Table Of ContentPalgrave Studies in European Political Sociology
Social Movements,
Memory and Media
Narrative in Action in the Italian
and Spanish Student Movements
Lorenzo Zamponi
Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology
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Department of Sociology and Social Research
University of Trento
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Lorenzo Zamponi
Social Movements,
Memory and Media
Narrative in Action in the Italian and
Spanish Student Movements
Lorenzo Zamponi
Scuola Normale Superiore
Firenze, Italy
Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology
ISBN 978-3-319-68550-2 ISBN 978-3-319-68551-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68551-9
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Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make
it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given
and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a
nightmare on the brains of the living. And just as they seem to be occupied with revo-
lutionizing themselves and things, creating something that did not exist before, pre-
cisely in such epochs of revolutionary crisis they anxiously conjure up the spirits of the
past to their service, borrowing from them names, battle slogans, and costumes in
order to present this new scene in world history in time-honored disguise and bor-
rowed language. Thus Luther put on the mask of the Apostle Paul, the Revolution of
1789–1814 draped itself alternately in the guise of the Roman Republic and the
Roman Empire, and the Revolution of 1848 knew nothing better to do than to
parody, now 1789, now the revolutionary tradition of 1793–95. In like manner, the
beginner who has learned a new language always translates it back into his mother
tongue, but he assimilates the spirit of the new language and expresses himself freely
in it only when he moves in it without recalling the old and when he forgets his
native tongue.
—K. Marx 1852, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte
To articulate what is past does not mean to recognize ‘how it really was.’ It means to
take control of a memory, as it flashes in a moment of danger. For historical material-
ism it is a question of holding fast to a picture of the past, just as if it had unexpect-
edly thrust itself, in a moment of danger, on the historical subject. The danger
threatens the stock of tradition as much as its recipients. For both it is one and the
same: handing itself over as the tool of the ruling classes. In every epoch, the attempt
must be made to deliver tradition anew from the conformism which is on the point
of overwhelming it. For the Messiah arrives not merely as the Redeemer; he also
arrives as the vanquisher of the Anti-Christ. The only writer of history with the gift
of setting alight the sparks of hope in the past, is the one who is convinced of this: that
not even the dead will be safe from the enemy, if he is victorious. And this enemy has
not ceased to be victorious.
—W. Benjamin 1940, On the Concept of History
v
Acknowledgements
It may seem ridiculous, at the end of a book on memory, but I find quite
difficult to remember all the things that happened in these years and all
the people who helped me complete this work, based on my PhD at the
European University Institute (EUI) in Florence. Thus, I will start with
an apology, to all the people who deserve to be remembered and are
forgotten.
I cannot forget the support that my supervisor, Donatella della Porta,
provided me in these years, for sure. I am grateful also to Hanspeter
Kriesi, Bill Gamson, and Ron Eyerman for reviewing the thesis and help-
ing me in the attempt to make it better and more complete for this book.
My good friends and admired colleagues Lorenzo Bosi, Alice Mattoni,
and Eduardo Romanos also provided useful comments to an earlier ver-
sion of this work and significantly helped to improve it.
I am also grateful to Fabrizio Tonello, who, following me during my
master’s thesis, made me discover a passion for research, and Stefania
Milan, who encouraged me to follow this passion to Florence.
In this book I argue for the role of communities in shaping people’s
mind and worldview. Many communities were important to shape my
mind and my worldview, about the topics addressed in this book and
many others. First, I need to thank the many fellow students that partici-
pated with me in the 2008–2011 wave of mobilisation. Those experiences
and the people with whom I shared them are somewhere in this book.
vii
viii Acknowledgements
I also thank the COSMOS people for the teamwork, the fellow research-
ers on collective action that I met around the world (in particular Priska
Daphi, Marco Giugni, Katrin Uba, Laurence Cox, Cristina Flesher
Fominaya, Maria Kousis, Sidney Tarrow, and Mario Diani) for the pre-
cious feedback and advice they provided me and my colleagues and
friends at the EUI, at the Scuola Normale Superiore, and in the city for
making these years worthy of being spent in Florence. Many thanks also
to Joseba Fernández, Jorge Sola, and Inés Campillo, without whose
friendship and help in understanding the political field of the Spanish
state and in establishing contacts with its protagonists, this work would
have been much more difficult and poorer.
If I have a passion for the stories of the past, it is probably because my
parents spent so much time and energy telling me stories. To them and to
my brother Giovanni I owe many thanks. Finally, this book is dedicated
to Elena, who generously shared my despair and hope in conducting this
work.
Contents
Part I Introduction, Background and Methods 1
1 Introduction 3
2 Memory and Movements: A Long Research Path 13
3 The Student Movements in Italy and Spain and How
to Study Their Memories 37
Part II Memory in Discourse: Representations of the 1960s
and 1970s in the Media Forum 57
4 Contentious Memories of the Italian Student Movement:
The ‘Long 1968’ in the Field of Public Memory 59
5 Contentious Memories of the Spanish Student Movement:
Representations of the Spanish 1968 in the Public Memory
of the Transition 119
ix
x Contents
Part III Memory in Action: Mnemonic Practices, Collective
Identities and Strategic Choices in Contemporary Student
Movements 177
6 Syntax: The Forms of Memory 179
7 Semantics: The Competing Narratives of Student
Movement Memories 201
8 Pragmatics: Memory, Identity, and Strategy 245
9 Conclusions 291
Bibliography 319
Index 335
