John Benjamins Publishing Company

John Benjamins Publishing Company

This is a contribution from Journal of Language and Politics 13:4 © 2014. John Benjamins Publishing Company This electronic file may not be altered in any way. The author(s) of this article is/are permitted to use this PDF file to generate printed copies to be used by way of offprints, for their personal use only. Permission is granted by the publishers to post this file on a closed server which is accessible only to members (students and faculty) of the author’s/s’ institute. It is not permitted to post this PDF on the internet, or to share it on sites such as Mendeley, ResearchGate, Academia.edu. Please see our rights policy on https://benjamins.com/#authors/rightspolicy For any other use of this material prior written permission should be obtained from the publishers or through the Copyright Clearance Center (for USA: www.copyright.com). Please contact [email protected] or consult our website: www.benjamins.com

Spatial practices and narratives The GenkiDama for education by Chilean students Óscar García Agustín & Félix J. Aguirre Díaz Aalborg University / University of Valparaíso

The Chilean students’ rebellion emerged in 2011 within the wave of global protests. Even though it is an organized movement, with roots in a specific historical context, it shares with the global movement the use of new media technologies, the appropriation of public spaces, and the concern for democracy and equality. The movement deploys flexible forms of organization and mobilization such as flash mobs, in the case analyzed in this article, the GenkiDama for Education. The students create a narrative based on the famous Manga series Dragon Ball Z to reframe the conflict between students and government. As Manga fans, they open up participation to other less politically defined identities. The flash mob moment works as a communicative event in which the narrative is put into place and strengthens a sense of community in the streets of Santiago de Chile. To analyze the connections between the fictional narrative of Manga and the use of the public space, we draw on Michel de Certeau’s theory on spatial practices and the function of stories and place/space. Spatial practices during the flash mob challenge the social and spatial order in order to represent a symbolic victory of the students over the political system. Keywords: Flash mob; spatial practices; narrative; space; place; Manga; students’ movement; mobilization

1. Introduction On May 12, 2011, the so-called “Chilean student spring” began with a demonstration which convened approximately twenty thousand people in Santiago de Chile. Demonstrators have criticized the current Chilean educational model and its orientation towards privatization which has been strengthened and redesigned by the democratic governments from 1990 to date, by the implementation of a set of policies which have come to deepen the divide that today separates the u niversity from society. Thus, university students demand the right to a public, free education of

Journal of Language and Politics 13:4 (2014), –. doi 10.1075/jlp.13.4.07agu issn 1569–2159 / e-issn 1569–9862 © John Benjamins Publishing Company

Spatial practices and narratives 

high quality and guided by the principle of non-profit (Carnoy 1997; Drago & Paredes 2011). The students’ rebellion can be considered a classic social movement, composed by traditional student organizations and with repertories relying on rallies and demonstrations rather than occupation of central squares (Guzman-Concha 2012). However, it is also true that the movement, which emerged in 2011, resonates with the global protests of that same year and shares common aspects with the movement of the indignados (i.e. the outraged). The students’ demands expand towards ‘more democracy’ and against neoliberalism in general by claiming a more ambitious social transformation (Kempf 2011) and questioning the existing model of representative democracy (Ramacciotti 2011). The students likewise use assemblies to improve participation and collective decision making without renouncing the leadership of students’ representatives, and, above all, they have taken creativity to the public spaces (De la Fuente 2011). Furthermore, the use of new technologies becomes essential to mediate communication and organization and to foster more spontaneous ways of ‘doing together’. While the protests in most other countries emerged after the financial crisis, the mobilizations in Chile illustrate that the problem is not so much the crisis as the capitalist system in itself, as it has also been emphasized by the Spanish indignados movement (Roos 2011). The global-local dynamic is characteristic of many current social movements and uprisings. One example of this can be found in Goutsos and Polymeneas (this volume); the authors argue that global and local traits converge in the Greek indignados movement of 2011 through the claim to occupy urban spaces, on the one hand, and the localising and recontextualising of protests in relation to Greek politics and, in particular, the Syntagma Square, on the other. In this article, we analyze one of the multiple creative manifestations, called ‘GenkiDama for Education’ and inspired by the Manga imaginary of Dragon Ball Z. The objective is to show how the uses of two spaces, the narrative and the enunciative, create an alternative way of interpreting (and participating in) the struggles between the Chilean students and the government. This is done through the flash mob, in which the public space is appropriated, and references to Manga stories, created previously (and maintained afterwards) by the use of new social media. With this, the idea of a classical student movement is questioned through the use of new repertories (the flash mob) and the inclusion of fan identity (Manga fans) within a broader movement (the students’ rebellion). Indeed, students have been capable of combining aspects of classical and new social movements, and although rooted in a national historical and political context, references to a general framework constituted by the indignados movement are not lacking.

© 2014. John Benjamins Publishing Company All rights reserved

 Óscar García Agustín & Félix J. Aguirre Díaz

Theoretically, the notion of space is drawn from the work of Michel de Certeau. His reflections are useful to constitute a model of analysis that combines the space of narration and enunciation since both contribute to form a space as an alternative to place. The students, by emphasizing their fan identity, act as textual poachers and are capable of altering the meanings of the spatial order and being creative and transgressive in the way they use the place (including stories). Each space is constituted by three categories: the space of narration consists of founding moment, actor-actions, and legitimation, while the space of enunciation concerns appropriation, uses of space, and relation-position. In order to understand the dynamic generated by the flash mob we distinguish, as a starting point, between three moments that characterize the communicative event. The first moment is the call for the flash mob, announced through Facebook and linked to videos posted on YouTube. The second moment consists in the reproduction of the flash mob on the Internet, particularly so on websites mastered by the students and especially YouTube. The third moment focuses on the assessment of the performance and the comments and Internet discussions following from it. The data collection is based on the observation of the three moments (origin, reproduction, and assessment) and it is analyzed, according to our model, in relation to two categories: spaces of narration (the first and third moment) and enunciation (the second moment). The narrative moment is based on five YouTube videos, starred by the characters of Dragon Ball Z and posted before the flash mob, through which the students reappropriate the narrative of the series to create a framework for interpreting their social struggle. Likewise, the material we used to analyze the performance does not come from personal recordings but from the videos posted on YouTube, Facebook and other websites mastered by the students or sympathizers as well as the comments made by the participants in relation to the videos. Through these videos we get access to how the students represent the event and their use of the public space. This means that other relevant aspects (such as the organization, the internal dynamic within the performance, the emotive dimension, or a more detailed linguistic analysis) are left out. The corpus has been carefully analyzed in order to understand the creation of the fictional space and the use of the public space. In our analysis we illustrate this based on some relevant examples. The methodology is inspired by the sociology of narrative (Ewick & Silvey 1995) and their distinction between hegemonic tales and subversive stories. We consider the GenkiDama as a subversive story, which we analyze through the means of narrative textual markers conceptualized as founding moment, actors-actions, and legitimation. Likewise we consider the performance (or space of enunciation) to be narratives, since these are social practices and as such constitutive of social contexts (Ewick & Silvey 1995).


Spatial practices and narratives 

We operationalize performance through the categories of appropriation, uses of space, and relation-position. Once established these dimensions as markers in the empirical material, the analysis consequently rests on this identification. In other words, the conception of narrative as social action has been applied to the study of flash mobs by identifying relevant textual markers, which guide the empirical analysis, and, simultaneously, this analytical approach is extended to cover also performance as we argue that enunciation entails a sort of narrative. Our main argument is that the flash mob is important as a performance, entailing a temporary alteration of the public space, but its relevance is amplified by its diffusion in the social media, i.e. the virtual space, and its capacity to generate reactions and be commented upon. Our intention with the data collection is to prioritize the students’ point of view in our analysis, that is, how they represent the social conflict, which tools they use, and the implications of their struggle, as well as how and which topics they discuss and define as essential parts of their agenda.

2. Public spaces: Material and virtual Our theoretical framework relies on the conceptualization of the flash mob as a new way of doing politics, based on discontinuity and (momentaneous) creation of affect and emotions, on the one hand, and on the theory of spatial practices by Michael de Certeau that is reinterpreted in terms of its value in explaining the relation between flash mobs and material and virtual spaces, on the other. 2.1 Political flash mobs Howard Rheingold coins the concept of ‘smart mobs’ to explain a new way of collective action based on the use of new technologies. To Rheingold, smart mobs “consist of people who are able to act in concert even if they don’t know each other. The people who make up smart mobs cooperate in ways never before possible because they carry devices that possess both communication and computing capabilities” (2002, XII). Flash mob falls under this category since it is defined as a coordinated public performance as the result of gathering strangers via new technologies. Albeit flash mobs can be commercial or just-for-fun (Haastrup 2010), we focus only on the politically oriented ones. To understand flash mobbing in its complexity we must take into account the combination of mediated (virtual) and physical spaces that correspond with communication mediated by new technologies and face-to-face, respectively. Indeed, a confluence of mobile texting, targeted mobbing and public performing in the


 Óscar García Agustín & Félix J. Aguirre Díaz

temporary occupation of the public space occurs (Nicholson 2005). The role of the social networks, such as Twitter or Facebook, to coordinate the action and YouTube as a way of ensuring that it is made publicly available complete a phenomenon in which the Internet can be understood as a virtual prolongation of the material space (González 2008). This means that the relevance of flash mobs cannot be reduced to the performance in the concrete space and must include its virtualization through the Internet. Thus, both spaces are intertwined. Chun (this volume) shows how protest signs in the Occupy movement were resemiotized through the displacement or mobility of these from encampment sites to online platforms. Similarly, the continuance or even survival of the narrative of the GenkiDama flash mob was ensured through its online reproduction, i.e. its virtualization. Technology opens up the possibility of new ways of mobilization and collective action (Candón Mena 2009). The anonymous call, the wide identification with more diffuse and momentary targets, the appropriation of the public space, or the use of creativity are only some of the features which correspond to new forms of collective identity and political action. Flash mobs are productive to link people (Valadés 2011), both during the action and through the creation and strengthening of networks. It presents a way of doing which differs from the classic social movements, based on continuity and organization, while flash mobs entail discontinuity and mobilization (Lasén 2013). For this reason, we claim that the Chilean student movement acquires a hybrid form by combining the organization of a traditional movement with the mobilization of the new social movements, shared with other protests in 2011. Finally, there is an obvious aesthetic dimension of performance to the phenomenon, but in the case of political flash mobs this is neither the target nor the motivation. Flash mobbing “forces a cognitive shift, dislocating and intensifying experience” (Gore 2010, 130) since it is a disruption of the quotidian and gives new meaning and function to the public spaces (territorializing them anonymously). To carry out a more theoretical reflection concerning the uses of spaces by flash mobs, we draw on the reflections made by Michel de Certeau. 2.2 The space of enunciation and stories In his account of lived space and spatial practices, de Certeau refers to the act of walking as a space of enunciation, formed by a triple ‘enunciative’ function: (1) it is a process of appropriation of the topographical system by the pedestrian; (2) it is an acting-out of the place; and (3) it implies relations among differentiated positions. Basically, we follow this conception with some clarifications and modifications to adapt it to flash mobs and collective action. De Certeau’s theory is based on the


Spatial practices and narratives 

division between strategies and tactics, related to the distinction between place and space. Strategies create places, consisting in abstract models, which belong to the sphere of control, while tactics subvert those places and make resistance possible. Strategies constitute the spatial order, and spatial practices allow for the appearance of spaces where the questioning, critique, and subversion of the social (spatial) order can take place.1 According to de Certeau, the spatial order organizes an ensemble of possibilities. The walker actualizes some of these possibilities, but also invents others by transforming each spatial signifier into something else. In other words, it is possible to choose among the signifiers of the spatial ‘language’ or to displace them through how they are used and appropriated. This can be better understood by the distinction between place and space. Place is the order “in accord with which elements are distributed in relationships of coexistence […] The law of the ‘proper’ rules in the place, […] each [element] situated in its own ‘proper’ and distinct location, a location it defines” (1984, 117). Space does not pose stability or univocity and is composed of intersections of mobile elements. De Certeau summarizes this by saying that space is a practiced place, meaning the way place (street geometrically designed by urban planning) is transformed into a space (by the walkers). In this framework, the walker creates a relation with her location (here–there) and the appropriation of space by an ‘I’ (and another in relation to this ‘I’) that by her walking affirms, suspects, transgresses, respects, etc. and has the function of articulating places. In the case of flash mobs, place is transformed into space by appropriation of spatial language and subverting and challenging the functions given by the distribution of the spatial order as well as offering an unexpected meaning which redefines the relation between citizens and public spaces. Contrary to the stability of place (the official meaning attributed to public spaces), flash mob entails mobility and acting tactically to modify the conventional uses of space. Flash mobbers get the opportunity to occupy the public space by the generation of an ‘us’ which in antagonistic opposition to ‘them’ defines its temporary identity in relation to the location since they are altering place by practicing places. Just like the new technologies help to move flash mobs away from the physical space and embed them in the virtual spaces, narrated history creates a fictional space that moves away from the ‘real’ (the circumstances). It is relevant to bring up de Certeau’s idea of stories as spatial practices (concretely, spatial trajectories) since every story is a travel story that produces geographies of actions,

. De Certeau’s notion of ‘strategy’ can be linked to Lefebvre’s ‘representations of space’ and ‘tactics’ to ‘space of representation’ (Rendell 2007).


 Óscar García Agustín & Félix J. Aguirre Díaz

and selects, organizes, and links places together. When de Certeau refers to stories that organize place in a very broad sense and offers the key to understanding the performative force of stories, he claims that “[b]y considering the role of stories in delimitation, one can see that the primary function is to authorize the establishment, displacement or transcendence of limits” (1984, 123). Discursively, two movements are interrelated: setting the limits and transgressing them. Authorizing means more precisely founding: the creation of a field necessary for (political) action. This is the main role of story: to open “a legitimate theater for practical actions”. The functions of stories change according to the groups that attribute different authorizing references in order to understand their actions or, in other words, to have them make sense. However, we do not attribute the exclusive meaning, given by de Certeau, of organizing and conditioning space to spatial stories. We argue that stories can indeed be strategic, but they can also be tactical and question the social order (as stories of resistance) depending on the groups within which the stories circulate. The virtual dimension of flash mobs (both before as part of the organization and later as a way of diffusion) transforms the contextualized place into virtual place and opens up the possibility of creating, with de Certeau’s words, a theater of actions. It offers a way of interpreting the performance in location and makes it a narrative, which legitimates the action and strengthens the political dimension. Consequently, spatial practices become narrative and foster spaces (transgressing limits) which reinforce the imposition of a spatial order. The narrative moves beyond the everyday space, as it occurs with fictional narratives, but its foundational context is still the everyday (both the place and its transgression by space). The interconnection developed by de Certeau between walking and stories as spatial practices, which put into relation the dominant order (maintained by strategies and places) and the everyday resistance (promoted by tactics or stories and spaces), presents a framework to analyze flash mobs as tactical appropriations of public space which transcend their original space of enunciation by becoming virtual and open up the possibility of creating theater of actions which challenge the dominant order (and the way it is narrated). 3. The GenkiDama for education In search of creativity which would foster new repertoires of protest reflecting the diversity of the student movement and their cultural practices, flash mob became a popular way of demonstrating. References to popular culture are often used in the movements’ flash mobs. This was the case, for instance, with a flash mob using


Spatial practices and narratives 

Michael Jackson’s Thriller,2 with the students dressed as zombies, or Lady Gaga’s Judas. These are examples of the influence of mass pop culture on this form of mobilization, built around the cosplay on heroes and villains. The notion of ‘convergence culture’, developed by Henry Jenkins, is useful to explain the importance of fan culture and the potential of its politization. Jenkins (2006: 3) considers convergence as a cultural shift since “consumers are encouraged to seek out new information and make connections among dispersed media content.” Consumption has indeed become a collective process that generates ‘collective intelligence’ which can be thought of as an alternative source of media power. This opens up the possibility of deploying the skills acquired through this collective learning for more ‘serious’ purposes. We relate this potential, which is clear in our case when the fan culture becomes strongly politized and recontextualized in the struggle for a more fair educational system, with the former concept of Jenkins’ work: ‘textual poacher’. Based on De Certeau’s conceptualization of reading as poaching, Jenkins (1992) claims that the consumers are not only active interpreters but also producers. By poaching texts fans participate in the process of media creation and develop alternative identities as well as ways of resistance against dominant culture. The so-called ‘GenkiDama for Education’ shows the influence of Manga culture in the young protesters, since it is based on the popular characters of the comic books and animation Dragon Ball Z. Manga is a term for Japanese comic books which have a huge variety of subgenres, although they are sometimes associated with violence and eroticism. It poses an easily identifiable style, both in the design of the pages and in the features of the characters. Manga is associated with anime (Japanese animation)3 which reinforced Manga popularity by making it available on TV and DVDs. It is very influential among the Japanese youth but has also spread to the US, Europe, and Latin America. Its impact is clear in the emergence of a subculture called otaku (a more obsessed version of the American geek), separated from the Japanese mainstream culture and characterized “by being politically silent, isolated and self-sustaining” (Vincent 2007). However, as Jenkins points out, fans are not passive and manga fans are no exception. They are an active public that meets in physical and virtual communities, debates in

. Obviously, it is not the first flash mob using Michael Jackson’s music. What makes the ‘Thriller for the education’ different is the intention of the performance according to the organizers, not aimed to salute the artist but to support the students’ claims. . We use the term ‘Manga’ more generically to refer to both Manga (comic books) and anime, although they can be differentiated in function of the media they use. In the case of Dragon Ball Z, the comic book and the animation are very popular.


 Óscar García Agustín & Félix J. Aguirre Díaz

forums, creates blogs, participates in the mass media, does academic research, and produces their own creations (Cobos 2010). To understand the phenomenon of otaku and their dedication to Manga and anime, it is necessary to consider the aspect of fan identity. Chen (2011) emphasizes that “[M]anga opens up a space for making decisions about, thinking about, and playing with, personal and cultural identity. […] Manga provides new forms of identity constructions through the fulfillment of desires awakened by reading, writing, creating and cosplaying”. Manga connects its readers’ emotions with its visual world. Despite of its exoticism, Manga reflects the everyday lives and concerns of ordinary people, and this makes identification easier. The fictional world is appropriated by fans who integrate it in everyday life and create new meanings (Jenkins 1992). Dragon Ball Z, in particular, is one of the most famous Manga series. The main character of the series is Goku, whose vital itinerary from childhood is marked by the search of Dragon Balls, seven mystical orbs, which can summon a wishgranting dragon. On his way Goku meets different characters, friends and villains, who share the same goal. The story is filled with combats between the characters that use the so-called GenkiDama (meaning ‘innate spirit ball’) in their attacks. It is a combat technique, consisting of an energy sphere used by the warriors. The power of the sphere (and, consequently, the strength of the attack) depends on the number of organisms supporting its use.

Figure 1. Demonstrator raises his hands, wearing a mask on his back of one of the Dragon Ball Z characters


Spatial practices and narratives 

On July 19, 3,000 students (La Cuarta 19/07/2011) participated in the flash mob ‘GenkiDama for Education’ in Santiago de Chile. In GenkiDama for Education, which is inspired by the characters of Dragon Ball Z, the identification of fans with Manga characters is transcended, adding a political dimension that allows a reframing of the conflict between students and the government. It opens up towards the inclusion of an identity, which is apparently politically apathetic. The students appropriate the GenkiDama as a symbolic form of attack, based on the power of collective energy to defeat the enemy, and as a metaphor to reframe their conflict with the government. In the following we show how the otaku identity (as fans) is combined with the student identity (as protesters) by the spatial practices of the GenkiDama for Education, both in the virtual and in the material space. Applying a model of analysis on the basis of de Certeau’s theory of spatial practices, we argue that the flash mob GenkiDama contributes to constituting intertwined spaces whereby the fictional story and the symbolic use of space are aimed to legitimate and reinforce the goals of the Chilean students. As illustrated in the Table 1, the model of analysis combines the three elements of the space of narration, i.e. founding moment, actors-actions, and legitimation, with the space of enunciation, i.e. appropriation, uses of space, and relation-position. Table 1. Combination of spaces of narration and enunciation GenkiDama for Education Space of narration Foundingmoment Actorsactions Need to fight strange forces

Space of enunciation Legitimation

Appropriation Uses of space Relation and position

Heroes vs. Free education Energy sphere Challenging Villains Defeat of historical Genki Dama profit places of powers

Government, mass media

Thus, subsection 2.1. below analyzes the narrative of the flash mob as a foundational space in which the elements of founding moment, actors-actions, and legitimation converge to create a fictional space where the conflict between students (us-heroes) and government (them-villains) is interpreted anew, with reference to the aim of free education. Ultimately, as we shall see, this leads to an alteration of the spatial order of place. The subsequent Section 2.2. focuses on the second half of the table presented above, i.e. the uses of public space as performance. The flash mob avails itself of the imaginary of the Manga series, Dragon Ball Z, and recontextualizes it in the spatial practice. The itinerary followed by


 Óscar García Agustín & Félix J. Aguirre Díaz

the flash mob holds numerous references to the recent history of Chile and, as such, the use of the space and representations challenges historical places of power and redefines the relation and position of the actors, opposing the students to the authorities, on the one hand, and the media, on the other. In sum, the performance of the flash mob (as a communicative event) implies a transition from the narrative dimension to the enunciative dimension. The narrative of the fictional space acquires meaning through the reappropriation of the real space, and it contributes to reframing the conflict between students and government. 3.1 Narrative as foundational space The preparation of the flash mob was made through the creation of a series of animated videos, posted on YouTube and starring characters of Dragon Ball Z whose voices correspond with the real dubbing actors: GenaroVásques (SupremoKaiosama/Androide 17), Gerardo Reyero (Freezer), and Mario Castañeda (Goku). Furthermore, the main theme was recreated by the original singer. Despite being a fictional show, the participation of the dubbing actors contributes to creating a sense of reality, and according to the comments which accompany the YouTube videos, this is appreciated by the fans and participants in the flash mob. It is an example of how, according to Jenkins (1988), fans appropriate and reread textual meanings in order to accommodate alternate interests, in this case political interests. The three videos in which the main characters of Dragon Ball Z announce the flash mob reproduce the style and the discourse of the anime, including its latin americanization by the use of the original dubbing actors. The use of the fictional space to narrate the struggle between students and the government moves away from the real space but, above all, reframes it through a narrative with heroes and villains. It creates a space that authorizes a new interpretation of the conflict, including how it is symbolized in the public space by protesters and authorities. It is a founding moment that combines two levels: the fictional (Manga) and the real (students’ claims). It resembles the use of myth to question the official story about how the educational system is becoming more efficient by being adapted to market necessities. The claim of free quality education is contrasted with governmental policies and the application of neoliberal policies to increase economic profit by reproducing inequalities in society. This unexpected theater of actions, through the appropriation of Manga style and stories, is difficult to contest by the government whose discourse does not respond to this space of heroes and villains. Videos of the heroes, Kaiosama and Goku, are deployed to call the students to join the flash mob and fight for students’ rights:


Spatial practices and narratives 

“Listen to me everybody, Goku is talking to you. A strange force is endangering educational life for the Chilean inhabitants. I want to ask you for a bit of your energy in order for all young people of this country to manage to have a free, quality education. All you need to do is raise your hands. Come on, raise your hands! A little bit more and we will be able to defeat profit in Chilean education”. (YouTube 10/07/2011)

The style of Dragon Ball Z is adapted to the students’ struggles, and they become the receiver of the message. Goku talks directly to them, and they are actors included into the story. They share the same mission (‘defeat profit’), and the actions are identified as a problem (a vague ‘strange force’ following the language of the animation) and a solution (common energy by raising their hands). It must be observed that the real problem (education) is solved by a fictional solution (raising your hands). This indicates that there is no strong argumentative discourse but an effective visual and emotive one, plenty of appellations to ‘you’, and the use of imperatives to make the fans and the political identity (i.e. as students) coincide. As van Zoonen (2004) points out, fan communities and political constituencies share the development and maintenance of affective bonds based on identification. The legitimation derives from the animation and the identification between us-heroes against them-villains rather than from the concrete struggle of students. This is an actualization of the mythical founding space constituted by the story. The narrative polarization is completed by a video starred by Freezer, the big villain of the Dragon Ball Z series. The dialogic form, including the receiver in the story, is maintained, but the aim of the speech act in this case is not to get help but to offend the listeners. The style is still characteristic of Manga but again localized in the students’ reality through references to the educational situation in Chile. “The great Freezer is talking to you. I found out that you asked that Saiyan called Goku for help. Chilean insects! Do you think that that ape will manage to defeat the profit of education? Hahaha. Give up, that Saiyan monkey will not help you at all. He’s trash! Oh, Goku, how I hate that thing!…”. (YouTube 13/07/2011)

The video is a continuation of the Goku video, and it offers the point of view of the enemy. The language applied to Goku is insulting. He is called ape and monkey (because the character has a tail) and trash. The same discredit is applied to the students, named “Chilean insects”. The reference to a Saiyan (a warrior who is capable of turning into a stronger figure, usually after a phase of anger) creates an identification between Goku and the fans-students, whereas Freezer, although it is not said explicitly, is identified with the government that looks down on the students and tries to delegitimize their demands. The mission of Goku corresponds with that of the students, i.e. the defeat of ‘education for profit’. Consequently, one of the main claims of the movement is introduced as part of the story line and the


 Óscar García Agustín & Félix J. Aguirre Díaz

founding story, and the everyday life of the students is connected with the imaginary space of the fans. In the fictional space, the demands of the students are reframed in Manga terms, and identification between the fan (who as textual poacher creates new meanings by appropriating the Manga texts) and the heroes is enabled. On the other hand, the narrative overcomes the (temporary) moments of connection undertaken later during the performance. The framework created does not necessarily include all the students, but specifically the Manga fans. Indeed, the constant intertextual references are best understood by those who are active in Manga culture or, at least, very familiar with it.4 Interdiscursivity is also clear in the use of anime as genre. Every Manga season is distinguished from the others by the use of an opening and ending song accompanied by a video. Its length is 1.30 minutes and is known as TV size format (Cobos 2010). This subgenre is appropriated by the students who use the music of the opening theme of Dragon Ball Z as well as its original singer, Ricardo Silva, but change the lyrics, turning them into a song about the fight of the students. Although the structure of the genre is preserved (heroes fighting against the Evil, with simple and reiterative lyrics), the intertextual references aim to explain the objective of the coming flash mob. In other words, the song works also as an opening in which the performance makes sense as a spatialized story: “Profit is glowing all around me (all around me)/Studying means I am making debt and I cannot live like that/Educational equality is something you don’t have (you don’t have)/Truth is, debt is a part of you/Today an entire country is demanding education/for free and of quality/With better access and participation/ G.A.N.E. does not mean winning!/This was never a national agreement/It is just your imposition/G.A.N.E. does not mean winning!/Vibrantly my people ask for education/with this GenkiDama”.

The title of the song ironizes about the plan of the government, called G.A.N.E. (abbreviation for Great National Agreement for Education), creating the chorus ‘G.A.N.E. does not mean winning’ (i.e. ‘ganar’ in Spanish). All the basic demands of the students are summarized in the lyrics and are well-known to the participants, both in terms of the origin of the protest (education for profit, the students’ debt), the claims (education for free, better access and participation), and the distribution of roles (the students and the people as a unity against the government).

. A similar phenomenon can be observed in Occupy Mordor, as part of the protests of the indignados movement in Barcelona in front of the bank Caixa. In this case, the struggle of the indignados against the greed of the bankers is narrated following the characters and story line of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.


Spatial practices and narratives 

The idea of agreement is rejected and replaced by that of imposition. When the song concludes, ‘No matter what happens, I’ll continue fighting today’, the meaning of the fictional story converges with that of the students’ attitude to go on protesting. The simple lyrics, the political message, and the references to Dragon Ball Z make the song ideal for the students to use during the demonstration. If the comments to the videos are taken into account, it becomes evident that, despite support to the struggle for free education, what abound are comments about the dubbing actors and the anime. 1. Fucking shit! Only listening to the voice of Mario Castañeda, it makes my skin crawl (YouTube July 11) 2. Screw me. I thought that it was the original voice! - It is the original voice! (YouTube July 14) 3. He also dubs 17, right? - It is the same actor, Genaro Vasquez, who performed 17 and shin in the supremoKaiosama in Dragon Ball and in Sailor Moon he did the first voice of Darien = Tuxedo Mask (YouTube July 14) These examples show that some of the reactions have nothing to do with the issue of education and are not political at all. The first one emphasizes the emotional effect of the use of the dubbing actors and the association with their memories of the series or their feelings as fans towards it. The second one shows the surprise caused by the use of the original voices. The use of topics related to the students’ struggles makes the viewers doubt about the origin of the voice. The third example illustrates a typical discussion of the otaku community whereby the users share information on Manga and discuss related topics. The fictional space proves attractive to the fans and becomes reason for further discussion without references to the ‘real’ conflict between the students and the government. The sense of belonging to the fandom community through participation is strengthened. However, the creation of this space by the students links the exotic imaginary of Dragon Ball Z with the concrete struggle and allows political participation grounded on the feelings and emotions associated to their belonging to the otaku culture. The flash mob is guided by the foundation of this fictional space and offers the possibility of altering the spatial order of place and experiencing the joy of being together during the performance. 3.2 The uses of public space as performance The performative moment is important in several ways: It translates the space of narration to the space of enunciation; it moves from the virtual to the material space; the reframing of the student struggle is continued but acquires new


 Óscar García Agustín & Félix J. Aguirre Díaz

eanings in relation to the place; and finally it gives the opportunity of ‘being m together’ in direct communication while the flash mob is taking place. The use of the GenkiDama poses an intertextual value, and it is capable of offering the participants a strong sense of identification. GenkiDama consists in a warrior with a pure heart holding up his hands for a long time to make energy emanate from them and concentrate it in a circular sphere. This is possible with the help of other people or essences of the universe. Therefore the warrior becomes stronger. The realization of a physical sphere in the performance symbolizes the unity of honest people, giving their energy to defeat the Evil. In other words, the sphere, which circulates through the hands of the participants, represents a moment of unity for a common purpose. In the performance of the flash mob, the sphere of energy was represented by a giant ball designed by the students of the School of Architecture of the University of Chile. Built with tubes of vinyl and plastic bags, the ball toured some of the most emblematic streets of the historic centre of Santiago through the hands of the demonstrating students. We focus particularly on the application of de Certeau’s space of enunciation. Firstly, we refer to appropriation of the semiotic elements that are applied to set the flash mob; secondly, the relation between place and space is approached following the trajectory; and finally, the position of the inner group is identified in relation to the outer group, i.e. the adversary to defeat. At the first stage, appropriation is produced at the level of the fictional space, i.e. the appropriation of the imaginary of Dragon Ball Z, previously reframed as foundational space for the students’ struggle. Flash mob is not properly an everyday practice. Therefore it is important to analyze the appropriation of Manga style and stories and its recontextualization in the spatial practice. The GenkiDama (‘energy sphere’) is an action which is appropriated in relation to the students’ goal: for Education. In Dragon Ball Z, GenkiDama is the strongest attack produced by, and depending on, the number of people who participate in it. The sign (‘energy sphere’) is recontextualized in the flash mob by the use of a gigantic ball. The ball becomes the spatial Leitmotif of the itinerary of the flash mob. The students take the ball in their hands the whole way, so the uses of space are actually indicated by the ball that is carried and symbolizes the energy of the collective power. By moving it forward in its itinerary, the ball gives the sense of story as the students approach their target (the end of the demonstration). The energy sphere acquires a double function. First, it is evoked by the capacity of the demonstrators to generate power if they stand together. This form of empowerment is reinforced by the identification of the fans with the actions of the series and the political value of unity given to the participants. They act in the public space as Manga heroes in the narrative space, and their objective is to fight together against the enemy. The second function of the sphere is to stress the lack of leadership. It is ironic that the


Spatial practices and narratives 

energy of the collectivity is channeled by the fictional character Goku. He is the one responsible for combating in the name of the students and, in the last instance, for solving their problems. This is so if the conventions of the Manga genre are followed, but in practical terms there is no strong figure gathering the mobilization. It is true that there are recognizable leaders in the movement, but in the case of the GenkiDama the more spontaneous character of the mobilization and the identification with the Manga universe prevail. It is a different way of symbolizing, in the public space, the claims of the students through the appropriation of fiction.

Figure 2. Students appropriate the GenkiDama (energy sphere) in order to symbolically channel the power of collectivity

In addition to the static meaning given to the places through urban planning, the historical and collective meaning must be taken into consideration. The uses of places by flash mobs give new meanings, applying the Dragon Ball Z reframing, but also uncover and transgress place and historical meanings. This is similar to the ‘interplay between linguistic practices and spatial practices’ as described by Martín Rojo in this volume. Martín Rojo argues that urban spaces and protests messages interacts in the production of meaning, using the example of Madrid and the historical significance of its emblematic buildings and spaces, similar to that of Santiago, including the dictatorial past. Thus, besides the appropriation of space by the Dragon Ball Z imaginary, the students use the itinerary to struggle for disputed territories (Jelin & Langland 2003). To the students, the memory of the dictatorship is staged not only through chants and other symbols, reminding them of the protests of the 80s; it also emerges from the appropriation of historical places, the current powers of the State, and the institutional break with the


 Óscar García Agustín & Félix J. Aguirre Díaz

ictatorial regime. Therefore we must look at the symbolic meaning of the spaces d the students march through. The meeting point, the Plaza de Armas, not only houses the current building of the Council of Santiago. The city was founded here during the colonial period, and the first Republican Government was established in one of the buildings adjacent to the current headquarters of the local power. The individuals who attended the demonstration as a consequence of the call made through social networks experience both unity as a part of a group struggling for their rights and the emotional dimension of the protest. The ball of energy continued its journey through Cathedral St., turned left to Bandera St., just on the corner of where the first National Congress took place and just one block away from the headquarters of the Judicial power. The participants see themselves as an emotional part of this political unity when they walk through the streets with the objective of moving the sphere around, passing through all hands and trying to arrive together at their destination at Plaza de la Moneda, in front of the main building of the Government. The transgressive signs deployed reveal to the participants and to the observers how the power historically has occupied the public spaces. When the ball of energy of the GenkiDama finally arrives at its final destination, the Palacio de la Moneda, the unity of the protesters against the power is articulated by two signs: the energy ball rests in the middle of a huge Chilean flag, combining unexpectedly two symbols which represent the nation united and the power of unity in the Manga universe. It is an ironic and irreverent combination of the institutional and popular symbol of the national community, the flag, and the symbol of the otaku community, the ball. The first one is recognizable to all Chileans, but the latter is only easily identified by the fans of the series. At the end of the itinerary, a transgressive movement is undertaken when the ball is planted defiantly outside the headquarters of the Executive power.5 The place of power is symbolically occupied by a sign of unity coming from a Manga TV show. Even the police officers are attacked at certain moments with the ball; this is unexpected, since the ball in itself cannot be considered a risk and it is difficult for the officers to react against such a ‘threat’. Students perceive that their claims are placed in the center of political power and that they can defeat the government symbolically with their collective power. To deepen this empowerment it is necessary to consider the role of flash mob placing the students in the public spaces and transforming discourse in an embodied act with specific linguistic consequences. Identities are performativized by the acts of the body. The spatial practices of the fans-students redefine their position

. See: http://www.theclinic.cl/2011/07/19/la-genkidama-de-la-educacion/.


Spatial practices and narratives 

(what is ‘here’ and what is ‘there’) and the relation between actors (as ‘us’ against ‘others’), which is also reflected in the struggle for the space. In the demonstration of Plaza de Armas, there was clear coincidence between protesters and Manga heroes to underline the reframing of the conflict and the roles assumed by the students, as well as how they appropriated the place by the confluence of the fictional narrative (the foundational space) and the students’ claims. In the square, the Manga characters spoke out through loudspeakers. The protesters celebrated every intervention, chorused the names of the characters, clapped and raised their hands or booed in the case of the villain. The Dragon Ball characters are treated in the same way that real leaders of the movements usually are when they speak out to the audience. When the voices of the videos were played out loud in the demonstration, the sentences suddenly acquired a performative effect upon the students in being part of the ‘here’ of the space occupied. One of the characters, PiccoroDaimaku, stated: “The time has come for all of us to raise our hands to make the biggest GenkiDama ever seen. That’s it, Chileans, united in one ball of energy, able to destruct the profit which does not permit free and quality education. Raise your hands!” (YouTube16/07/2011)

Looking at the name given to the agent (‘Chileans’ are not just ‘students’) and the target of their action (free and quality education through raising their hands), the interest of the students in framing their claims not as the interests of a group but of the whole society is obvious. The words of the fictional character act as guidelines for the actions of the students. Thus, the students expand the meaning of ‘us’ to a more inclusive one. In their use of space the students are opposed to two other groups: the authorities and the media. The former are challenged through the use of the public space, the latter through the ways of using representations in the public space. The function of the police to protect the Palacio de la Moneda and to monitor the development of the demonstration is the most visible way of obtaining a representation of the conflict between the authorities, defending their interpretation of the spatial order (i.e. what it is legitimate to transgress and what not), and the protesters. Obviously, this is common to almost all demonstrations. The difference in this case is that the reframing of the conflict, founded on the mythical space of Dragon Ball, is applied to the police, identified with the enemy to be defeated. The same happens with the government, particularly with the Minister of Education and the President, presented as the villains who can be extinguished by a fictional action (GenkiDama) based on very real force (the unity of students being together). Through the flash mob the students achieve the right to own their own space and be victorious within that frame.


 Óscar García Agustín & Félix J. Aguirre Díaz

Furthermore, the use of space by students, some of them dressed as Dragon Ball Z characters and guided by a giant ball, challenges the contingency of representation of the students by media, where they appear as violent and, consequently, their demands are delegitimized. The legitimation given by the founding story counteracts media representation through irony, and the flash mob proves powerful against these negative representations by means of a hybrid genre combining reality and fiction. Furthermore, a hybrid political identity emerges from the combination of being a fan and being a student, including both activism and joy. It belongs to subjective positions as students contesting governmental policies and enjoying the cultural references of their generation, respectively. 4. Conclusions Compared to other social movements that emerged in 2011, the student movement has longer roots and a well-defined target by focusing on the issue of education, although, as mentioned, democracy or collective memory likewise become defining objects of interest. Nonetheless, the Chilean students share several aspects with the new social movements such as Occupy and the Arab Spring movements. Although taking squares is not part of their repertory, the students appreciate the combination of new technologies and social media with the affective value of being together through assemblies and performances in the public space. As a way of demonstrating, flash mobs are characteristic of new forms of mobilization with their decentralized, spontaneous, and discontinuous features which differentiate them from traditional social movements. By using flash mobs, among other methods, the students open up towards new kinds of political action, and also of political identities. In the case of the GenkiDama for Education, by deploying references to a generational framework, the students create a subjectivity that is not political in itself (the fan, the otaku community) but becomes political by the appropriation of Manga. The youth invents a new creative way of talking about politics not restricted to the more militant students. As fans, they create a meta-text (Jenkins 1992) through participation and production of alternative social and political meanings. In Lakoff ’s (2006) terms, the students avoid using the dominant frame (and its evocations) and instead reframe the issue by the creation of a whole new narrative which assigns new roles and functions to the social actors. The students who cannot recognize themselves in the discourse of the government can see themselves in the generational references in which GenkiDama for Education is constituted to claim student rights. To grasp this phenomenon and the importance acquired by the uses of space, we apply the theory of de Certeau on everyday practices. Two aspects are


Spatial practices and narratives 

fundamental to the understanding of flash mob as spatial practice: the idea of space as practiced place and the connection established between space and stories. Drawing on his ideas of story as theater of action and space of enunciation, we present a model of analysis that reflects the uses of narrative as foundational space (i.e. space of narration) and the uses of the public space as performance (i.e. space of enunciation). As depicted in the model, we find the space of narration to be constituted by a founding moment articulated around the need to fight strange forces in a narrative based on heroes and villains and the use of the symbolic sphere of energy (‘GenkiDama’) and legitimized by the aim of free education and the defeat of profit. The space of enunciation combines the use of the energy sphere (appropriation from the Manga series) with the ways in which historical places of power are challenged by the particular use which the flash mob makes of the space and the opposition to the government as well as mass media (i.e. relation-position in the model based on de Certeau’s notions). Although the model refers to the existence of virtual and real space, the focus is rather on the appropriation of space (in its narrative and properly spatial form) to create new meanings that challenge and alter the social (and spatial) order. Rheingold (quoted in Lantigua 2012) warns us about the caducity of ways of protests. He thinks that every cycle lasts ten years and, thus, flash mobs are doomed to expire as well. This does not mean, however, that they do not exist anymore, but that they could lose their political efficiency. In effect, flash mobs are still relevant and become part of political, spontaneous actions even though they are also constituent of organized social movements. In this second case, the Chilean students illustrate the complementarity of mobilization and movement. The hegemonic neoliberal model, especially in the field of education, is highly contested by the students. Subcultures of fans, openly globalized (as the otaku), can express dissent or question hegemonic representations ironically (Broca 2013). GenkiDama for Education uses the transgressive potential of subculture to challenge the discourse of the government from an unusual perspective. The identification of the participants in the flash mobs as students and fans is an example of cultural convergence that creates a new hybrid way of political activism. The use of spaces takes on a political function in questioning the spaces of power and in presenting the students’ demands, but it is also an opportunity to share common references and the joy of sharing common action.

Acknowledgments We would like to thank the magazine CuatroLetras (www.cuatroletras.cl) for the authorization to reproduce the pictures included in this article. We greatly


 Óscar García Agustín & Félix J. Aguirre Díaz

a ppreciate the initiative and effort made throughout the whole process by Luisa Martín Rojo, editor of the special issue. We wish to thank the reviewers for their constructive and inspiring comments. Finally, Lise Rolandsen must be acknowledged for providing very useful comments and advice towards the realization of this article.

References Broca, Mario. 2013. “Los fans como fuerza política”. El Asombrario & Co., April 13. Candón Mena, José. 2009. “Smart mobs y mensajes en cadena. Aproximación teórica a las convocatorias ‘espontáneas’ de movilización social mediante redes temáticas”. Redes.Com 5: 255–281. Carnoy, Martin. 1997. “Is Privatization Through Education Vouchers Really the Answer? A Comment on West”. World Bank Research Observer 12 (1): 105–116. DOI: 10.1093/wbro/12.1.105 Chen, Hsiao-Ping. 2011. From Artmaking to Identity Making: The Significance of Manga in the Identity Construction of Young American Adults—a Lacanian Approach. Saarbrücken: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing. Cobos, Tania Lucía. 2010. “Animación Japonesa y Globalización: La Latinización y la Subcultura Otaku en América Latina”. Razón y Palabra 77. Available at: http://www.razonypalabra.org. mx/N/N72/Varia_72/32_Cobos_72.pdf De Certeau, Michel. 1984. The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. De La Fuente, Víctor Hugo. 2011. “En Chile renacen los sueños de Allende”. Le Monde Diplomatique (edición chilena). Available at: http://www.lemondediplomatique.cl/Articulo-deVictor-Hugo-de-la.html Drago, José Luis, and Ricardo Paredes. 2011. “La brecha de calidad en la educación chilena”. Revista CEPAL 104: 167–180. Ewick, Patricia, and Susan S. Silbey. 1995. “Subversive Stories and Hegemonic Tales: Toward a Sociology of Narrative”. Law & Society Review 29 (2): 197–226. DOI: 10.2307/3054010 González, Xavier. 2008. “Urbanidad y sociabilidad: escenarios y transformaciones”. A+T: revista trimestral de Arquitectura y Tecnología 27: 4–9. Gore, Georgiana. 2010. “Flash Mob Dance and Territorialisation of Urban Movement”. Anthropological Notebooks 16 (3): 125–131. Guzman-Concha, César. 2012. “The Students’ Rebellion in Chile: Occupy Protest or Classic Social Movement?” Social Movement Studies: Journal of Social, Cultural and Political Protest 11 (3–4): 408–415. DOI: 10.1080/14742837.2012.710748 Haastrup, Helle Kannik. 2010. “Flash mobs – fra anti-autoritær performance til FOXreklame”. Videnskab.dk, September 22. Available at: http://videnskab.dk/blog/flash-mobs -fra-anti-autoritaer-performance-til-fox-reklame Jelin, Elizabeth, and Victoria Langland (comp). 2003. Monumentos, memoriales y marcas territoriales. Madrid: Siglo XXI. Jenkins, Henry. 1988. “Star Trek rerun, reread, rewritten: Fan writing as textual poaching”. Critical Studies in Mass Communication 5 (2): 85–107. DOI: 10.1080/15295038809366691


Spatial practices and narratives 

Jenkins, Henry. 1992. Textual Poachers: Television Fans & Participatory Culture. Studies in culture and communication. New York, NY: Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9780203361917 Jenkins, Henry. 2006. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York, NY: New York University Press. DOI: 10.1177/0894439307306088 Kempf, Hervé. 2011. “En Chile, la primavera de los estudiantes”. Le Monde Diplomatique (edición chilena). Available at: http://www.lemondediplomatique.cl/En-Chile-la-primavera-de-los .html Lakoff, George. 2006. Thinking Points: Communicating Our American Values and Vision. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Lantigua, Isabel F. 2012. “La década de las ‘flash mobs’”. El Mundo, March 4. Lasén, Amparo. 2013. “Las nuevas formas de acción colectiva desafían la lógica de la representación”. In Fuera de lugar. Conversaciones entre crisis y transformación, ed. by Amador Fernández-Savater, 255–271. Acuarela: Madrid. Nicholson, Judith A. 2005. “Flash Mobs in the Age of Mobile Connectivity”. Fibre Culture Journal 6. Available at: http://six.fibreculturejournal.org/fcj-030-flash-mobs-in-the-age -of-mobile-connectivity/ Ramacciotti, Beatriz. 2011. “Chile y sus indignados estudiantes. ¿Colapsa el modelo democrático?” Panorama Mundial 16. Available at: http://www.idei.pucp.edu.pe/docs/pm_ 3_16_ramacciotti.pdf Rendell, Jane. 2007. “Critical Spatial Practice: Curating, Editing, Writing”. In Issues in Curating Contemporary Art and Performance, ed. by Judith Rugg, and Michele Sedgwick, 59–75. Bristol: Intellect Books. DOI: 10.1162/leon.2009.42.2.167 Rheingold, Howard. 2002. Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing. DOI: 10.1353/sof.2005.0069 Roos, Jerome E. 2011. “In #Chile and #Israel, a Revolt Against Neoliberalism”. Take the Square. Available at: http://takethesquare.net/2011/08/14/in-chile-and-israel-a-revolt -against-neoliberalism/ Valadés García, Bertín. 2011. “Conceptualizar el papel de las redes sociales en internet en movimientos sociales y acciones colectivas. Propuesta aplicada a lo digital”. Razón y Palabra 77. Available at: http://www.razonypalabra.org.mx/varia/77%205a%20parte/64_Valades_V77. pdf Van Zoonen, Liesbet. 2004. “Imagining the Fan Democracy”. European Journal of Communication 19 (1): 39–52. DOI: 10.1177/0267323104040693 Vincent, Tom. 2007. “Manga and otaku subculture in Japan”. Available at: http://www.royitp .webspace.virginmedia.com/Resources/Otaku.pdf

Author’s addresses Óscar García Agustín University of Aalborg Department of Culture and Global Studies Kroghsstraede 3, 9220 Aalborg OE, Denmark

Félix J. Aguirre Díaz Universidad de Valparaíso Instituto de Sociología/Facultad de Humanidades. Calle Serrano n0546, Valparaíso, Chile.

[email protected]

[email protected]


 Óscar García Agustín & Félix J. Aguirre Díaz

About the authors Óscar García Agustín is associate professor at the Department of Culture and Global Studies at Aalborg University, Denmark. He has published several articles on social movements, civil society, and political and discourse theory. With Martin Bak Jørgensen he has coedited the special issue ‘Civil Society and Immigration: New Ways of Democratic Transformation’ (Migration Letters 2013) and with Christian Ydesen he has coedited Post-Crisis Perspectives. The Common and its Powers (Peter Lang 2014). His most recent monograph is entitled Discourse and Zapatista Autonomy (Peter Lang 2013). Félix J. Aguirre Díaz received his Ph.D. in Political Science and Sociology from Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Since 2006 he is Profesor and Chair of Political Theory and Political Sociology at the Institute of Sociology of the University of Valparaiso. During 2011 and 2012 he has published two articles on the construction of public affairs in Chile, as a result of an investigation, which has been funded by the National Commission for Scientific Research and Technology of Chile (CONICYT) through its National Fund of Scientific Development and Technology.
