Discursive Approaches to Sociopolitical Polarization and Conflict

Laura Filardo-Llamas, Esperanza Morales-López, Alan Floyd, Laura Filardo-Llamas, Esperanza Morales-López, Alan Floyd

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780367529253
• eBook ISBN: 9781000448801
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

This collection explores the discursive strategies and linguistic resources underpinning conflict and polarization, taking a multidisciplinary approach to examine the ways in which conflict is constructed across a diverse range of contexts.

The volume is divided into two sections as a means of identifying two different dimensions to conflict construction and bridging the gap between different perspectives through a constructivist framework. The first part comprises chapters looking at sociopolitical conflicts across specific geographic contexts across the US, Europe and Latin America. The second half of the book unpacks sociocultural conflicts, those not defined by physical borders but shaped by ideological differences on core values, such as on religion, gender and the environment. Drawing on frameworks across such fields as linguistics, critical discourse analysis, rhetoric studies and cognitive studies, the book offers new insights into the discursive polarization that permeates contemporary communicative interactions and the ways in which a better understanding of conflict and its origins might serve as a mechanism for providing new ways forward.

This book will be of particular interest to students and scholars in critical discourse analysis, linguistics, rhetoric studies and peace and conflict studies.

Part IPolarization in Social and Political Conflicts

DOI: 10.4324/9781003094005-2

1Who Are the “People” of Catalonia?Referential Expressions and Narratives of a Conflict That Has Divided This “Social Group” in Two

Esperanza Morales-López

DOI: 10.4324/9781003094005-3

We had no empathy with people who are not pro-independence and who perhaps did not feel they were treated fairly. There are many people who are not pro-independence, who defend fundamental freedoms and rights, and who, if you give them a choice between Spain and Catalonia, choose Spain.

(Carme Forcadell, former president of the parliament of Catalonia, October 21, 2019).¹

Introduction

The politician making this apology was the highest authority in the Catalan parliament on the day the “Self-Determination Referendum Act” was passed (September 6, 2017), establishing the framework for a plebiscite, illegal according to the Statute of Catalonia, which was intended to gather public support for this referendum. During the nine hours of debate, the level of conflict and polarization was such that it could be described as something unbecoming of a democracy or, perhaps, an example of what Ramsbotham (2017, p. 6) calls “agonistic dialogue.” This date is the starting point for the division of the population of Catalonia into two groups, which have since been irreconcilable: the advocates of Catalan independence and the defenders of the current Spanish constitutional order, albeit with the modifications necessary to update the current legal framework.

My aim in this chapter is to analyse the interventions of the different political groups in this plenary session in order to answer the question of who those parties believe are the people of Catalonia and, thus, who are the agents of their destiny. To this end, I will begin by examining the most important referential expressions used. Secondly, I will consider other discursive resources that activate the different narratives (or frameworks) of ideological interpretation that have led to this polarization. The backdrop to this analysis is the dilemma of whether to consider as a priority the historical rights of being Catalan or of all of them, that is, the acquired rights of the rest of the citizens under equal conditions, because they have also contributed to the wealth of Catalonia. The autochthonous population normally comprises the middle and upper classes, and the majority of the working class are the immigrant population who came from other Spanish regions during the twentieth century or others who have arrived in the last two decades (Latin Americans and other nationalities).

Theoretical and Methodological Approach

Since a large part of the theoretical and methodological premises underlying this chapter have already been presented in the introductory chapter, in this section I will only mention those that are activated in a specific way according to the characteristics of the data analysed. From the highly eclectic theoretical-methodological perspective I advocate for discourse analysis, a continuous dialectical relationship between theory and data, and between data and context, which is fundamental in order not to impose a predetermined analytical perspective on the description of these data.

The discursive resources used in this analysis come from the different linguistic levels, from the pragmatic and cognitive dimensions, and also from rhetoric and argumentation. This analysis is based on a constructivist epistemology and is inspired by the importance that Halliday (2014) has given to the form-function dialectic in the study of discourse (see the Introduction and Morales-López, 2017, 2019). In addition, I have included other perspectives in this position, such as White’s narrative theory (1973), to move further towards transdisciplinarity.

The analysis of the data that is the subject of this study has revealed the importance of reference resources, because the conflict at hand is based precisely on the scope of the expression “Catalan people.” As a result, it is possible to better delimit the “us/them” pair (van Dijk, 2003, p. 63; 2006), a deictic space that some authors consider is always present in the persuasive and legitimizing dispute that defines all political discourse (Filardo-Llamas, 2008; Boyd and Filardo-Llamas, 2017; Chilton, 2004, 2008). From there, the second objective has been to take into account the narrative perspective advocated by White (1973). As explained in Morales-López (2017, p. 274), narratives are diverse constructions of the specific that social and political groups use to interpret those events, usually used for the purpose of persuasion (see the Introduction for further explanation). Consequently, after the referential analysis, we will describe the narratives built by the main spokespersons of the political groups involved, after highlighting the most relevant discursive resources that construct them. These come from the different linguistic levels, as well as from the rhetorical-argumentative level.

Analysis

Data and Context

The political debate which is the subject of my analysis can be consulted at the following link: https://youtu.be/GMOEhTdW4t4. It is entitled “El Parlament de Catalunya vota la ley del referéndum de independència,” and amounts to about nine hours of recordings. It starts with two important votes in the morning and the ballot on the referendum bill in the afternoon. The voting covers, first, the changes to the initially planned agenda and, second, the waiver of certain administrative procedures in order to be able to pass the law in just one day. The most controversial point is the proposal to remove the obligation to include the report by the Council of Statutory Guarantees, which should have been produced by the lawyers of the parliament.²

The pro-independence parties were Junts per Catalunya (JxC, Together for Catalonia) (a right-wing party, supported by the Catalan bourgeois elite), Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC, Republican Left of Catalonia, a self-styled left-wing party, but whose voters are mainly from the upper-middle class, intellectuals and the middle class) and the Candidatura de Unitat Popular (CUP, Candidacy of Popular Unity, a radical but extremely nationalist left-wing party, which is capable of using its votes to support the presidency of the right-wing politician Carles Puigdemont, of JxC). In all, these three parties had an absolute majority (72 seats in the Catalan parliament), which, according to the Statute of Catalonia (2005), allows them to pass ordinary laws, but not to change the legal system, which would require two-thirds of the chamber (90 of a total of 135 seats).

The bill on the self-determination referendum that it was intended to vote through by an absolute majority was illegal; the opposition was openly hostile to it, as were the jurists of the Catalan parliament and subsequently the Spanish Constitutional Court. Although the law was approved at the end of the plenary session, and the plebiscite scheduled for October 1, 2017, took place, it was annulled soon afterwards by the Constitutional Court. The Catalan government was then dismissed and the autonomy of Catalonia was suspended until new elections were called, which took place on December 21, 2017.³ The negative consequences of this situation were evident, that is, the judicial process that followed this failure to comply with the laws, prison sentences or exile for most of those responsible, and the emotional shock that it created among the Catalan population in general.

There were four opposition parties. These included the Partit Popular/Partido Popular (PP, Popular Party), which at that time was also the governing party in Spain. It is right wing, and has been severely criticized due to major cases of corruption, social spending cuts imposed after the crisis of 2008, and also due to its inability to resolve the political crisis with Catalonia through dialogue. The Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya/Partido de los Socialistas de Cataluña (PSC, Catalan Socialist Party) traditionally received its votes from the immigrant working classes in Catalonia. This party, which is very strong at municipal level, gradually lost power (also due to cases of corruption) to a new party, Ciudadanos/Ciutadans/Cs (Citizens Party), which was initially centrist and anti-nationalist, defending the triple identity of the Catalans (as Catalans, Spaniards and Europeans) more openly than the PSC; Cs also defends bilingualism in education and in other institutions, as a sign of a common identity for all Catalans. This discourse in favour of bilingualism has become increasingly common among citizens of immigrant origin, particularly since the radicalization of JxC (the heir to the traditional CiU, or Catalan Nationalist Party, the main party that has held power almost continuously in the Catalan government, the Generalitat) (Morales-López, 2020). Finally, Catalunya Sí que Es Pot/Cataluña Sí Se Puede (CSQP, Catalonia, Yes, We Can, now En Comú Podem) is a platform of left-wing parties and movements that emerged after the citizens’ protests of 2011 (the 15M movement). It adopts an intermediate position in the conflict, acknowledging that a wide-ranging reform of the Spanish state is needed, but a reform that cannot be unilateral under any circumstance...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part I Polarization in Social and Political Conflicts
• Part II Polarization in Symbolic and Cultural Conflicts
• Afterword
• Index