Political Sociology as a Connective Social Science: Between Old Topics and New Directions

Our aim is to identify the characters of a real political sociology as a «connective social science» that studies political phenomena by creating fruitful connections with other perspectives. Modern politics may be defined as the set of activities designed to regulate human coexistence in a given social context through a prearranged establishment of a certain order. Such an order can only be guaranteed if a social group is able to acquire the power guaranteed by the exclusive use of force. From this point of view, modern politics, to be explained, must be observed in its complexity. Reasoning on the relationship between social and political structures (and between sociology and political science) is not enough. Political analysts should also pay attention to other dimensions, aware that politics is not made only of social and political-institutional relations. It is also made ​​of individuals, cultures, economic arrangements, territories. For this reason, political sociologists should also consider the typical explanatory variables of psychology, anthropology, economics and geography. The classic topics of political sociology are well known. It is a discipline that, through different approaches, has historically focused on the forms and relations of power wi­thin the territorial dimension of the nation state. The trans-nationalization of social processes, the frequent financial and economic crises, the explosion of new war zones, the crisis of classical political actors ha­ve led to new studies on the relationship between society and politics in a global society, redefining the boundaries of political sociology. The issues are always the same, but the lens through which they are investigated is different. global financial crisis, Ettore Recchi and Justyna Salamońska on the important topic of the European identity in the context of the Euro-Crisis, Juan Dìez Medrano on the individual and collective responses to crisis by providing an analytical framework for the study of social resilience, Klaus Eder on the so-called paradox of political participation that can equally produce civil and uncivil outcomes. The issue will be concluded with my article on the logical structures of comparison in social and political research

The Concept of De-Politicization and Its Consequences

none1ABSTRACT: This Issue collects contributions on the theme of the De-Politicization of [representative] politics in the era of neoliberalism. We consider De-politicization as a set of changes in the ways power is exercised. These modes downgrade the political nature of decision-making and, through representation, give legitimacy to actors apparently less able to bear witness to the presence of the “political”. Politics appears less responsible for the decisions that affect the regulation of society and the impact of their costs and failures on economic and cultural processes. Political choices conditioned by the market acquire the character of necessity and inevitability. The attempts to legitimize the investigation of public choices through deliberative arenas governed by non-political parameters, based on information and knowledge, are not external to this aspect of de-politicization. A discursive de-politicization determines the convergence of preferences into a single, albeit diverse, cognitive construction of reality (frame for public actions). It is no coincidence that the prevailing paradigm in the contemporary liberal political economy has been narrated in the form of a “single thought” demonstrating a clear cultural hegemony of the trans-nationalized and financialized capitalism. Policies become inevitable responses lacking rational alternatives to the limits of development set by previous responses, with which contradictions and conflicts had previously been appeased. De-politicization is probably one of the causes of the growing distance between institutional politics and civil society in Western countries and, unavoidably, it determines certain consequences. We think that, on the social side, some of the consequences can be found in the political indifference on the part of citizens (political apathy) and, by contrast, in growing forms of non-institutional social and political participation through the practices of social resilience and resistance; on the political side, we think that one of the consequences is the birth, everywhere in Europe, of populist parties and movements that, in their rhetoric, emphasize the intention to give back sovereignty to the people. The aim of this issue is to highlight these phenomena which, also in a critical, provocative way, can contribute to the description of the many aspects of this process through both theoretical and empirical work.openDE NARDIS, FABIODE NARDIS, Fabi

Political Opportunity Structures, Social Movements, and the De-Politicization of Contemporary Politics. Some Reflections Starting from Caruso's Article on the Political Process Approach to the Analysis of Local Mobilizations

none1noAbstract: Starting from Caruso’s attempt to criticize the utility of the Political Opportunity Structures approach to the study of local mobilizations, in this paper we try to contextualize the discourse on the relationship between social movements and political institutions and actors within the broader phenomenon of the de-politicization of politics. With this concept we mean a set of changes in the ways power is exercised. These modes downgrade the political nature of decision-making and, through representation, give legitimacy to actors apparently less able to bear witness to the presence of the “political.” In particular we focus on the various ways through which de-politicization has been consolidated. In the European context, a “government,” a “discourse,” and a “social” de-politicization have, for example, been observed. If the political decisions are determined by extra-political actors, the target of social movements also moves elsewhere, since the goal of social movements is still to influence the decision-making process. Political parties of the depoliticized politics are no longer promoters of policies, but rather translators of decisions taken outside the bodies of political representation. This condition makes them impervious to social issues and a good relationship between parties and movements become very difficult. In these context is normal that the basis on with POS approach has been elaborated are also changed.opende Nardis, FabioDE NARDIS, Fabi