What has become of the Indignados? The biographical consequences of participation in the 15M movement in Madrid (2011–19)

ABSTRACT

This article examines the biographical consequences of participation in 15 M by following the trajectories, from May 2011 to November 2019, of individuals who took part in the movement in Madrid. Based on a field study combining observations and repeat interviews, this follow-up of the trajectories of forty Indignados (22 in the period 2013–15 and 18 to 2019) reveals considerable biographical impacts on both representations and individual practices in the political, personal and professional spheres. These impacts were particularly salient among those who had experienced biographical disruptions, whether in relation to political socialization or a drop in social status, and those who had mobilized in an intense and lasting way. However, 15 M had also had a profound influence on the biographies of those with an activist background and those who had been less involved in the movement. This microsociological approach gives us a better understanding of the biographical trajectories of the Indignados and provides an account of the transformations in collective action in Madrid over the past ten years. The main legacy of 15 M is therefore that it created a new generation of activists who are now involved in a multitude of activist microspheres and institutional settings.

KEYWORDS:

• Indignados
• biographical consequences of engagement
• social movements
• collective action
• Madrid
• Spain

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank all the people who kindly gave their time to be interviewed and who shared their experiences with enthusiasm. My thanks also to the anonymous reviewers of this article for their helpful suggestions.

Notes

1. All data extracts and all quotations from Spanish or French sources have been translated into English. Pseudonyms are being used to protect interviewee's identities. The ages and professions indicated are those given at the time of 15 M.

Additional information

Funding

This research, which was conducted without funding, benefited from occasional help with transport costs from my successive research laboratories (Lavue and then Citeres). This article has been translated from French by Clare Ferguson with funding from Citeres.

Notes on contributors

Héloïse Nez

Héloïse Nez is a senior lecturer in sociology at the Université de Tours (France) and a researcher at the UMR Citeres (cities, territories, environment and societies). Her research focuses on citizen knowledge, participatory democracy and social movements in France and Spain. Her publications include, most notably, Podemos. De l’indignation aux élections (Les Petits Matins, 2015) and, along with co-editors Marcos Ancelovici and Pascale Dufour, Streets Politics in the Age of Austerity. From the Indignados to Occupy (Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, 2016).