Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the story of how precarious workers mobilized in Italy between 2001 and 2006 interacted with a wide range of media organizations, outlets, technologies and professionals in order to define precarious workers not as mere victims. It provides a theoretical framework to understand patterns of visibility in mobilizations against precocity and, more generally, in grassroots political communication. Mobilizations against precocity took place in a discursive context where many institutional political actors framed flexibility in a fairly positive manner. The book explores the processes of political organization that led to struggles against precocity. Finally, it conceptualise the media environment and activist media practices as two valuable analytical tools to understand how grassroots political communication developed during mobilisations against precarity. Relational media practices are central dimension to understand the intertwining of processes of grassroots political organising and grassroots political communication.