Post-15M Grassroots Interventions in and for Public Space: Resurgence in Everyday Forms of Control and Resistance

Abstract

This chapter focuses on small cultural collectives and interventions that have emerged in Spanish cities after the 15M with the objective of recovering the “public” in public space. Saltzman characterizes the diverse forms of grassroots activism (from those that have a fixed space to those that are nomadic) and shows how they organize themselves and operate in rhizomatic ways (Deleuze and Guatarri). Subsequently, she zooms in on one nomadic intervention in particular—#femPlaça [#LetsMakeThePlaza], which occurs monthly in a gentrified plaza in Barcelona. Without obtaining the required municipal permission, the participants (activists, random passersby, immigrants and children) practice everyday activities together (eating, drinking, sitting and playing) to raise awareness about the social cohesion, diversity and history that are lost with the neoliberalization of public space.