Discourse and Practice of Violence in the Italian Extreme Right: Frames, Symbols, and Identity-Building in CasaPound Italia

An investigation of the neo-Fascist organization CasaPound Italia, focusing on how political violence is framed in its public discourse, and on the role it plays as a constitutive element of the group’s collective identity. Starting from the conceptualization of violence in Italian Fascism, we focus on CasaPound’s practices, discourse, and ideology. The analysis combines findings from nineteen in-depth interviews with CasaPound members and participant observation at protest events and activities. This paper disentangles CasaPound’s relationship with political violence, differentiating its discursive, aesthetic, and identity-building dimensions. Although in the external discourse of the group, violent activities are only accepted as a tool of self-determination and self-defence, we find that a cult of violence inspired by traditional Fascism emerges from the semiotic repertoire mobilized by CasaPound, and is reiterated by means of experiences of collective socialization based on violence

Jeux D'échelles. Une Histoire Internationale

International audienceLe livre, paru en 1996 sous la direction de Jacques Revel, a été traduit en Italie en 2006 par les éditions de la Viella sous le titre . Cette occasion a semblé propice à un retour historiographique et épistémologique sur l'expérience microhistorique entre la France et l'Italie. Il s'agit d'entrecroiser les réflexions d'un historien français et d'un philosophe italien, pour chercher à mettre en évidence, à distance, les présupposés théoriques de la microhistoire, et à mesurer les déplacements opérés

Direct Social Actions in Extreme Right Mobilisations. Ideological, strategic and organisational incentives in the Italian neo-fascist right

Social movements scholarship has increasingly turned to the study of direct social actions (DSAs) in times of economic hardship. This paper broadens this perspective to extreme right organisations. Combining a Political Claims Analysis of newspaper articles and online press releases, with a qualitative discussion of online propaganda material, we explore the engagement in direct social activism by three neo-fascist organisations in Italy: Forza Nuova, Fiamma Tricolore and CasaPound Italia (1996 -2015). Our findings suggest that their propen-sity to direct social activism, rather than being exclusively related to economic distress, responds to a broad set of ideological, organisational and strategic incentives. Ideologically, DSAs are linked to the interpretation of the relationship between ideas and action of historical Fascism and of parts of the Italian neo-fascist tradition. Organisationally, DSAs serve as a tool to build support and solidarity, especially at the local level. Strategically, they are used to frame activism as a direct intervention in defence of interests of native peoples, and against political elites accused of being unresponsive to the needs of citizens. Our results offer a first empirical observation of the use of DSAs by extreme right actors, paving the way for comparative work at the cross-national level and on different arenas of engagemen

The appeal of neo-fascism in times of crisis. The experience of CasaPound Italia

The present works sets up to analyze the relationship between radical right activism and the unfolding of the financial crisis in Europe, investigating the extent to which the current economic circumstances have influenced right-wing movements’ political supply and repertoires of action. Using the case study of the Italian neo-fascist group CasaPound, and based on a mix of historiography and ethnographic methods, the present work systematically analyzes the ways in which the group tackles the economic crisis. We find that the crisis offers a whole new set of opportunities for the radical right to reconnect with its fascist legacy, and to develop and innovate crisis-related policy proposals and practices. The crisis shapes the groups’ self-understanding and its practices of identity building, both in terms of collective rediscovery of the fascist regime’s legislation, and in terms of promotion of the fascist model as a ‘third way’ alternative to market capitalism. Even more importantly, the financial crisis plays the role of the enemy against which the fascist identity is built, and enables neo-fascist movements to selectively reproduce their identity and ideology within its practices of protest, propaganda, and consensus building

L’expérience sublime de la science. Pour une épistémologie de l’infigurable

L’enthousiasme de la découverte Depuis quatre siècles, environ, on sait qu’il n’y a pas de science sans expérience. Le terme même de «science» a depuis lors acquis un autre signification. Elle ne veut plus signifier connaissance tout court, mais seulement un certain type de connaissance, fondée sur la précision du raisonnement et sur l’expérience. L’expérience est le laboratoire de la science. Elle est son empirisme de fond, son empirisme de dernière instance, non seulement comme banc d’essai..

L’expérience sublime de la science. Pour une épistémologie de l’infigurable

L’enthousiasme de la découverte Depuis quatre siècles, environ, on sait qu’il n’y a pas de science sans expérience. Le terme même de «science» a depuis lors acquis un autre signification. Elle ne veut plus signifier connaissance tout court, mais seulement un certain type de connaissance, fondée sur la précision du raisonnement et sur l’expérience. L’expérience est le laboratoire de la science. Elle est son empirisme de fond, son empirisme de dernière instance, non seulement comme banc d’essai..

Diana Napoli, Michel de Certeau. Lo storico “smarrito”

Nessuno può dire con precisione chi fosse intellettualmente Michel de Certeau: uno storico? Un religioso? Uno studioso della mistica? Un epistemologo della storia? Un antropologo? Un appassionato di psicanalisi? Era infatti un po’ tutte queste cose insieme e forse l’appellativo di “studioso” – nel senso proprio e ormai antico del termine – sarebbe probabilmente il modo più adeguato per definirlo. Apprezzato a destra e a sinistra, dai cattolici e dagli atei, dai religiosi e dai laici, la sua f..

Diana Napoli, Michel de Certeau. Lo storico “smarrito”

Nessuno può dire con precisione chi fosse intellettualmente Michel de Certeau: uno storico? Un religioso? Uno studioso della mistica? Un epistemologo della storia? Un antropologo? Un appassionato di psicanalisi? Era infatti un po’ tutte queste cose insieme e forse l’appellativo di “studioso” – nel senso proprio e ormai antico del termine – sarebbe probabilmente il modo più adeguato per definirlo. Apprezzato a destra e a sinistra, dai cattolici e dagli atei, dai religiosi e dai laici, la sua f..