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Marion Näser-Lather
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Reluctant inscriptions: Social automatisms within the movement “Se Non Ora Quando?”
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Marion Näser-Lather
2021/12/22
10.7340/anuac2239-625X-4273
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University of Innsbruck, Austria
2239-625X
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Reluctant inscriptions: Social automatisms within the movement “Se Non Ora Quando?”
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                                       2021 | ANUAC. VOL. 10, N° 2, DICEMBRE 2021: 215-235




Reluctant inscriptions
Social automatisms within the movement “Se Non Ora Quando?”
Marion NÄSER-LATHER
University of Innsbruck




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 contemporary Italian feminist movement “Se Non Ora Quando?”. Based on
an ethnography of the movement (2012-2014), the paper demonstrates how traditions
of interaction and philosophical thoughts of different groups of the Italian feminist
movement 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.
KEYWORDS: ANTHROPOLOGY OF POLICY; FEMINISM; MOVEMENT; SOCIAL AUTOMATISMS; ITALY.




This work is licensed under the Creative Commons © Marion Näser-Lather
Reluctant inscriptions: Social automatisms within the movement “Se Non Ora Quando?”
2021 | ANUAC. VOL. 10, N° 2, DICEMBRE 2021: 215-235.
ISSN: 2239-625X - DOI: 10.7340/anuac2239-625X-4273
216                                                         MARION NÄSER-LATHER




Automatisms: an approach for the analysis of the political
   With Hannah Arendt (2010: 10) the political can be understood as every-
day practices taking place between people., i.e. negotiation processes in
which institutions, movements, or individual actors create sociality
(Rolshoven 2018: 23f; Fenske 2010: 9; Adam and Vonderau 2014: 19, 21).
Interests, materialities, regulations, notions of normality and knowledge
regimes meet, interact and inscribe themselves in policies in unforeseeable,
unplanned and unintentional ways (Binder 2014: 364-367, 375; Collier, Ong
2005; Shore, Wright 2011: 20).
   To investigate these dynamics, the concept of social automatisms seems
feasible, which is so-far not widely used in anthropology. I have derived this
concept using the theory of automatisms (e.g. see Bublitz et al. 2010).
Automatisms are processes which can occur at the level of individual and
collective action and are largely beyond conscious control. Examples are
pedestrians who react to each other and their surroundings which leads to
unplanned results like bottleneck oscillation – currents of people flowing
first in one direction and then in the other (see Johansson 2010: 64f.).
Collective automatisms can take place with, but also against the intention of
the actors, and regardless of their will, but with their participation. They can
be observed when actors act independently of each other, but their actions
are not determined by external constraints. Automatisms are located
between the conscious and the unconscious, the voluntary and the
involuntary, the intentional and the non-intentional. They are formed over
time through repetition, thus creating structures (see Marek 2010, Winkler
2010: 18-22).
   The concept of social automatisms draws attention to dynamics taking
place between actors. Automatisms describe how habitualisation processes
can happen, i.e. the infiltration of the body and things by routines and
regularities and the constitution and modification of social structures.
However, the automatism approach goes further by clarifying not only in
detail the mechanisms of structure formation beyond planned processes, but
also the occurrence of the qualitatively new (see Conradi, Derwanz, Muhle
2011: 11). Automatisms help to analyse how previous and existing
phenomena contribute to a recombination of discourses or practices. They
describe how shifts in the repetitions of (speech) acts can effectuate
quantitative changes whichcumulate to qualitative leaps changing the social
fabric , e.g. in the form of the stabilisation of hierarchies. The automatism


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RELUCTANT INSCRIPTION                                                          217


concept thus also describes how cumulative processes and dynamics of their
own lead to new, unpredictable results, which distinguishes this approach
from deterministic theories. The automatism perspective also complements
Michel Foucault’s theories such as dispositives which Foucault (1978)
describes as heterogeneous networks of discursive and non-discursive
elements that generate and maintain norms and behaviour. The automatism
perspective determines how discourses and practices become effective and
how their effects are inscribed in the subjects. It shows how tactics
intertwine in unpredictable ways and can thus produce unintended results,
and explains recursive transitions between levels: structures that have
emerged from practices influence the emergence of subsequent practices.
   Automatisms can also be put into context with assemblage (see DeLanda
2006) and actor-network theories (ANT, e.g. see Latour 2005), which treat
phenomena as continuous effects of relational networks and describe how
human and non-human actors are interconnected and interact in such
networks. Similarly, the concept of automatisms illuminates the agency and
powerful interaction of people, things and discourses and the inherent logics
of infrastructures and their uses.
   As social automatisms I define processes that develop through the
dynamics of interactions which can be non-verbal practices as well as speech
acts. Social automatisms take place largely unplanned and “behind the back”
of the actors through an interplay of bottom up and top down dynamics, and
lead to the emergence of behavioural tendencies and social structures (see
Näser-Lather 2014).
   My paper analyses such processes in political fields, taking as an example
two contradictory developments within a contemporary Italian feminist
movement, “Se Non Ora Quando?” (abbreviated SNOQ): the conflicts
revolving around the concept of transversality and the emergence of
hierarchies. I draw on ethnographic research of the movement I conducted
between 2012 and 2014. Participant observations and interviews build the
backbone of my analysis. I conducted 34 participant observations at actions
of local SNOQ groups and local as well as national meetings and thematic
interviews (Witzel 2000, Schorn 2000) with 55 SNOQ activists. My interview
partners were both members of local groups from twelve Italian cities
located in different parts of the country and members of the movements
leading group, the promoting committee. As interview partners, I selected
women who seemed to be the most active group members. A discourse
analysis (Jäger 2009) of documents and postings on national and local
websites and mailing lists of the movement complements my ethnographic
data (see Näser-Lather 2019).

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   After introducing the movement, I will point out how practices of
interaction, norms, and feeling rules of the Italian feminist groups of the
1970s and Italian difference feminism have inscribed themself in SNOQ. I
will show that this took place through social automatisms and I will point
out how these dynamics have contributed to internal conflicts.

Se Non Ora Quando? A new Italian feminist movement
   SNOQ was founded in 2011, after a group of partly famous and influential
women in Rome issued an appeal to protest against the Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi. His affair with then-underage dancer Karima El-Marough was
lead to a desire to protest which was fuelled by the existing dissatisfaction
on his politics as well as by decades of perceived marginalization of women
in Italian society. On 13 February 2011, demonstrations were held in
numerous Italian cities, and also in other countries, under the motto “Se
Non Ora Quando?” (“If not now, when?”). Hundred thousand of women and
also men from different political, religious and social affiliations
participated. Subsequently, a feminist movement with the same name
emerged, with temporarily more than 150 active local groups. In 2011,
feminist groups that had emerged from Italian difference feminism, like
Diotima or the Libreria delle Donne di Milano, already existed. Also,
numerous local (trans-)feminist activist groups who referred to other
feminist traditions had been established, e.g. sex workers activism and LGBT
movements (see Bonomi Romagnoli 2014). However, SNOQ was the first
movement since the 1970s to draw nationwide attention.
   SNOQ demands measures in various socio-political areas. The movement
interprets the social crisis as a symptom of a patriarchal system that resulted
in the discrimination of women (see SNOQ 2012). The feminist vision of
SNOQ aims to change the symbolic order and to fight a perceived hegemonic
masculinist mentality. The main goal of the movement is to create “a
country for women”, which includes the equal representation of women in
political decision-making bodies, the reconciliation of work and family life, a
change in the sexist media and social view of women and the fight against
gender-based violence (see SNOQ 2013).
   Initially, the women of the national promoting committee (comitato
promotore nazionale, CPN), which had organised the demonstrations of 13
February, claimed a leading role. However, in July 2013 the committee split
into the groups Factory and Libere, and in the course of time, a division of
the movement occured. From 2014 on, fewer and fewer local groups were
active under the name Se Non Ora Quando?.


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RELUCTANT INSCRIPTION                                                           219


   The conflicts leading to this development resulted, on one hand, from the
reluctance of the CPN to involve local groups in their decisions and to put
into question their leading role, which had been requests of many movement
members. However, also social automatisms played a crucial role, leading to
the inscription of the interaction norms of the feminist groups of the 1970s
and of gender concepts derived from Italian difference feminism in SNOQ.
These traditions influenced the political positioning, communication modes
and protest practices of the movement and in part contributed to internal
conflicts.

Transversality, or: is political activism on the basis of gender possible?
   For the political work of the movement, the CPN wanted to avoid the
“mistakes” of the Italian feminist groups of the 1970s, namely their
reference to left-wing politics and their perceived exclusion of women
without “critical” consciousness. In the opinion of the CPN, such a
positioning did not represent all women (Näser-Lather 2019: 184).
   Instead, SNOQ developed the principle of transversality: the involvement
of women from all political and ideological backgrounds because “being a
woman in this country already constitutes in itself a political fact, well
before, and beyond, the political, religious, age and experience convictions
or affiliations of each one”, as one member of the CPN stated. Transversality
means that gender-specific attitudes and needs can guarantee common
political objectives. Starting from personal experiences which are imagined
to be similar, the category of sex is constructed as basis for common political
action. In itself, this stance can be traced back to a specific
(mis-)interpretation of Italian difference feminism which propagated
material, cultural and historical differences between men and women.
Difference feminism was the most prominent philosophy influencing Italian
feminist groups of the 1970s (cf. e.g. Lonzi 1970). However, the principle of
transversality resulted in political decisions which in part contradicted
traditional feminist goals. For example, the CPN did not campaign against a
law which prohibed preliminary examination in in vitro fertilization. They
justified their not taking a stance with transversality, namely, that they
intended to also please Catholics and right-wing women.
   In addition, contrary to the principle of transversality, most local SNOQ
groups developed left-wing, secular feminist convictions. This is due in part
to the fact that, over time, women who during the 1970s had belonged to the
left-wing oriented feminist movement joined SNOQ and gained influence
within the movement. Of my interviewees, according to their own statement


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30 percent had been activists during the 1970s. In many SNOQ committees,
they became role models whose expertise regarding terminology and
feminist thought was appreciated. Lea, a middle-aged activist of SNOQ
Florence, describes accordant learning processes: “for example, because of
the eighth of March, a woman got very angry, because we used the expression
‘feast of woman’ – and then you understand, [...] that it is no feast.” As I
could observe during group meetings of SNOQ Florence, the inputs of the
older group members were valued, especially by younger women and those
without feminist experience. The latter formed a major part of some groups
because of the low threshold of participation of SNOQ. The movement
intended to include all women and therefore, focused more on political
action than on the development of feminist theories. This appealed to many
women who had not previously been involved in feminism. Lucia, a student
and one of the youngest SNOQ Florence members, was enthusiastic about
“talking to someone like Flavia, who has always been an example of
feminism”. She continues: “they always know more than you, and therefore
– you are also there to learn something, especially. Because they [...] have
much more experience than you, and so you listen, you learn, and then - you
try yourself.” Lucia states that the stories of the more experienced feminists
gave her a sense of hope and helped her “in understanding who you are,
where you are, what you want.”
   However, in the beginning the older women within the group were
reluctant to perform this role. Rosella, psychologist and founder of a
feminist group in the 1970s, did not see herself as a teacher for the younger
ones. Flavia, who is over 70 years old and had been a leading unionist and
local politician, was astonished that the younger and less experienced
women expected her to teach them something. Yet, over time, both of them
seemed to have gotten used to being role models and “living archives” of
SNOQ Florence, often giving talks on historical and political contexts. Thus,
in an unplanned fashion, through a repetition of similar interactions, and in
part, against their will, the activists of the Italian feminist movement of the
1970s gained authority. Also, in some cities SNOQ committees were
collaborating with other activist groups with a strong historical feminist
tradition. In Florence, a cooperative relationship with the Giardino dei
Ciliegi emerged, a feminist meeting point organizing events and founded in
the 1980s among others by women from the PCI (the Italian Communist
Party).
   Through the practicing of feminist attitudes that took place in group
interactions and through exchanging ideas with other activist groups, many
SNOQ committees developed, unplanned and in the course of time, a

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RELUCTANT INSCRIPTION                                                                 221


distinct feminist consciousness. Their manifestation of feminism was shaped
by a politically left orientation despite the initial will of the groups to be
open for the views of all women. As Lea explains, SNOQ Florence activists
distanced themselves from transversality which understood common
political activism as solely based on gender. Instead, they developed a clear
substantive feminist positioning that had crystallised over time. These
dynamics occurred also in other SNOQ committees. In part because of the
influence of the feminists of the 1970s, transversality has not really been
implemented in the local SNOQ groups. The committees I researched were
almost exclusively dominated by members with left-wing political views. In
other cases, at least their inner, decision-making circles were composed of
women from the left1. In addition, the member structure of SNOQ changed
from women striving for Berlusconi’s resignation to women more interested
in feminism.
    Other factors were the focus of some groups on political goals that were
necessarily linked with left-wing positions (e.g., the defence of abortion
rights), and already existing affiliations to the left wing of some of the
activists. In the end, although some women defended transversality
vehemently, having entered the movement precisely for its existence, the
majority of SNOQ members adopted a critical stance towards this principle.
They prioritized feminist views connected to specific political positions
before a “gender consciousness”. Claudia of SNOQ Rome describes as a
premise for cooperation the recognition of feminist principles: “it is difficult
[...] to have a relationship with women who do not identify themselves with
the principles of freedom, women’s rights, the history of the movement”. In
accordance with this precondition, only “women who have a history in the
area of certain values, which are solidarity, social justice, well above all
secularity and freedom and the protection of civil rights” are members of her
committee. Some activists derived from their understanding of Italian
difference feminism that only women with a left-wing positioning could be
feminists and/or persons with whom cooperation was possible.
    Cristina Comencini, one of the founders of the movement, attributed the
split of SNOQ to these developments which she interpreted as a betrayal of
transversality. In her narration about the history of the movement, mainly


1.It is worthwhile noticing that also in other respects like race and class, SNOQ is not
transversal; rather, it´s a movement of the middle class, of a white and quite privileged
perspective. Most of the activists are between 40 and 60 years old and hold university
degrees, the majority is employed or in retirement. This may be due to habitus effects: in
their appeals for protest, from the beginning the movement was addressing educated
women from the middle and upper classes.

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politically inactive, and, as she called them, “normal” women from the most
diverse backgrounds followed the call of SNOQ, precisely because the
movement was not politically one-sided. But then, the “normal“ women
disappeared and a feminist “avant-garde“ emerged which over time
dominated the movement (Comencini 2013).
   Thus, a turning away from transversality and a partial shift of SNOQ
towards leftist positions occurred in automatistic manner, without being
planned and in part against the intention of the activists themselves. Those
differences had the effect of inhibiting trust and intensifying conflicts,
between local groups and the CPN as well as within the latter.

Interaction modes: feminist norms, communication and protest
   Besides political positions, interaction modes of the feminist groups of
the 1970s were habitualized and inscribed in the movement culture of
SNOQ. The position of experienced feminists as figures of authority and role
models can be described as a diluted form of affidamento, mentoring
relationships between younger and older women. This practice was
developed by feminists in Milan (e.g., see Libreria delle donne di Milano
1991: 182). Also, self-experience was practiced to some extent within SNOQ.
Self-experience is understood as the analysis of daily personal experiences
with the goal of feminist awareness and of identifying gender-political
structural issues (see Anderlini-D´Onofrio 1994: 223). It was a central
practice within feminist groups of the 1970s. Both affidamento and self-
experience are addressed indirectly in a statement by Carola, a member of
SNOQ San Donà di Piave:
      there has been an exchange, in my opinion, I don’t say that we have done
      psychotherapy, but almost [...] when you listen to someone like her (points to
      Martha)) who expresses herself with such power […] or others who express
      themselves differently, have different characteristics. Everyone asks “But why
      is she like that?” and then when you go home you think, you look at yourself, at
      your behaviour – that’s the beauty of the group – that’s the purpose of the
      group.

  Similarly, the activists of SNOQ Florence analyse group dynamics during
the meetings with the help of members who are psychologists. As one of
them, Fiorella, explains, the goal of these conversations is “to differentiate
oneself above all from each other. We are different. But also, to find some –
themes, elements that unite us”. This statement is in line with distinctions
made by Italian difference feminism which besides the difference between
the sexes, also highlights the difference between women and between each
woman (e.g., see Lonzi 1970). Interaction norms of Italian feminist activism


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RELUCTANT INSCRIPTION                                                              223


of the 1970s connected to these practices of interpersonal exchange in small
groups contain the relevance of trust and of listening to each other and
establishing close personal relationships (e.g. see Bono, Kemp 1991: 139;
Campari et al 1991). Within the local SNOQ committees, the activists strived
to establish friendly relations with each other through leisure activities and
solidarity, frequently spending their spare time together. During national
meetings, an effort was made to establish personal relationships. At the
meeting of Ancona in 2013, one activist called for giving more space to get
to know each other better, to generate positive feelings and to develop a
common identity. Especially mutual trust, which was fundamental to the
self-experience groups of the 1970s (see e.g. Bicchieri/Roditi 1977: 248),
represents an important prerequisite for joint work.
   Also, other interaction norms which can be traced back to the Italian
feminist groups of the 1970s were frequently mentioned at local and
national meetings of SNOQ: the effort for friendly feelings, listening to each
other, appreciating differences and anchoring yourself in the material life of
women.2 They represented an ideal and became feeling rules within SNOQ –
norms of socially desirable emotions that are produced according to the
respective situation (Hochschild 1979). This is illustrated by the reactions
when, at the national meeting in February 2014, SNOQ Florence announced
they would leave the movement. While some women wanted to continue the
discussion on content which was planned for that day, many others were
shocked. One activist exclaimed: “you cannot say this is THEIR problem -
these are our friends.” Another woman pledged that it was important in this
situation to trust each other. And a third argued: “we can reach a common
goal only together. We were already very different at the beginning, but this
is our richness.” A SNOQ member who had been an activist during the 1970s
stated that the relations between women did not foresee such disruptive
behaviour and instead required women to stay together while respecting
each other.
   The background for these statements is that interactional values of the
Italian feminist groups of the 1970s and of Italian difference feminism
created behaviour expectations that assign women a special way of activism
and interaction. Women are believed by some SNOQ activists to be solidary
because of gender, de-escalating and harmonising because of motherhood,
and characterised by sharing not only points of view, but also feelings.

2.These specific features of SNOQ are worthwhile noticing against the background of the
nowadays ever-increasing spread of movements which are organized as project working
groups who collaborate only temporarily and do not develop neither a strong collective
identity and for whom the mentioned values and relationships to other activists are not
central (e.g. see Schönberger 2014).

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   Movement researcher Mary Holmes explains that difference feminism in
general has made the anger of feminist women towards each other a taboo
(Holmes 2004: 215)3. According to the feminist activist Pilar Alba (1981), this
has the effect that an atmosphere of emotional support, harmony and
cooperation is expected at feminist meetings. At the national meetings of
SNOQ I could indeed observe that open anger was difficult to bear. The
appeal to appreciate differences was often uttered during conflicts, in the
situation of unbridgeable factual differences. In such circumstances, the
behavioural expectation to appreciate differences created a cognitive
dissonance between the actual and target emotional state – between what
should be felt – sisterhood with all women – and what is felt. One activist
analysed the dynamics within the aforementioned national meeting
accordingly, stating that they were the result of the “myth of the relation-
ship between women” which led to the fact that “we are all not free because
we have been conditioned by stereotypes”.
   The interaction norms and feeling rules which have established them-
selves over time and unplanned within SNOQ had effects not only on the
handling of conflicts, but also on the organization of communication and
protest and the perception of hierarchies.
   Practices and norms of interaction which are centred around the values of
friendship and trust require physical co-presence. They thus structure
internal communication and protest practices in the sense of a central
position of direct face-to-face contact. The personal encounter is seen as the
basis of political work and as essential for relationship building, political
exchange and the development of a collective identity.
   The question of whether digital media can also be suitable “places” for
political exchange has been controversially discussed within the movement.
Already at the first national meeting in 2011 at Siena, some SNOQ groups
stated that working on the internet and social networks could not replace
the physical meeting of bodies which is associated with a special quality of
community. Also, a document of SNOQ Factory states: “Only in the
concreteness of meetings with women (seeing, listening) do we want to
work.” (SNOQ Factory 2013). The mutual exchange and its subject-
transforming potentials are conceived as sensually mediated direct
encounters.
   Furthermore, physical co-presence is described some SNOQ activists as
harmonizing, an effect which Giorgia, a young sociologist and member of the
CPN, connects with feminist feeling rules and norms of sisterhood:

3.Difference feminism has been an influential philosophy not only in Italy, but also in other
European countries during the 1970s.


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RELUCTANT INSCRIPTION                                                                    225



      Sometimes it is indispensable to see each other face to face [...] conflicts and
      tensions dissolve to a great extent [...] women’s politics contain a very
      important thing [...] many relationships have changed, also personal ones,
      when you see each other, yes, even people who have said bad things to each
      other on Facebook on the Internet [...] when you sit together in the meeting
      and say things to each other’s faces and explain things to each other, they have
      reached the point of becoming friends.

   According to an internal survey by activists of the movement,
communication via digital media was mostly not used for important
decisions, but for their preparation and practical implementation as well as
for less important decisions that required fast reactions. Only on the basis of
existing relationships and trust are decisions made online, as Lea of SNOQ
Florence states: “we did it over the internet to save on transport costs, but it
worked because we knew and trusted each other”. At the national assembly
in Rome in October 2013, one activist expressed the fear that communication
that takes place solely via digital media would lead to a temporary
engagement in which personal relationships would be lost, which SNOQ sees
as the basis of political practice.
   These attitudes are in part due to the influence of the interaction and
protest traditions of the Italian feminist groups of the 1970s. In line with
them, SNOQ preferred classical forms of protest characterized by physical
co-presence which allowed for direct contact with the population. Of the
local committees, 87 percent used demonstrations, 97 percent
sensibilization events, and 81 percent flash mobs, while only 45 percent
resorted to online petitions and 13 percent to protest mail blogs or websites
(cf. Pavan 2013: 7-9). Antonella, physiotherapist and one of the leaders of
SNOQ Reggio Calabria, states: “our primary work is, in quotes, contact with
people, so handing out flyers. We don’t deviate from contact, from being
able to talk to people. Because that is fundamental for us.” The importance
of friendships within the group – which emerged from the experience of the
activisms of the 1970s – contributed to this attitude.

Horizontality vs. hierarchies
   The Italian women’s movement of the 1970s was characterised by the
rejection of political practices which were considered as “male”, such as
hierarchical structures and the principle of majority rule. Instead, preference
was given to grassroots democratic procedures in which group decisions
were supported unanimously by all, which were to emerge in the discussion
process (cf. Bono, Kemp 1991: 139).

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   This form of decision-making was also practised in most local committees
and in the CPN. The majority of the activists rejected voting and majority
decisions and favoured the unanimous decision which was, as one activist
formulated it, an unwritten rule which had established itself within the
movement. This preference of SNOQ members can be traced back to the
described difference feminist topoi. As an activist from Siena states, they do
not want to conduct politics in a “male” way, i.e., as action motivated by
particular power interests and not aimed at the common good and people’s
needs. She continues that the mode of unanimity was derived from the self-
experience groups of the 1970s. Every woman starts out from her own material
life; as a result, a consensus emerges almost automatically in the group that
corresponds to the unanimous conviction of all (cf. Näser-Lather 2014).
   The “partire da sé”, the going out from oneself, is a practice which should
lead to an awareness of (structural) socio-political problems. Moreover, it
strives to enable women to perceive themselves as autonomous subject and
no longer merely as an object of observation from the dominant male point
of view (Libreria delle donne di Milano 1991: 40). Similarly, the unanimous
decision making of SNOQ should have a consciousness-raising effect,
through a process of self-knowledge, feminist self-development and a
recognition of the positions of others. In this way, a connection to other
women can also be established as the phrase “parting from oneself in order
to arrive at the viewpoint of the others” suggests, which is often quoted by
SNOQ members. At the end of this process, a common group will emerges.
Martha from San Donà di Piave explains: “we grow together, we have an
idea, we talk about it, I talk, you talk, and my opinion changes thanks to
yours, yours thanks to mine, and so we come to a conclusion [...] we find the
way together”.This ideal of horizontality stems from the practices of the
feminists of the 1970s (cf. Bono, Kemp 1991: 139). However, despite this
goal and despite their influence in SNOQ, informal structures and also
hierarchies emerged in many of the local groups of the movement over time
and in part against the intentions of the group members, i.e., in the form of
social automatisms. This happened through group dynamics which caused
that some activists gradually took responsibility.
   Most SNOQ committees were organized in different layers of in-
volvement. A core group of particularly committed members were primarily
responsible for the planning process, another group of regularly active
members were involved in the decision-making process, and a periphery of
rather sporadically active supporters mainly participated at protest actions.
Such differentiations took place unplanned and sometimes without the
participants noticing this development. They occured through the repetition


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of interactions which produced role expectations and corresponding habitus
forms through the formation and consolidation of procedures. As the
examples of SNOQ Florence, Reggio Calabria, Genoa, and San Donà di Piave
show, there is a clear desire to avoid creating hierarchies and opportunities
to distinguish oneself; yet, hierarchies evolved.
   In Florence, the activists changed their organizational structures over a
period of several months. However, as time progressed, the distribution of
tasks became such that two of the members, Lea and Stefania, who both had
strong personalities, had developed as leaders. Their positions manifested
themselves in terms of high commitment and organizational responsibility,
with Lea more focussing on internal and Stefania on external communication.
In line with this, when I asked for an interview, several activists first referred
me to them as the most competent persons who were ascribed a special
power of interpretation.
   Lea was permanently responsible for the coordination and organisation of
group meetings and protest actions. When I participated at group meetings,
it was Lea who structured the discussion, calling the others to order, and
recording the results, although there was no official distinction between
“moderator” and “participants”. On February 21 2013, in a meeting conducted
in a community centre in Florence, the activists discuss their protest actions
in the immediate future. Lea asks: “There are a lot of events on the eight [of
march, the international women´s day] – what do we want to do? […] We have
to decide today”. They consider dancing when the Pro-Life Activists are
doing events, until Lea points out that it would be inappropriate to dance
while they are praying. Another member suggests that the financial support
of the province towards anti-abortion organisations should be disclosed. Lea
takes up this suggestion and delegates the task to the woman who has made
the proposal.
   Group interactions often occurred in such a manner. Despite the pronounced
intention of the group to have no leaders, it was usually Lea who initiated
topics, drew attention to the necessity of decisions and presented accordant
alternatives. Through the cumulative interaction of all participants in the
meetings, these practices were solidified over time. Like this, Lea’s informal
leadership position gradually crystallized and was maintained and
consolidated in ongoing negotiation processes.
   Similarly, in Reggio Calabria, Antonella and Luciana emerged as group
leaders, despite the conviction voiced by Antonella, that “our movement […]
is a horizontal movement. In the sense that we all decide the modalities
together, we all discuss together, and we act together. No boss comes and
tells the subordinates, tomorrow we’ll do it. Absolutely not”.

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228                                                         MARION NÄSER-LATHER


   In SNOQ Florence, SNOQ Venice and SNOQ Reggio di Calabria, two
activists each took prominent roles. Such informal leadership structures,
based on the commitment and assertiveness of the respective actors, can be
found in numerous movements (e.g., see Della Porta, Piazza 2008: 51).
   The resulting hierarchies were consolidated through the repetition of
practices, namely increased media visibility in the form of online presence of
the respective activists. The informal leaders in some committees are the
ones who manage the committees´ mailing list, Google Groups or Facebook
group, who invite to meetings online and who actively post content on social
media sites. In addition, many local committees differentiate between open
and restricted Facebook groups. Open groups are intended to be used by
people in the periphery of the movement as well as activists who are
continuously involved but do not belong to the core group. Restricted
groups are reserved for core members. The emergence of segregated online-
communication spaces solidified offline hierarchies by creating privileged
access to information and limiting participation. These processes occurred
without the intention of the group members, in a complex interplay of
online presence and access to certain online platforms and offline group
processes.
   Hierarchies, thus, do exist in many of the SNOQ groups. In most cases
they manifest themselves more as rudimentary differences of agency than as
rigid structures. However, the existence of such power-based relationships is
hardly addressed and is mostly only revealed indirectly. On the contrary, it is
masked by the fact that horizontal structures and the avoidance of
hierarchies still function as normative ideals. The dynamics of on one hand
striving for horizontality and on the other the emergence of hierarchies is
demonstrated by the effort to establish counter measures. Within SNOQ
Genoa, the groups´ coordinator, Eva, tried to establish equality, especially
regarding the distribution of tasks concerning communication with the
public; however, she clearly assumed a leading role.
   In some committees, the delegation of political capacity to act is only
accepted on a temporary basis, aiming, in the long term, to enable as many
group members as possible to take decisions on behalf of the others. Martha
of SNOQ San Donà di Piave states: “We try not to make anyone stand out [...]
maybe we work a little bit more than the others, but well, there are four or
five of us who work more, around which there is another group, then an even
bigger group. [...] some talk more, others less.” Nevertheless, even in critical
moments, Martha acts as a coordinator, according to fellow group member
Carola.



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RELUCTANT INSCRIPTION                                                           229


   Within local groups, authority could be accepted because of personal
trust. In SNOQ Venice, the coordinating – and factual leading – role of two
older members, Grazia and Simonetta, is acknowledged. The reason is the
existing relationship of trust with both women, resulting in the conviction
that they would not abuse their power. This conviction stems from the
already mentioned attitudes of difference feminism in general which
associate female gender identity with de-escalating, solidary behaviour that
is not oriented towards the striving for power, with a preference for
horizontality, sisterhood and personal trust (cf. Freeman 1978). As Rosella of
SNOQ Florence explains also with recourse to her feminist experiences in
the 1970s: “if I have a good relationship with the five people who make
decisions because they are the ones who work the most, I trust them [...] but
if we do not meet, especially at the level of friendship, I am against them
making decisions”. If, on the other hand, such relationships do not exist, one
might be, as she continues, dissatisfied with the decisions and feel negative
emotions towards the persons concerned.
   Exactly those values made it difficult to accept authority and leadership at
the national level where trust could not be built up to the extent of the local
groups because of the greater heterogeneity and the widespread lack of close
personal relationships (see Näser-Lather 2019: 264-266).

Conclusion
   The feminist understanding and traditions of the women’s movement of
the 1970s have inscribed themselves unplanned and partly unconsciously
and against the intention of the participants, i.e. automatically. They
configured the group processes of the movement by establishing and
habitualizing interaction practices, leading to the shifting of roles and
ultimately to the consolidation of relationships, patterns of action and
structures.
   This creation of structures happened in a parallel way in many SNOQ
groups. Automatisms, as Bublitz et al. put it, merge into a regime of highly
effective logics. Their effects seem to be “particularly effective where
different actors act independently of one another without central control”
(Bublitz et. al. 2010: 10) as was the case in SNOQ.
   Feeling rules and modes of interaction have been inscribed in SNOQ
group procedures in form of standardization and normalization. These
processes occurred in part through the influence of activists who had been
members of the feminist groups of the 1970s. The previous and existing
traditions contributed to a recombination of practices.


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230                                                       MARION NÄSER-LATHER


   Automatisms are formed over time through the repetition of speech acts
and practices. They create dynamics and structures which emerge unplanned
via an interplay of bottom-up and top-down processes through the
interaction of different actors and technologies – in the case of SNOQ,
digital infrastructures. The resulting procedures in the women’s groups
initially simplified interactions, since they did not have to be repeatedly
redefined through negotiation processes. At the same time, however, the
automatistic creation of solidified standards, interaction norms and
resulting behaviour expectations has led to conflicts within SNOQ.
   Social automatisms had contradictory effects, in part establishing the
interaction traditions of the feminist group of the 1970s within SNOQ and in
part working against them. Hierarchies emerged and became a stabilizing
effect in the establishment of unplanned structures, however only on the
basis of their being built on friendly relationships and personal trust. Yet,
those informal hierarchies led to the development of practices of
demarcation, containment, and exclusion mechanisms – contrary to the
movement’s internal values of horizontality, basic democracy, equality and
fluidity. As we can see from the example of the group processes in Se Non
Ora Quando?, automatisms are formed over time, and they generate
dynamics that have a structuring effect: networks of relationships and
structures emerge spontaneously. Through unplanned processes, some of
which take place behind the backs of the participants, historically evolved
procedures and feeling rules assert themselves insofar as the formation and
consolidation of behaviour takes place through the repetition of interaction.
This involves both communication and interactions stored in cultural
memory, which influence current social dynamics as habitualised discursive
traditions. The transmission of interaction traditions and values of the
feminist groups of the 1970s and Italian difference feminism partly takes
place in the form of unintended socialisation effects, as opposed to the
concrete transmission of experiences. Thus, in the case of the women’s
movement SNOQ, an unplanned inscription of habitus, modes of perception
and interaction by means of social automatisms. The concept of social
automatisms can thus clarify the question which Bohnsack (2013: 196)
mentions as gap in Bourdieu´s theory, namely how the class-specific habitus
is superimposed and modified in a gender- and generation-specific way.
   As I have shown, the automatistic perspective represents an approach to
rethink phenomena of the interaction between actors and social relations
within social movements. It therefore complements movement theories such
as Alexander Leistner´s (2013) key figures approach which describes that for
different tasks in movements, different actors emerge, such as leadership

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figures, witnesses and martyrs, mentors, masterminds, networkers,
actionists and renegades. The concept of social automatisms also can serve
to concretize other theories, for example expanding Judith Butler’s
investigations into the performativity of speech acts (e.g. see Butler 1995). It
determines more precisely how discourses and practices become effective
and how their effects inscribe themselves on the subjects - e.g. when,
through the described group dynamics, hierarchies emerge in the group
SNOQ Florence against the will of the group members. The example of Se
Non Ora Quando? shows that the concept of social automatisms can explain
in detail how dynamics of power as effects of non-subjective intentionality
and located beyond individual interests take place. Such processes are
described by Michel Foucault when he states: “Power is not something that
is acquired, seized, or shared, something that one holds on to or allows to
slip away; power is exercised from innumerable points, in the interplay of
nonegalitarian and mobile relations” (Foucault 1998: 94). Social
automatisms have promoted internal conflicts within the movement Se Non
Ora Quando? in that they led to members behaving contrary to norms
established by the movement such as horizontality.
   The social automatisms taking place in the movement Se Non Ora
Quando? illustrate the nature of politics as described by Hannah Arendt
(1958: 98) as arising “out of acting and speaking together” and its being
located “between people”. The theoretical perspective of automatisms draws
attention to dynamics of interactions that go beyond what is controllable
and available to the subjects. It can therefore make an important
contribution to the disclosure of such processes, which are highly effective
in group processes, but also in the political sphere. A re-appro-priation of
power to act can thus be made possible.




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232                                                               MARION NÄSER-LATHER


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 Marion NÄSER-LATHER is guest professor at the University of Innsbruck. After
 studying ethnology and philosophy, in her doctorate she analysed parenting in the
 German armed forces. She has held post-doctoral positions at the Universities of
 Paderborn, Innsbruck and Marburg and was a visiting scientist at the University of
 Perugia and the Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg. Her habilitation project
 examined the new feminist movement “Se Non Ora Quando?”. Her research
 interests include gender studies, protest movements, mediterranean studies,
 digitization and research in sensitive fields.
 naeserm@staff.uni-marburg.de




This work is licensed under the Creative Commons © Marion Näser-Lather
Reluctant inscription: Social automatisms within the movement “Se Non Ora Quando?”
2021 | ANUAC. VOL. 10, N° 2, DICEMBRE 2021: 215-235.
ISSN: 2239-625X - DOI: 10.7340/anuac2239-625X-4273
