Despite the historical and political similarities between Portugal and Spain, the contentious responses to austerity diverged in terms of number, rhythm and players. This book compares the contentious responses to austerity in Portugal and Spain during the Eurozone crisis and the Great Recession between 2008 and 2015. While in Spain a sustained wave of mobilisation lasted for three years, involving various players and leading to a transformation of the party system, in Portugal social movements were only able to mobilise in specific instances, trade unions dominated protest and, by the end of the cycle, institutional change was limited. Contesting Austerity shows that the different trajectories and outcomes in these two countries are connected to the nature and configurations of the players in the mobilisation process. While in Spain actors’ relative autonomy from one another led to deeper political transformation, in Portugal the dominance of the institutional actors limited the extent of that change.

Tiago Carvalho is a political sociologist interested in social movements, political parties and social classes. He holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Cambridge and he is a researcher at the Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology, and a member of Centre on Social Movement Studies (Florence).

List of Tables and Figures
Acronyms
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Starting point
The contentious politics of neoliberalism
European crisis
The politics of austerity in the Southern European countries
Contesting austerity in Southern Europe
Contesting austerity: social movements and the left
Cycles, arenas and claims: a players-based approach
Cycles of protest, political opportunity structures and eventful protests
Blurring the lines: a multi-player perspective
Repertoires, discourses and claim-making
Research design, methods and data collection
Preludes to the anti-austerity mobilisations: from Democratisation to the Great Recession
Contentious transitions
Contention under consolidating democracies
New millennium contentious transitions
Anti-austerity antecedents (2005-2010)
Diverging paths to the anti-austerity cycle of protest
Turning Points: Going Beyond the Core
Setting the scene for austerity
Networks and players: going beyond the core
Turning points in Portugal
Turning points in Spain
Going beyond the core: a summary
Between democracy, precarity and austerity: movement culture and frames
Networks of resistance
Opening the way forward
Enduring austerity: from representation to redistribution
5. 1. Enduring austerity
Players and claim-making between 2009-2015
Overlapping dynamics of contention in Spain
Mareas as a Hybrid: between social movements and trade unions
Housing, civil disobedience and relation with Institutions
Recentralisation, platforms and protest events: post-15M dynamics
Labour from below
From movement void to strategic alliance building in Portugal
Trade unions and movement void
Constitutional break and the QSLT - Alliance building and exclusions
Claim-making and repertoires in the QSLT
Demobilisation
A plural arena
From the streets to institutions: reconfiguration of the left after the anti-austerity mobilisations
Dynamics of demobilisation
Reshaping the left: between party elites and social movements
Breaking hegemony: Podemos and the party-constellation
Municipal projects: the case of Madrid
Podemos, IU and the recomposition of the left
The road to the general elections and the party-constellation
Resilience and the recomposition of the left in Portugal
Left Block from 2011 to 2015: crisis, internal dynamics and re-shaping of the Left in Portugal
From Congresso Democrático das Alternativas to a recomposition of the left
Political outcomes and post-2015 alliances
Conclusion
Bibliography
Appendix I - Chronology
Appendix II - Interviews
Appendix III - Protest Event Analysis Codebook