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In this chapter, we use a protest field approach to explore the main facets of the contentious dynamics triggered in three hotspots of the refugee crisis—Greece, Italy, and Spain. To this aim, we employ protest event analysis, a consolidated method to explore the relations between protest and the political environment. In comparison to traditional applications of this method, we make systematic use of Google News to retrieve news about protests on migration issues and to reconstruct the three protest fields. Results of our analysis suggest that the three countries did in fact provide different political opportunities for protest on migration issues to emerge side by side with solidarity initiatives and for different sets of actors to network and engage in these protests.

With the collaboration of: ANDRETTA, Massimiliano; MILAN, Stefania and ROSSI, Federico. First published online: September 2012 Social conflicts tend to take different forms. This article compares three demonstrations on issues of social justice in Italy: a traditional Labor Day demonstration, a march supporting a general strike called by the largest trade union CGIL (Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro, Italian General Confederation of Labour), and the EuroMayDay parade, representing a "new" type of movement. Focusing on conceptions of democracy among activists, the article stresses that the economic crisis is a crisis of representative democracy as well. Protestors on social justice and labor rights expressed extremely low levels of trust in government, parliament, and political parties; the lowest levels were found among younger participants. At the same time, this lack of trust is coupled with confidence in the capacity of the citizens— especially if organized at the international level—to take the world into their hands. Despite high levels of distrust, demonstrators believe that one must strengthen all levels of government to be able to address social inequality—politics must regain control over the market.

This article is available on the website of the old publisher Franco Angeli ( http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/sommario.asp?IDRivista=152 )