Panic works

La represión de las <em>masas</em>. La prensa y la securitización del disenso juvenil en España

“…The search for data started backwards; we departed from the tightening of legal restrictions against protests in 2015. By tinkering with criminal and administrative law, but foremost by passing a very restrictive security law that criminalized many forms of contentious mobilisation, the (conservative) Government of the Popular Party framed social mobilisations as risks (Calvo and Portos, 2018; see also Fernández de Mosteyrín, 2012). So we searched for articles and opinion pieces published by national newspapers about the 15-M mobilisations, to look for concordances between governmental framing of these mobilisations as a social danger and representations of protests by the media.…”

“…For instance, the law classifies as a very serious offence the "occupation of any property, dwelling or building owned by other parties or the continued presence on such premises, in both cases against the will of the owner, tenant or holder of other rights on it, when they do not amount to a criminal offence", or "the occupation of general utilities involving infringement of the Law or against the decision taken pursuant to it by the competent authority (art37.7, Citizens Security Law). Criminal law experts and social movement scholars have criticised this legal change claiming that it contributes to criminalising political dissent (Calvo and Portos, 2018;Avila, et al 2015). Amnesty International and other human rights organisations have described this law as a "threat to human rights".…”

La violencia simbólica y la penalización de la protesta

“…In the case of Spain in recent years, this type of administrativization of punishment has been useful from the perspective of the government, since, along with the dissuasive effects it seems to have had on protestors, it diminished the public staging of penalization through physical violence (Barkan 2006: 84), which was actually one of the triggers of the 15-M movement. Thus, under the pretext of promoting civic harmony and issuing minor sanctions, the fundamentally political and legitimate nature of public expressions of political dissidence is transformed, just as the meaning of urban public space as political is questioned and obstacles are placed in the way of its use (Calvo and Portos 2018;Sorando and González 2013: 378).…”