This volume offers an overview of the ongoing debate regarding nationalism, globalisation, secessionism and languages in 21st century Catalonia. At the heart of the book is a set of interlocking questions relating to socio-political issues in sub-state nations seeking independence in the 21st century.

This volume offers an overview of the ongoing debate regarding nationalism, globalisation, secessionism and languages in 21st century Catalonia. At the heart of the book is a set of interlocking questions relating to socio-political issues in sub-state nations seeking independence in the 21st century.

Since it emergence in the 19th century in response to feudalism, nationalism has been a mixed blessing. Originally seen as a positive force, often enough it has resulted in warfare and persecution of minorities, so much so that, over time, it has been considered a social evil whose apparent decline has been greeted as a positive development. The author disputes this or rather, he maintains that the picture that emerges is more complex: nationalism is not disappearing but has taken on a different form. What we are experiencing is an increasing autonomy of ethnonations, i.e. nations without a state, in the wake of a weakening of the multinational states and the transfer of their sovereignty upwards, in the case of Europe to the federation of the European Union, and downwards to the "ethnonations." Catalonia is the major case study in this book but it is embedded in a comprehensive theoretical framework as well as the historical and contemporary reality of Europe, opening up a new perspective. The author, one of the foremost scholars in this field, brilliantly succeeds in developing an original, clear and comprehensive vision of nationalism that is accessible to a wide readership.

This volume helps us to understand that the current political disorders in Catalonia have deep cultural roots. It focuses on the rise of Catalan cultural, national and linguistic identity in the 20th century. What is happening in Catalonia? What lies behind its political conflicts? Catalan identity has been evolving for centuries, starting in early medieval ages (11th and 12lve centuries). It is not a modern phenomenon. The emergence of imperial Spain in the 16 c. and the French Ancien Régime in the 17 c. correlates with a decline of Catalan culture, which was politically absorbed by the Spanish state after the conquest of Barcelona in 1714. However, Catalan language and culture flourished again under the stimulus of the European Romantic Nationalism movement (known as the Renaixença in Catalonia). During the first Dictatorship (Primo de Rivera, 1923-1930), the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), and the long Francoist era (1939-1975), Catalan language and culture were repressed, yet refurbished and reconstructed at the same time. This rise of a plural, complex, and non-homogeneous Catalan identity constitutes the subject matter of this volume. National conflicts that emerged later in the Spanish democratic state leant heavily on the life engagement and vital commitment experienced by the entrenched intellectual movements of the twentieth century in Catalonia, Valencian Country and the Balearic Islands. This book reveals the cultural and literary grassroots of these conflicts.

Catalonia Since the Spanish Civil War examines the transformation of the Catalan nation in socio-economic, political, and historical terms, offering an innovative interpretation of the determinants of its nationalist mobilization. With Franco's and Spanish nationalism's victory in 1939, and the consolidation of a long-lasting dictatorship, it appeared certain that the Catalan national movement would be crushed. Yet, this did not happen, and Catalan nationalism and identity re-emerged at the end of Franco's dictatorship in 1975 more firmly rooted than before. The core of the book traces the Francoist repression and the nationalist response to it, demonstrating how new political actors reconfigured Catalan nationalism over the course of the Franco regime (1939-1975). Post-Franco, Catalan cultural and political identity was consolidated and Catalonia became the most successful state-less nationalism in Western Europe. The 21st century has been marked by an ever-growing independence movement, culminating in the vast demonstration in the city of Barcelona in July 2010. The book provides multi-faceted viewpoints in historic perspective, and reflects on possible steps and outcomes for this new pro-independence turn in Catalan nationalism. Catalonia Since the Spanish Civil War will appeal not only to students of Spain, but also to those interested in nationalism as a separate issue of enquiry. The themes treated in the book - Franco's Spain, nationalism, anarchism, Catholicism, communism, and the Catalan role in Spain's transition to democracy - make this work an essential point of reference for students and researchers in Hispanic studies, modern European history, and political science. (Series: Sussex Studies in Spanish History)

The present book is a complex approach to the elements that built the history of Catalonia. This collective book analyze differents aspects, such as: cultural history, the History of Law, the Political history or the History of the State, from the Midlle Ages to the Modern and Contemporary history.

The death of Franco in 1975 signalled the transition of Catalan nationalism from a clandestine resistance movement to a movement demanding self-government for Catalonia. This book offers a socio-political analysis of Catalan nationalism during the Francoist regime (1939-1975) and the Spanish transition to democracy. Are the Catalans content with the outcome of the Spanish transition to democracy? Is there a future for Catalan nationalism within the EU? How does globalization impact upon the survival and development of nations without states such as Catalonia? Will increasing numbers of immigrants transform regional identities? Has devolution fostered secessionism in Catalonia? These are some of the key questions discussed in this book. Catalan Nationalism considers whether a nation without a state, such as Catalonia, is able to survive within larger political institutions such as Spain and the European Union. The author examines the different images of Catalonia presented by the main Catalan political parties. The book also provides a study of the role of intellectuals in the construction of nationalism and national identity in nations without states in for the study of devolution and its consequences, transitions to democracy and globalization and national identity. Based on a successful combination of theory and innovative empirical research, the scope and depth of the book's analysis should make it useful reading for students and academics in the fields of history and politics.