A social movement created in June 2012 in Lisbon against the troika and the measures of the Government, translated into a demonstration on 15 September 2012, supported by several deputies and militants of the Socialist Party, Portuguese Communist Party and Block of the Left, as well as by the General Confederation (CGTP), and also hosted in various regions of Portugal, as well as in Fortaleza (Brazil), Berlin, Barcelona, Brussels, Paris and London. On 15 February 2013, they were able to interrupt the participation of Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho in the biweekly parliamentary debate.
Published in Chapter:
Context, Frame, Opportunity, and Resource: Contemporary Portuguese Anti-Austerity Social Movements With a View to Social Media
Pedro Pereira Neto (University Institute of Lisbon, Portugal) and Mariana Serra Santos (University Institute of Lisbon, Portugal)
Copyright: © 2020
|Pages: 18
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-0377-5.ch018
Abstract
Social media have become an important tool in our interactions and networks. Studies around social movements focused on these platforms' potential for becoming a new public sphere given their nature and features. However, an address of their influence on social engagement can't overshadow they're used by social actors themselves as part of a greater social frame. In this light, a qualitative characterization of Facebook's role on Portuguese anti austerity social movements “Geracao a Rasca” and “Que se lixe a troika!” is presented through discourse analysis of the testimony of several of their founding members. While it may be unquestionable Facebook had an important role in these movements, it wasn't the only tool used or the most relevant: face-to-face and direct mobile phone interaction were essential tools for this end, along with traditional media whose gaze the movements capitalized on for reach. Thus, the question in this chapter is whether these technologies represent a new way for us to communicate, or constitute an additional forum for that end?