RESEARCH ARTICLE Who is speaking? The Indignados as political subjects Emmy Eklundh* Politics, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK Since 2011, the Indignados have been a prominent feature of Spanish politics. Based on the emotional characteristics and framing of the movement, this article argues that our common notions of how democracy and legitimacy should work, and in particular ideas of deliberative democracy, consistently favour political behaviour of a certain kind, namely that of rational action. This article argues that ideas of radical democ- racy
–14 surge of protest camps. Third, I will focus on the movement of Indignados [the outraged] in May 2011 across Spain and the key elements of the protest camps to which this gave rise: the dissolving of the border between public and private; the sexual division of labour; and the persistence of sexual harassment and sexual violence. Finally, I will approach the emergence of non-mixed protest camps through the case study of the International Women’s Day encampment in Valencia on 8 March 2020. The reflections collected here are part of a broader analysis of feminist
RESEARCH ARTICLE Protests, emotions and democracy: theoretical insights from the Indignados movement Paolo Cossarini* Department of Political Science and International Relations, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Calle Marie Curie, 1, 28049 Madrid, Spain The emergence of protest movements, such as the Indignados and Occupy Wall Street, is one of the most remarkable political occurrences in recent years. Social scientists have immediately started analysing these phenomena, highlighting the broad political implications for contemporary democracies, and especially the
REPLY The Indignados and Occupy movements as political challenges to representative democracy: a reply to Eklundh Ernesto Castañeda* Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Texas, El Paso, TX, USA This is a reply to: Eklundh, Emmy. 2014. “Who is speaking? The Indignados as political subjects.” Global Discourse. 4 (2–3): 223–235. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23269995.2014.910058. Naming and framing On 15 May 2011, thousands of city residents occupied public squares across Spain (Castañeda 2012). Many organizers and participants called this the ‘15-M
REPLY The indignados, populism and emotions in political theory: a response to Paolo Cossarini Lasse Thomassen* School of Politics & International Relations, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK This is a reply to: Cossarini, Paolo. 2014. “Protests, emotions and democracy: theoretical insights from the Indignados movement.” Global Discourse. 4 (2–3): 291–304. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1080/23269995.2014.895930. In his paper, ‘Protests, Emotions and Democracy: Theoretical Insights from the Indignados Movement’, Paolo Cossarini (2014) argues – quite rightly, I
2011 shook the world politically. The Occupy Movement, Los Indignados and the Greek Aganaktismenoi (outraged) reacted to zombie capitalism in the West, while the Arab Spring challenged political tyrannies in the Maghreb-Mashreq region.Democracy became the meta-question of the moment. New communicative technologies unleashed a tidal wave of civic protest that spread across the globe, bringing new political actors on to the street.
But what does this protest movement mean? Are we on the threshold of a transformation in global political consciousness? Is civil society the necessary counter-power that is democratising democracy from within? Or are we living through an apocalyptic terminal phase of civilisation?
In the second, revised edition of this indispensable book, the author looks behind the mirror of power and differentiates the real from the fake in policy and politics. It offers an original and compelling history of the present and will have wide appeal to a broad cross-disciplinary audience.
From Occupy, to the Indignados and the Arab Spring, the uprisings that marked the last decade ignited a re-emergence of participatory democracy as a political ideal within organizations.
This pioneering book introduces cybernetic thinking to politics and organizational studies to explore the continuing development of this radical idea. With a focus on communication and how alternative social media platforms present new challenges and opportunities for radical organising, it sheds new light on the concepts of self-organization, consensus decision making, individual autonomy and collective identity.
Revolutionising the way in which anarchist activists and theorists think about organizations, this unprecedented investigation makes a major contribution to the larger discussion of direct democracy.
From the squares of Spain to indigenous land in Canada, protest camps are a tactic used around the world. Since 2011 they have gained prominence in recent waves of contentious politics, deployed by movements with wide-ranging demands for social change. Through a series of international and interdisciplinary case studies from five continents, this topical collection is the first to focus on protest camps as unique organisational forms that transcend particular social movements’ contexts. Whether erected in a park in Istanbul or a street in Mexico City, the significance of political encampments rests in their position as distinctive spaces where people come together to imagine alternative worlds and articulate contentious politics, often in confrontation with the state.
Written by a wide range of experts in the field the book offers a critical understanding of current protest events and will help better understanding of new global forms of democracy in action.
This ground-breaking collection interrogates protest camps as sites of gendered politics and feminist activism.
Drawing on case studies that range from Cold War women-only peace camps to more recent mixed-gender examples from around the world, diverse contributors reflect on the recurrence of gendered, racialised and heteronormative structures in protest camps, and their potency and politics as feminist spaces.
While developing an intersectional analysis of the possibilities and limitations of protest camps, this book also tells new and inspiring stories of feminist organising and agency. It will appeal to feminist theorists and activists, as well as to social movement scholars.
This fresh appraisal of philosopher Herbert Marcuse’s work foregrounds the geographical aspects of one of the leading social and political theorists of the 20th century.
Margath A. Walker considers how Marcusean philosophies might challenge the way we think about space and politics and create new sensibilities. Applying them to contemporary geopolitics, digital infrastructure and issues like resistance and immigration, the book shows how social change has been stifled, and how Marcuse’s philosophies could provide the tools to overturn the status quo.
She demonstrates Marcuse’s relevance to individuals and society, and finds this important theorist of opposition can point the way to resisting oppressive forces within contemporary capitalism.
