Benjamín Tejerina

From indignation to occupation: A new wave of global mobilization

The present monograph issue focuses on the 2011–2012 global wave of protests that began in Tunisia in 2011. This introductory article notes that two streams of mobilization can be distinguished in terms of the specific grievances they express, and the socioeconomic and political contexts in which they have emerged. The article argues, however, that despite these differences both threads find their antecedents in the increasing and widespread social and economic levels of inequality, which requires social movements theories to ‘bring political economy back’ in the analysis of mobilization. It is further argued that the various occupy movements that have emerged since 2011 constitute diverse manifestations of a new international cycle of contention. With its innovative and distinctive traits in terms of diffusion, coordination, action repertoires, frames, and types of activism, this new cycle seeks to both transform the economic system to provide greater equality, opportunities, and personal fulfillment and, simultaneously, to democratize power in more participatory ways.

From the streets and squares to social movement studies: What have we learned?

In the editors’ introduction they noted how the various mobilizations starting in 2011 raised important questions for social movement scholars. The various articles in this issue have explored the emergence, dynamics, and significance of the social mobilizations, contestations, and confrontations that started with the Arab Spring mobilizations and continue to this day. This concluding article is focused on three main aspects that emerge from the editors’ dialogue with the different contributions. The first is the context, beginning with a political-economic account of neoliberalism, the various crises of legitimacy that it has fostered over the last three decades, and the role of new media (ICTs) in engendering these mobilizations, their coordination, and globalization. The second aspect focuses on some of the characteristics of this cycle of contention, mostly the actors and their networks, identities and the new practices of occupying public space. The third and last part represents an attempt to evaluate the general trajectory of these mobilizations over the last two years.

Politics of the encounter: Cognition, emotions, and networks in the Spanish 15M

This article seeks to analyze the mobilizations that are currently taking place in Spain as a result of the multidimensional crisis unleashed in 2008. The authors study the ‘15M movement,’ or that of the Spanish indignados, by focusing on three analytical axes: the cognitive, emotional, and relational processes feeding the construction of a social movement identity. First, the article refers to the diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational framing tasks performed by 15M participants to define the problematic situation and attribute blame, articulate a solution to the problem and devise strategies to achieve that end, and motivate participants to sustain their engagement and remedy the situation. Second, the article concentrates on the emotions that were ‘mobilized’ by social movement organizations linked to the 15M (e.g. outrage or indignation), and those emotions that emerged spontaneously during the ‘encounters’ that took place in the public space: joy, efficacy, and empowerment. Finally, the article addresses the relational aspects entailed in the process of identity construction, that is, the activation and de-activation of both ‘real’ and ‘imaginary’ ties between 15M members and previous and/or current political and social collectives within the ‘progressive field.’ In following this triple objective, the article describes the process of identity-synchronization that has allowed people with no previous political participation and with different and oftentimes opposing politico-ideological trajectories to feel part of the movement. The data come from 17 in-depth interviews and eight focus groups with key activists, ethnographic observations in camps and assemblies in both Bilbao and Madrid during the summer of 2011, and visual materials displayed in web pages and Facebook accounts associated to the 15M.

El poder de los símbolos : Identidad colectiva y movimiento etnolingüístico en el País Vasco

The A. suggests that any attempt at explaining what is taking place in the Basque Country today in terms of linguistic recovery can only be understood by linking it with the ongoing construction of the collective Basque identity. The crystallisation of this growing link between language and identity attests to the central role of the ethnolinguistic movement. The A. develops his argument in five sections. He begins by the expounding on the various theoretical contributions to the construction of the collective identity and the dominant focuses in the analysis of social mobilisation. He then examines more recent historical precedents relative to the collective Basque identity and the contexts in which their contents are being transformed. The third section looks at the consequences for the Basque language and collective identity of the linguistic recovery movement of the 1960s and 1970s. In the fourth section, he analyses the influence of the political changes which took place in the 1980s and the progressive institutionalisation of the Basque collective identity on the linguistic movement and status. Finally, he examines the transformations which have marked the linguistic recovery movement in recent years as a result of the changes which have taken place in Basque society.

O movimento pela justiça global na espanha: ativistas, identidade e cartografia política da alterglobalização

Resumo: A rapida expansao dos processos de globalizacao das ultimas decadas facilitou tanto a emergencia de formas de resistencia em relacao com as suas consequencias como o nascimento de processos de mobilizacao social a favor de uma globalizacao alternativa. O trabalho que apresentamos sintetiza parte dos resultados de uma pesquisa sobre o movimento por uma justica global na Espanha. Nele abordamos a sua base material, as caracteristicas dos ativistas, a sua identidade politica, as suas motivacoes e interesses e a identidade atribuida a acao do movimento, alem de expor a cartografia politica que as valoracoes dos ativistas antiglobalizacao vem desenhando. O nosso objetivo e diferenciar analiticamente as coordenadas nas quais se inscreve essa nova forma de subjetividade, cujo espaco social se articula em redor de tres eixos: o eixo espacial (dentro-fora, inclusao-exclusao, centroperiferia), o eixo relacional (acima-abaixo, imposicao-oposicao, repressao-liberacao) e o eixo das praticas executadas pelos distintos agentes participantes. Palavras-chave: movimentos sociais, acao coletiva, identidade politica, resistencia a globalizacao