15M Movement Research Articles

15M: The movement in its third anniversary

The emergence of networked social movements in 2011 has opened a new door in the social movements’ literature. By adopting a technopolitical and situated approach, in this paper, we explore the case of the 15M movement three years after its formation in May 2011. Through an online survey and a nonprobabilistic sampling procedure, we pay special attention to the perceptions and opinions of the movement’s participants. We distinguish seven thematic sections: the relationship with the movement, previous political participation and motivations, the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), the emotions experienced, the evolution of the movement, its influence on elections, and the impacts on several aspects of social life. The results show that the respondents (N=1320) are to a large extent adherent to the movement and largely prompted into action due to political issues. Also, they mostly believe that the movement remains alive yet in new forms, and perceived impacts on different areas, institutions, behaviours, and ideas. We conclude by describing 15M as a case that adequately fits the concept of a networked social movement. Finally, we suggest future steps in the understanding of these movements by further applying the online survey designed for this study and complementing analyses via other research methods.

Spanish anarchist engagements in electoralism: from street to party politics

The eruption of the Spanish 15M movement in 2011 was marked by a high degree of political participation and creative experimentation. The political repertoire has constantly been re-evaluated, with methods revised and evolving, from the occupation of public spaces to the recent creation of new constitutional parties. One of the key aspects of these tactical revisions has been the involvement of anarchist actors in an experimental process of engagement in electoral processes, a method of political engagement anarchists standardly oppose. Our study identifies the motivations and theoretical justifications that have recently led libertarian activists to take the electoral path. This paper stands in the small but growing tradition of works that examine the recent phenomenon of new parties built by ‘street’ activists, but uniquely concentrates on a detailed case study of the anarchist actors linked to the platform Castelló en Moviment (CsM). It thus describes the anarchist influence in recent electoral developments, identifies proponents’ justifications for engaging in these previously rejected methods and highlights some of the doubts raised about the electoral experiment.

Online network organization of Barcelona en Com\xfa, an emergent movement-party

The emerging grassroots party Barcelona en Comú won the 2015 Barcelona City Council election. This candidacy was devised by activists involved in the Spanish 15M movement to transform citizen outrage into political change. On the one hand, the 15M movement was based on a decentralized structure. On the other hand, political science literature postulates that parties develop oligarchical leadership structures. This tension motivates to examine whether Barcelona en Comú preserved a decentralized structure or adopted a conventional centralized organization. In this study we develop a computational methodology to characterize the online network organization of every party in the election campaign on Twitter. Results on the network of retweets reveal that, while traditional parties are organized in a single cluster, for Barcelona en Comú two well-defined groups co-exist: a centralized cluster led by the candidate and party accounts, and a decentralized cluster with the movement activists. Furthermore, results on the network of replies also shows a dual structure: a cluster around the candidate receiving the largest attention from other parties, and another with the movement activists exhibiting a higher predisposition to dialogue with other parties.

Political Participation and New Technologies of Communication in Spain

The consolidation of the Internet as not only a media outlet, but also a multifunctional platform, has put into question the traditional relationship between media and political participation. The latest political developments in Spain, such as the 15-M movement or the success of Podemos, show that new technologies increase the options for new and fresh ways of political activism. This study provides a diagnosis of the role played by new technologies of communication, particularly the Internet, in political activism in Spain. The results show a noteworthy dissemination of the Internet as a political information source, as well as a platform to participate in politics. In addition, the analysis suggests that online participation is a phenomenon more popular among young people, with high studies and located on the ideological left. This profile is similar to that of citizens who support the new political forces like Podemos and the different citizens’ movements which are demanding a reconfiguration of the democratic system in Spain.

Radical Democracy

Spanish cities have become laboratories for democracy that hold lessons for grass-roots organizers and politicians worldwide, writes journalist Bernardo Gutiérrez. He describes how the technology-based participatory strategies developed by hackers from the 15-M Movement, which served as a precursor to Occupy Wall Street, have spread to urban centers across Spain. After electoral wins in Barcelona, Madrid, A Coruña, and elsewhere, former activists have ushered in changes to the business of governance that offer a credible and compelling alternative to neoliberalism.

Communication Activism as a School of Politics: Lessons From Spain's Indignados Movement

In this article, we draw on ethnographic research to examine some key communication activism practices of Spain's indignados (15M) movement. The 15M radically transformed communication activism in Spain through its strong political-pedagogical orientation. Here lies the greatest 15M lesson for Communication for Social Change: Ordinary citizens in countries like Spain are rejecting traditional roles as “beneficiaries” of institutional communication campaigns. Instead, they have become active political actors who are able to generate their own processes of political pedagogy and communication. We conceptualize this lesson by positing the existence of three principles of 15M communication activism as a school of politics: the principles of pedagogical sovereignty, action, and networking.

Functional Diversity as a Politics of Design?

This article is an inquiry into the activism around ‘functional diversity’ after the public square occupations of the Spanish 15-M movement; and, more specifically, how, in them, ‘functional diversity’ developed into a repertoire for the politicisation of design (notably, the market of technical aids and accessible environments created according to the social model of disability). To underpin the particular reading of the politics of design —in the sense developed by political philosopher Jacques Ranciere— that appears there, I will describe a small collaborative project put together by the Barcelona-based open design collective En torno a la silla.

La Tertulia política del Ateneo de Madrid de Agustín García Calvo

Agustin Garcia Calvo thought that Ateneo’s Political Discussion Group was an unusually unique case in the world. In the same way, it could be said that it is unusually unique the inexistence of academic research about an author of his intellectual stature and with so vast works. In this article, I state that, besides being the best way of getting closer to his thinking, the Ateneo’s Political Discussion Group was the nucleus of his life and works. It was also the alternative that he was asked so many times. He preferred offering, instead with words, with facts, in act. Finally, this article also mentions the relationship between the Ateneo’s Political Discussion Group and the 15M Movement’s Free Assembly in the Puerta del Sol and the assemblies of 1965.

The “indignant” pilgrim: Cultural narratives of crisis and renewal in the 15M movement in Spain

ABSTRACTOn Saturday July 23, 2011, Guillermo, a young student from Lleida (Catalonia, Spain), who had been camping out since the beginning of the 15M movement, arrived in Madrid after walking over 450 kilometers, in one of the six columns that had crossed the Iberian Peninsula during the previous weeks. The “Popular Indignant March” had been conceived as an original way of rounding off the occupations of hundreds of squares throughout Spain, their objective being Puerta del Sol in Madrid, the first square to be occupied. On the way, which was from the urban periphery toward the center, passing by the rural Spanish plateau, the population's claims and complaints were to be gathered and taken to the agora of the participatory democracy. The experience of having groups of people walking from different origins with a common destination evokes the classical anthropological experience of the religious pilgrimage. Spain's best example is the Camino de Santiago, which has attracted thousands of pilgrims from all over Europe since the Middle Ages. When we ask Guillermo about this parallelism, he denies any spiritual content, although his account of Camino de Sol is like the fulfillment of a civic promise, the ritualization of a festive and revindicative appropriation of the territory, the colonization of a terra incognita that they had taken over two months before, on 15M, when the hashtag #spanishrevolution became a trending topic within the social networks. The article relates this experience to the narratives of the 15M movement and to the situation of young people in Spain in times of crisis.

“Voy a empeñar la Edad de Oro”: Historia, música y política en la crisis española (2011–2016)

ABSTRACTSpain's current economic and social crisis has involved a profound reappraisal of the country's history, institutions, and official narratives, especially after the emergence of the 15M or indignados movement in 2011. A crucial example of this shift has been the widespread criticism of Spain's “Transition to Democracy” or Transición, widely considered Spain's “foundational” narrative. In this article, a series of examples from the musical field—including essays, songs, and public uses of music—are studied and contextualized in order to analyze different interpretations and critiques of the Transición developed by artists, intellectuals, and politicians who took part in the 15M or have been influenced by its “climate” (Fernández Savater). In these examples, two complementary trends are identified: on the one hand, an intention to reclaim part of the Transición's collective mood through its musical symbols; on the other, a rejection of its political legacy, as expressed in criticisms of its musical canon.

New citizenship in Spain: from social cooperation to self-government

The crisis in Spain has generated new forms of solidarity that have become new ways of being and living the city. Streets and houses have been taken by the population in protests and direct actions. Lack of alternatives and the government’s ‘do-nothing’ policy have pushed people to perform the ‘right to the city’ on their own and in collective ways. The 15M movement, with its assemblies in every public square and park, the ‘mareas’ (waves), which occupied hospitals and schools to create dialogue between parents and teachers and between doctors and patients, and the Platform of Mortgage Victims, the leading force in the struggle against evictions, are three examples of new ways of understanding the city. In the context of these experiments in self-management of the social reproduction of life, proposals for the transformation of government have also emerged, pointing precisely to the strengthening of citizen self-government. The most progressive experiments have taken place at the municipal level through popular electoral platforms that won 2015 elections in many cities. we can state that a new form of citizenship seems to be emerging according to which, citizens understand the city as their own, fight for the use and control of urban infrastructures and seek to institutionalise new forms of people’s control, participation and decision-making.

Political exchange, crisis of representation and trade union strategies in a time of austerity

This article analyses the strategy of major Spanish trade unions in the context of economic crisis through the theoretical framework of political exchange. It focuses on a frequently ignored dimension of political exchange, namely the relationship between union leaders and the rank-and-file, which, under certain circumstances, can lead to a crisis of representation. Based on document analysis and semi-structured interviews, this article explores the strategic behaviour of Spanish trade unions and their relationship with the so-called 15M movement. It concludes that the ambiguous strategy of the major unions can be explained, not only as a result of their effort to preserve their institutional power and their political influence in the public sphere, but also as a response to the emergence of the 15M movement, which has made these organizations confront the threat of a crisis of representation.

Social movements in crisis? From the 15-M movement to the electoral shift in Spain

Purpose Social left-wing political contestation and activism in Spain have undergone great changes over the past four years. First, there has been a shift from the 15-M movement that took over public plazas with its ambiguous claims basically related to radical democracy and rejection of institutional politics, to a new focus on social problems generated by the crisis, highlighting issues such as housing and cutbacks in social rights. Second, there has been a shift towards institutional politics in 2014. How should this recent whirlwind evolution in political contestation to status quo be understood? What is the relation between the changing material conditions of the population and the extremely shifting shape of left-wing militancy in Spain? The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach The arguments put forward here are based on the authors’ involvement in social movements in the city of Seville between 2011 and the current time. They have been complemented with in-depth interviews of social activists who have taken part in the movements: 15-M assemblies, the housing movement, general strikes and, in more recent times, electoral initiatives (Podemos and Ganemos). The interviews were done between 2012 and 2014. The fieldwork has been complemented with an exploration of documentary sources: the manifests and writings of the various organisations that are being addressed. Findings In the transition from 15-M assemblies to the recent shift in electoral initiatives, social protest have turned from direct democracy demands and the rejection of institutionalised politics to a progressively pragmatic and short-term position where institutions are targeted. This paper argues that the generalised impoverishment of the population, increased numbers of evictions and consistently high unemployment rates have broadened the social framework for the action of social movements. The political and ideological crisis, rooted in the majority of the population’s crumbling expectations of social progress has enabled the array of possibilities to be opened up to emancipatory politics. Originality/value It is argued that massive deprivation provoked by the economic crisis has been a fundamental factor in the movements’ new orientation, what as a consequence, and until certain extent, throws the New Social Movements discourses into crisis itself, at least with regard to its post-materialistic nature and its opposition to institutions of the State.

'Lo que diga la asamblea'. El ritual político como fetiche en tiempos de crisis

The current systemic crisis has operated as an opportunity structure on which have crystallized new discourses, new practices and new political structures. The emergence of 15M, Platform for People Affected by Mortgages (PAH) or so-called tides have allowed the visibility of ways of doing politics that make an explicit difference with the practices associated with the political establishment of the 78 regime. Some of the practices popularized by these movements have become assumed by broad segments of the population. Among them, the assembly as a legitimate method of decision making. In this paper we propose an analysis of the assembly as a political ritual, making a description of its organizational logic, principles of legimitacion and formal characteristics. Through ethnographic data collected in the city of Alcala de Guadaira (Sevilla) trace the specific frame of discourses, practices and observable relationships within assemblies organized by the 15M movement. Finally, through these data, we reflect on the political meaning of the ritual in times of crisis.

La reducción enunciativa: Podemos y la constricción de la voz de la multitud

La irrupción política de Podemos en el panorama mediático y electoral español ha supuesto no sólo una revolución política sino también comunicativa. El 15M significó la crisis definitiva de la hegemonía indiscutible del Modelo Difusión en política, como ya se había verificado en otros espacios de comunicación social. Con su “no nos representan”, el 15M fue ante todo un proceso de disolución enunciativa. Tras él Podemos es el único caso de un experimento de hibridación integral del Modelo Difusión y el Modelo Reticular, intentando propiciar su sinergia. El desembarco de Pablo Iglesias en la televisión resulta crucial, pues se trata de un intento de abrochar la enunciación mediático-electoral con la enunciación popular-reticular.

The new left in Spain: Some aspects to consider

This paper addresses the current situation of the left in Spain (excluding traditional social democracy) and its future prospects. Since the so-called 15-M movement of May 2011 and the subsequent creation of Podemos (‘We Can’), there has been a perceived possibility of the overcoming the neoliberal offensive and the so-called regime of 1978, the political structure of the last decades. However, it is argued here that the rise of this ‘new left’ does not necessarily imply a strengthening of the subject of transformation, the labour movement, nor the political framework for achieving social rights in the future.

Erosión de la participación ciudadana en la movilización social: Cierres organizativos y repliegues sobre el capital escolar

The article begin exposing the work that it have to do any social movement for holding an enough general degree about defended cause (and in a general way for articulate a good frame processes). Also there are described the competences and skills necessaries to face this collective work carrying out the notions of school and militant capital. After that, there are introduced two ethnography moments selected from a 15M movement empirical research where are explained two different participated closing forms. In one case the closing is supported on a scholar culture colonization of the assembly dynamics and in the other, on the organizational culture whose ignorance only it could be settled with very specialized high knowledges. To end there are suggested some reflections and collecting instruments and strategies for trying to curb the organizational drifts that ending turn into participation closings.

The creation of the public identity of the 15-M Movement. A proposal for the media impact assessment

espanolLas movilizaciones nacidas en mayo de 2011 fueron bautizadas por los medios como Movimiento 15-M para identificar a la familia de movimientos sociales, a pesar de que se autodenominaban “movimiento de indignados” (Hessel, 2011). La construccion de la identidad publica se ha instalado en la arena de los medios de comunicacion, participando como agentes del impacto mediatico que generan los movimientos sociales. Este trabajo presenta la evaluacion del impacto producido por el Movimiento 15-M en los medios de comunicacion mediante el analisis de los discursos recogidos en la prensa local sevillana a traves de muestras seleccionadas entre 2011 y 2013. EnglishDemostration was borned in May 2011 were named by the media as 15-M Movement to identify the family of social movements, although they called “movement of indignados” (Hessel, 2011) themselves. The construction of public identity has been installed in the arena of the media, participating as agents of mediatic impacts generated by the social movements. This paper presents the evaluation of the impact produced by the 15-M in the media through the discourse analysis in the sevillian local press through selected samples between 2011 and 2013.

Od protesta do političkih stranaka: online deliberacija u novonastalim strankama u Španjolskoj

The new parties that emerged following the 15-M movement and against the austerity measures in Spain want to build parties open to the participation and deliberation for all the citizenry. To what extent are these ideals being fulfilled? The aim of this article is to describe and assess some of the main online deliberative processes of the two most important parties, Podemos and Barcelona En Comu, following commonly accepted criteria in the literature for measuring online deliberation. Specifically, we have examined the two most-voted proposals from the online platform Plaza Podemos and the online development of the electoral programme of Barcelona En Comu. Thus, we have conducted a content analysis of 713 (Plaza Podemos) and 563 (Barcelona En Comu) posts. Both platforms meet the structural and technical criteria for fostering deliberation, but the external impact is high only in the case of Barcelona En Comu. The deliberative quality of the communication is good but not the criteria of reflexivity, inclusion and plurality.

From Overcoming the fear to Protest, to using Fear as a repressive strategy towards the 15M movement

In this article we analyse the police repression strategies that were developed around the emergence of the 15M movement in Barcelona, which was an important turning point for protest and repression. Through press reviews, discussion groups and interviews we empirically contribute to previous theoretical studies that deal with strategies for policing protests. We recognize that strategic incapacitation is a new style of policing protests that has taken hold in the last decade. However, we reflect on the importance of understanding this new strategy, within an increasingly more punitive state under transformation, that creates enemies to erode the rights of most the population. In the case of the protests, this also seeks to create fear and consequently tries to dismantle and wear down current and potential participants of social movements.