New Social Movements in Times of Conservatism and Austerity: Analysis of the political process of educational mobilisation in The Balearic Islands (2013-2015)

Resum

During the 2011-2015 legislature, the education sector in The Balearic Islands was shaken by
root-and-branch proposals for educational reform that combined draconian austerity policies and an
ambitious plan that questioned the existing linguistic model. Efforts to push through these reforms
led to the emergence of new collective actors and networks, and disputes that culminated in the
calling of an open-ended strike in the education sector. This paper analyses the path of and
reasons for the success of the social mobilisation against said reforms. At the theoretical level,
the research is guided by the political process approach, which considers the ideas and structural
factors driving collective action. Methodologically, the case study follows the process-tracing
approach and is based on 20 semi-structured interviews with key actors and on document analysis.
The findings show that frame-bridging, together with the combination of diverse collective action
repertoires, played key roles in
the social movement’s success.