Voicing outrage, contending with austerity : mobilisation in Spain under the Great Recession

Abstract

This thesis deals with the Spanish cycle of protest in the shadow of the Great Recession. It has a twofold aspiration. On the one hand, from a process-based approach, it seeks to unravel the timing of the cycle of contention that evolved in light of the recession scenario between 2007 and 2015. I argue that the peak of protest persisted for a long time (from mid-2011 until 2013) because institutionalisation was postponed and radicalisation contained. Specifically, I focus on three aspects, key to understanding the trajectory of collective actions: 1) issue specialisation of protest after the first triggering points, 2) alliance building between unions and new actors, and 3) the transition process towards more routinised repertoires of action that came about as protests declined. On the other hand, the thesis aims at shedding light on the role that grievances play for mobilisation dynamics in a context of material deprivation. Covering multiple levels of analysis, the main argument developed here is that the effects of objective-material aspects and socioeconomic grievances are mediated by political attitudes, especially political dissatisfaction. To empirically test my arguments, I use qualitative data from semi-structured interviews, which are combined with information from a self-collated protest event analysis and different statistical analyses based on time series, panel data and other survey materials.