From global to glocal. Sustainable Community Movement Organisations (SCMOs) in times of crisis

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe paper is aimed at understanding how collective action has been organised, sustained and transformed in the wake of the 2008 economic crisis by looking at three different Italian cases of Sustainable Community Movement Organisations (SCMOs): the Gruppi di Acquisto Solidale (solidarity-based consumer groups or solidarity purchasing groups – SPGs), Addiopizzo (a relatively new anti-racket organisation which literally means ‘goodbye to protection money’ or ‘pizzo’ solicited by organised crime) and Rimaflow (an Italian factory ‘recovered’ by its workers in 2013). More specifically, the paper aims to discuss whether, how and why Sustainable Community Movement Organisations have grown even in times of crisis. Data for the analysis come from semi-directive interviews with key actors from the three SCMOs, surveys among activists and participant observation. Our findings suggest that pre-existing crises (social and political) have provided a context for new networks of solidarity-based economy to emerge – such as in case of SPGs and Addiopizzo – but the economic crisis has either provided a way to consolidate such experiences (as in the two cases mentioned above) or it has provided an opportunity for new actions to emerge and rapidly consolidate – such as in the case of Rimaflow.