Indignation and inclusion: Activism, difference, and emergent urban politics in postcrash Madrid

Abstract

How to create radical democracy in a moment of crisis and austerity? On the one hand, geographies of autonomy, solidarity, and resistance can offer hope, promise, and utopian anticapitalist alternatives for future action. On the other hand, agonistic initiatives that discard consensus in favor of conflictive engagement with institutions of state rule can allow for pluralism and the acceptance of difference. Perhaps, however, actually existing democracy can be achieved through an emphasis on process that bridges both activist ideologies. Looking to competing forms of activism in Madrid’s housing movement, I identify two strands of action—radical autonomy versus agonistic engagement. Despite their profound disjunctures, however, I argue these strands complement each other to ultimately experience convergence, which in turn contributes to the flourishing of new political initiatives. Within this convergence, feminist perspectives attuned to difference have been crucial in forcing transformation through existing democratic structures. The resulting political projects engage with mechanisms of state rule while drawing on practices and procedures from autonomous struggles to elaborate frameworks for institutional change. In the process, I demonstrate the possibility of collaboration between competing modes of activism—often conceived as incommensurate—in the broader quest for emancipation from neoliberal state rule.

Towards an Energy Politics In‐Against‐and‐Beyond the State: Berlin's Struggle for Energy Democracy

“…Žižek (:77), writing on Occupy, suggests that the test of the occupation must be “what happens the day after, how our everyday life has changed or is to be changed”. The question of how the emancipatory aspirations of recent uprisings might be spatialized for the long‐term—and whether this ought to engage with the state or not—is, indeed, now a primary question for critical urban theory and practice (Gonick ; Swyngedouw ).…”

Bitter wins or a long-distance race? Social and political outcomes of the Spanish housing movement

“…Both interviewee samples were chosen according to purposeful criteria following the main research topics of each period, snowball and informal contacts through my social networks of activists, and a female gender quota of not less than 50 per cent out of the total, whenever possible, in order to verify previous assessments of the key role of women in this movement (Di Feliciantonio, 2016;Gonick, 2015). 4 Interviewees were also selected based on their involvement in housing struggles over prolonged periods rather than sporadic activism or support.…”

“…I deal with these theoretical challenges and gaps in the literature by examining the case of the Spanish housing movement formed by the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages (PAH) and other associated groups, which has expanded to more than two hundred cities since its inception in the metropolitan area of Barcelona in 2009. This study contributes to shedding light on the social and political impacts of the PAH according to its significant environment, which has not been sufficiently evaluated by the available publications on this case (Abellán, 2015;Alvarez et al, 2015;Casellas & Salas, 2017;Di Feliciantonio, 2017;Flesher, 2015;García, 2015;García-Calderón & Janoschka, 2016;García-Lamarca, 2016;Gonick, 2015;Martínez & García, 2015;Ortega, 2017;Romanos, 2013;Sebastiani, Fernández & García, 2016).…”

From Occupation to Recuperation: Property, Politics and Provincialization in Contemporary Madrid

“…These analyses connect to a larger terrain of inquiry on autonomous geographies as sites of emancipation and radical democracy (Chatterton, ; Pickerill and Chatterton, ; Chatterton and Pickerill, ), both at the local scale of the city (Hodkinson and Chatterton, ) and within broader networks of global exchange (Routledge, ; McFarlane, ). Yet most who dominate these spaces are white and male—a reality I observed during the course of my fieldwork—which can become uncomfortable when attempting to build solidarity between disparate groups (Brown and Pickerill, ; Barker and Pickerill, ; Gonick, ). Furthermore, the emphasis remains on political action that is largely refracted through the lens of labor and class; more situated questions of habitus are often elided.…”