Dissenting families and social movement abeyance: the transmission of neo-fascist frames in postwar Italy1

Abstract

What explains the re-emergence of social movements after abeyance? Based on interviews with activists who belonged to the Italian neo-fascist movement of the late 1960s to early 1980s, this article documents the preservation of a neo-fascist mobilization potential after 1945 through the parent-child transmission of frames. This process involved learning through talk, action and text. Both the nature of family frames and their congruence with movement frames depended on whether parents were right-wing or non-partisan. Research on abeyance should include the family among institutions that uphold continuity between waves of contention in pluralist regimes.