Paper short abstract:

This paper explores narratives of exclusion and criminalisation of left-wing ideologies, as they are articulated against, and appropriated by, radical political groups in Spain.

Paper long abstract:

Since the national awakening of political activism in 2012, radical resistant groups have become ubiquitous in urban spaces and discourses in Madrid. Whilst they remain highly visible in the urban landscape, radical activists occupy a liminal space, constructed as marginal and even criminal by local authorities and discourses. As such, actors must continuously renegotiate the threatening 'criminal' status in which they are seen to operate.

This study draws upon analyses of protest, urban space and online publications to further our understanding of how this group is constructed as threatening to centralised definitions of order. In parallel, victims of this 'ideological criminalisation' articulate their own status of exclusion, creating lasting resistant identities.

Drawing upon ongoing ethnographic research amongst new and established activist circles in the city of Madrid, this study examines how local discourses amalgamate and criminalise the politics of the radical left. Firstly, it presents a rhetorical and aesthetic analysis of how 'anarchists' as a group are portrayed as a liminal and threatening category, in opposition to order and governance. Ethnography conducted within the groups themselves, however, shows how this process of exclusion from 'legitimate' political circles is appropriated by actors and activists.

How actors appropriate their own exclusion as a political tool, creating recognisable and lasting resistant identities, is key to understanding the impact of political protest beyond electoral politics. This is of particular importance in a field which is being drastically transformed by the fluidity of image sharing, as aesthetic and identity often outweighs ideological content.