Martín Portos

Bio: Martín Portos is an academic researcher from Charles III University of Madrid. The author has contributed to research in topics: Politics & Social movement. The author has an hindex of 9, co-authored 23 publications receiving 191 citations. Previous affiliations of Martín Portos include European University Institute.

A bourgeois story? The class basis of Catalan independentism

Abstract: In Catalonia and beyond, the recent upheaval of secessionist mobilizations has challenged not only extant territorial frameworks and integration processes but also one’s understandings around natio...

Keeping dissent alive under the Great Recession: no-radicalisation and protest in Spain after the eventful 15M/indignados campaign

Abstract: Traditional theories of collective action would predict that, after a triggering event, the trajectory of a wave of protest is determined by the institutionalisation–radicalisation tandem. Based on the Spanish cycle of anti-austerity and against the political status quo protest in the shadow of the Great Recession, this article contends with this approach, as a clear trend towards radicalisation is never observed as the cycle unfolds. An alternative interpretative framework is developed to understand protest trajectories when collaborative inter-organisational strategies prevail. The eventful 15M campaign triggered in 2011 represents the most remarkable turning point in the Spanish socio-political mobilisation scene in recent years and had a transformative capacity over subsequent protest endeavours. Specifically, after the 15M campaign, the combination of downward scale shift and coalition building shaped the trajectory of mobilisation, and allowed for the peak of protest to persist until late 2013, when institutionalisation took over. Data from an original Protest Event Analysis dataset are used to illustrate the main arguments.

Populism between voting and non-electoral participation

Abstract: The article focuses on a neglected aspect of populist mobilisation, i.e. non-electoral participation (NEP), and elaborates on the extent to which populist party voters engage politically outside th...

Alliance building and eventful protests: comparing Spanish and Portuguese trajectories under the Great Recession

Abstract: Social movement research has shed light on the relationship between processes of alliance building and multiple factors related to political opportunities, framing, identities, networks and resourc...

Waving goodbye? The determinants of autonomism and secessionism in Western Europe

Abstract: Waving goodbye? The determinants of autonomism and secessionism in Western Europe. Regional Studies. This paper sheds light on the main aggregate-level determinants of electoral support for regionalist parties across 10 Western European countries. A region being relatively richer than the country to which it belongs is associated with higher electoral support for regionalist parties only to the extent that the region is culturally differentiated. This hypothesis is substantiated theoretically, tested empirically and found to hold in the form of a strong and significant interaction effect between cultural and economic variables. This result, omitted in previous studies, implies a profound change in the interpretation of the role of income and cultural differences in explaining support for regionalism, for both autonomist and separatist parties.

It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens

Abstract: aimed to attract a more diverse audience of gamers and non-gamers – and to bring video games off the screen and into the living room. While not all games are well suited for multiplayer play – ‘It’s hard to avoid getting in each other’s way and impeding rather than advancing game progress’ (p. 133) – most games are intended to be played while in the room with other people. ‘The Wii is just the latest attempt by Nintendo to bring a version of this kind of social gaming into the living room, closer to arcade parties and karaoke than to, say, bouts of online multiplayer military simulations’ (p. 142). Jones and Thiruvathukal’s book is as much a user’s manual for the potential of the Nintendo Wii as it is an academic and technical deconstruction of the console as a computing platform. Their joint approach to considering the topic works well, but it isn’t until the very end of the book that Jones’ cultural contextual approach really shines. In the final six pages of the sixth chapter (pp. 143–148), the authors consider the paratext of the Wii, as well as the diegetic and nondiegetic elements of video games – and the various layers of the platform and the games, interactions and activities it supports. ‘This social layer of a video game platform is an essential part of what the system means, because it’s the environment in which the platform gets used’ (p. 148). Much of the existing literature on Nintendo – such as Osamu Inoue’s (2010) Nintendo Magic: Winning the Videogame Wars and Jeff Ryan’s (2011) Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America – concentrates on the company’s success as a business. The more technical literature to date focuses on the use of the Wii Balance Board, another controller for the platform, in healthcare and therapeutic settings. This text sits comfortably in the middle, Wiimote and Nunchuk controllers in hand, making a valuable contribution to the study of the Nintendo Wii and how technology and culture work together.

Nationalist Mobilization and the Collapse of the Soviet State: STRUCTURING NATIONALISM

Abstract: 1. From the impossible to the inevitable 2. The tide and the mobilizational cycle 3. Structuring nationalism 4. 'Thickened' history and the mobilization of identity 5. Tides and the failure of nationalist mobilization 6. Violence and tides of nationalism 7. The transcendence of regimes of repression 8. Russian mobilization and the accumulating 'inevitability' of Soviet collapse 9. Conclusion: nationhood and event.

The Aftermath of Feminism: Gender, Culture and Social Change [Book Review]

Abstract: Review(s) of: The Aftermath of Feminism: Gender, Culture and Social Change, by McRobbie, Angela, Sage, London, 2009, ISBN 9 7807 6197 0620, vi + 184 pp., A$49.95, Distributor: Footprint Books.

Freedom Rising. Human Empowerment and the Quest for Emancipation

Abstract: Bibliography: Nestler, Christian: Freedom Rising. Human Empowerment and the Quest for Emancipation, PCS, 1-2-2015, pp. 202-204. https://doi.org/10.3224/pcs.v6i1-2.15