Capítulo 32. Strategic communication for social change in the 15-m movement in Madrid

• Date: 01 January 2024
• Author: Luis Gallardo Vera

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CAPÍTULO 32

STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION FOR SOCIAL

CHANGE IN THE 15-M MOVEMENT IN MADRID

LUIS GALLARDO VERA

Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha

Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Universidad de Cádiz

Universidad Nacional de La Plata

1. INTRODUCTION

For more than a decade now, strong voices have been emerging that

claim that, within the crisis of Postmodernity, social movements that

promote peace and human rights are exhausted in the creation of new

discourses, encapsulated in the past, incapable of producing new mean-

ings (Lomnitz, 2007). The few notable changes obtained point to the

fact that these social movements are in a situation of impasse, sustained

by the desire for the struggles and alternatives to evolve positively. With

the collapse of the strategic models of social change that inspired these

social movements, the post-modern era is setting a path of doubt regard-

ing the strategies for achieving the emancipatory objectives of these so-

cial movements. A theory of social change within an emancipatory so-

cial science answers the question "what kind of collective strategies will

help us move in the direction of social emancipation?" (Wright, 2006:

107). Today it is a question of utmost relevance in the face of the social

construction essential for the development and implementation of the

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda approved

by the United Nations General Assembly (Álvarez-Torres, 2022), social

challenges for which communication stands as a key driving force (Nos,

Farné, 2021; Nos, Farné, 2020; Nos et al., 2019).

Social movements, generally, assume that communication is a field of

dispute (León et al., 2005), but there is a gap between this recognition

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and communicative practice. It is known that social movements use

public relations techniques (Caldevilla, 2007; Matilla, 2008), such as

publicity and lobbying, in addition to developing creative strategies in

their external communication (Marín, 2009), in order to obtain social

mobilization. These practices are located in two of the three fundamen-

tal areas that comprise the scientific understanding of social movements

(Martí, 2002): the organization, action and communication they prac-

tice; and the effects of their actions. Within this last area, precisely,

Martí (2002) warned that a theory of the success of social movements

had not been elaborated; an issue to which this research is directed.

Post-industrial, post-modern and information society is a structure of

opportunity for social movements for peace and human rights; in the

context of the acculturation that the post-industrial, information and

post-industrial society operates in these social agents. The principles and

techniques of marketing and organizational communication, which have

proven their validity to achieve the objectives of for-profit and non-

profit organizations (Gallardo, 2014a). This position corresponds to the

interest experienced by social movements and third sector organizations

in communication, given the evidence of the relevance of communica-

tion in today's society (León et al., 2005; Gallardo, Marín, 2014).

The 15-M Movement was a new social movement that discursively as-

sumed the mission of increasing the social states of peace and the real-

ization of human rights in a remarkably effective way, with enormous

media and social repercussions. Although the 15-M has had its field of

effervescence in the outskirts of the Spanish State, it has gone beyond

the Spanish borders. The repercussion of 15-M has been worldwide.

According to the first polls carried out after the eruption of 15-M by the

CIS barometer and Metroscopia, more than half of the Spanish popula-

tion supported the mobilizations. In particular, the CIS barometer for

June 2011 (Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas, 2011) showed that

50.2% of those surveyed followed the movement with a lot or quite a

lot of interest. The study carried out by Metroscopia in 2011, likewise,

underlined that 66% of those surveyed declared that they felt sympathy

towards the movement, as well as that 81% considered that the partici-

pants of the movement were right (El País, 2011). According to the