Francesca Forno obtained a BA in Sociology, summa cum laude, at the University of Urbino, Italy (1995) and a PhD in Politics at Strathclyde University, UK (2003). She was visiting student at the University of Leeds (1994-1995) and Essex (1995, 1997) where she attended several courses at the Summer School in Data Analysis and Collection.
Before taking on her current post at Bergamo University she taught courses at the University of Urbino in Environmental Sociology at the Faculty of Environmental Studies (2003-2005) and in Social Movements and Political Change (2004-2005) at the Faculty of Sociology.
She has been involved in several research projects: as Research Fellow (1998-2000) within the TEA project The Transformation of Environmental Activism, funded by the European Commission DGXII - Science, Research & Development; Local Government and Local Interests (Univ. of Trento, 1997-1998); Territory, Elections and Society after 1994 (Univ. of Urbino, 2003-2005); and Territory, Regions and Strategy (Fondazione G. Agnelli, 1996).
Her main individual project has been a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the political and social conflicts that occurred in Italy from 1988 to 1997. The study focused on several aspects of protest including the issues at stake, the social characteristics of the actors involved and the different repertories of protest. More recently her attention has shifted towards the study and implications (theoretical, methodological and empirical) of certain new emerging repertoires of action, such as market-based mobilisations and political consumerism.
She is a Researcher of the Laboratory of Social and Political Studies (www.uniurb.it/lapolis) and co-convenor (together with Michele Micheletti) of the Ecpr Standing Group Forms of Participation (www.essex.ac.uk/ecpr/standinggroups/participation).