Francesca Forno

I am a sociologist of collective action and social change, working as an Associate Professor at the University of Trento. My research provides theoretical frameworks and empirical analyses to understand how political participation and social movements evolve in response to contemporary sustainability and democratic challenges. I am recognised for shaping sociological concepts, having authored seminal entries on Sustainable Community Movement Organisations, Lifestyle Politics, Cooperative Movement, Consumer Movements, and Boycotts for major international reference works (the Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements and the Elgar Encyclopedia of Political Sociology).

My core intellectual contribution lies in extending social movement theory beyond institutional and protest politics by focusing on the material politics of everyday life. I show how sustainable consumption and food procurement practices reshape social relations and enable prefigurative socio-ecological change. I study how alternative socio-material worlds are created, maintained, and scaled through initiatives such as ethical consumer groups, solidarity economy networks, and food policy councils. This approach is exemplified by long-term participatory and transdisciplinary research projects, notably Nutrire Trento (Feeding Trento), which I scientifically coordinate and serves as a living lab for food democracy and participatory urban food policy. More broadly, my research bridges sociological theory with environmental studies, economic sociology, and food studies.

Methodologically, I advance a relational and mixed-methods approach, combining in-depth qualitative inquiry (ethnography, participatory research, focus groups) with quantitative surveys and mapping to capture both the depth of lived experience and the broader patterns of diffusion and institutionalisation.

I lead a significant portfolio of competitive research funding, including serving as the Principal Investigator (PI) for the national project "MAKING FOOD DEMOCRACY" (PRIN PNRR). I also coordinate and collaborate in other major national and European research programs (ERA-NET, DUT). I maintain an active role in the international scholarly community as the Co-Chair of the European Sociological Association’s Research Network on the Sociology of Consumption and as Co-Editor of Partecipazione e Conflitto, and I sit on the Editorial Advisory Board of Consumption and Society (Bristol University Press).

I hold the National Scientific Qualification as Full Professor in three core sociological disciplines: General Sociology (14/C1), Political Sociology and Sociology of Law (14/C3), and Sociology of Cultural and Communicative Processes (14/C2)