Communication Activism as a School of Politics: Lessons From Spain's Indignados Movement

Abstract

In this article, we draw on ethnographic research to examine some key communication activism practices of Spain's indignados (15M) movement. The 15M radically transformed communication activism in Spain through its strong political-pedagogical orientation. Here lies the greatest 15M lesson for Communication for Social Change: Ordinary citizens in countries like Spain are rejecting traditional roles as “beneficiaries” of institutional communication campaigns. Instead, they have become active political actors who are able to generate their own processes of political pedagogy and communication. We conceptualize this lesson by positing the existence of three principles of 15M communication activism as a school of politics: the principles of pedagogical sovereignty, action, and networking.