Table Of ContentPROTEST AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
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Contesting Austerity
Social Movements and the Left
in Portugal and Spain (2008-2015)
Contesting Austerity
Protest and Social Movements
Recent years have seen an explosion of protest movements around the world,
and academic theories are racing to catch up with them. This series aims to
further our understanding of the origins, dealings, decisions, and outcomes
of social movements by fostering dialogue among many traditions of thought,
across European nations and across continents. All theoretical perspectives are
welcome. Books in the series typically combine theory with empirical research,
dealing with various types of mobilization, from neighborhood groups to
revolutions. We especially welcome work that synthesizes or compares different
approaches to social movements, such as cultural and structural traditions,
micro- and macro-social, economic and ideal, or qualitative and quantitative.
Books in the series will be published in English. One goal is to encourage
nonnative speakers to introduce their work to Anglophone audiences. Another is
to maximize accessibility: all books will be available in open access within a year
after printed publication.
Series Editors
Jan Willem Duyvendak is professor of Sociology at the University of Amsterdam.
James M. Jasper teaches at the Graduate Center of the City University of New
York.
Contesting Austerity
Social Movements and the Left in
Portugal and Spain (2008-2015)
Tiago Carvalho
CIES-IUL – Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology
ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon
Amsterdam University Press
This research was conducted with the support of Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia,
with a scholarship (SFRH/BD/92778/2013), funded by the Ministry of Education and Science.
The proofreading of this text was supported by FCT through the Strategic Funding of the
R&D Unit CIES-Iscte, Ref. UIDB/03126/2020 and the research project ‘HOPES: HOusing
PErspectives and Struggles. Futures of housing movements, policies and dynamics in Lisbon
and beyond (2018-2021, FCT, PTDC/GES-URB/28826/2017).
The cover photo was retrieved from the website https://notificado.wordpress.com/.
The author Luís Canto provided permission to use this image.
Cover design: Coördesign, Leiden
Typesetting: Crius Group, Hulshout
isbn 978 94 6372 284 1
e-isbn 978 90 4855 249 8 (pdf)
doi 10.5117/9789463722841
nur 686
© Tiago Carvalho / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2022
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of
this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise)
without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book.
Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations
reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is
advised to contact the publisher.
For Lara and Kyara
Electioneering
I will stop
I will stop at nothing
Say the right things
When electioneering
I trust I can rely on your vote
When I go forwards you go backwards and somewhere we will meet
Riot shields
Voodoo economics
It’s just business
Cattle prods and the IMF
I trust I can rely on your vote
‒ Radiohead, Ok Computer, 1997
Table of Contents
Acronyms 11
Acknowledgments 13
Introduction 17
Starting point 17
The contentious politics of neoliberalism 19
European crisis 22
The politics of austerity in the Southern European countries 25
Contesting austerity in Southern Europe 28
Contesting austerity: social movements and the left 32
1 Cycles, arenas and claims 43
A players-based approach
Cycles of protest, political opportunity structures and eventful
protests 44
Blurring the lines: a multi-player perspective 48
Repertoires, discourses and claim-making 52
Research design, methods and data collection 56
2 Preludes to the anti-austerity mobilisations 65
From Democratisation to the Great Recession
Contentious transitions 65
Contention under consolidating democracies 67
New millennium contentious transitions 74
Anti-austerity antecedents (2005-2010) 79
Diverging paths to the anti-austerity cycle of protest 85
3 Turning points 91
Going beyond the core
Setting the scene for austerity 91
Networks and players 94
Turning points in Portugal 95
Turning points in Spain 100
Going beyond the core: a summary 101
Between democracy, precarity and austerity: movement culture
and frames 102
Networks of resistance 109
Opening the way forward 113
4 Enduring austerity 117
From representation to redistribution
Enduring austerity 117
Players and claim-making between 2009-2015 119
Overlapping dynamics of contention in Spain 125
Mareas as a hybrid: between social movements and trade
unions 126
Housing, civil disobedience and relation with Institutions 130
Recentralisation, platforms and protest events: post-15M
dynamics 133
Labour from below 136
From movement void to strategic alliance building in Portugal 137
Trade unions and movement void 137
Constitutional break and the QSLT – Alliance building and
exclusions 139
Claim-making and repertoires in the QSLT 143
Demobilisation 145
A plural arena 146
5 From the streets to institutions 151
Reconfiguration of the left after the anti-austerity mobilisations
Dynamics of demobilisation 151
Reshaping the left: between party elites and social movements 155
Breaking hegemony: Podemos and the party-constellation 157
Municipal projects: the case of Madrid 158
Podemos, IU and the recomposition of the left 160
The road to the general elections and the party-constellation 165
Resilience and the recomposition of the left in Portugal 166
Left Bloc from 2011 to 2015: crisis, internal dynamics and re-
shaping of the Left in Portugal 168
From Congresso Democrático das Alternativas to a recomposi-
tion of the left 170
Political outcomes and post-2015 alliances 173
Conclusion 179
Appendices 191
Appendix I Chronology 191
Appendix II Interviews 203
Appendix III Protest Event Analysis Codebook 205
Bibliography 209
Index 225
List of tables and figures
Table 2.1 Grammars of claim-making and citizenship 56
Figure 3.1 Protest actions (per 1000 people) in Portugal and
Spain per year (1980-1995) 68
Figure 3.2 Contentious players (%) in Portugal (1980-1995) 68
Figure 3.3 Contentious players (%) in Spain (1980-1995) 70
Figure 3.4 Repertoires (%) in Portugal (1980-1995) 71
Figure 3.5 Repertoires (%) in Spain (1980-1995) 72
Figure 4.1 Number of protest events per month in Portugal and
Spain (2009-2015) 95
Figure 4.2 Number of protests (per half-year) by type of player
in Portugal (2009-2015) 100
Figure 4.3 Number of protests (per half-year) by type of player
in Spain (2009-2015) 101
Figure 4.4 Number of protests (per half-year) with demands
about representation and participation (%) in Spain
and Portugal (2009-2015) 108
Figure 5.1 Protest events organised by political parties, trade
unions and social movements (%) in Portugal (2009-2015) 120
Figure 5.2 Protest events organised by political parties, trade
unions and social movements (%) in Spain (2009-2015) 120
Figure 5.3 Claim-making in Portugal (%) (2009-2015) 121
Figure 5.4 Claim-making in Spain (%) (2009-2015) 121
Figure 5.5 Number and type of political claims per year in Spain
(2009-2015) 122
Figure 5.6 Type of players (%) in social claims per year in Spain
(2009-2015) 123
Figure 5.7 Type of players (%) in social claims per year in
Portugal (2009-2015) 123
