No pass... no grass no ass! Self-representation of the global-movement in Genoa, 2001

Abstract

The scientific-methodology and passionate-politics are the main traits which have urged a group of researchers and students at the University of Turin to net with the global-movement late in the 1990s. Later on, some of them founded an affinity-group in order to participate at those demonstrations against thewto, Genoa July, 2001. In doing so, the affinity-group stated that a visual approach was useful for participation and the visual culture has been considered strategic for social identification. Grounded-theory and visual-ethnography and biographical approach have been considered useful to underline those social/political dynamics which have not been yet frozen within the social structure. At that time a new social movement arose, and groups and organisations were in a statu nascenti, during which individuals and groups are able to merge with others by creating a new collective-identity with a high degree of solidarity. The affinity-group agreed on that a visual research was an option for participation, by collecting information on the movement and militants involved in the protest. The group aimed to face certain research issues by adopting a theoretical question which was connected to the making-sense-paradigm, and it was supposed that by the sole act of participation militants provide sense for action, by creating social and political conflict. The global-movement has been considered such as a ‘youth-movement’ which represented a frame for identification for those involved. Yet, practices and lifestyles shared by activists called attention for the role of a new generation of militants informing further actions. The movement was also considered a ‘travellers’ movement’, and the perception of space changed due to the globalization processes, and represented more than a self-portray offering a new ‘space-and-place’ within which construct a global-collective-identity. The global-movement was also a ‘cross-cutting movement’ by connecting different cultural/political backgrounds and encompassing travellers’ experiences. All these dimensions underlined the global attitude to consider the multiplicity (social, political and cultural multiplicities) such as a strategic issue in the age of complex social system.