Concept of Economic Progress: Reconstructing Collective Self-Understanding in Chile and Spain from a Comparative Sociology Perspective.

Chile and Spain both experienced massive social movements beginning in 2011, where widespread protests questioned the promises of economic progress in the context of growing inequality, social discontent, and a deepening crisis of institutional trust.

This study analyzes the controversies surrounding the notion of economic progress in Chile and Spain since 2011, examining how organized actors in the public sphere have transformed their understanding of economic progress in both countries. Using a comparative sociology approach, it explores changes in collective self-understanding (Wagner, 2014) in contexts marked by uncertainty about the future, fluctuating trust in economic structures, and the experience of contingency (Bourdieu, 1979; Habermas, 1999; Koselleck, 2004; Luhmann, 2007; Wagner, 2016; Beckert, 2016).

The concept of “promissory legitimacy” (Beckert, 2016) is key to understanding how political promises regarding the future have justified economic decisions, enabling the mobilization of social actors. However, when such promises fail to materialize, a crisis of legitimacy emerges (Habermas, 1973; Beckert, 2019), deeply undermining public confidence in economic progress. In both countries, since 2011, collective actors have developed a critical and oppositional consciousness toward institutions representing economic progress, leading to renewed demands for future changes.

This analysis is grounded in a systematic review of the literature on economic progress, offering essential conceptual tools for investigating current controversies. Comparative sociology allows us to assess how specific historical trajectories and institutional frameworks in Chile and Spain have shaped the emergence of these crises and demands for transformation.

This paper contributes to the field of comparative economic sociology by examining how, during periods of crisis, social actors in Chile and Spain have reconstructed their collective expectations of progress, exposing the widening gap between economic promises and their practical realization.