Public Sphere and Collective Action. the Portuguese Movement of the “15th September”

Abstract

Considering the social events and collective protests that have emerged in the international and national public sphere and more specifically the movement “To hell with the Troika! We want our lives!” – a social movement that started in June, 2012, against the Troika and the measures of the Portuguese Government, and which was responsible for the organization of the demonstration of the 15th September 2012, in Portugal, as well as in other cities in the country and in Europe, spreading in social digital networks and leading to subsequent public demonstrations, we propose a study concerning the current protest movements and the new forms of public mobilization, once activism has increased in electronic links (net activism) and on the street. Revisiting the conceptions of public sphere as a common space related to the notion of living-together, as publicity and visibility (Arendt), as a form and an event (Quéré) and as a space of meeting, accessibility and movement (Joseph), we, thus, intend to discuss the following issues: the public space as a place of collective action (Cefaï) and civic mobilization (Rouet); the importance of digital social networks in the new forms of communication – in relation with the modern public space (Habermas) - and the analysis of the movement of the 15th September in the light of Tillly’s perspective on social movements. It is also our aim to understand whether these new forms of organization, mobilization and acting in public are distant, or not, from traditional social movements and if we are facing the emergence of new public spaces.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s5p425