Social movements and mobilizations: The case of the independentist cycle

Abstract

The decade from 2008 to 2018 has been one of high political intensity. We can see this with different indicators of protest and social mobilization available, confirmed from the monitoring of current political events. Hundreds of demonstrations, protests, rallies, and every imaginable repertoire of collective action displayed by social movements have formed part of the country’s political landscape. Two main issues have started in this intense cycle of social mobilization, a product of what Macià, Martí and Ubassart (2018) called the triple crisis - economic, representative and territorial. On the one hand, on the national issue, the one linked to the sovereignty / independence movement with a process of mobilization that had a cycle of consultations, mass demonstrations, the emergence of new actors, and finally a pulse with the state that lead to the suspension of autonomy - by the application of article 155 -, unconditional imprisonment and exile of pro-independence leaders, which led to a stage with institutional and social destabilization of still unpredictable consequences. And on the other, in the social issue, the protests of 15-M, which were linked to the protests by the cuts in the provision of services carried out by the CiU government in the period 2010- 2014, and in the constitution of ‘municipalist candidacies with a large presence of activists from social movements. In this article, based on the characterization of the two major mobilization agents of the last decade 2008-2018, we will analyze how this double cycle has been able to change the configuration of social movements.