Contentious Politics in Spain: Cycles, Transformations and New Repertoires of Contention

Editors: Gomer Betancor (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia); Marta Romero-Delgado (Universidad Complutense de Madrid); Alejandro Ciordia (Maastricht University & Scuola Normale Superiore)

Over the last two decades, Spain has become a particularly fertile laboratory for the study of contentious politics. From the alter-globalisation mobilisations of the early 2000s to the anti-austerity cycle, the 15M movement, feminist and climate mobilisations, housing struggles, and, more recently, protests against touristification and authoritarian backlash, Spain has experienced successive waves of collective action that have reshaped political conflict, organisational forms, and repertoires of contention.

This Special Issue aims to provide a theoretically informed and empirically grounded analysis of contentious politics in Spain, situating recent and ongoing mobilisations within broader debates in social movement studies, political sociology, and contentious politics. While individual contributions may focus on specific movements or episodes, the Special Issue as a whole seeks to capture longer-term dynamics, examining transformations and continuities across protest cycles, actors, and arenas of contention.

The Spanish case allows for an analysis of contentious politics in which multiple dynamics – successive protests cycles, partial institutionalisation, shifting repertoires, and emerging counter-mobisations – intersect over decades. Taken together, the Special Issue seeks e to explore how contentious politics unfold under conditions of polycrisis, including economic precarisation, democratic disaffection, territorial conflict, environmental degradation, and the rise of reactionary and authoritarian counter-movements. In this sense, the Special Issue aims not only to advance empirical knowledge on Spain, but also to contribute to comparative and theoretical discussions on protest cycles, movement innovation, and political conflict in contemporary democracies.

Contributions may address, but are not limited to, the following thematic lines:

●        Protest cycles, continuities, and ruptures in Spanish contentious politics

●        Diffusion, spillover effects, and cross-movement influences

●        Repertoires of contention

●        Youth, precarity, and biographical trajectories of activism

●        Feminist, climate, housing, and anti-touristification mobilisations

●        State responses, repression, policing, and legal constraints on protest

●        Counter-movements, backlash, and the mobilisation of the far right

●        Movement outcomes, political impacts, and institutional transformations

Both qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method contributions are welcome, as well as comparative perspectives that situate Spain within broader regional or international contexts.

Important dates

●        April 1, 2026: Submission of long abstracts (800 - 1,000 words)

●        April 20, 2026: Communication of selected abstracts

●        September 15, 2026: Submission of full papers to the Journal

●        December 15, 2026: Provision of peer review feedback

●        January 15, 2027: Submission of revised drafts

Long abstracts should include the following information:

1. A description of the topic
2. How the paper addresses one or more of the nodal points of the Special Issue
3. Empirical data and methodology
4. Findings

Instructions for Applicants

The total length of the article must not exceed 10,000 words (and not be less than 8,000 words). Please note that the word count includes references, notes, tables, figures, and diagrams. All papers will be sent to two external referees for final assessment.

To send your paper proposal, please submit a long paper abstract (800-1,000 words) to gbetancor@poli.uned.es, martaromerodelgado@ucm.es and alejandro.ciordiamorandeira@sns.it by April 1, 2026.