Social movements and the politics of care: empathy, solidarity and eviction blockades

ABSTRACT

This paper develops a perspective of mobilization based on the ethics of care to explore the complexities of political solidarity in social movements. On the one hand, it is interested in the reasons why commonly aggrieved individuals do not always collaborate to confront their oppression. On the other, it explores why sometimes people initiate mobilization for causes that do not benefit them directly. From a care perspective, aggrieved individuals may not mobilize to confront their troubles because some of their caring needs (emotional, identity, and participatory) are not covered. At the same time, empathy motivates people not affected by a grievance to initiate mobilization in support of the oppressed collective. Internal solidarity among those aggrieved may be created during the process of mobilization through care work. The analytical relevance of this model is demonstrated explaining the mobilization of the ‘Platform of Those Affected by Mortgages’, the biggest housing organization in Spain. A care-based approach to mobilization contributes to our analysis of contentious collective action by helping to better understand the complexities of political solidarity and the mechanisms through which organizations foster solidarity among their members.

KEYWORDS:

• Care
• empathy
• solidarity
• evictions
• Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca
• PAH

Acknowledgments

This paper has benefited from extensive feedback at different stages of its development. The author would like to thank Béla Greskovits, Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick, Erin Jenne, David S. Meyer, Jeff Goodwin, Kerman Calvo, Anna Domaradzka, Felix Bender, and Robin Bellers for their insightful comments. Different versions of the paper were presented at the conference Spain: Social Movements Between Past and Present at the University of Cambridge, the seminar of the Center for the Study of Democracy at the University of California Irvine, and the Graduate Conference of the Central European University. The author would like to thank the participants of these events for their engaged discussions. Finally, big thanks to the editors of Social Movement Studies and the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback throughout the publication process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca.

2. All interview excerpts have been translated from Spanish by the author.

3. This calculation includes the parties Amaiur, Bloque Nacionalista Galego, Chunta Aragonesista, Compromís, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, Eusko Alkartasuna, Izquierda Unida, and Nafarroa Bai.

4. Activists for the right to housing have identified that the media has recorded at least 43 suicides related to evictions since 2010. The full list can be found at: https://15mpedia.org/wiki/Lista_de_suicidios_relacionados_con_desahucios (accessed on 9 July 2019).

5. The video of this eviction blockade can be found through this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwrPYc1Uzwg (accessed on 9 July 2019).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Felipe G. Santos

Felipe G. Santos is Research Associate at the University of Manchester and PhD Researcher at the Central European University.