The squatting of physical spaces is an important form of protest in European social movements. From
the 1970s onwards, activists began to occupy abandoned buildings transforming them in spaces
where to experiment alternative lifestyles and elaborate radical politics. In Italy, squatted spaces,
usually named “Self-Managed Occupied Social Centers” and first established in the 1970s, became
the backbones of national and transnational social movements that emerged late in the 1990s. Far
from being dismissed, this form of collective action continues to be used in order to create spaces of
resistance and struggle in societies. Through a diachronic perspective, the meeting discusses: the
characteristics and ideological orientation of Social Centers; interactions between Social Centers and
public institutions; the role of Social Centers in social movement scenes.

Prof. Gianni Piazza is Professor of Political Science at the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Catania. He
works on squatted spaces, territorial conflicts and social movements in Italy. Among his recent publications:
Which models of democracy? Internal and external decision-making processes of Italian Social Centers in a
comparative study (2011, CSPS-WP Series); Voices of the Valley. Voices of the Straits. How protest creates
communities (2008, with Donatella della Porta).

Dr. Alice Mattoni is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Sociology, University of Pittsburgh. She works on
media practices, precarious workers and social movements in Italy. Among her recent publications: Media
Practices and Protest Politics. How Precarious Workers Mobilise (2012); Mediation and Social Movements
(2012, with Bart Cammaerts and Patrick McCurdy, eds.).