Resumen de Democracy without growth: The political ecology of the indignados movement
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.
