Comunidad rural, poder local, politización y ciudadanía: Prácticas y aprendizajes políticos en el suroeste peninsular a principios de la contemporaneidad (1808-1823)

Abstract

The first decades of the nineteenth century were crucial to shaping the new political practices that both disrupted the established public and social participation scenario and created the new liberal political culture. However, acquiring a more thorough understanding of these issues involves reassessing the disparity of the scenarios, the multiplicity of actors and the directionality of the processes. This work analyses practices that politicized and the rural political space, using local examples extracted from southwestern Spain. It emphasizes political practices and learning from 1808 to 1823, the years that marked the beginning and end of critical political transformations in the journey from the Old to the New Regime. The research verifies that local communities in rural areas were not passive agents within this scenario of politicization, but active participants. They implemented a rich, complex political practice based on a reading of the underlying political framework that was both broad and specific.