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Mid-Term Conference of the Political Sociology Section - Italian Sociological AssociationUniversity of Salento, Lecce – ItalyOctober 16-17, 2014Chairs:Lorenzo Bosi, European University Instituteemail: lorenzo.bosi@eui.euFabio de Nardis, University of Salentoemail: fabio.denardis@unisalento.itCitizens in contemporary societies question the concept of democracy, at least in its liberal-formalistic conception. Electoral abstensionism, anti-politics, the emergence of new populist and nationalist parties are some of the more visible indicators showing how much democratic practices and institutions are now days challenged. Some social scientists have attempted to systematize these processes by coining also successful expressions, such as “post-democracy” (Crouch 2004) or “counter-democracy” (Rosanvallon 2006), in order to point out the risks as well as the implicit opportunities of the gradual rethinking of the concepts of politics and democracy. At the same time of such deterioration of political representation, which is nothing else rather than a crisis of legitimacy, we are witnessing a growing capacity of civil society to mobilize through social movements and more or less formal networks capable of giving life even to forms of radical public protest, demonstrating a growing demand for politics and for more spaces of democratic action. If on the one hand the aim of this workshop is to debate where contemporary societies are moving in terms of political participation (conventional and/or unconventional) on the other hand we also aim to instigate further dialogue between scholars coming from different compartmentalized fields, such as democratic theory, political parties and social movements studies.This would give us the opportunity to throw up a series of hotly debated questions, including:• What is the relation between political parties and social movements?• What is the impact that social movements have on political parties?• How do social movements institutionalize in political parties?• What is the impact for the movements themselves once certain strands institutionalize?• Does the institutionalization process facilitate successive policy outcomes?• How do political parties use social movements?• What is the impact social movements have on contemporary democracies?• Why do contemporary citizens withdraw from political parties activism and join social movements?• Do representative democracies need to survive political parties and/or social movements?We welcome papers that address three main issues: (1) conceptual and theoretical thinking about democracies, political parties and social movements; (2) methodological reflections about how to deal with the subject matter and how to avoid the obstacles that have hindered previous research, from both a quantitative and qualitative perspective; (3) empirical analyses of the subject matter, in particular, but not exclusively, comparative studies encompassing different countries.DEADLINES:For submission of your abstracts/papers, please refer to both of the chairs:- Submission of short abstracts (about 250 words): 15th May 2014- Selection of abstracts: 30th May 2014- Submission of papers: 1st October 2014Participation in the Conference is free of chargeFor all the paper givers, subsistence (2 coffee breaks, 1 lunch, 1 social dinner) and accommodation expenses only for one night in a partner Hotel (or October 16 or October 17) will be covered by the University of Salento. Travel expenses should be instead covered by personal funds.For organizational queries, please address to:Prof. Fabio de Nardistel: +39 339 3622420email: fabio.denardis@unisalento.it