How Movements Endure: Divergent Trajectories of Pro-Palestinian Student Encampments in Italy

Abstract

Pro-Palestine student encampments emerged across Italian universities in spring 2024 as part of a broader wave of solidarity mobilization in response to the Gaza War. Despite sharing similar demands and repertoires of action these encampments developed different trajectories. This article asks how local context and internal camp dynamics shaped divergent encampment trajectories and movement endurance. Drawing on twelve semi-structured interviews, participant observation, field notes, and activist communications, it compares four encampments in Northern Italy.

The findings show that different encampment trajectories emerged through the interaction of local contextual conditions and internal camp dynamics. While Florence achieved a negotiated closure following partial institutional concessions, Trento dissolved due to activist exhaustion, Pisa transitioned into an occupation following institutional rejection, and Milan similarly transformed its encampment into a semi-permanent occupation. Variation across cases was shaped by differences in political and institutional opportunity structures, coalition opportunities, organizational embeddedness, collective identity formation, and emotional sustainability. This paper highlights how movements employing similar protest repertoires can develop different trajectories depending on the interaction between opportunities and capacities. The article contributes to scholarship on student encampments, solidarity mobilization, and protest consequences by emphasizing the importance of movement endurance and local context in shaping contemporary protest camps.