*Media Practices and Protest Politics *- How Precarious Workers Mobilise
Alice Mattoni
Ashgate 2012
How do precarious workers employed in call-centres, universities, the
fashion industry and many other labour markets organise, struggle and
communicate to become recognised, influential political subjects? "Media
Practices and Protest Politics; How Precarious Workers Mobilise" reveals
the process by which individuals at the margins of the labour market and
excluded from the welfare state communicate and struggle outside the realm
of institutional politics to gain recognition in the political sphere.
In this important and thought provoking work Alice Mattoni suggests an
all-encompassing approach to understanding grassroots political
communication in contemporary societies. Using original examples from
precarious workers mobilizations in Italy she explores a range of activist
media practices and compares different categories of media technologies,
organizations and outlets from the printed press to web application and
from mainstream to alternative media.
Explaining how activists perceive and understand the media environment in
which they are embedded the book discusses how they must interact with a
diverse range of media professionals and technologies and considers how
mainstream, radical left-wing and alternative media represent protests.
Media Practices and Protest Politics offers important insights for
understanding mechanisms and patterns of visibility in struggles for
recognition and redistribution in post-democratic societies and provides a
valuable contribution to the field of political communication and social
movement studies.
*Contents*: Preface; Introduction; Theoretical reflections on the study of
grassroots political communication; The discursive context and contentious
field of precarity in Italy; The construction of precarious subjects in
mobilisations against precarity; Reflections in the mirror: media knowledge
practices; Surfing media diversity: relational media practices; The
construction of public identities: media representations of protest;
Conclusions: the circuit of grassroots political communication;
Methodological appendix; References; Index.
About the Author: Alice Mattoni is at the University of Pittsburgh, USA.
Her research interests include social movements, new labour movements,
political communication, and qualitative methods.
*Reviews*: 'A vital question today is how the range of political actors can
be expanded. New political movements must take action within an unequal
media environment. Alice Mattoni's tightly argued new book on Italy's
movement against precarity is one of the most important on alternative
media practice to be published in recent years. Its contribution to our
understanding of contemporary struggles for visibility is fundamental.'
Nick Couldry, Goldsmiths, University of London UK
'A fresh look at the complex relationships among activists and media. In
this insightful study of collective organizing among precarious workers in
Italy, Mattoni provides a useful framework for understanding the media
practices of social movement actors. Highly recommended for both scholars
and activists.'
Kathleen Blee, University of Pittsburgh, USA
This title is also available as an ebook, ISBN 978-1-4094-2679-0
http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781409426783
