
Migrant Workers’ Representation and the Appeal of Independent Grassroots Unionism. Insights from Britain and Italy-

Rasmus Ahlstrand (Lund University) 
Solidarity in migrant worker mobilisation: Syndicalist unionisation in Sweden

Nicola Quondamatteo  (Università di Padova)
Organising on the margins of a multicultural company town: migrant labour, trade unions, and alternative solidarities in Monfalcone 

ore 16.30-17.00 - Room: Sala Altana - Conclusions and directions for future research
 

Photo: Skyler Gerald by Unsplash