Bridging social movement studies between Global North and Global South

Social movement studies are an interdisciplinary, multifaceted, and broad field transversal to different social and human sciences, which has been growing and consolidating since the late 1970s. Since then, and concurrent with the intensification and pluralization of protests and protestors around the world, the recognition and establishment of social movement studies inside different areas has accompanied the recognition of social movements as legitimate social and political actors. This variety and diversification of perspectives and object of study has helped to include some ‘hidden’ forms of protest which are particularly relevant outside Europe and USA, and specially in authoritarian and semi-democratic countries. Despite this, the field of social movement studies – especially in sociology and political science – still shows difficulties in integrating and dialoguing with other approaches to the study of conflict and resistance. Moreover, dialogue with other epistemological sources and particularly with the Global South’s knowledge about social movements is still hesitant. If we look at the other side of the coin, many studies on resistance, protest and social movements in the Global South reject what are sometimes considered hegemonic – or Eurocentric – social movement theories, which is also problematic. In front of this, and acknowledging the asymmetries in epistemic power relations, in our view, it is not a matter of opposing canter and periphery, or North and South, but of understanding, promoting and developing multiple activist and conceptual entanglements and collaborations. Against this background, thus, this special issue aims to contribute to the dialogue between conceptual perspectives, approaches and fields in the Global North and South around social movements and protest.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Contentious buildings: The struggle against eviction in NYC’s Lower East Side

The article focuses on the mobilization carried out by tenants living in a rent-stabilized building in NYC’s Lower East Side. Their action was a central part of a large and successful struggle against the landlord, blocking his continuous attempts at eviction. The main research question is: what are the reasons of the success of this action? In other words: what has tipped the balance in favor of the tenants in a conflict in which the landlord clearly had stronger economic, political and power resources? The article argues that this success was highly based on the intersection of three main elements: the specific resources of the tenants, the organizational resources of the territory and the institutional and legal configurations. Moreover, the study considers these three levels closely interconnected and mutually influencing each other. Based on the direct observation of the mobilization, on semi-structured interviews and on biographical sources, the article aims to contribute to the understanding of the multifaceted dimensions of the fight against evictions. The article also aims to contribute, theoretically and methodologically, to a relational and interactionist approach both for the study of social movements and of gentrification and to strength the dialogue between the two fields.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

“Everything was possible”: emotions and rerceptions of the past among former Portuguese antifascist activists

In this article, I analyze how former activists opposed to Estado Novo, Portugal's fascist regime, see their past, as well as the emotions and perceptions associated with it. I argue that what Antonio Costa Pinto called a “double legacy” shapes these activists' process of remembering. This means that the legacies of dictatorship in Portugal's consolidated democracy are strongly shaped by how it ended and by how democracy was implemented in the country—that is, through a revolution and a radical “cut with the past.” I use semistructured interviews and open questionnaires to study how former activists are affected by and contribute to building this double legacy. By adopting an interactionist perspective and by bridging the scholarship on transition and oral history, this research aims to strengthen the dialogue between social movement and memory studies, and also stresses the relevance of the co-construction of individual and collective memory.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Safety assessment of masonry arch bridges considering the fracturing benefit

The evolutionary analysis of the fracturing process is an effective tool to assess of the structural bearing capacity of masonry arch bridges. Despite their plain basic assumptions, it must be remarked that elastic analysis and plastic or limit analysis can hardly be used to describe the response and predict damage for moderate or service load levels in masonry arch bridges. Therefore, a fracture mechanics-based analytical method with elastic-softening regime for masonry is suitable in order to study the global structural behaviour of arch bridges, highlighting how the arch thrust line is affected by crack formation, and the maximum admissible load evaluated by means of linear elastic fracture mechanics is larger than the load predicted by elasticity theory. Such an increment in terms of bearing capacity of the arch bridge can be defined "fracturing benefit", and it is analogous to the "plastic benefit" of the plastic limit analysis. The fracturing process, which takes into account the fracture initiation and propagation in the masonry arch bulk, occurs before the set-in of the conditions established by means of the plastic limit analysis. In the present paper, the study of the elastic-fracture-plastic transitions is performed for three monumental masonry arch bridges with different shallowness and slenderness ratios. This application returns an accurate and effective whole service life assessment of masonry arch bridges, and more in general it can be suitable for a great number of historical masonry structures still having strategic or heritage importance in the infrastructure systems

‘Mild Mannered’? Protest and Mobilisation in Portugal under Austerity, 2010–2013

Anti-austerity mobilisations in Southern Europe since 2010 have been widely debated in recent times. Commentators have emphasised the emergence of new political subjects such as the ‘precariat’ organised into loose, IT-connected movements. To what extent do these portrayals reflect the underlying dynamics of this protest cycle, and how do these movements interact with traditional political actors? Using Portugal as a case study, this article maps the cycle of anti-austerity contention between 2010 and 2013 to reveal a more complex picture, where traditional actors, including labour unions and left-wing political parties, emerge as key actors, facilitating and sustaining the discontinuous mobilisation of new forms of activism, while seeking to gain access to new constituencies through them.This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01402382.2014.937587#.VGHwa4XziEo

‘Mild mannered’? Protest and mobilisation in Portugal under austerity, 2010–2013

Anti-austerity mobilisations in Southern Europe since 2010 have been widely debated in recent times. Commentators have emphasised the emergence of new political subjects such as the ‘precariat’ organised into loose, IT-connected movements. To what extent do these portrayals reflect the underlying dynamics of this protest cycle, and how do these movements interact with traditional political actors? Using Portugal as a case study, this article maps the cycle of anti-austerity contention between 2010 and 2013 to reveal a more complex picture, where traditional actors, including labour unions and left-wing political parties, emerge as key actors, facilitating and sustaining the discontinuous mobilisation of new forms of activism, while seeking to gain access to new constituencies through them.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Lo strano caso delle elezioni portoghesi nel sud Europa dell’austerità

Il 4 ottobre 2015 si sono tenute in Portogallo le elezioni legislative. A differenza di quanto avvenuto in Spagna e in Grecia, i ‘partiti mainstream’ – di centro destra, il Partido Social Democrata (PSD) e il Centro Democrático Social-Partido Popular (CDS-PP) e di centro-sinistra, il Partido Socialista (PS) – hanno resistito di fronte alla tempesta della crisi, dell’austerità e di una forte ondata di movimenti sociali. Nonostante insieme questi partiti abbiano ottenuto il peggiore risultato dal 1985, la vera ‘anomalia’ del caso portoghese rispetto a quello di Spagna e Grecia è l’assenza di un nuovo attore politico in grado di mettere in crisi il sistema di partiti consolidato. Tutti e tre paesi con una democratizzazione relativamente recente, un’ipotesi particolarmente convincente individua nel tipo di transizione – l’unica avvenuta attraverso una rivoluzione – la principale causa della stabilità del sistema partitico portoghese. A partire da questa constatazione, nelle prossime pagine si cercherà di seguire il processo politico attraverso il quale si è formato l’attuale governo socialista in Portogallo.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A mobilização estudantil no processo de radicalização política durante o Marcelismo

Este artigo pretende analisar o papel do movimento estudantil no processo de mobilização social e radicalização política que caracterizou os últimos anos do Estado Novo e que antecipou a queda do regime e o processo revolucionário. Durante muito tempo, os estudos sobre o movimento estudantil consideraram a crise de 1969 como o episódio mais saliente nos últimos anos do regime. Entretanto, análises mais recentes têm chamado a atenção para o fenómeno de intensa mobilização e radicalização política que caracterizou o meio universitário, sobretudo a partir do início do anos 70, sob a influência das novas organizações de extrema esquerda, e que antecipou muitas das reivindicações e do próprio repertório de contestação na base do processo revolucionário que se seguiu

A review on acoustic emission monitoring for damage detection in masonry structures

Acoustic emission monitoring is widely used for damage detection in materials research and for site monitoring. Its use for masonry structures is however challenging due to the highly heterogenic nature of masonry and rapid signal attenuation. However, the non-invasive nature and high sensitivity of the technique also provide interesting opportunities, especially for historical masonry structures, to locate damage, identify severity of damage and rate of deterioration. Aim of this paper is to provide an extensive literature review on the application of the acoustic emission technique for masonry structures, addressing specific challenges and recent findings. AE-based methods for damage assessment in masonry are discussed in view of monitoring approaches, wave propagation, source location and crack development under static, fatigue and creep loading. Site applications are discussed for identifying crack location and crack propagation in historical masonry towers, buildings and masonry arch bridges. The paper concludes with future challenges identified in this research field