Social Networks and Civic Mobilizations (Portugal, 2012)

In Portugal, in 2012, the movement “To hell with troika! We want our lives!” emerged from digital social networks and with demonstration on the street on September 15. This social movement has patented new forms of public mobilization and protest motivated by citizens' dissatisfaction with the austerity measures of the Portuguese government, but it is part of the line of protest that has been taking place at the international level. Social networks were used to trigger mobilization, but the protest did not dispense with the traditional forms of expression in the public space, such as gatherings in the squares, rallies, marches and posters. Using a corpus taken from the written press, the event was analyzed using a theoretical and conceptual framework of theories of public space, social movements, and social networks. In this article we intend to reflect on the current protest movements, social networks and collective action, at a time when activism is exercised in electronic connections and in the street. Through this movement we aim to question whether we are facing new configurations of mobilization, visibility, public action and the creation of a common space, and / or if we are facing a continuity of the traditional social movement with the incorporation of new "repertoires of action".