The book Framing Solidarities in Times of Multiple Crises: Social Movements across European Cities

Recently, the book Framing Solidarities in Times of Multiple Crises: Social Movements across European Cities co-edited by Helge Schwiertz, Donatella della Porta, Franz Bernhardt, alongside researchers at the Peace Institute —Mojca Pajnik and Marko Ribać—was published by Palgrave Macmillan.

The book, structured in five chapters, explores how urban social movements and activist initiatives in Denmark, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Slovenia have framed, advocated for, and ultimately enacted various forms of solidarity in the fields of migration, (health) care, and housing. The intertwining of multiple crises, exacerbated by public authorities’ responses during the Covid-19 pandemic, required social movements to rethink their relationships with the state and other institutional actors, while articulating diverse forms and expressions of solidarity in the public sphere.

The book demonstrates how different civil, autonomous, and institutional social movement organisations, rearticulate the hegemony of dominant discourses that fundamentally misinterpret the nature of societal problems. Through the framing of solidarity, various activist initiatives establish a new—radical—imagination for addressing and resolving these social problems. Activist collectives and initiatives are, authors argue, the actors who, through genuine “acts of citizenship” (E. Isin), implement progressive, emancipatory, and far-reaching changes in diverse crisis-affected fields.

The book is freely available here.

You are warmly invited to read the book, which was recently launched by the editorial board and the authors at a meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark.