Spanish Politics and Society
Hispanic & European Studies Program
Fall 2009
Raimundo Viejo Viñas
Office 20.182
www.raimundoviejo.info
raimundo.viejo@upf.edu
Contentious politics in Spain
Political participation and social
movements
Contentious politics in Spain
I. Theoretical framework on
social movements
What’s a social movement?
 When we speak about social movements it is
necessary to differentiate them from related concepts
such as political parties, interest groups, protest
events, etc.
 A social movement is a network of informal
interactions between a plurality of individuals, groups
and/or organizations sharing a common identity and
engaged in a series of sustained collective actions
challenging political authorities in a contentious way
What’s a social movement?, 2
 Our definition emphasise at least four
aspects of social movement
dynamics:
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Networks of informal interaction
Shared beliefs and solidarity
Contentious collective action
Political autonomy
Networks of informal interaction
 Social movements are sustained by activist networks
of informal interaction
 The characteristic of these networks may range from
the very loose and dispersed links to the tightly
clustered networks which facilitate adhesion to armed
groups
 Activist networks promote the circulation of essential
ressources for collective action as well as broader
systems of meaning.
 Activist networks create then necessary preconditions
for political mobilisation
Shared beliefs, identity, and
solidarity, 1
 To be a social movement requires a shared set of
beliefs and a sense of belongingness
 In so far as a social movement implies a sustained
series of contentious collective action, its continuity
relies upon group identity and ideologies
 Unlike political parties, social movements do not have
clear boundaries. Collective identity plays then an
essential role in defining the boundaries of a social
movement.
Shared beliefs, identity, and
solidarity, 2
 Group identity is both a matter of self- and external
definition. Actors must define themselves as part of a
broader movement and, at the same time, be
perceived as such, by those within the same
movement, and by opponents and/or external
observers
 The presence of shared beliefs and solidaritues allows
both actors and observers to assign a common
meaning to specific contentious events which
otherwise could not be identified as part of a common
process
Contentious collective action
 Conflict is the core component of social movements. To
put it otherwise: there is no movement without conflict
 Contentious politics (i.e. the politics of social
movements) also involve cultural conflicts (conflicts over
the meaning of events). Since in pluralist, democratic
societies the meaning of events is subjected to different
interpretations, social movements try to convince the
public opinion of their interpretations
 Social movements give new meanings to old facts. Thus,
conflicts considered typical of private sphere involving
problems of self-definition (identity) can be transformed
into public issues (i.e. domestic violence against women)
Political autonomy
 Until the early 1970s, social scientist believed that
social movements were the result of some kind of
anomie (i.e. chaos or the absence of norms)
 Social sciences proved, however, that beyond the
irrational appearance of the protest there was in fact
a rational way of acting.
 Since social movements are organized outside the
State, the State do not recognizes the movements
their ability to create and organize institutions.
 But social movements are not anomic, but
autonomous in relation to the State.
Contentious politics in Spain
II. Social movements in Spain
A tipology of Spanish social
movements
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Labor: strikes, conflicts in business and economic sectors…
National (or regional): anticentralist claims, language rights…
Civil liberties: Corcuera law, euthanasia, the Basque conflict,
antirrepresión, prisons…
Feminist (queer) gender (or anti-gender), gay and lesbian,
women’s movement…
Ecology: protests for environment, against infrastructure...
Migrant: emigrant and immigrant alike, undocumented
people...
Student: include demonstrations of the educational world, but
no labor disputes teachers (labor movement)
Neighborhood (squatter) housing…
Free culture: hacker, copyleft, and copysharing copyfight...
Pacifist: mobilizations against war, conscientious objection…
No global (international solidarity): Campaigning against the
Discover of America, 0.7%, pro-Cuba, Palestine, Nicaragua...
Waves of mobilisation
 Social movements develop in waves of mobilisation
 Over the past thirty years there have been three
waves of mobilisation
 1960s – early 1980s (“movements for democracy”)
 Mid1980s – early 1990s (“new social movements”)
 Mid1990s – early 2000s (“no global movements” )