Anti-austerity Research Articles

Graffiti slogans and the construction of collective identity: evidence from the anti-austerity protests in Greece

Abstract This article examines the way that collective identity was discursively constructed during the anti-austerity protests of 28 and 29 June 2011 on the environs of the Greek Parliament. Drawing on the framework of critical discourse analysis, we study the interrelation between macro-level (dominant) values and views, and micro-level individual positions as expressed in graffiti slogans that appeared during the protests. The graffiti data comes from a personal archive which consists of 40 slogans, collected during June 2011. We conduct a systemic-functional analysis to scrutinize the transitivity structures of graffiti slogans, employing the notion of anti-language as central to the micro-level. We then draw on the notion of collective identity to frame the graffiti at the macro-level. Among our main findings is that the writers of graffiti slogans construct their collective identity on a two-fold oppositional axis: the first consists of the dominant institutions or “others,” which are negatively represented, while the second consists of a positively represented and inclusive in-group or “we.” The focus on graffiti has two manifest and interrelated goals: (a) to scrutinize the protesters’ semiotics in order to piece together their identity, thus avoiding subsequent hegemonic interpretations of the participants’ identity; and (b) to preserve the elaborate counter-reality constructed by these ephemeral messages against the official and “mainstream” discourses and their reality.

Taking liberties with democracy? On the origins, meaning and implications of the Irish water wars

This paper offers a reading of anti-austerity protests in the Irish Republic, placing under scrutiny in particular the origins, meaning, and implications of the country's water wars. It notes the proclivity of some post-crash anti-austerity populisms to fall prey to a politics of retrenchment and exclusion and even to degenerate into nationalist spasms or what Jean Paul Sartre would term fraternity terrorisms. It contributes conceptual novelty to existing human geographical scholarship on protest movements by convening Jean Paul Sartre and Judith Butler in conversation; registering therein the political potential of the fused group, performing popular sovereignty through public assembly. What makes the Irish case fascinating and worthy of scrutiny is the fact that protest never ossified and totalised into an oppressive or regressive form of political populism. Our central argument is that Ireland's water protest movement was effective because it was constituted from outside mainstream politics; from molecular and atomised struggles which scaled and agglomerated into large public assemblies which, whilst ultimately inchoate and indeterminate, signified that popular sovereignty had usurped the centre-right representative regime and challenged the latter's right to custody over democracy.

Between deliberation and contestation: the convergence of struggles against austerity and its world in the Nuit Debout movement

ABSTRACTNuit debout represents one of the main mobilizations in France in recent years and the most important anti-austerity movement in the country since the financial crisis. Based on document analysis and fieldwork, this paper addresses the development of master frames within the context of free spaces. The introduction of the parliamentarian debate on the French Jobs Act can be understood as a suddenly imposed grievance that triggered the emergence in France of a movement against austerity and the perceived retrenchment of democratic life. This happened as the grievance was framed within the French left-wing movements through the adoption and adaptation of ideas coming from a movement cascade that started in 2008 in Iceland, peaked in 2011 in Spain, Greece and the US and continued in countries as Turkey in 2013. Moving from structure to action, the paper highlights how Nuit debout provided a platform for the convergence of previously disconnected mobilizations. In particular, the movement’s self-characterization as a ‘convergence of struggles’ and as a movement ‘against the Jobs Act and its world’ developed within free spaces in which contentious but also deliberative practices were accommodated.

Media Representations of Anti-Austerity Protests in the EU: Grievances, Identities and Agency

Media Representations of Anti-Austerity Protests in the EU: Grievances, Identities and Agency

The penalization of protest under neoliberalism: managing resistance through punishment

The repression of anti-austerity protests in Spain from 2011 to 2014 constitutes an example of how neoliberal developments are facilitated by the penal system as it limits political resistances to the imposition of precarious working conditions and social cuts. The limits imposed on contentious politics are both material (consisting of banning acts that are prominent in social movement’s repertoire of contention, fining demonstrators, etc.) and symbolic (consisting of transforming the meaning of legitimate politics by imposing new legal and political definitions). This case study is used to illustrate the interconnection between labor markets, social policies and the repression of social protest, and to elaborate on Wacquant’s approach to the relationship between punishment and other social institutions. It is at such times of political and economic crisis when institutional interconnections seem particularly exposed, arguably enabling more profound analyses.

“Can I Tell You about It?”: England, Austerity and “Radical Optimism” in the Theatre of Anders Lustgarten

Abstract Over the past decade, the plays of Anders Lustgarten have taken a prominent place in the English theatre repertoire. Performed by companies including Red Ladder, Cardboard Citizens, and the Royal Shakespeare Company, Lustgarten’s dramatic writing places social and political issues centrestage, ranging from the housing crisis and the electoral ascendancy of far-right parties to the alienation of the urban working class and the racist scapegoating of immigrants. This article focuses on Lustgarten’s landmark play inspired by the Occupy movement, If You Don’t Let Us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep (Royal Court Theatre, 2013). I explore how the play engages with, and reflects on, economic austerity, forms of contemporary mass protest, and, indirectly, evolving conceptions of English nationhood. I also examine Lustgarten’s notion of “Radical Optimism” – a term he identifies with the global anti-austerity protests following the 2007-8 financial crisis – and consider its importance to what he calls “anti-prop” political theatre. The first part of the article probes the relationship between If You Don’t Let Us Dream and the established “tradition” of state-of-the-nation playwriting; the second part identifies the play’s challenge to this “tradition,” which is informed by its proximity to the Occupy protests.

Social and Solidarity Economy. The Case of an Urban Consumption Co-operative in Greece

The apparent ubiquity of alternative – to the dominant economic model – economies, after the 2008 multidimensional crisis across the world, fuelled claims about a new style of mobilisation emerg-ing in Greece. It is the outcome of the evolution of the Greek anti-austerity movement and community-based experiences, consolidated to form new affiliations of collective initiatives and practices. Analysing original qualitative data derived from a case study of a Greek Urban Consumer Co-operative, this article engages with the debate of Social and Solidarity Economy. The research highlights the capacity of a Greek Urban Consumer Co-operative through sustainable consumption patterns to utilise local-traditional re-sources in order to empower local communities in times of crisis. Theoretically, this urban consumer co-operative generates new insights into the nature and meanings of a more sustainable and just economy, by changing the way it buys and sells food and other goods. From a policy and practice perspective, the paper raises the need for regional development strategies that capture the 'alternativeness' of these iso-lated initiatives, whose practices promote ethical, as well as environmental criteria and considerations in times of global economic crisis.

Autonomy, Degrowth and Prefigurative Politics: Voices of Solidarity Economy Activists amid Economic Crisis in Greece

Drawing upon in-depth interviews with key informants of grassroots alternative organisations in anti-austerity Greece, the study sheds light on the structures of meanings of invisible voices, revealing the motives, worldviews and value-systems that lay behind their actions. Using critical discourse analysis, the text offers a thorough understanding of the meaning and experience of building social and economic experiments with transformative potential within the solidarity economy alternative, in the context of the Greek economic crisis. The narratives of solidarity economy informants reveal militant investigations, ro-mantic humanism, egalitarian goals and an ethos of collectivism that call into question the prevalent capi-talist imaginary. Participants employ utopian thinking, imagining a future that departs significantly from what we know. They call on us to re-assess hegemonic values and norms in the light of alternative realities which embody forms of workers' cooperativism, participatory actions and ways of being, which prefigure the future vision of another form of social life.

Mobilizing for a ‘Europe from below’: network, territory, and place in the anti-austerity Blockupy movement

ABSTRACTIn March 2015, the anti-austerity movement, Blockupy, protested the inauguration of the ECB's new premises. This article explores Blockupy's construction of a sociospatial imaginary of a ‘Europe from below’. The article: (1) analyses the construction of the transnational Blockupy network, (2) compares the territory of the elite's austerity Eurozone with that of a different ‘Europe from below’, and (3) shows how the ECB premises have been the central place of European austerity and protest. This approach supplements recent debates on multispatiality, and shifts the lens used to analyse crises from a structural one to one emphasizing ongoing politicization ‘from below’.

Protest in Italy in Times of Crisis: A Cross-Government Comparison

Using protest event analysis methodology and conceptual and theoretical toolkits developed in social movement studies, this article analyses protest mobilisation during the period of the height of the economic crisis in Italy (2009–2014) by comparing the protest trends in diachronic and comparative perspectives over a period of four different governments. Data show that the Italian anti-austerity protest arena was dominated by ‘old actors’ (the traditional trade unions) and was not able to produce the strong social and political coalitions that emerged in other South European countries. This was due to the specific relationship that developed between civil society and political parties that shaped the forms of anti-austerity mobilisation in this period.

Creating Critical Citizens? The Effect of Protests on Public Opinion

Following the Great Recession, many countries witnessed large protests against the austerity policies their governments implemented. What was their effect on public opinion? I argue that these protests can make citizens more critical of elite performance, but not more disaffected or undemocratic. Anti-austerity protests voice civil society actors instead of elites in the public debate, making such debate more relatable. Such increased relatability can make individuals more comfortable expressing their own dissatisfaction, and it can make them perceive that their voice is more valued. Taking advantage of a demonstration happening during the fieldwork of the fifth wave of the European Social Survey in Portugal, I find exposure to the protest decreased satisfaction and trust in elites. I find no evidence that the protest made individuals more disaffected from politics or more undemocratic. Supporting the argument regarding the mechanism, the protest increased the number of claims by civil society actors reported in the press and its effect was stronger for individuals worse represented by institutionalized elites. These findings highlight the democratic importance of unconventional forms of participation, and deepen our understanding of their interplay with conventional politics.

Political economy and social movement studies: The class basis of anti-austerity protests

Mainstream social movement studies have developed a useful kit of concepts and theories, well adapted to understanding social movements in core capitalist countries at the peak of growth of the welfare state. Widespread assumptions about the role of political opportunities, resource mobilization and framing processes need to be updated to make sense of contentious global politics in the 2000s, in particular, adding a focus on the socio-economic conditions for protests. In order to illuminate research results about the social basis of anti-austerity protests, the article critically reviews some recent contributions to political economy. In particular, some of the most influential contributions within Marxist and post-Marxist approaches to relevant capitalist transformations are discussed, with reflections on different temporalities in capitalist transformations.

What is the right way to protest? On the process of justification of protest, and its relationship to the propensity to participate in different types of protest

This study explores how citizens in Spain perceive different tactics employed in anti-austerity protests in 2011–2013, and tests the model of the process of justification of protest. This model combines the elements of Gamson’s collective action frames theory (effectiveness, anger and grievances, operationalized as appraisal of harm) with the concept of legitimacy. It also links justification to the intention to participate. We empirically differentiate between three protest tactics: normative demonstrations, non-normative peaceful strategies, and non-normative violent actions. We find that demonstrations are perceived to be more legitimate, but less effective than non-normative peaceful protests. Violent strategies, on the other hand, are seen to be more effective than legitimate. We postulate and find that legitimacy and effectiveness partially or fully mediate the impact of political ideology, anger, and appraisal of harm on the probability of participation in non-normative protest. Finally, we establish meaningful differences in the predictors of the likelihood of joining normative, non-normative peaceful, or non-normative violent protests. Overall, our results suggest that the study of justification of collective action and especially, the inclusion of the notion of legitimacy, enriches our understanding of the popular approval of and propensity to participate in different forms of collective protest.

Between Europe and the Past—Collective Identification and Diffusion of Student Contention to and from Serbia

This essay examines diffusion between student social movements against higher education reforms in the countries of the former Yugoslavia. It firstly explores how—despite a strong tradition of protest in socialist Yugoslavia and in Serbia under Milošević—activists involved in the 2006 Serbian student protests chose not to reclaim the past but rather drew on experiences from student movements in France, Germany, and Greece. Second, it uncovers how the wave of protest that started in Serbia evolved into a model for contention for the whole region of the former Yugoslavia, long before the 2011 anti-austerity protests could serve as inspiration.

Discarding protests? Relating crisis experience to approval of protests among activists and bystanders

To what extent does the economic crisis affect support for political protest? Since the outburst of the financial crisis in 2008 many protests have been mobilized against national governments and their austerity policies. In some countries, these actions were described in the media as having little support among the general public, while elsewhere these actions enjoyed significant public support. Surprisingly little scholarly work has examined this variation. We fill this research gap by investigating who approves of austerity protests, how bystanders’ attitudes differ from the activists’ approval of protests and how repertoires relate to the approval of austerity protests. The analysis uses original survey data from nine European countries affected by the recent economic crisis at varying degrees and demonstrates that protest experience, both at the country and individual level, relates to approval of anti-austerity protests. The severity of economic crisis increases is positively related to protest approval in general terms, but there are differences depending on the type of grievances and which forms of austerity protests are considered.

National Anti-austerity Protests in a European Crisis: Comparing the Europeanizing Impact of Protest in Greece and Germany During the Eurozone Crisis

ABSTRACTProtest and social movements are drivers for the Europeanization of national public spheres. This is suggested by the literature on the emergence of Europeanized public spheres and the Europeanization of social movements as well as the discussion about the politicization of the European polity. The article tests this assumption in a standardized content analysis for newspaper reporting on the Eurozone crisis in Greece and Germany. Focusing on the public attribution of responsibility, the analysis looks for horizontal Europeanization (senders/addressees from other EU countries), vertical Europeanization (senders/addressees from the EU level), and discursive Europeanization (similar topics discussed at the same time). The findings do not identify protest as a strong driving force towards vertical or horizontal Europeanization of the public spheres in Greece and Germany. There is a weak tendency towards discussing similar topics at the same time in German and Greek media reports on protest. Consequences for European democracy and crisis politics are discussed.

Beyond Nationalism? The Anti-Austerity Social Movement in Ireland: Between Domestic Constraints and Lessons from Abroad

ABSTRACTThe European financial crisis has inspired a wave of social activism, challenging established party politics. In Ireland, a large social protest movement produced a Right2Change political campaign in 2015 that confronted the right-wing consensus in Irish politics. Some activists sought to emulate and learn from the example of new parties like Spain’s Podemos. Yet, to date, the traditional party structure remains intact, and hopes of emulating the success of activists elsewhere remain muted. At the same time, anti-austerity activism in Ireland has seen a conscious attempt to engage in intense dialogue with the pan-European experience. Irish activists have looked to Europe before for inspiration and a sharing of experiences; but the most recent attempt to create a Europeanised public space in response to the perceived ‘blockage’ in the Irish party system is something fairly innovative. This article, based in part on ten semi-structured interviews with politicians and social movement activists, considers the achievements and failings of the Irish anti-austerity movement to date.

Intrastate, Regional, and Colonial Contributions to Post-2008 Cultures of Political Violence

After 2008, European governments undertook austerity measures to come out of the global financial crisis. The policies were imposed to reduce the states’ debts and deficits, increase their economic competitiveness, and restore business confidence. Inevitably, the results of their implementation were socially noticeable and triggered the occurrence of new social movements which became a powerful player on a political scene. In some states, the stakeholders of anti-austerity movements used physical political violence while in the other they settled for mental. The article introduces findings of the comparative study on the relationships between patterns of culture of political violence and intrastate, regional, and colonial explaining factors. By applying statistical analysis, it tests empirically Negussay Ayele’s explanatory model of militant culture of political violence for a theory-verification purpose. As a result, it makes a contribution to the structure of explanation encompassing the particular configurations of indicators.

Pushed to the margins of the city: The urban night as a timespace of protest at Nuit Debout, Paris

Geographers studying protest movements have brought attention to the social and spatial contexts in which political action is constituted. As the legal right to protest has become more and more restricted in many Western, activists have had to seek new times and spaces for protest, with protest camps having risen alongside the anti-austerity movement since 2011. The ongoing Nuit Debout protests in Paris have turned explicitly to night, drawing on experience of previous protests to colonise this timespace on a recurring basis, laying to claim to the night as a moment for protest. This paper therefore uses the case of Nuit Debout to consider more widely how night shapes (urban) protest movements. I argue that the move to the night might be seen as an attempt to find a timespace in which a more open and creative politics is possible, strategically responding to the reduction in the freedom to protest in the more heavily surveyed day. I explore how the specific characteristics of night have both facilitated innovation at Nuit Debout and other sites, but also the restrictions that night has brought. More broadly, this helps us understand the changing dynamics of urban spaces and rhythms as night-time activity intensifies.

Comparing Digital Protest Media Imaginaries: Anti-Austerity Movements in Greece, Italy & Spain

This article presents findings from an empirical study of repertoires of contention and communication engaged during anti-austerity protests by the Indignados in Spain, the precarious generation in Italy, and the Aganaktismenoi in Greece. Drawing on 60 semi­structured interviews with activists and independent media producers involved in the 2011 wave of contention, we bring together social movement and communications theoretical frameworks to present a comparative critical analysis of digital protest media imaginaries. After examining the different socio-political and protest media contexts of the three countries translocally, our critical analysis emphasizes the emergence of three different imaginaries: in Spain the digital protest media imaginary was technopolitical, grounded in the politics and political economies of communication technologies emerging from the free culture movement; in Italy this imaginary was techno-fragmented, lacking cohesion, and failed to bring together old and new protest media logics; and finally in Greece it was techno-pragmatic, envisioned according to practical objectives that reflected the diverse politics and desires of media makers rather than the strictly technological or political affordances of the digital media forms and platforms. This research reveals how pivotal the temporal and geographical dimensions are when analyzed using theoretical perspectives from both communications and social movement research; moreover it emphasizes the importance of studying translocal digital protest media imaginaries as they shape movement repertoires of contention and communication; both elements are crucial to better understanding the challenges, limitations, successes and opportunities for digital protest media.