The Future of Catalonia. Exploring the relation between collective identity, political engagement and secessionist claims of Catalan students
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2016-06-20
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en
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Abstract
Recently, the region of Catalonia became known for its strife for independence, which
deteriorated the relation with its host state, Spain. This growing hostility between the
territories, economic grievances and national identities are frequently mentioned as
explanations of growing secessionist sentiments in the region. Especially the effect of identity on secessk)nist claims has brought forward contradicting results in academic research. For instance, Serrano (2013a) argues that national identity does not have a significant influence on support for independence in Catalonia, while Burg (2015) states that national identity is a valuable predictor of secessionist claims in the region. This research focuses on collective identity as a broad concept and the influence it might have on secessionist claims of Catalan students. Whether or not Catalonia secedes from Spain, it is important to investigate the Political viewpoints of this part of the population, since the highly educated and young people of Catalonia will become the future political and economic leaders of the region'and this part of the population tends to be more critical towards everyday politics.
The results of this inquiry show that national identity is not the most salient identity aspect
among Catalan students. In fact, collective identities of Catalan students are not dominated by one identity marker in particular. The analysis of self-categorization suggests that family is an important factor for collective identities of Catalan students; it also implies that the sample is highly secular and do not identify themselves as 'being Spanish'. Additionally, a majority of the respondents indicate to support Catalonia as an independent state. This becomes clear when analyzing different types of secessionist claims, including traditional and modem forms of political engagement and constitutional preferences.
Finally, a binary logistic regression shows that national identity can be a predictor of support for independence; however nationality turns out to be a better predictor of secessionist sentiments Therefore, attention in further academic needs to be paid to the proper operationalization of these concepts. This research concludes that young, highly educated Catalan citizens need to be included in an open and integrated discussion ofthe future of Catalonia, whether the region is going to become independent or not.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen