Italian political parties’ attitudes, roles, points of view, and reactions vis-à-vis stragismo, subversive plots, right-wing and left-wing terrorism will be under scrutiny, together with their impact on society and institutions. The Organizing Committee encourages studies that also examine minor political parties.The Organizing Committee invites scholars of different disciplines interested in the topic topropose papers on Italian political parties’ attitudes, roles, points of view, and reactions in front of:- stragismo and subversive plots against Italian Republic; origin, development, and social consensus of left-wing armed struggle; the main political changes of the period (e.g., the crisis of center-left governments, the 1974 referendum, the 1975 and 1976 elections, the governments of national solidarity, the end of the Christian-democratic centrality); the dangers of right-wing terrorism; the emergency legislation; the exit strategies from terrorism.

Argument

The seminar cycle seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the years between 1969 and 1988 – a crucial period of Italian history – by analyzing the way through which political parties, institutions, society, and public opinion faced terrorism. Examining how Italians lived under the terrorist threat, reacted against it, and framed such phenomenon, the proposed seminars will complement an already rich stream of literature that, conversely, focused on terrorist actors and organizations. Adopting this perspective, the seminars aim at shedding light on some key questions related to the history of that period. They include, but they are not limited to, the consensus that terrorism enjoyed, the state legitimacy among citizens, the impact of terrorism on institutional dynamics, the social perception of both terrorism and counter-terrorism, the effectiveness of the institutional reaction against terrorism, the state respect of civil rights in countering terrorism, the level of understanding of terrorist threat within institutions and political parties, the repercussions of terrorism on political system, civil society, economy, and intellectual debates. Overall, the seminars expect to achieve a wide-ranging reconstruction of the multiple reactions to terrorism, which highlights historical continuities and discontinuities. In order to complete the whole picture, the seminars will also take into consideration the perception of Italy from abroad. Finally, Italian experience will be compared with other countries’ experiences in dealing with terrorism (e.g., the German Federal Republic, the United Kingdom, Spain, and France).

How to propose a paper

Please send by email a single document (PDF or Word) to seminarioitaliaterrorismo@gmail.com by October 16, 2016, 17:00 (GMT+1), including:

•  Name, Last Name, and academic affiliation.
•  A max. 3.000 characters abstract (in Italian or English)
•  A 1 page max. CV. Please indicate your current email address for correspondence.

Papers will be selected by October 31, 2016. T

he Organizing Team will directly contact all selected participants.

Place

University of Padua, Italy – Department of Historical and Geographic Sciences and the Ancient World

Date

1-2 March, 2017

Languages

Italian and English

Scientific coordinators

• G.M. Ceci,
• G. Panvini

Scientific organizing committee

• P. Acanfora,
• L. Bosi,
• R. Brizzi,
• R. Colozza,
• L. Falciola,
• L. Fasanaro,
• V. Lomellini,
• M. Marchi,
• E. Taviani

Scientific board

• S. Colarizi,
• D. della Porta,
• G. Formigoni,
• C. Fumian,
• M. Lazar,
• P. Mattera,
• R. Moro,
• L. Nuti,
• S. Neri Serneri,
• P. Pombeni,
• E. Rey,
• P. Terhoeven,
• A. Varsori,
• A. Ventrone,
• V. Vidotto

Organizing scientific team for the Padua Seminar

• G.M. Ceci,
• V. Lomellini,
• G. Panvini,
• C. Zampieri