https://clb.org.hk/sites/default/files/archive/report/International%20Strike%20Report%2020240501%20Final.pdf

31 November 2023-30 Oct. 2025. 

“RESCRISES- RESisting the CRISES: forms of political engagement by low-skilled workers” 

PRIN Bando 2022 PNRR, Prot. P2022N2WL9; Principal Investigator. 

Abstract

ENG

European societies have experienced multiple crises in recent years, from the 2008 Great Recession to the covid-19 pandemic. Such crises have exacerbated the living conditions of many social categories. Low-skilled workers, that is, workers who perform work that is either routine or manual, have been among the most severely hit. While pronounced effects of the crises have been observed on a variety of life dimensions, the consequences for our democracies remain largely unexplored.

In this framework, RESCRISES focuses on the political dimension of the crises and investigates whether low-skilled workers reacted to the covid19 pandemic by engaging in forms of political resistance or whether they resigned from politics tout court. Joining theories of political behavior, contentious politics, media studies with those related to economic sociology RESCRISES aims to understand different forms of participation by low-skilled workers: electoral and extra-electoral individual activities, collective and connective actions. It particularly examines whether political engagement by low-skilled workers and the ensuing inequalities are related to differences in: grievances/resources; types of trade unions and grassroots organizations mobilizing workers; local institutional arrangements.

Empirically, RESCRISES focuses on low-skilled workers in the logistic and the metal industry sectors in three Italian provinces –Verona, Firenze and Bari - and on the 2019-2023 timeframe to cover the pre and core period of the covid19 crisis. The project combines quantitative and qualitative methodologies and joins three levels of analysis: (1) The contextual (macro) level to examine the role of local political institutions and local welfare regimes through secondary sources; (2) the organisational (meso) level that investigates collective actions, offline and online organizational activities and inter-organizational networks through a protest event analysis, an organizational survey and online organizational data; (3) the individual (micro) level investigating political engagement, individual characteristics and resources through semi-structured interviews

The synthesis of the results is of utmost relevance to our societies as political engagement is crucial for an inclusive and active citizenship that characterizes democratic processes and institutions. Any shrinking effect on political engagement is a “serious democratic problem” as it lowers trust in democracy and the acceptance of a democratic form of government.

2008- present
Collective Actions in the Labour Market Field / Azioni collettive dei lavoratori
Katia Pilati, Principal Investigator; with Andrea Signoretti, University of Trento,  Sabrina Perra, University of Cagliari

ENG European countries have witnessed the reappearance of economic and labor protests in the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis. Within the frame of this project, we aim to investigate, inter-alia, the following issues: the repertoire of collective action, including protests and institutional action that workers and their representative bodies engaged in; the characteristics of collective actions including the forms, the issue claimed, the scale and duration of actions; the presence of labor movements and other dynamics at work; the organizational field of actors supporting workers’ collective actions, including the analysis of trade unions and other new emerging groups; the alliances within the organizational field, its antecedents, features and outcomes, to understand how coalition building can facilitate the representation of workers, especially outsiders. Empirical analyses draw on mixed methods research: first, drawing on the well-established literature on Protest Event Analysis (PEA), we work on data collected from newspaper sources on collective action across all Italian regions since 2008. The project will also adopt a comparative perspective, by analyzing the French case and other European countries. Second, the project focuses on sector-based comparative case studies conducted within an historical perspective by placing workplace analyses into the wider market, institutional and societal environment. We intend to start with analyses of the sectors in Italy where workers experiencing precarious employment conditions, that traditional labour organizations find difficult to reach, are overrepresented such as logistics and the agricultural sector.
IT Molti Paesi europei hanno assistito alla ricomparsa di proteste economiche e  riguardanti i temi del lavoro all'indomani della crisi economica del 2008. Nell'ambito di questo progetto, ci proponiamo di indagare le seguenti questioni: il repertorio delle azioni collettive, comprese le proteste e le azioni istituzionali in cui si sono impegnati i lavoratori e i sindacati; le caratteristiche delle azioni collettive, comprese i tipi di azione, i temi rivendicati, la portata e la durata delle azioni; la presenza di movimenti del lavoro; il campo organizzativo, compresa l'analisi dei sindacati e dei nuovi gruppi emergenti; le alleanze tra i sindacati e le altre organizzazioni, per capire come la costruzione di coalizioni possa facilitare la rappresentanza dei lavoratori, in particolare degli outsider, i precari. Le analisi empiriche si basano su un metodo di ricerca che utilizza dati empirici misti: in primo luogo, utilizziamo un dataset costruito utilizzando il metodo conosciuto come analisi degli eventi di protesta (PEA). Tali dati sono stati raccolti utilizzando fonti giornalistiche e riguardano le azioni collettive di protesta che si sono svolte in Italia dal 2008 in poi. Il progetto adotterà anche una prospettiva comparativa, analizzando il caso francese e altri Paesi europei. In secondo luogo, il progetto si concentra su studi di casi settoriali condotti in una prospettiva storica, inserendo le analisi dei luoghi di lavoro nel più ampio contesto di mercato, istituzionale e sociale. Intendiamo analizzare i settori in cui sono sovrarappresentati i lavoratori precari che le organizzazioni sindacali tradizionali hanno difficoltà a raggiungere, come la logistica e il settore agricolo.

LINK HERE