The Aesthetics of Social Movements in Spain

Abstract

Drawing on the work of Jacques Ranciere, the chapter explores how consensus on the surface is questioned through the introduction of conflict by a community (politics), who challenges the ways of doing, acting, saying, and feeling (aesthetics). Social movements in Spain, after the economic crisis, deploy aesthetic practices in urban spaces in order to make inequality visible and enhance a new sense of community. This is illustrated through three cases: Platform for People Affected by Mortgages (PAH), Invisibles, and “We Are Not Crime.” Three types of subjectivization are developed as a consequence of interrupting the dominant order in specific settings (i.e., the streets as public spaces): the part which has no justice, the part which has no visibility, and the part which has no voice.