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This book explores the conflict between the Catalan project to become independent and the Spanish state's opposition to any attempt of secessionism. The volume addresses some of the key political and academic issues of contemporary European societies: nationalism, separatism and sovereignty. The banned referendum in Catalonia in October 2017 unveiled the existence of multiple crises, from territorial to economic and political. Indeed, the Catalan issue is about the crisis of sovereignty: who holds legitimacy to make decisions, and who is in power legally and politically? The book is structured according to three themes: sovereignty and its people, where the realignment to independence, populism and the definition of the demos are discussed; collective identities and actions, to account for the shaping of 'us', the importance of collective memory and the cross-alliances forged during the referendum; and internationalization, focusing on Europeanisation, international media and comparative constitutional perspectives.
List of contents
Part I Introduction.- 1. The Catalan Way to Independence and the Spanish-Catalan Conflict (Óscar García Agustín and Malayna Raftopoulos).- Part II Understanding Sovereignty and its People.- 2. The Independence Procés in Catalonia: the Triple Spanish Crisis and an Unresolved Question of Sovereignty (Gemma Ubasart-González).- 3. Banal Populism. Nationalism and Everyday Victimhood in the Spanish-Catalan Clash (Paolo Cossarini).- 4. Discussing Ethnos, Polis, Demos and Cives in the Context of Spanish Politics (Ignacio Brescó and Alberto Rosa).- Part III Understanding Collective Identities and Actions.- 5. Moving towards the Future, Returning to the Past: Catalan Collective Memories in Times of Unstable Hegemony (Óscar García Agustín and Malayna Raftopoulos).- 6. Repression and Democracy amidst the Eventful 1-O Referendum (Donatella della Porta, H. Jonas Gunzelmann and Martín Portos).- 7. Quixote in Catalonia (Bue Rübner Hansen).- Part IV Understanding Internationalisation.- 8. Catalan Independence as an 'Internal Affair'? Europeanization and Secession after the 2017 Unilateral Declaration of Independence in Catalonia (Angela K. Bourne).- 9. Someone Else's Crisis? UK Press Coverage of the Failed 2017 Catalan Declaration of Independence (Hugh O'Donnell and Fernando León Solís).- 10. The Catalan Issue from a Comparative Constitutional Perspective (Sabrina Ragone and Gabriel Moreno González).- Part V Conclusion.- 11. Catalan independence and the crisis of sovereignty (Óscar García Agustín).
About the author
Óscar García Agustín is Associate Professor in the Department of Culture and Learning at Aalborg University, Denmark. He is Head of the DEMOS research group. He is the author of
Left-Wing Populism (2020),
Solidarity and the 'Refugee Crisis' in Europe (with Martin Bak Jorgensen, 2018), and
Podemos and the New Political Cycle (with Marco Briziarelli, 2018).
