Space and the desire for democracy in the 15M

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between democracy and space by investigating the spaces produced by the explosion of democratic desire during the 15M movement in Spain in 2011. It argues that participants produced a space that was more an agora than a parliament, more a plaza than a factory floor, and space that was more for use than for exchange. The paper argues that if the project for democracy is to thrive, it should be unceasingly attentive to the spaces that democratic desire produces, both in spectacular movements like the 15M and in the more quotidian practices of ordinary inhabitants all over the world.