Social movements in post-political society: prefiguration, deliberation and consensus

This theoretical paper takes as its starting point the sociology of Alain Touraine, and applies it to study the mobilisations of the ‘indignados' that have become manifest in square occupations from Madrid to New York. However, where Touraine stressed the task of his sociology to be the study of social movements in an era of the ‘programmed' society, this paper engages recent literature and research that analyses contemporary society as ‘post-political'. Writers such as Rancière or Zizek make the case that today's society is defined by a foreclosure of public debate, which would allow for an alternative vision to the neo-liberal order to emerge. The central question of this investigation is then to what extent the new mobilisations challenge the character of the post-political society. The paper is divided into three parts: a) a review of Touraine's work on the ‘programmed' society and its application today, b) an analysis of the ‘post-political' character of society, c) the application of this theoretical framework to the new mobilisations