How activists make decisions within Social Centres? A comparative study in an Italian city

The Social Centres in Italy are autonomous groups set up by left-wing radical activists, who occupy and/or self-manage unused buildings, where they organize political campaigns, social and countercultural activities. In this article, a typology of decision-making and internal democracy models, based on decisional method and preferences’ treatment adopted (Consensual vs. Majoritarian), is here proposed and tested through the binary comparison of two Social Centres, as empirical cases, in the same city (Catania in Sicily), with the most dissimilar characteristics (campaigns/activities, political ideological orientations, national networks, legal position, attitude towards institutions). The research, methodologically founded on participant observation, the analysis of self-produced documents and a set of semi-structured interviews, provided unexpected findings, entailing an explanation through the procedure of re-identification and/or cultural recollocation of Pizzorno. As a consequence, the diverse models of decisionmaking and internal democracy adopted by activists of the two Social Centres seem to be depended on their different ends, collective identities and political-ideological orientations

Keywords: Squatting, social movements, social centres, democracy model, decision-making.

Gianni Piazza, Come decidono gli attivisti all’interno dei Centri Sociali? Uno studio comparato delle occupazioni in una città italiana in "PARTECIPAZIONE E CONFLITTO" 1/2012, pp 118-140, DOI: 10.3280/PACO2012-001006