Reluctant inscriptions: Social automatisms within the movement “Se Non Ora Quando?”

Abstract

In the course of the production of sociality, the interaction of interests, materialities and rules may occur in unintended and not foreseeable ways. Procedures and norms can establish themselves uncontrollably and contour politics. This paper proposes the application of the concept of social automatisms for the description of such social formation processes of the political, taking as an example the dynamics within the new Italian feminist movement “Se Non Ora Quando?”. Based on an ethnography of the movement (2012-2014), the paper demonstrates how traditions of interaction and the philosophy of the Italian feminists of the 1970s have inscribed themselves in the discourses and practices of Se Non Ora Quando? in line with the concept of social automatisms: through repetition and perpetuation which, although occurring unplanned and partly unconsciously and against the intentions of the actors, cause a consolidation of structures (see Bublitz et al. 2010). These inscription processes have influenced political visions, interaction and protest practices as well as conflicts within the movement.