City and Struggle: The Square as a Social Speaker. Urban and Sociopolitical Parameters in the Occupation of the Ibero-American Public Space

Abstract

Public space has traditionally been a refuge for communities in periods of social upheaval. Being the engine and filter that balances social relations between citizens, it is occupied, discussed, claimed, and transgressed. The globalization of social networks has driven the displacement of social demands towards the virtual world. However, the square continues to be the physical symbol in which the collectivity finds and recognizes itself in most of the claims. This article aims to determine, through an extrapolable graphic methodology, which urban and socio-political parameters mark the capacity of space to receive demonstrations or revolts. These social choreographies represent, above all, an act of transformation and appropriation of the city. They reaffirm the figure of the agora as a timeless lexeme. Through three Ibero-American case studiesÍ€“in contexts of dictatorship, stability, and crisisÍ€“differential singularities and common rites inherent in human behavior have been observed.

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