A bourgeois story? The class basis of Catalan independentism

Abstract

In Catalonia and beyond, the recent upheaval of secessionist mobilisations has challenged not only extant territorial frameworks and integration processes but also our understandings around nationalism and its social bases of support. Upper-class and bourgeois sectors of the population have been traditionally considered as overrepresented within the Catalan nationalist constituency. Our data on the social background of supporters instead indicate an interclass constituency behind the ‘procés’ that unfolded under the post-2007 Great Recession. As the movement for Catalan self-determination and independence became a mass phenomenon, it broadened the traditional constituency of Catalan nationalism and encompassed large sectors of the population, including the working classes. Looking at the intersection of positions on nation and class, we suggest that cross-class alliances were crucial in accounting for the surge of support for independence that we have observed in Catalonia since 2010.