Catalonia rescaling Spain: Is it feasible to accommodate its “stateless citizenship”?

Abstract

The Spanish nation‐state is gradually being rescaled by Catalonia's “secession crisis.” Recently and dramatically, in the aftermath of the “illegal” and “constitutive referendum” that took place on 1 October 2017, 2,286,217 Catalan citizens attempted to exercise the “right to decide” to ultimately become “stateless citizens.” This paper examines this rescaling process that has been forming in Barcelona since 10 July 2010 when 1 million Catalan citizens marched to claim their “right to decide” on secession. This paper concludes that, at present, it is not feasible for the Spanish nation‐state to accommodate Catalonia's “stateless citizenship.”

Emancipatory Urban Citizenship Regimes in Postpandemic Catalonia, Scotland, and Wales

“…With the case study methodology, therefore, this article presents the timely context of each case by emphasizing the emancipatory urban component. Here, there is the relation of previous research published work by the author per topic and case study that is used to construct the case study methodology: 'right to decide' (Calzada 2014), 'constitutional arrangements' (Calzada and Bildarratz 2015), 'smart devolution' (Calzada 2017), Scotland and Catalonia (Calzada 2018a(Calzada , 2019, and 'rescaling nation-states' (Calzada 2022a(Calzada , 2022b(Calzada , 2022c. The case study methodology in this article aims not only to update the case study of Catalonia-Barcelona and Scotland-Glasgow given that both cases present interesting updates but also to introduce a new (and less known) emerging player: Wales-Cardiff (Clifton and Alessia 2018;Welsh Government 2021;Wyn Jones and Larner 2021).…”

“…Debates regarding the organization and legitimation of nation-state power both institutionally and territorially have been exacerbated in the post-Brexit UK (Keating 2022b) and in the aftermath of the constitutionally illegal but socially constitutive independence referendum attempt on 1 October 2017 that dramatically occurred in Catalonia by directly rescaling Spain (Agnew 2017;Calzada 2019;Gutiérrez and Font 2022;Keating 2021aKeating , 2022a. Despite clear differences in both cases, these debates unfolded tensions between statecentric, ethnic-driven neo-nationalism (Koch and Paasi 2016) and the counter-reaction stemming from the emancipatory politics of major metropolitan city-regions (Calzada 2017;Fricke and Gualini 2017).…”

October 2017 in Catalonia: The anarchists and the procés

“…By the time the referendum was called, it was very difficult for the Catalan leadership to back down without facing a catastrophic backlash. Likewise, given Spain's political culture, with the establishment stridently opposed to such a referendum, regarding it as treason (Balcells et al, 2021; Bernat & Whyte, 2020; Calzada, 2019; Cetrá & Harvey, 2019; Ferreira, 2021), and the militaristic nature of Spanish nationalism (Jensen, 2000), it was highly unlikely that the central government would have responded in any other form but with heavy repression. As the referendum drew closer, the ‘Spanish constitutional system’ continuously appealed ‘to criminal law to handle such political conflict.…”

“…The legality (or not) of the referendum has been debated elsewhere (e.g., Castellà, 2019; Guibernau, 2013; López, 2019) and does not concern us here. Repression was heavy and disproportionate: If before 2017 some could argue that independentism was based more on identity claims than on grievances (Boylan, 2015; Burg, 2015), the state response to the independence challenge provided a wealth of grievances to Catalonia's ‘stateless citizens’ (Calzada, 2019). The limits of autonomy were clearly demarcated on 27 October: After the Generalitat declared Catalonia's independence, its autonomous institutions were dissolved, direct rule from Madrid was imposed and new elections were called—amidst prosecutions against the nationalist leadership.…”