Author Description

Product Description In Democracy Reloaded, Cristina Flesher Fominaya tells the story of one of the most influential social movements of recent times: Spain's "Indignados" or "15-M" movement that took to the streets of Spain on May 15, 2011 with the rallying cry "Real Democracy Now! We are not commodities in the hands of bankers and politicians!" Based on access to key participants in the 15-M movement and Podemos and extensive participant observation, Flesher Fominaya tells a provocative and original story of this remarkable movement, its emergence, evolution, and impact. In so doing, she argues that in times of global economic and democratic crisis, movements organized around autonomous network logics can build and sustain strong movements in the absence of formal organizations, strong professionalized leadership, and the ability to attract external resources. Further, she challenges explanations for success that rest on the mobilizing power of social media. Through in-depth analysis of the monthlong occupation of Madrid's Puerta del Sol, and subsequent 15-M mobilization, Democracy Reloaded shows how the experience of the protest camp revitalized pre-existing networks, forged bonds of solidarity, and gave birth to a new movement that went on to influence public debate and the political agenda, in Spain and beyond. Review "What the book ultimately provides is a powerful antidote to the bleak and uncertain present, not by indulging in the nostalgic contemplation of days past, but by examining still unexplored political horizons and potentials." -- Vincente Rubio-Pueyo, Public Books"It is an ambitious book, offering a continuous vision of the 15-M protests that integrates their context and precedents, as well as their crystallization into new political formations. The bottom line is to understand that protests do not have definitive limits in either their beginnings or their dissolutions; they contain moments of singularity." -- Josep Lobera, Autonomous University of Madrid, Mobilization: An International Quarterly"Flesher Fominaya's study can be warmly welcomed as one written by an international authority on social movements and Spanish politics. Its combination of ethnographic fieldwork, first hand observation, critical analysis and deep theoretical understanding of the issues raised by these events marks it out as a landmark study. Indeed it is and will be the core resource for understanding 15M and this extraordinary political moment for many years to come." -Simon Tormey, University of Bristol "Democracy Reloaded will quickly become, and for a long time should remain, the definitive work on the topic of the Spanish M-15 social movement, and the origins of Podemos. The book is a model of sensitive and sophisticated scholar-activist interpretation, with a depth of nuance and flexibility of analysis that are rare and that will serve us well." -John Foran, University of California, Santa Barbara "Focusing on Spain as a laboratory of interactions between contentious and institutional politics, Flesher Fominaya offers a most interesting analysis of the ways in which progressive social movements can effectively reload democracies going from prefiguration to institutional changes." -Donatella della Porta, Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence About the Author Cristina Flesher Fominaya is Professor of Global Studies at Aarhus University and an internationally recognized expert in European social movements and politics. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. She is Editor in Chief of the journal Social Movement Studies, cofounder of open access Interface Journal, author of Social Movements in a Globalized World (2nd ed), and co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Contemporary European Social Movements (2020). She has published widely on social movements, democracy, and Spanish and European politics in English and Spanish.