Martín Portos

• PhD
• Senior Assistant Professor at Scuola Normale Superiore

Young people's mass mobilisation has been key for restructuring political competition in Southern Europe in the last decade. From a comparative standpoint, this article examines the drivers of protest in Greece, Italy, and Spain. The main results point towards a strong heterogeneity among the three cases: while women and people with left-libertaria...

Los análisis empíricos de los repertorios de contienda (el conjunto de formas o tácticas diferentes que emplean los actores colectivos en un territorio y periodo determinado) se han realizado tradicionalmente a través de enfoques agregativos basados únicamente en el análisis del volumen de diferentes tácticas y su distribución temporal. Este artícu...

Some scholars warn about democratic disaffection of young people potentially leading to processes of ‘democratic deconsolidation’. Conversely, others interpret young people’s preference for non-conventional forms of participation as a manifestation of democratic renewal. We surveyed respondents from nine European countries, analyzed differences in...

Political participation and party attachment in Western democracies have become more and more volatile. In turn, political campaigns seem increasingly dependent on short-term discursive windows of opportunity opened by dynamic debates on issues such as migration, climate, employment and economic policies. Based on panel data from nine European coun...

Engaging with research on protest participation and gender inequalities, we examine how gender dynamics play a crucial role in shaping patterns of protest participation across the rural/urban divide. We argue that moving from a rural toward an urban setting leads to an increase in protest participation for women, but not for men. Using an original...

With only about 8000 inhabitants, Arenys de Munt, the small stronghold of secessionist forces near Barcelona, celebrated the first – symbolic, nonbinding – municipal referendum on Catalan independence in 2009 as an act of protest against the Constitutional Court that ruled out the possibility of holding a referendum on self‐determination. Promoters...

Since the beginning of the Millennium, attention to globalization as well as transnational forms of political participation has grown. Economic globalization has been a main target for progressive social movements, which have held it responsible for changing material conditions, labor market dynamics, and increasing inequalities within and across n...

In resisting climate change, to what extent can lifestyle forms of activism be considered to be political? What are their determinants and to what extent do they differ from the determinants of other forms of action? What role do generational factors play? Does the centrality of lifestyle changes for young participants translate into a disaffection...

While there is extensive literature about public concern about climate change, most studies rely on cross-sectional static data. Based on a unique panel survey conducted in nine European countries in 2018 and 2019, we make a rare investigation of factors that explain why some young people (age: 18-34 years) are, have become or have lost their conce...

On 12 and 13 June 2011, 27 million Italians voted in a national abrogative referendum, the only type of referendum allowed by the Italian Constitution. They represented around 57% of the electorate, significantly beyond the 50% plus 1 threshold required by Italian law for its results to be valid. This threshold had not been reached in any of the 24...

In September 2014, the Scottish National Party (SNP)-led government reached an agreement with the United Kingdom (UK) Conservative government and held a referendum on independence from the UK. Despite the unionist win, a relevant 44.7% of Scots opted for secession. Catalan authorities, by contrast, strove to introduce an official referendum on sece...

Social science literature on referendums and other mechanisms of direct democracy has pointed at their increasing use, especially as a result of the malfunctioning – on the input side – of the institutional system and the de-alignment of the party system (Qvortrup, 2014a;, 2014b). Referendums proliferate especially where parties are weaker but, inc...

Social movements and referendums: an introduction The Great Recession that hit Europe in 2008 can be seen as a critical juncture, triggering not only socioeconomic but also political transformations. In the area hardest hit by the financial crisis, particularly in the European periphery, waves of protest challenged the austerity policies adopted by...

Social movements formed in response to austerity measures have played an increasingly important role in referendums. The book uses unique case studies to illustrate the ways the social movements have affected the referendums’ dynamic and results. It also addresses the way in which participation from below has had a transformative impact.

Referendums present a rare occasion for movements to have a central role in political developments and emerge from the shadow of the usually more dominant political parties. Tarrow and McAdam have argued that the interaction of parties and movements intensifies around elections: movements can mobilise proactively prior to elections, or reactively t...

The referendum in Scotland and the non-binding unofficial consultation in Catalonia dominated the two entities’ political agendas in 2013–14. Despite their different natures and legal statuses, the two votes radically changed their respective political debates, triggered massive media and academic interest, and constituted momentous events that hav...

Drawing upon interview material, together with extensive data from the authors’ original social movement database, this book examines the development of social movements in resistance to perceived political “regression” and a growing right-wing backlash. With a focus on Italy and the reaction to increasing inequalities and welfare state retrenchmen...

The use of mobile instant messaging services (MIMS) for the dissemination of electoral information has been increasing in recent years. Drawing on a novel dataset from a 2015 post-electoral survey in Spain, we focus on individuals’ digital political behavior, both public and private. Our results show that, in a context of high electoral volatility...

In 2018, Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg began a school strike that quickly spread across the globe. After a ritual strike every Friday by school pupils to call for urgent action against climate change had gone on for several months, what had become Fridays for Future (FFF) called for various global days of action throughout 2019, bringing millions...

Durante el largo verano migratorio de 2015 aumentaba de un modo dramático el nivel de conciencia ciudadana y activismo en Barcelona. En la primavera de 2016, cada día tenían lugar eventos de protesta en solidaridad con las personas refugiadas , promovidos por un amplio espectro de grupos locales, asociaciones y redes. En tanto, un cambio en el gobi...

This article investigates the impact of intolerance on online political participation among young Europeans. Based on the theoretical insights of (in)tolerance, political participation, youth, and media studies, we explore whether and to what extent intolerant attitudes drive young people’s online political participation. In doing this, we draw on...

We analyse coalition-building in feminist mobilisations in times of crisis in two similar cases: Spain and Italy. Based on social movement literature, we develop two key arguments. First, in austerity-ridden scenarios, connecting socio-economic grievances and feminist demands is key for the feminist mass mobilisations to follow. Second, anti-auster...

Anti-corruption claims have been at the core of many mass mobilizations worldwide. However, the nexus between corruption and collective action is often overlooked. Bridging social movement and corruption studies, this article contends that believing in extensive corruption has a positive impact on non-electoral forms of participation. But this effe...

Karl Polanyi’s (2001) ever-influential contribution The Great Transformation is a superb account of the conflicting and contradictory relationships between liberal markets and society’s need for protection during the first half of the twentieth century, which led to financial recession, mass discontent and the rise of radical nationalism and war. T...

The so-called Coleman’s boat illustrates the logic of explanation from a mechanisms-based standpoint. According to Hedström and Ylikoski (2010: 59), research should try to open up “the black box to find the causal mechanisms that have generated the macro-level observation”. In other words, mechanisms that interrelate macro-properties to achieve sat...

Understanding what explains the irregular distribution and clustering of protest participants across time—i.e. the varying size of protest events—is one of the core tasks that social movements scholars face (Biggs 2016). This chapter aims at analysing the trajectory of anti-austerity protests in Spain in the shadow of the Great Recession, 2007–2015...

Dissent spread across the world in 2011. Many people protested against the political and socioeconomic status quo. Outraged crowds took to the streets and occupied the squares in different parts of the globe. The Occupy movements in the United States, the Israeli rallies for social justice, the Arab Spring campaigns and the student revolts in Chile...

Podemos, a new party launched from scratch in March 2014, issued a manifesto that included some indignados movement’s core claims: fighting poverty, inequality, the privileges of large corporations, corruption and defending public services in the face of austerity policies. The party quickly gained momentum, as the following three electoral milesto...

Certain attitudinal configurations are meant to make individuals more prone to protest. For example, those who report left-wing values, who are politically interested, more informed about politics and have high levels of self-perceived efficacy might be more likely to engage in protest actions.

Following a demonstration and some encounters with the police, a crowd of around 130,000 people occupied Plaza Puerta del Sol in Madrid on 15 May 2011, in light of coming—local and regional—elections the following week. They protested against policymaking in an austerity-ridden scenario and demanded “real democracy now!”. Given the mainstream media...

Thousands of Spaniards flocked to the streets in 2011 in order to counter the austerity measures that the government advanced in response to the economic crisis. Not only were many citizens directly affected by these measures, but they also felt that political decisions on how to deal with the crisis were being made without their consent. In order...

The Catalan 1-O referendum can be read as a massive contentious performance, a key turning point within the independentist cycle of mobilization which contributed to shape secessionist milieus. While large civil society organizations took the lead of mobilization, staging several mass demonstrative events since 2010, the 1-O events represented a la...

‘This is an impressive book that makes both theoretical and empirical contributions. Based on a variety of micro- and macro-level data and sophisticated statistical analyses, it provides a quite original message: in the depth of the Spanish economic crisis, it was not economic grievances that motivated Spaniards of different walks of life to partic...

Europe remains an essentially contested project, in relation to its boundaries, institutions, and functional scope. In a context characterised by the detachment of key functions from the state, by legal pluralism and complex, overlapping transnational regimes, this article sheds light on the possibilities for plurinational accommodation in the evol...

Recent studies suggest that new parties display new patterns of digital mobilization. We shed light on this debate: do new party supporters engage in online political activities to a greater extent during electoral campaigns? Do they share political images or quotes on social media, participate in political forums, or exchange political messages wi...

The article focuses on a neglected aspect of populist mobilisation, i.e. non-electoral participation (NEP), and elaborates on the extent to which populist party voters engage politically outside the polling station. The study addresses the question that populist parties and movements of the left and right originate from distinctive political experi...

In Catalonia and beyond, the recent upheaval of secessionist mobilizations has challenged not only extant territorial frameworks and integration processes but also one’s understandings around nationalism and its social bases of support. Upper-class and bourgeois sectors of the population have been traditionally considered as overrepresented within...

In September 2019, the third Global Climate Strike organized by the Fridays For Future (FFF) protest campaign mobilized 6000 protest events in 185 countries and brought 7.6 million participants out onto the streets. This report analyses survey data about participants from 19 cities around the world and compares it to data from an international surv...

This article seeks to understand the trajectory of radicalization in the Catalan 'procés'. Regardless of their formal legal standing, referendum campaigns are distinct political opportunities which also generate further opportunities. Contrary to what some theories of protest would predict, when political opportunities are closed down at national l...

En este artículo desarrollamos un marco interpretativo para comprender la trayectoria de radicalización en el “procés” catalán. Independientemente del estatus legal del referéndum en cuestión, las campañas de referéndum son capaces de crear, y de hecho son en sí mismas, oportunidades políticas. En contraste con las predicciones desde las teorías de...

The implementation of austerity and neoliberal policies has disrupted everyday life for a significant number of Europeans, especially among young people. Rising tuition fees, labor market reforms, levels of unemployment, precarious working conditions, and discontent toward the political status quo have contributed to increase moral panics and outra...

Social movement research has shed light on the relationship between processes of alliance building and multiple factors related to political opportunities, framing, identities, networks and resource mobilization. However, less is known about the impact of eventful protests on coalition building dynamics. Drawing on a paired comparison between the P...

Drawing on electoral participation and social movement studies, we develop a typology of abstainers on the basis of their forms of non-electoral participation, and explore the determinants that drive belonging to each of these sub-groups. Although there is a positive correlation between electoral turnout and non-electoral participation, through app...

After a general campaign that aimed at changing the political and socioeconomic system, the 15M/Indignados abandoned the visible occupation of central squares decentralized through neighborhood assemblies, and specialized around different issues, such as housing, and the health and public education systems. Although often cohabitating amid tension,...

From a comparative vantage point, few refugees arrived in Spain during the long summer of migration. Although a strong pro-refugee movement developed, it had an important internal variability. We study varying local-level political opportunities, comparing municipalities governed by movement-connected parties with others run by more traditional for...

In this chapter we explored the transnational dimension of the mobilisations of solidarity with refugees in Europe. Although some initiatives have a transnational aspiration, co-ordination of collective action and networks across borders is still unfolding. We focused on two poles in tension, Brussels and Calais, and scale shift dynamics. On the on...

Traditional theories of collective action would predict that, after a triggering event, the trajectory of a wave of protest is determined by the institutionalisation–radicalisation tandem. Based on the Spanish cycle of anti-austerity and against the political status quo protest in the shadow of the Great Recession, this article contends with this a...

This book examines how social movements exploited windows of opportunity offered by institutions of direct democracy, in particular through referendums ‘from below’, and the ways in which the socioeconomic and political crisis of neoliberalism affected the referendums' dynamics and results. It considers events that have been either promoted or appr...

This chapter examines the 2011 water referendum in Italy, focusing on the appropriation of opportunities, resource mobilisation, and the framing of the campaign by social movements and civil society organisations. It shows that some of the characteristics of the referendums from below that were observed in Scotland and Catalonia also fit the Italia...

This chapter examines the framing strategies in referendums from below in Scotland and Catalonia. It considers how the current context of economic austerity, along with the crisis of political legitimacy, have paved the way for the emergence of social justice and democratic-emancipatory frames with higher potential for resonance across audiences (a...

This chapter examines the organisational aspects of the referendums from below in Scotland and Catalonia and the participation of various social movements in those campaigns. It first considers the role of pro-independent political parties and their interactions with the relevant movements before looking at some of the most significant movement org...

This book has examined how referendums from below serve as opportunities that are particularly conducive to broadening participation as well as enhancing political engagement and understanding among the electorate. Using the campaigns in Scotland, Catalonia and Italy, the book has provided evidence that referendums offer social movements the chance...

This chapter examines the context in which the Catalan and Scottish campaigns for independence developed. It explains how the referendum campaigns were initiated and by whom, arguing that both cases unfolded as the result of a concatenation of three coexisting crises: territorial, democratic and socioeconomic. First, Catalonia and Scotland suffered...

In recent years, social movements on the left have increasingly begun to make themselves felt in referendums. This has been seen throughout Europe: in votes regarding independence in Scotland and Catalonia, on water rights in Italy, on debt repayment in Iceland, and on the financial proposals of the troika in Greece. This book presents case studies...

Social movements formed in response to austerity measures have played an increasingly important role in referendums. The book uses unique case studies to illustrate the ways the social movements have affected the referendums’ dynamic and results. It also addresses the way in which participation from below has had a transformative impact.

This article explores frequencies of participation and nonparticipation in the 15-M protest campaign in Spain. Given the nature of this campaign, we focus on democratic dissatisfaction. Our findings suggest that, relative to nonparticipants, democratic dissatisfaction is significantly associated with multiple-time participation, but not with one-ti...

Waving goodbye? The determinants of autonomism and secessionism in Western Europe. Regional Studies. This paper sheds light on the main aggregate-level determinants of electoral support for regionalist parties across 10 Western European countries. A region being relatively richer than the country to which it belongs is associated with higher electo...

15M mobilizations represent the most relevant events of a broader cycle of collective actionsagainst austerity and the political status quo in the context of recession. This contribution introduces and explores an original dataset collected through protest event analysis conducted for Spain between 2007 and 2015. It allows us to pin down the longit...

Based on theories of cycles of collective behavior, this piece establishes a periodization of the cycle of anti-austerity and anti-political status quo protests in the shadow of the Great Recession that Spain faced between 2007 and 2015. More specifically, it tries to explain why the peak of protests persist-ed for so long: radicalization was conta...