National Deadlock. Hot Nationalism, Dual Identities and Catalan Independence (2008–2019)

Abstract

The article explores the transformations of Spanish and Catalan national identities and the growth of the pro-independence movement in Catalonia following the 2008 global recession. It argues that the Great Recession provided a new historical context of hot nationalism in which Catalanist narratives of loss and resistance began to ring true to large sectors of Catalan society, whereas the Spanish constitutionalist narratives seemed increasingly outdated. The article also shows the limits of the process of mass nationalization by both the Catalan and the Spanish governments and the eventual ‘crystallization’ of an identity and political divide between pro and anti-independence supporters which split Catalan society down the middle and led to a sort of national identity deadlock.

The Catalan Digital Republic. A Theoretical Review

“…Not even the definition of digital nationalism as "a digitally updated version of banal, everyday nationalism" (Billig, 1995;Mihelj & Jiménez-Martínez, 2021, p. 332) could work in the Catalan case. In the past, banal nationalism in Catalonia has been investigated as a tool of regionalist parties competing with their Spanish equivalents (Crameri, 2000), whilst the Catalan procés has been mainly considered as a 'hot' nationalism phenomenon (Quiroga & Molina, 2020). In other words, the use of national symbols by Catalan nationalists could not be considered as an institutionalised practice that is reproduced day by day in often unnoticed ways.…”

The Left(s) and Nationalism(s) in contemporary Western Europe

“…On the one hand, this realignment of the electoral coalition underlying left‐wing support has particularly benefited the populist and radical right, because the latter has recently promoted welfare chauvinist agendas pitting natives against immigrants and globalisation in defence of the ‘national welfare state’ (Abts et al, 2021; Afonso & Rennwald, 2018; de Lange, 2007; Ennser‐Jedenastik, 2018; Oesch & Rennwald, 2018). On the other, in Scotland and Catalonia, where self‐determination movements have challenged state authority and integrity more than anywhere else in Europe, the rising polarisation between supporters and opponents of independence has squeezed state‐wide left‐wing parties away from the autonomist middle‐ground they had dominated for several decades (Bennett et al, 2021; Quiroga & Molina, 2020). In both cases, left‐wing parties have had to confront openly nationalist parties in a climate of increasing salience of issues related, first, to the relationship between national identity and welfare and, second, to democracy, self‐determination, and federalism.…”