Friday, April 15, 2016
Concerto B (DoubleTree by Hilton Philadelphia Center City)
2011 has been defined as the year of protest. Southern Europe was a hotspot for popular dissent, although comparative studies are scarce thus far.
Portugal experienced its largest non-trade union or political party led demonstration in March 2011, which gathered around 10% of population to protest against the negative prospects of a precarious generation. Only a couple of months later, thousands of Spaniards mobilized to claim against the political status quo and austerity policies being implemented. Yet, while standards of extra-conventional mobilization persisted over the subsequent years in Spain (until we observe a declining trend, in 2014), Portuguese levels of collective mobilization remained low. Why so? What does explain different timing and trajectories of contention in both cases, under the shadow of austerity?
I argue Spanish movement(s) contained radicalization attempts and postponed institutionalization through specialization via sectorial fights. By contrast, Portuguese challengers were coopted by opposition parties, which fostered internal divisions.
Two original self-collected Protest Event Analysis datasets are used, and information from +20 interviews allow to conduct a mixed methods empirical design.
Portugal experienced its largest non-trade union or political party led demonstration in March 2011, which gathered around 10% of population to protest against the negative prospects of a precarious generation. Only a couple of months later, thousands of Spaniards mobilized to claim against the political status quo and austerity policies being implemented. Yet, while standards of extra-conventional mobilization persisted over the subsequent years in Spain (until we observe a declining trend, in 2014), Portuguese levels of collective mobilization remained low. Why so? What does explain different timing and trajectories of contention in both cases, under the shadow of austerity?
I argue Spanish movement(s) contained radicalization attempts and postponed institutionalization through specialization via sectorial fights. By contrast, Portuguese challengers were coopted by opposition parties, which fostered internal divisions.
Two original self-collected Protest Event Analysis datasets are used, and information from +20 interviews allow to conduct a mixed methods empirical design.
