Abstract: In this article I intend to investigate the prefigurative politics of the “indignados” movement in Barcelona, born in May 2011 in Spain to protest against austerity policies, the “dictatorship of markets” and claiming for a “real” democracy. For many indignados the occupations in the squares were conducive to experimenting, acting and living an alternative utopian community, the main expression of the politics and vision of Indignados. After the first period of square occupations, the movement decentralized in the city’s neighborhoods and put its emphasis on the “construction of alternatives”, like self-management of social centres, cooperatives, urban gardens. I focus on five different types of experiences in Barcelona to answer the following questions: How does the indignado movement prefigure an alternative in its practices? How does the degrowth imaginary nourish and is articulated in the Indignados movement? In order to answer these questions, I draw from participant observation undertaken for two years since the start of the occupation, and from about 60 in-depth interviews conducted with movement’s participants.

There is no paper for this media entry. This was a contribution to a scientific session at the 4th International Degrowth Conference in Leipzig in 2014, which doesn't exist in written format or is not published under open access.