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This article analyzes the relationship between repertoires of action and collective memory by exploring the re-emergence of feminist self-managed health centers in Italy. These were a key form of action of 1970s feminism in the country, which rapidly disappeared after the institution of state-based Family Health Centers. In the last decades, feminist and transfeminist self-managed health centers have resurfaced in several Italian cities. The present article investigates the mnemonic dynamics underpinning the re-adoption of a form of action from the past in subsequent cycles of mobilization. Social movement scholars have stressed the relatively stable and repetitive character of the repertoire of collective action over time, considering it as part of an implicit memory. The article examines a case in which the discontinuous adoption of a form of action makes its retrieval by subsequent activists the result of active memory work. While the study of social movements and collective memory has grown considerably in the last decades, the study of repertoires remains largely under-researched in this field. Filling this gap, this study shows how, by adopting a symbolically and historically meaningful repertoire, activists re-elaborate their collective identity in the present and establish a relationship with previous cycles. It suggests that further research should investigate the relationship between collective memory and repertoires of action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary anti-gender movements mobilize against gender and sexual equality for which feminist and LGBTQI+ movements have been advocating for decades. We propose the term 'contentious gender politics' to capture this clash of opposing movements concerning bodily integrity, kinship structures, sexual morality, and institutionalization of gender equality. Existing literature has recognized the transnational character of anti-gender movements and identified matching tactics, frames, and allies across different countries. We examine how these transnational movements used similar campaigns to 'localize'. Localization is conceptualized in this research as the process of adapting frames and tactics to different national contexts. To do so, this study examines the diffusion of social movements and anti-gender campaigns by comparing anti-gender movements in Italy and Croatia through critical events between 2013 and 2019. We demonstrate that the localization of these anti-gender movements occurred through a three-step pathway: first, by adapting frames and tactics of left-liberal civil society and progressive movements; second, by forging alliances with existing right-wing parties; and third, by embedding its agenda within formal political and administrative bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this contribution, I reflect on the significance of the Paro Internacional de Mujeres (International Women's Strike) for contemporary Italian feminism. I draw from autoethnographic research within the feminist move - ment Non Una di Meno (Not One Less) to explore how the organization of the strike on March 8, 2017, contrib - uted to the development of the movement's theorization and mobilization strategies. In this piece, I illustrate how di - gital connectivity had a central role in facilitating the expression of solidarity and processes of exchange and 'contamination' (Salvatori 2021) between movements across borders. I describe how the sharing of materials, slogans, hashtags, and songs centred on similar claims contributed to the construction of a transnational political subject. Through the strike, feminists analyzed and denounced how economic and patriarchal violence play out in the context of Italy, while highlighting the systemic and non-exceptional character of these forces within neoliberal societies more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article will discuss the existence of and reasons for a pattern of cross-mobilisation between Italian feminist and LGBT movements in relation to the controversial issue of gestational surrogacy. Gestational surrogacy usually involves a woman who offers to carry out a pregnancy (either on a voluntary basis or through monetary compensation) on behalf of couples (be them heterosexual or homosexual) who are infertile or cannot have children. In Italy gestational surrogacy has acquired prominence in the political debate following the approval of the law same-sex unions in 2016. Immediately within this context important fractures on this issue emerged between and within the feminist and LGBT movements. This article will consider the motivations behind those rifts and map the different proposed solutions to the regulation of gestational surrogacy in Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article builds on ethnographic research concerning the Italian pro-life movement and argues for the use of intersectionality theory in studying conservative women. The article suggests, first, that understanding conservative movements necessitates linking their political claims to the social identities of their activists, as would be the case for any other social movement (e.g., feminism). These social identities are as complex and intersectional as any other: a white, upper-class pro-life activist is no less intersectional than a black feminist from a poor background. Concomitantly, there is no unique feminism, but rather a plurality of feminisms, a diversity that intersectionality facilitates the identification of. The same is true for pro-life movements, but scholars tend to use the singular form to talk about conservatism; in this article, I explore the use of the plural to show that pro-life women do not constitute a monolithic group. On the contrary, these women are diverse in terms of their reproductive stories, their working status, and their class, race, and sexual practices, and this diversity translates into different ways of being pro-life. Second, recognizing this complexity does not suggest a natural link between feminism and conservatism. Alternatively, I suggest that a better understanding of conservative women can only be reached if they are studied on their own terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyses the participation of young people in emerging social movements, focusing on the experience of the Italian Non Una Di Meno (NUDM) movement combatting male violence against women. Challenging scholarly assumptions of growing youth apathy in democracies, the analysis reveals high levels of participation on the part of the younger population engaged in gender-related struggles. Hit by both conservative and austerity policies associated with the economic and political crisis, feminist and LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersexual) Millennials reacted by increasing their involvement in contentious politics. In the protest arena, they have crossed paths with older generations, activating processes of exchange, but also intergenerational tensions. Based on original qualitative data from ten semi-structured interviews with movement activists in Florence and Bologna, this piece of research sheds light on the role of young people in the birth and evolution of NUDM, and the relationship between different generations of activists within this movement. More specifically, it explains continuities and discontinuities between veterans and younger activists' sources of theoretical inspirations, organizational models and mobilization resources, strategic priorities and action repertoires. Millennials embrace intersectional feminism and queer theory; opt for grassroots, horizontal organizing; adopt a conflictual attitude towards the state, and dialogical, introspective dynamics within the movement. Intergenerational disagreements especially relate to sex work, and surrogate motherhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the late 1960s, many western countries witnessed rising social movements that challenged traditional ideas of gender and race. Italy presents a particular case where divided post-war politics, rapid economic growth and strong Catholic tradition created conditions in which intersecting phenomena of feminism and migration challenged conventional order. Elvira Banotti, a feminist writer from Italy’s former colonies, offers one striking example of this new configuration hiding certain women’s narratives from the public debate. Although historians have already looked at the history of Italian feminisms through a transnational lens, a postcolonial perspective is lacking from these discussions. This article seeks to offer a new perspective, employing a postcolonial lens and a focus on Banotti’s narratives to assess how both voices of women engaged in public debate and of women less heard, particularly of migrants, could provide a new postcolonial view of Italian feminisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores the affinities between the work of Frantz Fanon and autonomist Italian feminism. In particular, I argue that theorists like Silvia Federici, Mariarosa Dalla Costa, Giovanna Franca Dalla Costa and Leopoldina Fortunati mobilize Fanon's singular account of colonization in service of the project of feminist liberation. This essay explores the influence, both explicit and implicit, that Fanon's account of the psychosocial effects of colonization bears on the content, scope and frame of autonomist Italian feminism's analysis of social reproduction. I also chart the developments and changes in the work of these thinkers over the past four decades, arguing that their turn towards considering a Marxist–feminist project inside the global movement of capital can be traced to a profound reconsideration of Fanon's work. In doing so, I hope to reposition the debate around Fanon's deeply complicated and problematic analysis of women in his writings, highlighting the ways in which his texts offer critical resources to contemporary feminist theory. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The cultural outcomes of social movements have rarely been explored by scientists, except by very few scholars, even though cultural modifications were actually considered one of the most important goals by the activists. These kinds of outcomes are usually not direct, nor do they have short-term effects; they produce long-range effects that could involve other social spaces and could also produce unanticipated consequences. The principal aim of this work, after a concise theoretical overview on the relationship between social change and social movements, is to investigate through a narrative and qualitative approach the outcomes, successes, and failures of the feminist movement in Sicily. Particular attention will be paid to the relationships between stated goals and achieved outcomes, the unintended and unexpected outcomes of the purposive goals and actions of the activists, and the current social representation of women that in part stems from the feminist struggle. The results of the interviews will be analyzed also in light of some statistical data on the condition of women in Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This brief note critically discusses the description of women and gender studies in Italian universities offered by Pravadelli in a previous issue of this journal. The author argues that the weak institutionalization of these studies, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s, was not the outcome of some 'feminist choice'. Rather it was the consequence both of the Italian institutional framework and of the weak position women academics had within it. The author then goes on to argue, on the basis of empirical information, that, notwithstanding these constraints, Italian women academics have been able to use innovatively the institutional resources available and to create new institutions within the university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author introduces into the theoretical and political reflections of an interdisciplinary Italian group of young feminists, who offer a platform for a new feminism by editing a feminist online-journal, called »adateoriafemminista«. In the face of a particular feminist tradition in Italy -- the idea and practice of »affidamento«, the group searches for a new relationship between theories and political practices and for a productive cooperation between the generations of women as well as between women and men. Not only women's problems but the challenges of local conflicts (in this case Napoli) demand for a redefinition of feminist politics and theories. Since feminism as social movement and as critical theory is seen as an ideal observation post of democracy, the article pleads for a culturalization of politics and a deconstruction of the symbolic in order to enhance the possibilities to freedom and the potential of differentiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses postmodern feminism in Italy and the role of new social movements paradigms in the transformation of the Union of Italian Women. The case of the Union of Italian Women shows the difficulties in merging a new postmodern feminism with traditional firms of political organization and practice. The implications of postmodernism and poststructuralism was explored by feminists since the 1980s for their own practices and ideals. The Union emerged as the new vehicle for the continued political participation of women, with its goal to address social problems, including women's issues.

This article discusses how the issue of precarity has developed into a new catalyst for activism in Italy and demonstrates how this activism is linked to changes in the employment and capitalist manufacturing environment of the 1980s and 1990s. It links events in Italy to the activism of the global anti-neoliberal movement and discusses how various activist movements (the independent Marxist tradition, creative activism, social activism, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT), radical feminist activism) are mobilizing around the issue of precarity. This article focuses specifically on the activist network 'Precari su Marte' (Precarious on Mars) which has been active in Turin since 2005. It demonstrates how the theoretical and practical evolution of this network has led to various outcomes, including experimenting with creative forms of political practice at MayDay demonstrations and questioning the boundaries of gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on the role of women in the social transformation process of the work life in Italy. The Small Copernican Revolution gave way to the feminist movement in the Italian society. Women emerged as the new responsible and reliable workforce. Women were employed in work that did not require much specialization and efforts. The globalization further increased their independence and social visibility.

The article discusses the impact of the Italian Women's Movement on cultural and social change. It states that for Italy one phase of the Women's Movement is over, while new outlooks and new kinds of presence are being devised. A spirit of freedom of choice prevails, almost an entrepreneurial spirit, while, at the same time, small organizing bodies have been growing as strong as in American feminism. Today "corporativism" is a possible outcome in Italy, too. By that the author means, the defense of those areas of society, which women have been taking over in the last ten years. At the same time, the new aspect of the Women's Movement is a revealing symptom of a transformation of politics. Today politics is made by isolated practices or sectorial actions directed towards obtaining specific benefits. This corresponds to a displacement of politics into the social. There is no longer an exclusive center for the diffusion of politics, which is localized in the state and parties and in their apparatus. Politics is everywhere. It is widespread in the social body, fragmented in a plurality of practices and sectorial issues which manifest themselves in a plurality of places.

After a brief mention of the themes prevalent in the feminist movement in various countries, the article focuses on some questions which starting with the centrality of housework in the feminist debate of the 1970s. formed a leitmotif of that period and the early 1980s: above all, the relationship between, on the one hand, the rejection of work as a political practice theorised, particularly in Italy in the 1970s, as a fundamental instrument of struggle and. on the other, women's availability/ unavailability for work. Remaining within an approach which places the stress on women's behaviour, this issue is also analysed in the socio-political context of the early 1980s. Some fundamental moments are identified along the itinerary undertaken by women towards building an identity increasingly independent of a way-of-being functional to the unpaid reproduction of others: not only the rejection of marriage and procreation, but also, under some aspects, the great struggles centering on abortion. lesbianism and prostitution. But if, in this way, women have distanced themselves from a sacrificial rote and if, as is happening increasingly with the so-called 'technological revolution', the possibilities of reproduction at the mass level are becoming further restricted, what will become of human reproduction? What, the author wonders as a provocafion, will become of love? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information about women's movement in Italy. The usual form of women's movement in Italy has been spontaneous gatherings of women formed on the basis of previous friendship or acquaintance, and now, more frequently, informal gatherings growing out of similar work or school situations or common political activity. Today's movement now has a different social origin and a different history of emancipation than the so-called historical feminists of the late 1960's and 1970's who were mostly intellectuals politicized within and through the student movement. Historically, women's collectives in Italy emerged mainly from the student movement. What is most important today in the relationship between Marxism and feminism is the direction which relationships among the movements, the working class movement, and other anticipatable movements should take. Emancipatory struggles involve traditional political practices such as campaigns of information and mobilizing, pressures on the political forces and on the State institutions.

This article discusses the book "Journeys Among Women: Feminism in Five Italian Cities," by Judith Alder Hellman. Tracing it from the 1960s through the 1980s, Hellman studied the various ways that feminist thinking was received and integrated into the political lives of women in 5 cities, Turin, Milan, Reggio, Emilia, Verona and Caserta. According to Hellman, not only were women's groups torn by centrifugal forces, internally generated tensions and contradictions that undermined their unity but external pressures also, operated to demobilize the collectives. The demand that the State fund social services or intervene in previously private spheres was followed by loss of control by the very movements that had brought them to life.