The document discusses the 2011 Spanish "Indignado" movement in response to the country's economic crisis and political corruption. It analyzes three major cultural mechanisms used to impose and manage reality: 1) mass media imposition of reality, 2) expert management of reality, and 3) individual consumption of reality. The movement challenged these through citizen demonstrations, alternative media, occupied public spaces, and grassroots organizations defending public services and housing rights. It raises questions about whether these processes could transform into stable institutions and whether existing institutions would allow that transformation.

1. Cultures of Anyone
The Spanish ‘Indignado’ Movement
and its Contexts
Luis Moreno-Caballud
University of Pennsylvania

2. Spanish crisis
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6 million unemployed
3 million officially in poverty
Around 200 evictions everyday
Cuts to public health and education
Political corruption scandals

3. “Zombie institutions”
“BECAUSE CAPITALISM NEVER DIES” – image uploaded by an anonymous user of El País

4. Three major cultural mechanisms
1. The imposition of a reality, or of what plays
the role of reality, by the everyday stories of
the mainstream media
2. The management of reality by experts who
are supposedly the only ones qualified to
deal with it
3. The consumption of reality as a set of
possible objects of satisfaction for individuals

5. 1.- The imposition of reality by mass
media
Atocha station bombings and press coverage – Madrid, 2004

6. Self-convoked citizens in demonstrations in Madrid
and Barcelona, March 2004

7. Minister González-Sinde
Wkileaks cable #27536 - February 23, 2005

8. “The dinner of fear”, article
by Amador Fernández-Savater
In 2011 (revisited in 2012)

9. Responses and reactions
to “The dinner of fear”,
In 2011

10. “Do not vote them” Internet
Campaign, 2011
“Real Democracy Now!” demonstration
In Madrid, May 15th 2011

11. 2.- The management of reality by
experts
The so-called “Troika” of expert
institutions
managing the economic and politic
situation of indebted European countries
Authors and artists of the board of
directors of SGAE, association for the
defense and management of intellectual
property

12. Representations of the
decentralized
architecture of the
Internet an its
precursor, Arpanet

13. Kitchen, day care, map, and media center of
occupied squares in Spain, 2011

14. Post-M15 production and sharing
of economic knowledge and political
action against corrupt “experts”

15. Conceptual map of Acampadasol
(Madrid’s occupied square)
Thinking working group of Acampadasol,
Madrid 2011

16. The meta-narrative of Spanish
modernity
The assumption that progress and political
transformation in Spain can only happen
when enlightened minorities guide the
uncultivated masses, helping them escape the
influence of the traditional right-wing forces

17. 3.- The consumption of reality by
individuals
A map of Spanish alternative
“social currencies”

18. “White Tide” in defense of public health
“Green Tide” in defense of public education

19. Demonstration and building occupied
by the Plataforma de Afectadospor la
Hipoteca (PAH)

20. Web page of the Plataforma
de Afectadospor la Hipoteca.
Showing the evictions stopped
during October 2013

21. Two final open questions
• 1- Can these processes transform themselves
into stable institutions?
• 2- Are the existing institutions going to allow
it?