Transcending Marginalization: The Mobilization of the Unemployed in France, Germany, and Italy in a Comparative Perspective

Abstract

Mobilization by the unemployed has traditionally been considered a highly improbable phenomenon. However, recent observations challenge such a supposition. Our article compares protest waves in France, Germany, and Italy, where the unemployed successfully organized themselves and acted on their own behalf for several months. We argue that mobilization of the unemployed—although it empirically proved to be a possibility—remains very fragile, particularly depending on beneficial "windows of opportunities." Our analysis is above all interested in deciphering macrostructural conditions and opportunity structures, arguing that the unemployed benefited from external developments causing changes in potential mobilizing resources, and brought about new allies and political entrepreneurs. At the same time, however, these opportunity structures were actively exploited and, at the same time, their opening was fostered by the mobilization itself.

Protest participation and economic crisis: The conditioning role of political opportunities

“…This is in line with previous research showing that the mobilisation of resource‐poor groups is more likely when economic conditions have deteriorated (Baglioni et al. ; Piven & Cloward ). More generally, our results suggest that individuals respond rationally to the experience of crisis, both at the individual and aggregate levels, by expressing their voice politically though protest.…”

Precariousness, youth and political participation: the emergence of a new political cleavage

“…The first strand, often referred to as the ‘grievance model’ (Kern et al ., 2015), considers any sort of resentment, once it is translated explicitly into political demands, as representing a strong incentive for political activism at the individual level (Gamson, 1968; Wilkes, 2004; Stolle and Hooghe, 2011). Similarly, others interpret unemployment as a boost for collective action and mobilization (Piven and Cloward, 1977; Demazière and Pignoni, 1998; Maurer and Mayer, 2001; Baglioni et al ., 2008). In other words, political participation is considered a viable way for marginalized social classes to escape from social isolation, express their discontent, make political claims and fight the social stigma attached to unemployment.…”

Employment Status, Social Capital, and Political Participation: A Comparison of Unemployed and Employed Youth in Geneva

“…Students of social movements have sometimes examined the collective action by unemployed, showing not only their difficulty to organize and mobilize, but also pointing to a rather unstructured form of mobilization (Bagguley 1991, 1992; Chabanet 2008; Chabanet and Faniel 2011; Faniel 2004; Royall 1997). Thus, their political participation seems to oscillate between apathy and radicalism, also as a result of varying institutional and organizational conditions (Berclaz et al 2004; Giugni 2008; Baglioni et al 2008; Zorn 2010).…”

“…The impact of associational involvement on political participation represents a well‐established research tradition (Verba et al 1995) and was recently addressed both in general (Baglioni et al. 2008; Maloney and van Deth 2010; Maloney and Rossteuscher 2009) as well as more specifically in works on the political participation of migrants (Berger et al 2004; Eggert and Giugni 2010; Jacobs et al 2004; Morales and Giugni 2011; Tille 2004; Togeby 2004).…”