Analysis of Social Movement Organizations

This project focused upon forms of participatory democracy elaborated ‘from below’ and implemented both in the internal organization of social movements and in experiments with deliberative decision-making. In particular, the project analyzed the issue of active democracy emerging in the theories and practices of movements demanding a ‘globalization from below’. Social movements criticize the fundamentals of conventional practices of politics, and experiment with new models of democracy both in their internal structure and in the ways in which they interact with political institutions. Of particular interest for the project were the conceptions and practices of democracy developed in the global movement/s mobilizing transnationally and demanding social justice and participatory democracy. The ensuing debate about democracy is particularly relevant both for the development of civil society, and for the legitimization of political institutions at local, national and supranational levels. Our research – focusing on six European countries (France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain and Switzerland), as well as the EU itself – embraced an analysis of documents pertaining to both movements and public institutions, websites, semi-structured interviews with Non-Governmental Organizations and public administrators, surveys of movement activists, participant observation of movement groups and experiences of participatory decision-making.

本项目聚焦于“自下而上”构建的参与式民主形式，这类形式既应用于社会运动的内部组织，也体现在协商式决策（deliberative decision-making）的实践探索中。特别是，本项目分析了在呼吁“自下而上全球化”的运动理论与实践中浮现的主动民主议题。社会运动批判传统政治实践的根基，并在其内部结构及与政治机构互动的方式上，探索民主新模式。本项目尤为关注跨国动员、呼吁社会正义与参与式民主的全球运动所构建的民主理念与实践。由此引发的民主辩论，对于公民社会的发展以及地方、国家和超国家层面政治机构的合法性构建均具有重要意义。我们的研究覆盖六个欧洲国家（法国、德国、英国、意大利、西班牙、瑞士）及欧盟本身，涵盖对运动与公共机构相关文献、网站的分析，对非政府组织（Non-Governmental Organizations）与公共管理者的半结构化访谈，对运动活动家的调查，以及对运动团体的参与式观察和参与式决策实践的体验研究。