Democracy Reloaded Inside Spain's Political Laboratory from 15-M to Podemos

by Flesher Fominaya, Cristina

• ISBN13: 9780190099978
• ISBN10: 0190099976
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2020-05-19
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In Democracy Reloaded, Cristina Flesher Fominaya tells the story of one of the most influential social movements of recent times: Spain's "Indignados" or "15-M" movement that took to the streets of Spain on May 15, 2011 with the rallying cry "Real Democracy Now! We are not commodities in the hands of bankers and politicians!" Based on access to key participants in the 15-M movement and Podemos and extensive participant observation, Flesher Fominaya tells a provocative and original story of this remarkable movement, its emergence, evolution, and impact. In so doing, she argues that in times of global economic and democratic crisis, movements organized around autonomous network logics can build and sustain strong movements in the absence of formal organizations, strong professionalized leadership, and the ability to attract external resources. Further, she challenges explanations for success that rest on the mobilizing power of social media. Through in-depth analysis of the month long occupation of Madrid's Puerta del Sol, and subsequent 15-M mobilization, Democracy Reloaded shows how the experience of the protest camp revitalized pre-existing networks, forged bonds of solidarity, and gave birth to a new movement that went on to influence public debate and the political agenda, in Spain and beyond.

Author Biography

Cristina Flesher Fominaya is Excellence 100 Reader in Social Politics and Media at Loughborough University and an internationally recognized expert in European social movement and politics. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. She is Editor in Chief of the journal Social Movement Studies, co-founder of open access Interface Journal, author of Social Movements in a Globalized World (2nd ed) and co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Contemporary European Social Movements (2020). She has published widely on social movements, democracy, and Spanish and European politics in English and Spanish.

Table of Contents

Preface
List of Maps & Figures
List of Tables
List of Images
List of Abbreviations

Introduction

Part I: Spanish Democracy and 15-M
Chapter 1: Spanish Democracy and 15-M

Part II: 15-M: From Protest to Occupation
Chapter 2: Origin Stories
Chapter 3: 15-May 2011: An Unexpected Detonator
Chapter 4: Acampada Sol: The Chrysalis and the Crucible
Chapter 5: Assessing the Significance of Acampada Sol

Part III: From Occupation To Movement: Inside the 15-M Network
Chapter 6: "It's Not A Crisis, It's A Swindle": Indignant and Precarious Pensioners
Chapter 7: "The Citizens Did It": 15mparato, Autonomous Hacker Ethics in Action
Chapter 8: The Pah: Building a Movement within a Movement
Chapter 9: Indignant and Precarious Youth

Part IV: From 15-M to Podemos
Chapter 10: 15-M And Podemos: Explaining the Puzzle of the "Electoral Turn"
Chapter 11: Podemos: A Hybrid Party?

Conclusions
Chapter 12: 15-M Political Culture, Collective Identity, and the Logic of Autonomous Networks in the Digital Age
Chapter 13: Democracy Reloaded: Politics in Times of Crisis

Notes
References
Index