The Redefinition and Co-Production of Public Services by Urban Movements. The Can Batlló Social Innovation in Barcelona

A wealth of social innovations sprang up in recent years in Southern Europe in the bosom of urban movements to cover citizens´ needs from below. Reacting to the commodification of the neoliberal city and the increasing dismantling of the welfare state, they provide public services and interrelate in var-ious forms with state authorities. Drawing on the outstanding social innovation case of Can Batlló (CB) in the city of Barcelona, a 14-ha former factory including more than 30 different projects and involving more than 350 activists, this paper analyses how social movements are redefining "the public" in the articulation between institutionalization, public service co-production, disruptive repertoires of action, and autonomy. It argues that this multiplicity of strategies and the strength of the movement helped not only to avoid turning the CB social innovation into a neoliberal rollout strategy, but even to act as a safety cordon against austerity politics. Affecting the boundaries of the legal-institutional framework, and rejecting the conflation of "public goods" with "state goods", CB organizes public services provision and planning in a more democratic form, pressuring the government to deliver the promised public services, while reclaim-ing them as commons that activists contribute building and designing. CB´s movement dimension and rootedness in the neighbourhood ensure the prioritisation of public and neighbourhood concerns over short-term, particularistic, and organizational survival interests

Untangling the radical imaginaries of the Indignados’ movement: commons, autonomy and ecologism

Under regimes of austerity, social movements' transformative eco-politics may appear endangered. What kinds of environmentalism and radical imaginaries can unfold in social movements in crisis-ridden societies? I focus on the ‘move-ment of the squares’ during its post-encampment phase, with a case study of three urban projects of the Indignados movement in Barcelona. Observation of these projects reveals the importance of three common and intertwined radical imaginaries embodied in participants’ social practices and orienting their future visions: the commons, autonomy, and ecologism. The ecologism imaginary cannot be properly understood if disembedded from the other two: the ‘Indignant’ projects constitute community structures re-embedding (re)produc-tion, jointly covering and generating needs differently, in response to the global capitalist forces that are threatening their social reproduction. Eco-politics can only be plausibly transformative if it is able to articulate a politics of intersec-tionality linking social reproduction with ecological interconnectedness and struggles against dispossessions and social injustice

Untangling the radical imaginaries of the Indignados' movement: Commons, autonomy and ecologism

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 Paper

Fertile soil: The production of Prefigurative Territories by the Indignados movement in Barcelona

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 Paper

The Indignados as a socio-environmental movement. Framing the crisis and democracy

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"

Performing Smartness Differently - Strategic Enactments of a Global Imaginary in Three European Cities

In the scholarly literature on smart city, normative and prescriptive approaches dominate. Most publications with analytic goals focus on transnational corporations, the related global imaginary of a smart city, and on associated new technologies. In comparison, actually existing smart cities have seldom been investigated. This is even more the case for public governance arrangements of smart city policies. Our study compares three EU cities in this regard, which are attempting to take a lead in smart city development. In addition, urban agriculture and citizens' participation are specifically investigated in their relation to smart city policy-making. Based on policy document and media discourse analysis, interviews, and participant observation, three governance arrangements of smart city policies are identified: hierarchical governance by the government in Barcelona between 2011 and 2015, closed co-governance by the city executive and non-governmental actors in Vienna and since 2015 in Barcelona, and open co-governance in Berlin. Citizens' participation is in the center in Barcelona since 2015, and is potentially important in Berlin. The Viennese smart city governance arrangement is characterized by non-hierarchical bargaining within the administration and signals innovative meta-governance, without citizens' participation. In all three cities, international dynamics play a crucial role for engaging with smart city, but it is enacted in particular ways according to place-specific history, social forces, and economic and political conditions. The meaning of smart city varies thus considerably: a comprehensive urban sustainability strategy focused upon climate policy goals in Vienna; a comprehensive internationalization strategy in Barcelona between 2011 and 2015; a limited technology- and business-oriented approach in Berlin; and a limited digital city frame geared to participatory democracy and technological sovereignty in Barcelona since 2015. Contrary to the literature, we highlight the agency of city executives, and the place-specific enactments that global smart city imaginaries undergo. Current smart city policies express more continuity than rupture with regard to urban development policies in our case study cities.Series: SRE - Discussion Paper

SULLA DESIDERABILITÀ DEL LAVORO NEGHENTROPICO L'IMPORTANZA DEI PROCESSI DI COSTRUZIONE DI SENSO NELLA COMPRENSIONE DELLE DINAMICHE DEL CAPITALISMO E DELLA SUA CRITICA

International audienceThe commentary critically addresses Emanuele Leonardi's arguments as exposed in Lavoro Natura Valore-André Gorz tra marxismo e decrescita (Orthotes, 2017). In particular, it focuses on the role of sense-making in the critique of capitalism, on the notion of negentropic labor and on the link between collective desirability and social metabolism

Democracy without growth: The political ecology of the Indignados movement

Esta tesis es un estudio longitudinal en profundidad del movimiento de los Indignados en Barcelona, desde el inicio de los campamentos en Plaza Catalunya hasta las numerosas asambleas de barrio, comisiones, y la emergencia de proyectos teritoriales. Durante tres años fueron conducidas 74 entrevistas en profundidad y 6 grupos focales con los participantes del movimiento, mientras se emprendieron aproximadamente 600 horas de observación participante. La tesis investiga la ecología politica del movimiento de los Indignados, concretamente pretende comprender las maneras en las que el movimiento ha entendido la crisis ecologica-economica, y las nuevas ideas y procesos socio-politicos y transformaciones socio-ecologicas que puso en marcha. La ecología politica en esta tesis se entiende en su más sentido amplio, como las nuevas relaciones y realidades socio-naturales que el movimiento ha generado, tanto cognitivamente como materialmente, mientras imaginaba y ejecutaba un orden socio-ecologico alternativo. Si una transformación socio-ecologica va a tener lugar, ésta será el resultado de procesos políticos democráticos en la que los movimientos sociales juegan un papel fundamental. Los movimientos sociales son un actor importante del cambio social, ya que contribuyen a la innovación cultural y empiezan la transformación institucional. Así pues, esta tesis considera la posibilidad de una transformación socio-ecológica a través de la perspectiva del movimiento de los Indignados. En particular aborda la teoría del decrecimiento que se puede describir como la visión de la reducción democrática y redistributiva de la producción y consumo en los países industrializados. Esta investigación avanza la teoría del decrecimiento conectándola con las teorías políticas sobre democracia, y aprendiendo de un caso de estudio empírico, el movimiento de los Indignados, centrado en la demanda de una ‘democracia real’. El primer capítulo presenta un marco teórico multidisciplinar que incluye las teorías de decrecimiento, democracia, ecología politica y estudios de movimientos sociales, y expone la metodología y las preguntas de investigación. El segundo capítulo se concentra en una revisión critica de la teoría democrática dentro de la literatura sobre el decrecimiento, aclarando conceptos como democracia, autonomía, revolución y transición a través de la filosofía de Cornelius Castoriadis, que el movimiento del decrecimiento considera uno de los referentes teóricos. La segunda parte de la tesis utiliza la imaginación radical del movimiento de los Indignados para explorar y comprender como la democracia puede ser concebida y practicada sin crecimiento, y como una transformación socio-ecológica hacia el decrecimiento se puede imaginar. El tercer capítulo emplea la herramienta del análisis de marcos para comprender como el movimiento plantea la concepción de democracia y de crisis, y cómo concibe el cambio. Aclara también el papel de las ideologías dentro del movimiento y su diferenciación de los marcos y el papel de la dimensión ecológica del movimiento, abordando la tesis del post-materialismo de la teoría de los Nuevos Movimientos Sociales. El cuarto capítulo investiga las micro-alternativas emergidas desde el movimiento después de la descentralización a los barrios, enfocándose en cuatro casos de estudio nacidos después de la plaza, poniéndolos en relación dialógica con el caso de estudio de la plaza misma. El capítulo utiliza la teoría de la política prefigurativa para analizar como la construcción de alternativas puede explicarse y cómo y porqué está conectada con la producción de espacio, profundizando en la cuestión sobre que se prefigura en las prácticas espaciales indignadas. El último capítulo discute los resultados de la tesis y concluye con su trascendencia y contribución para unas conceptualizaciones de democracia y de cambio socio-ecológico apropiadas para la teoría del decrecimiento y señala unas direcciones de investigación futura.This thesis is an in-depth longitudinal study of the Indignados’ movement in Barcelona, from the inception of its encampments in Plaza Catalunya, to its numerous commissions, neighborhood assemblies and the emergence of territorial projects. Over the course of three years, 74 in-depth interviews and 6 focus groups were held with movement participants, whilst approximately 600 hours of participant observation were conducted. The thesis investigates the political ecology of the Indignados’ movement. Namely it aims to understand the ways in which the movement made sense of the ecological-economic crisis, and the new ideas and concrete socio-political processes and socio-ecological transformations it set in motion. Political ecology is here understood in a broad sense, as the new socio-natural worlds and relations the movement engendered, both cognitively and materially, as it imagined and enacted an alternative socio-ecological order. If a socio-ecological transformation is to take place, it will be the result of democratic political processes in which social movements play a paramount role. Social movements are a lever of social change, as they contribute to cultural innovation and initiate institutional transformation. Hence this thesis looks at the possibility for social-ecological transformation through the lens of the Indignados’ movement. Particularly it addresses the theory of degrowth, which can be described as a vision of a democratically led redistributive downscaling of production and consumption in industrialized countries. This research advances the theory of degrowth by connecting it with political theories on democracy, and by learning from an empirical case study, the Indignados’ movement, centered upon the claim for a ‘real democracy’. The first chapter introduces a combined theoretical framework that includes theories of degrowth, democracy, political ecology and social movement studies, setting out the methodological frame and research questions. The second chapter is focused on a critical review of theory within the degrowth literature, shedding light on concepts such as democracy, autonomy, revolution and transition, drawing in particular on the philosophy of Cornelius Castoriadis, which the degrowth movement considers a key theoretical reference point. The second part of the thesis uses the Indignados’ movement’s radical imagination to explore and understand how democracy can be thought and practiced without growth, and how a social-ecological transformation towards degrowth can be envisaged. The third chapter uses the tool of framing analysis to understand how the movement frames its conception of the crisis and democracy, and how it envisages change. This chapter also sheds light on the role of ideology within the movement and its distinctiveness from frames and on the ecological dimension of the movement, hence addressing the post-materialism thesis of New Social Movement theory. The fourth chapter investigates the micro-alternatives that have sprung out of the movement since the decentralization of the movement. It focuses on four specific case studies that evolved after the Square, bringing them into a dialogical relationship with the case study of the Square itself. In doing so, the chapter builds on the theory of prefigurative politics to analyse how the construction of alternatives can be explained, and how and why are they linked to space production, delving into the question of what is being prefigured by the indignant spatialised practices. Finally, the final chapter discusses the thesis results and concludes with their significance and contribution to a conceptualization of democracy and social-ecological change apt for degrowth and future research questions