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ACADEMIC PROGRAMMEThe Summer School will last 10 teaching days for a total of 60 hours of didactic activities, from the 14th to the 25th of September 2015. The Summer School will cover the following topics through 2 and 4 hours teaching slots: archival research; comparative historical studies and methods; participant observation; doing fieldwork during violent conflicts; interviewing activists; discourse analysis in social movement research; frame analysis in social movement research; social network analysis, how and when in social movement research; protest event analysis; surveys in political participation and mobilization; online tools and digital methods for the study of mobilizations; visuals in the study of social movements.KEYNOTE SPEECHESThe Summer School will include three keynote speeches on social movements and research methods. Confirmed keynote speakers are: Prof. Donatella della Porta (SNS and EUI); Prof. Verta Taylor (University of California, Santa Barbara); Prof. Michele Micheletti (TBC, Stockolm University).LOCATIONThe Summer School will take place at the Scuola Normale Superiore, in Florence, Italy.CONTACTSEmail contact for questions and clarifications about the Summer School: pam.summerschool[AT]gmail.comORGANISING COMMITTEEDirector  Prof. Donatella della Porta (Scuola Normale Superiore and European University Institute);Co-director   Dr. Alice Mattoni (European University Institute);Academic Assistant  Lorenzo Zamponi (European University Institute)FINANCIAL AND LOGISTIC SUPPORTThe Summer School is kindly supported by:The Standing Group on Participation and Mobilization of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR);Scuola Normale Superiore, Istituto di Scienze Umane in Florence;Centre on Social Movement Studies (COSMOS) at the Scuola Normale Superiore and the European University Institute.OBJECTIVESThe Summer School focuses on how to analyze present and past forms of grassroots participation activated by social movement and civil society actors at the local, regional and transnational level. More in general, it aims at disseminating knowledge on how to investigate processes and mechanisms that sustain the active citizens' participation to and mobilization in the realm of politics.Grassroots participation and radical democracy have been at the centre of the public and political debate from 2008 onwards, when a new wave of contention crossed the entire world: from protests in Iceland to those in the MENA region, Southern Europe, North America and Latin America. The emergence of new protest movements requires scholars to reflect on the research strategies and methodologies that are employed to study grassroots participation and radical democracy.Although there is a considerable amount of research done on how social movements and civil society actors mobilize, specialized literature on how to actually investigate this phenomena is rare, although increasingly necessary. The Summer School addresses this gap discussing how to apply the most common methods in the social sciences to investigate political participation and mobilization.PARTICIPANTSThe Summer School is open to 20 graduate and master students as well as early career researchers with a specialized interest in participation and mobilization in different fields of study, including political science, political sociology, political communication, and political anthropology from throughout European and beyond.APPLICATIONApplicants must email a cover letter in which they explain how the Summer School would be beneficial for their research, a 500-word abstract of their proposed paper, and a curriculum vitae no later than 20th of April 2015: to pam.summerschool[AT]gmail.comApplicants will be informed of the outcome by email as soon as possible. Those offered places must confirm their participation within 7 days, after which places may be offered to applicants on the reserve list.REQUIREMENTSStudents will be required to write and submit a 7.000-8.000 words paper before the starting of the Summer School. The paper will be then presented and discussed during one of the afternoon sessions.Students will be also required to complete the mandatory readings for morning lectures and method sessions (see below) and to actively participate in discussion during morning and afternoon sessions.Successful participation in the Summer School will be fully accredited with 30 credits.More information: http://www.sns.it/didattica/isus/menunews/summer/14-25september/