Will democratizing processes: The feminist expression in the 15-M

Our focus in this article is the 15-M movement in Spain. As opposed to other social movements, the 15-M has not only harshly denounced the economic crisis that hits the country since 2008 but it has also criticized the dominant democraticinstitutional model and has argued that this does not fight against the effects of the current economic system and, more importantly, does not represent citizenship either. This challenge to the democratic-institutional sphere has in turn reached the discourses and practices of the movement, where it has promoted horizontal networks of participation, the visibilization of a great amount of struggles for equality, and a flexible and inclusive general identity. We locate our analysis of the 15-M movement in this democratisation framework and we specifically pose the question of the degree in which the movement has absorbed the feminist struggle into the discourses, practices, dynamics, and roles established within itself since its irruption. In other words, our goal is to shed some light on the degree in which a movement such as the 15-M, which since its origins has sought to test democratic alternatives, has made progress in avoiding the reproduction of exclusion and domination practices, particularly gender ones, within itself.