ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the socio-demographic characteristics of the activists that participated into the protest events between 2017 and 2018. It pays particular attention to age and gender, whose impact is also analysed on the frequency of participation in extra-institutional political activities, defined as participation in assemblies and demonstrations. We highlight that gender and age are of increasing salience in driving participation in protest activities as well as in shaping protesters’ visions. However, collective factors, most importantly active membership in an organisation, still account for the frequency of participation of individuals involved in the resistance to the right-wing backlash in Italy. The data points also to the tendency of young, progressive individuals to participate in protest events and movement assemblies to a greater extent than older people, while there is also a greater participation of women in extra-institutional politics in comparison to the past. Nevertheless, this does not always translate into an increased intensity of participation. It is mostly men who are still more active daily in the organisation of protests and assemblies. While being a man increases one's probability of intensively participating in both assemblies and demonstrations, the most statistically significant predicting factor is active membership in an organisation.
