Document Type

Article

Department or Administrative Unit

Communication

Publication Date

6-30-2018

Abstract

This paper explores the use of strategic communication for nation building purposes in Catalonia after the approval of the Second Statute of Autonomy in 1979. During this period, the Generalitat de Catalunya, Catalonia’s self-government political organization, has used the high degree of autonomy in a number of areas involving culture, communications or education, among others, to enhance a Catalan identity opposed to the Spanish identity. Soft power approaches – mainly the promotion of Catalan language, culture, sports and symbols – and the implementation of linguistic laws have resulted in a positive climate of opinion concerning an inclusive Catalan identity in a region where a high percentage of the population has roots in other parts of Spain. After all these years, the outcome has been positive for Catalan nationalism: Identification with Spain has decreased while dual Catalan-Spanish and Catalan-only identification has grown; almost half of the Catalan population is pro-independence while 40 years ago was less than 20 percent. Nonetheless, the language variable still seems to be contention wall despite communication management efforts. There is still a large majority of Catalans, mostly from the Spanish-language community, that are opposed to the nation building, nowadays pro-independence, process.

Comments

This article was originally published Open Access in Revista Internacional de Relaciones Públicas . The full-text article from the publisher can be found here.

Journal

Revista Internacional de Relaciones Públicas

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

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