When materiality matters. Housing, social

movements and the 15-M in Spain

Jaime Jover-Báez, Departamento de Geografía Humana, Universidad de Sevilla (Spain)

Ibán Díaz-Parra, Instituto Gino Germani, Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina)

ICCG 2015

Ramallah, Palestine

27th July 2015

Images and charts which are not originally from the authors are properly quoted, referencing the source and/or corresponding authors. The rest of images, charts and texts are protected under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Creative Commons License http://creativecommons.org/ The authors thank the organisation of the 7th International Conference of Critical Geography that took place in Ramallah, Palestine, for the opportunity to present and obtain feedback on their work, as well as all the participants that contributed to the conference.

Outline:

1. Crisis and changing material conditions in the EU

2. Notes on the creation of the Spanish real-state bubble

3. The collapse of the real-state bubble, dispossession and social and spatial polarisation

4. Mobilization cycles, new identities and territorialities within social movements

5. The turnaround on material issues: the right for housing and the ‘Corrala’ phenomena

6. Discussion: from the streets to the institutions, what now?

Crisis and changing

material conditions

in the EU

Minimum wage evolution 2010-2015 (total €)

-300

-200

-100

0

100

200

300

400

Source: Eurostat

% of housing owners / % unemployment rate evolution

Denmark; 45,2

Germany; 74,7

Ireland; 109,7

Greece; 177,1

Spain; 97,7

Italy; 132,1

Poland; 50,1

Portugal; 130,2

United Kingdom; 89,4

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

General government (public) debt (% GDP, 2007-2014)

Source: Eurostat, except Greece for the period 2007-10 (data from OECD)

Rate of people at risk of poverty in the EU

Notes on the creation of

the Spanish real-state

bubble

Vinuesa Angulo, J. (2008). La vivienda vacía en España: un despilfarro territorial y social

insostenible. Scripta Nova. URL: http://www.ub.edu/geocrit/sn/sn-270/sn-270-39.htm

Empty houses by region (1991-2001)

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

1981 1991 2001 2011

Building sector Industry & Mining Primary Sector Tertiary Sector

% of people working by sectors in Spain (1981-2011)

Source: Population census, Spanish Statistical Office

“Entrenúcleos development project”, Sevilla, Spain. Source:

http://es.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/imgServer.do?id=1000218

The collapse of the real-state

bubble, dispossession and

social and spatial polarisation

0

100000

200000

300000

400000

500000

600000

700000

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Public Housing Private Housing Housing buildings contructed Housing buildings renovated

The collapse of the real-state bubble (2003-2013)

Source: Minister of Public Works and Spanish Statistical Office

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

0

100000

200000

300000

400000

500000

600000

700000

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

New housing New housing stock Housing price (€/m2)

Source: Minister of Public Works and Spanish Statistical Office

The Spanish real-state bubble

Evolution of housing and mortgages markets in

Spain (2003-2013)

0

200000

400000

600000

800000

1000000

1200000

1400000

1600000

1800000

2000000

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Housing Urban mortgages

Source: Minister of Public Works and Spanish Statistical Office

Volume of mortgage evictions (2008-2013)

Gutiérrez del Valle, R. et. al. (2014). Geografía de las ejecuciones hipotecarias en España. Madrid:

Fundación 1º de Mayo.

Changing material conditions in Spain (2007-2014)

27251

35422

49227

62121

70257 67189 68091

25943

58686

93319 93636

77854

91622

82680 80749

66249

102925

135379

111942

117613

147404 146796

118213

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Evictions Eviction proceedings Wrongful job termination lawsuit

Source: Spanish General Council of the Judiciary

Unemployment and eviction proceedings due to

unpaid mortgages (2012)

Source: Spanish General Council of the Judiciary and Spanish Statistical Office

Mobilization cycles, new

identities and territorialities

within social movements

The ‘indignados’ or the explosion of the

15-M movement

Source: http://vistapublica.org/tag/15-m/

Source: Geophotopedia de la Universidad de Sevilla: https://www.flickr.com/photos/88083695@N07/8612721789

‘we’re going slow

because we’re

going a long way’

The organisation

of the #spanish

revolution

Opening a new mobilization cycle.

Some 15M characteristics: • Heterogeneity of claims and inclusive approach: bringing

together (post-materialist) NSMs pluralist demands (feminism, environmentalism, pacifism, etc.) with materialist (class based, dispossession processes) demands: being housing issues key

• Overcoming State fetishism as a sole actor in politics

• Empowering and re-politicising large population sectors: radical democratic logic exercised, neoliberal hegemonic ideology contested

• Generation of our own commons and search for consensus

• Social movements identities quickly shifting, influencing one another – best example: squatting movement (from a marginalized activity to a publicly known strategy to organise the movement and fight exclusion)

Squatted in October

2011, evicted in

January 2012

CSR Merkado

Provisional (Encarnación

abandoned market hall),

Sevilla

Valcárcel Recuperado, Cádiz

Squatted in

July 2011,

evicted in

January 2012

Source:

https://valcarce

lrecuperadoca

diz.wordpress.

com/

Source: El País: http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2011/12/05/actualidad/1323069041_565931.html

See: Abellán, J., Sequera, J. & Janoschka, M. (2012). Occupying the #Hotelmadrid: A laboratory for

urban resistance. Social Movements Studies: Journal of Social, Cultural and Political Protest, 11: 3-

4, 320-326

Squatted in October

2011, evicted in

December 2011

The Hotel Madrid experience, Madrid

The turnaround on

material issues: the right

for housing and the

‘Corrala’ phenomena

Distribution of evictions and rate of unemployment in

Sevilla (2012)

Source: 15M Housing advisory office

The Platform of those Affected by Mortgages

Source: http://afectadosporlahipoteca.com/

Corralas and

15-M

advisory

offices in

Seville

Metropolitan

area

Disscussion: from the

streets to the institutions,

what now?

Radical

Left on the

scene:

PODEMOS

Source:

http://www.elplural.com/2015/03/21/hay-llenos-y-llenos-podemos-feliz-con-15-000-donde-el-psoe-metio-30-000/

See: http://podemos.info/

Electoral results and unemployment by regions (2011)

Electoral results and unemployment by regions (2015)

Source:http://sevilla.abc.es/elecciones/muni

cipales-sevilla-2015/20150514/sevi-sevilla-

candidatos-serrano-201505131955.html

Mortgage proceedings (2007-2015) by region and local

polls results in each region’s capital (May 2015)

See:

https://barcelonaencomu.cat/

Sources:

Right:

http://www.tagthebird.com/es/twe

et/5201162

Down:

http://www.lavanguardia.com/loca

l/barcelona/20150613/544322233

22/ada-colau-alcalde-de-

barcelona.html

See: http://programa.ahoramadrid.org/

https://porcadiz-sisepuede.info/

Sources:

Up:

http://elpais.com/elpais/2015/06/15/vid

eos/1434373524_558488.html

Left:

http://www.elconfidencial.com/eleccion

es-municipales-y-autonomicas/2015-

06-14/andalucia-la-roja-kichi-y-

espadas-capitanean-la-revuelta-de-la-

izquierda_883603/

Changes in the behaviour of social

movements in Spain (2011-2015)