BEYOND THE LONGEST REVOLUTION: THE IMPACT OF THE ITALIAN WOMEN'S MOVEMENT ON CULTURAL AND SOCIAL CHANGE.

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.