Este artículo analiza el movimiento de los Chalecos Amarillos (Gilets Jaunes) en Francia. Para ello, en un primer momento se repasa el contexto histórico, los antecedentes de movilización, y se ofrece una caracterización del mismo. A... more
Este artículo analiza el movimiento de los Chalecos Amarillos (Gilets Jaunes) en Francia. Para ello, en un primer momento se repasa el contexto histórico, los antecedentes de movilización, y se ofrece una caracterización del mismo. A continuación se indaga en cuatro dimensiones en las que los Chalecos Amarillos inciden de forma particular: en la lucha por el espacio social, en la movilización del precariado y otras clases subalternas, en las dinámicas de organización en un marco de tiempo social acelerado, y en la resignificación de símbolos y prácticas populares. Las conclusiones apuntan a considerar los Chalecos Amarillos como un movimiento sui generis, que escapa al modelo clásico de movimientos sociales y se asemeja al de una revuelta popular contemporánea.
The arrival of the Internet-based digital age has modified the relationships between the media and resistances. This chapter proposes the notion of the “neodialectic” in order to designate a new model of interactions among power, digital... more
The arrival of the Internet-based digital age has modified the relationships between the media and resistances. This chapter proposes the notion of the “neodialectic” in order to designate a new model of interactions among power, digital media, and resistances. In this neodialectic model, a number of distinctive characteristics emerge that differentiate it from the dialectic of the pre-digital era: first, an acceleration of the social time that affects the expressions of popular resistance, which become more spasmodic; second, a conditioning of human action through digital filters, meaning that collective agency is more mediated; and last, a dissociation between power structures that are strongly material— distribution of resources, governmental control of means of coercion—and forms of protest that are increasingly visual, symbolic, and self-communicative. In order to test this proposal and inquire into its consequences, I consider two case studies of contemporary resistances: the development of forms of protest in the Basque Country in the early 2010s and the disobedient mass mobilization of citizens during the Catalan self-determination referendum of October 1, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as 1-O). The study’s consequences indicate that, in the neodialectic, a new kind of conflict emerges, defined by the digital media’s role with regard to resistances, which opens up the possibility of two opposing scenarios. One of them is the aestheticization of resistances, by which they become media products, are emptied of political content, and lose their capacity for profound transformation. The other scenario is the possibility of the “Great Event,” whereby digital mediation helps to gather large numbers of people over short time frames in specific places, where community spirit and the potential for popular resistance is strengthened. In this second scenario, represented by the Catalan 1-O, resistances do show a capacity for profound transformation and an impact on existing power structures.
Are we facing a process of aestheticisation of the resistances in the digital age? To answer this question, I propose a concept that characterises modes of resistance in specific places and historical times: the Social Form of the Protest... more
Are we facing a process of aestheticisation of the resistances in the digital age? To answer this question, I propose a concept that characterises modes of resistance in specific places and historical times: the Social Form of the Protest (SFP). The SFP is defined by protest tactics, such as demonstrations and barricades, and structural axes of confrontation, such as capital-labour and centre-periphery. Previous resistances to the inequalities generated by modern industrial capitalism were expressed through an equally modern SFP, born as a reaction to its power structures. At present, digital innovation appears to be modifying the parameters of this dialectical relationship. On the one hand, digital social networks increase communicative potential of the contemporary SFP; but on the other they dilute its deep transformation capacity. If confined to the communicative sphere, digital social media filters may turn resistances into media products. In this process the medium and how—through Information and communications technology—are imposed on the content and what—deep transformation objectives. This results in the emergence of the aestheticisation of resistance and limits its ability to resist growing social inequalities.