LEARNING ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP IN SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A LOOK BACK AT 15-M IN SPAIN

Abstract

Citizenship practice and learning is a key-question in societies assuming democratic ideals about participation and social justice. Citizenship is is a dynamic and relational concept, is a practice that points to the development of collective skills and actions based on creativity, dialogue and oriented to social transformation. We learn citizenship above all by practising it. From this approach, the article deals with the idea of social movements and specifically 15-M (also known as “the indignant’s movement” emerged in May 2011 in Spain) as a school of citizenship. To justify and exemplify this statement we have carried out a research based on in depth interviews to people involved in 15-M in a meaningful and active way. The article exposes the concept of citizenship and citizenship learning to analyze the interviews results: motivations, experiences, learnings, emotions, links and networks. Finally, we hope to share these results with other experiences of participation and social action in the latin-american context.