The Limits to Capital in Spain ─ Crisis and Revolt in the European South

Since the 1970s, global capitalism has been marked by evermore intense cycles of boom and crisis. Today, Spain is at the epicentre of a crisis that threatens the future of the eurozone. Drawing upon Marxian value theory, Charnock, Purcell, and Ribera-Fumaz explain the deep historical and structural roots of the crisis in Spain, contextualised within global political and economic transformations in recent decades. They analyse the most recent cycle of boom and crisis in Spain, the nexus among European circuits of financial capital, urbanisation, and the emergent dynamics of state austerity and popular revolt – from the indignados movement to demands for an independent Catalonia.

Greig Charnock is Lecturer in International Politics at the University of Manchester, UK.

Ramon Ribera-Fumaz is Senior Lecturer at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain, and is a researcher at the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3).

Thomas Purcell is Visiting Scholar at IN3 at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain and a member of the Cohabitation Strategies co-operative.