The "movements of the squares" involved first and foremost an awakening or re-discovering of the radical imagination both in the square encampments, and in later projects created with the movements' decentralizations. The new alternative projects born after the square have materialized the movements' radical imaginaries in urban environments, extending and deepening concerns of broad political change over everyday life. Based on ethnographic work on the Indignados' movement in the city of Barcelona, this paper delves more particularly into three Indignant urban projects. It untangles three common and interlinked radical imaginaries both embodied and actualized in participants' social practices, and further orienting their future visions: commons, autonomy and ecologism. Scrutinizing their meaning, it also sheds light on connected issues such new ways of interfacing with local state authorities and redefining the boundaries between the public and the common. It shows that the ecologism imaginary cannot be properly grasped if disconnected from the other two imaginaries, and argues that a transformative eco-politics can only be claimed as such if it is able to articulate such an integrated vision typical of "socio-environmental movements". / Series: SRE - Discussion Papers

This study analyzes the framing processes of the Indignados movement in Barcelona, as an exemplar of the latest wave of protests, and argues that it expresses a new ecological-economic way out of the crisis. It finds that the movement was not just a reaction to the economic crisis and austerity policies, but that it put forward a metapolitical critique of the social imaginary and (neo)liberal representative democracy. The diagnostic frames of the movement denunciate the subjugation of politics and justice to economics, and reject the logic of economism. The prognostic frames of the movement advance a vision of socio-ecological sustainability and of "real democracy", each articulated differently by a "pragmatist" and an "autonomist" faction within the movement. It argues that frames are overarching outer boundaries that accommodate different ideologies. Ideologies can nevertheless also be put into question by antagonizing frames. Furthermore, through the lens of the Indignados critique, the distinction between materialist and post-materialist values that characterizes the New Social Movement literature is criticised, as "real democracy" is connected to social and environmental justice as well as to a critique of economism and the "imperial mode of living".

Social movements do not only protest and demand political change - they produce new spaces too. Why and how? If we understand this, we can appreciate better the specificity and potential of the last cycle of mobilizations involving the encampment of cities' squares. This paper shows how the Indignados movement in Barcelona evolved from symbolizing an alternative future in the square to constructing alternatives in the city after. We find that people in alternative projects re-appropriate and transform urban space because they want to live differently and produce a radically different city, now. We conceptualize these new spaces as "prefigurative territories", integrating the seemingly divergent anarchist theory of prefiguration with Lefebvre's Marxist theory of space production. Prefigurative projects have strategic horizons and struggle with conflicts when opening up. Against those charging the Indignados with a fetishization of the occupied square and a failure to achieve political goals, we argue for the continuing relevance of the movement as it moved from the production of differential, to the production of counter-spaces. Further research should investigate how these counter-spaces feed into processes of political change. / Series: SRE - Discussion Papers

Four years ago, on May 15th 2011, we witnessed in the Spanish State ‘something’ that was quickly and popularly referred to as 15M or the Indignados. Since that day, 15M has had a tremendous impact on the way a large part of the Spanish population understands itself and its response-abilities and rights. In addition, 15M has affected the way in which a large part of the Spanish population understands its environment and those living-beings with whom said environment is co-created and co-inhabited. In this essay I immerse myself in an on-going non-disciplinary, multi-traditional multilogue with individuals being 15M. What I witness, feels and looks like a complex; mutating and dialogic; collective and cooperative; agonistic and transformative 'climate' that many refer to as el clima 15M (15m climate). Allowing different 15M wisdoms to frame the research, I envision this essay as an attempt at gaining a dialogical understanding of what it is that we might be speaking of when referring to 15M. Through this exploration, I seek to place my work within the sketched parameters of what James Tully refers to as public philosophy. The essay engages with individuals being 15M and with the vast literature in Spain around 15M and party-movement Podemos by academics and participants, and the European literature around populism, horizontality and Podemos grounded in Antonio Gramsci. It also draws on reciprocal elucidation literature in theory and in participatory, community-based social science. Moreover, the essay enters into dialogue with a whole body of literature on instrumental versus constitutive means-ends views of political change going back to Mahatma Gandhi and forward to Aldous Huxley, Richard Gregg, Hannah Arendt, Robert Young, Gene Sharp and Cesar Chavez. By giving ‘perspicuous representation’ or thick description of 15M by means of reciprocal elucidation, I am able to make a unique contribution to the theoretical literature on reciprocal elucidation and public philosophy. I am also able to disclose the field of 15M (the phenomenon) in a way that shows it to be different from the way 15M appears in other theoretical frames. Finally, the use of this method of reciprocal elucidation makes a unique contribution to community-based and engaged forms of social scientific research. / Graduate / 0422 / 0615 / 0344 / pouziel@uvic.ca

[pt] Essa Tese de Doutorado busca elencar diferentes aspectos formais e estruturais presentes em textos teóricos e obras artísticas sobre o tema da peste, para a partir dessa análise, formular uma possível chave de leitura para uma série de protestos e mobilizações sociais que ocorreram no mundo todo, entre os anos de 2011 e 2013, começando pela Revolução de Jasmim, na Tunísia e indo até as Jornadas de Junho, no Brasil. A questão do contágio, da indignação, assim como a dificuldade de identificação de um único programa político ou direcionamento partidário são alguns dos assuntos que atravessam as revoltas populares em questão. Levando em consideração o fato de que a pesquisa se estrutura a partir de uma abordagem estética dos protestos, as insurreições aparecem sob a ótica de trabalhos artísticos que fazem referência ao tema, como filmes, performances, espetáculos de teatro e dança, assim como ações estético-políticas que foram realizadas diretamente nas manifestações em questão. A escolha por intervenções estéticas se justifica pelo reconhecimento da diluição entre as fronteiras que separam arte e vida, criação e política. A rua é vista como uma espécie de palco da encenação urbana e os protestos, como movimentos que abalam de maneira direta a coreografia das grandes cidades. / [fr] Cette Thèse de Doctorat cherche à établir différents aspects formels et structurels présents dans des textes théoriques et dans des oeuvres artistiques autour du thème de la peste. L objectif est de formuler une possible clef de lecture pour une série de protestations et de mobilisations sociales qui se sont déroulées autour du monde entre les années 2011 et 2013, en commençant par la Révolution de Jasmin, en Tunisie, et en allant jusqu aux Journées de Juin au Brésil. La question du contagion, de l indignation et la difficulté d identification d un seul programme politique ou d une tendance de parti sont quelques-uns des sujets qui croisent les manifestations populaires en question. Si l on prend en considération le fait que cette recherche est structurée autour d une approche esthétique des protestations, les insurrections apparaissent sous l optique de travaux artistiques faisant référence au thème, tels des films, des performances, des spectacles de danse, des spectacles de théâtre et de danse, tout comme les actions esthético-politiques qui ont été réalisées directement lors des manifestations en question. Le choix pour ces interventions esthétiques se justifie à travers la reconnaissance de la dilution entre les frontières séparant l art et la vie, la création et la politique. La rue est vue comme une espèce de plateau pour les mises-en-scène urbaines, et les protestations comme des mouvements capables de secouer de manière directe la choréographie des grandes villes.