Tomalafacultad: the Madrid student movement from 2011 to 2015

Abstract

The student movement from Madrid is one of the actors involved in the cycle of collective action which broke up in Spain in 2011. By means of a qualitative analysis we will assess its origins, its structures, actors and cultural frames as well as its performances and repertoires. The approach we will take emphasizes the importance of the demands, resources and actions of the movements in order to influence the public agenda, the political opportunities set up by the conjuncture and other groups' mobilizations, and also the discoursive strategies which construct identities not necessarily correlated to the raw materials that the former are built upon. This way: (1) we will assess the mobilizations of subjects such as Juventud Sin Futuro, 15 M or Marea Verde as a key structure of opportunity to understand the movement; (2) we will argue that the student movement fulfilled the criteria in order to be considered a social movement; (3) it will be suggested that the students tried to construct a discourse capable of re-politizicing students' issues, framing them under a youth perspective and linking them to other social struggles; (4) it will be affirmed that the repertoires tended to the recycling of resources from other collectives and movements, to the economization of means and dependency towards the agenda of other movements. Notwithstanding the decadency of the movement, what is left of it might find itself in a latent state awaiting for a new opportunity, such as the new Law of Madrid Higher Education Area.