Basque Society Research Articles

Basque Radical Rock

This paper aims to chart the origins of the so-called Basque Radical Rock movement and its varied use by different social groups, from political organizations of the time to anarchist, marginalized youth needing to express the pessimistic view of their present circumstances. Basque Radical Rock represented a growing sense of modern Basqueness and difference that shaped the scene, moving away from pastoral images toward urban decadence. Although politics did influence the growth and spread of music throughout the Basque Country, many did not feel represented by these causes. The youth�s backlash against socio-economic conditions and their nihilistic view of the future is key to understanding the music of the period, as well as widespread drug use. The conditions and struggles epitomized in Basque Radical Rock left a lasting impact on Basque society. The music remains and still resonates during the existing crisis and has not been relegated to the past.

Creer en los vínculos. Pluralismo religioso y capital social

En el presente artículo mostramos algunas de las conclusiones obtenidas en la tesis doctoral 1 elaborada en torno al capital social de tres minorías religiosas (la religión ortodoxa, la evangélica y el islam) en una sociedad que vivió un intenso proceso de secularización, el País Vasco. Para ello, se ha hecho uso de la metodología cualitativa, y a través de las entrevistas realizadas y el método Delphi aplicado, hemos podido conocer cuáles son los vínculos de las comunidades de estas tres confesiones y de qué manera estos vínculos, o la ausencia de los mismos, ayudan o dificultan su desarrollo en la sociedad vasca.

Peacebuilding Beyond Terrorism? Revisiting the Narratives of the Basque Conflict

ABSTRACTTaking stock of critical peace research and agonistic politics, this article revisits the Basque conflict to examine the role of the state's counterterrorist narrative and that of the Basque civil society in the elimination of violence. It argues that violence could have ended sooner if Spanish governments had sought to engage with the non- and antiviolent independentist discourse of broad sectors of the Basque society, rather than criminalizing it as they rightly did with the radical/extremist nationalists. Had they done so, they could have capitalized on Basque civil society's strong antiviolent and anti–Euskadi Ta Askatasuna discourse to marginalize the terrorist organization and its networks of support. The article presents a framework that makes possible the marginalization of militancy and extremism in cases where the state accepts to negotiate the legitimacy of the demands of non- and/or antiviolent nationalists.

Comunidades solidarias: confesiones religiosas minoritarias y su función integradora

<p>This article focuses on the way in which three different communities belonging to religious minorities approach to the task of both granting mutual support among their respective members, and making a contribution to the wider Basque society. By promoting solidarity, these communities become of paramount relevance in the life of their members and attract new ones. We use the category of bonding social capital as analytical tool.</p><p><strong>Received</strong>: 31 June 2015<br /><strong>Accepted</strong>: 15 October 2015<br /><strong>Published online</strong>: 11 December 2017</p>

Autodeterminación, transnacionalidad, multiculturalismo y universalismo en la tv-movie "Sanctuaire" (Olivier Masset-Depasse, 2015)

En el año 2015 se estrena la TV-Movie Sanctuaire (Santuario) dirigida por Olivier Masset- Depasse, coproducción entre España y Francia que sería emitida por Movistar después de proyectarse en la edición de 2015 del Festival de Cine Español de Málaga. La obra narra la relación entre la banda terrorista ETA y un representante del Gobierno Francés en tiempos del Gobierno de Felipe González. Valorando los nuevos retos que la globalización ha impuesto a la tradicional distribución de la geografía en base al concepto Estado-Nación, se ha pretendido, utilizando esta película reciente en la que participa producción vasca, francesa y española, demostrar si la sociedad y la política vasca han convergido en un nuevo “espacio transnacional” o si, por el contrario, el valor del Estado-nación se resiste, en palabras de Saskia Sassen (Territorio, autoridad y derechos, 2010) a perder capacidades. Para ello, se ha efectuado el análisis fílmico para realizar la investigación desde una perspectiva en la que se tiene en cuenta el debate entre posiciones de autores “comunitaristas” con aquellas de autores liberales (interesándonos especialmente Amartya Sen), valorando también la crítica al multiculturalismo de Slavoj Žižek. Por otro lado, se detecta que la perspectiva dominante del film es la francesa. El “punto de vista francés” a la hora de entender los sucesos del conflicto vasco representados en la película es también determinante en la metodología de este estudio, ya que conviene analizar “lo vasco” desde esa mirada francesa, determinando si “lo vasco” es visto como una minoría existente y propia de Francia o es una minoría ajena en conflicto con España.

Spanish Migrants in Basque Social Science Textbooks from the Late Franco Era to the Transition to Democracy

In this article I explore the ways in which migrants from other parts of Spain to the Basque Country are portrayed in Basque social science textbooks published in the Basque Country between the end of Franco’s dictatorship and the period of the transition to democracy. I elucidate the role attributed to immigrants, who were culturally and linguistically distinct from Basque society, by educators concerned about the survival of Basque culture and the Basque language. In addition, the article addresses strategies proposed by members of the Basque education sector and adopted in order to facilitate integration during this period.

Nacionalismo y violencia en el País Vasco. Factores y mecanismos del auge y declive de ETA

La violencia política, en sus múltiples manifestaciones, ha condicionado las prácticas sociales y el imaginario de la sociedad vasca en las últimas décadas. El inicio de este proceso se produce en pleno franquismo cuando el nacionalismo vasco experimenta una profunda mutación que ha marcado la vida cotidiana y la estructura institucional de la sociedad vasca desde entonces. Hace ahora cuatro años, el 20 de octubre de 2011, Euskadi ta Askatasuna (ETA) anuncia el cese definitivo de la utilización de la violencia. Se han realizado numerosas investigaciones sobre el origen y la evolución del nacionalismo vasco radical para entender los cambios que ha experimentado a lo largo del tiempo. En este artículo se analiza el proceso de expansión y declive de la actividad de ETA y de los apoyos sociales y políticos con los que ha contado a lo largo de este tiempo. A partir de las investigaciones sobre el nacionalismo vasco realizadas por Alfonso Pérez-Agote a lo largo de tres décadas tratamos de completar su explicación sobre la violencia política prestando atención a la movilización social en torno a ella. A partir de los resultados de varias investigaciones, y siguiendo una lógica histórica que arranca en la dictadura franquista y culmina en la primera década del siglo XXI, se analizan los mecanismos sociales (cognitivos, afectivos y prácticos) que han posibilitado su mantenimiento a lo largo del tiempo y su progresiva erosión.

FaceGuk: a digital ethnographic approach to the social construction of basque identity

The national identity of a recently transformed Basque society is the principal idea of this research: concretely, the research question that has to be done and the social construction processes of Basque identity. For this aim, analyzing social networks (especially Facebook) with a (auto) digital ethnographic approach, besides answering these questions, the type of Basque community that emerges with the Internet, the territorial limits of the nation and the influence of the agents that in these processes take part will be analyzed

Hacia una memoria incluyente para la paz en el País Vasco

The paper presents a study on collective memory in the process of peacebuilding in the Basque Country from a double perspective. On the one hand, the collective memory like shared representation of the happened in the Basque Country during the last decades, and the memory like the victims.’ right to the truth of the human rights violations committed in the basque conflict. The study was carried out from 25 interviews and a dialogue space, counting on the participation of tie people to political parties and social agents actively jeopardize with peace, including all basque sociopolitical field. The results provide different questions to build an inclusive memory, as much in relation to the perception of the past, like with respect to build the truth for repair the victims of ETA and agents of the Spanish state. Finally, a series of final reflections considers on clear up all human rights violations committed during the basque conflict, and on the construction of a common minimum tale in the middle of the plurality of visions on the past in the basque society.

Titularidad Señorial, Explotación Y Rentas De Los Recursos Agrícolas, Ganaderos Y Forestales En El País Vasco Al Final De La Edad Media

This study looks at the seigneurial titularity, exploitation and rents of the agricultural, livestock and forestry resources of the Basque Country at the end of the Middle Ages. Working from both published and unpublished documentation we will study three cases that shed light on different aspects of rural life in late-medieval Basque society. Firstly, the management of the small rural seigneury of the Lady of Hueto y Martioda between 1404 and 1428, as seen through the accounts of its steward. Secondly, the management of therural wealth of the Vizcayan and Guipuzcoan heads of lineages, in which the role of churches of lay patronage plays a central role. And finally, the management of the rural possessions of a merchant of Victoria between 1482 and 1501. They are three models which seem to remit to completely different interests and needs, but which in fact in all three cases imply a similarly thorough management style.

Los inicios de la experiencia coopeativa Mondragón

This article analyzes the origins and the initial evolution of the Mondragon Cooperative’s Experience (MCE). During these three decades (1955-1985), takes place the emergence and consolidation of the MCE. This Experience, radically innovating in his origin, managed to have 19.161 workers in 1985; sales for value of 841,4 million Euros and a total of 94 cooperatives are associated with Caja Laboral and distributed in the whole Basque geography. In these thirty years, the cooperatives knew economic very favourable conjunctures that they could take advantage to grow, together with more unfavourable periods which opened all the potential of intercooperation to resist and to be stronger. In this period, significant changes took place in the institutional bases of the Group. The deep social, economic and political changes happened in the Basque society, were accompanied by cognitive and normative changes inside the cooperativism, whereas the regulatory aspects were kept. The last one became the most vigorous identity element of the cooperativism.

La Paz en el País Vasco. Una interpretación desde los significados sociales

The study goal is to identify key elements for the peace building in the Basque Country from the visions of the citizenship. Following this objective, the paper presents a psycho-social approach to the building of peace in the Basque Country from meanings socially constructed. The study was developed on the basis of 60 interviews made to people of different sectors from the Basque society, and analyzed from a qualitative analysis. The results aim at 7 central elements for the construction of peace in the Basque Country: the ETA end; changes on antiterrorist and penitentiary policy of the Spanish State; to repair of integral way to the victims of human rights violations committed by ETA and compatible groups, the terrorism of tardo-francoist groups, and the Spanish state; dialogue, negotiation and agreements; the paper of the civil society for peace; the work by memory; psycho-social changes. Finally, this concludes about the needs to approach the construction of peace in the Basque Country being followed a complex optics and considering the social, political and psycho-social dimensions.

Lies of Our Fathers: Memory and Politics in the Basque Country Under the Franco Dictatorship, 1936–68

This article offers a historical review of the Franco dictatorship in the Basque Country and analyses the reverberation of old myths in contemporary essays on Basque history and identity. The article explores recent historiographical developments to challenge the understanding of Basque history in ‘primordial’ and mythical terms and upholds an interpretation of the Basque past within current Spanish scholarly debates. A new historical assessment of the Civil War in the Basque territories questions both the firmly-rooted thesis of the ‘Basque (Catholic) oasis’ inside the ‘(anti-clerical) Republican terror’ of 1936 and the traditional explanation of the lower levels of Francoist violence, funded in this alleged ‘oasis’. New interpretations also question the role of Basque nationalists under the Franco regime and contest the myth of the ‘Basque genocide’. Lastly, the article uses collective remembrance to explain why a ‘memory of revenge’ emerged through the 1950s and 1960s, despite the fact Basque nationalists suffered relatively low levels of repression. This memory of revenge would eventually play a key role in the emergence of ethno-nationalist terrorism and the deficient democratization of Basque society during the Spanish transition to democracy.

Forjando nación desde abajo: violencia e identidades en el País Vasco y el Ulster

In Northern Ireland the population has been classified into different communities following political/religious categories. Scholars, as well as the people in general, have usually compared the situation in the Basque Country with that existing in Ulster. In this article we explore whether Basque society might be classified using the kind of categories valid for the Northern Irish, trying to address the following question: To what extent does Northern Ireland’s “nationalism from below” reflect the same kind of political-religious communities prevailing in the Basque Country? In order to find an answer we focus on the evolution of radical nationalist groups in the Basque Country, Spain, the United Kingdom and Ireland in the second half of the twentieth century.

The Internet: a support for preserving and fostering the quality of the Basque language

The aim of this article is to show some indications of how Basque society is facing the challenge of the Internet and how it is using this new resource in order to preserve not only the presence of Basque but also the quality of the language itself. It is divided into 4 sections: 1) some general information about the situation of Basque; 2) how Basque society is reacting to the Internet;3) some issues about the quality of the Basque language (kinds of services that can be provided via the Internet and potential users of them); 4) some resources offered by three of civil service institutions intended to help professionals use the Basque language more correctly and appropriately. In the end we conclude that the Internet in fact supplies useful tools and resources to preserve and foster the Basque language and, specifically, its linguistic quality; on the other hand, the society is being quite aware of the importance of the new tool and it is, consequently, reacting positively to the challenge of this new technology

Euskal identitatearen garapena online sare sozialen bidez: gazteen praktika sozialak Facebooken

The transformation that Basque society has suffered and the emergence of the new technologies of communication have transformed the logic, the way, the spaces, the tools and the cultural references to analyze, understand and develop the national identity. The objective of this article is to identify and analyze those elements and for this aim it is going to be exposed a research made in 2011 to answer how youth build Basque identity by Facebook. During this research in addition to answer the influence that online social networks have in social practices and in the construction of the national identity, the sense of community and the question required for the sociological analysis of the Basque identity will be questioned.

The Road to Modern Consumer Society. Changes in Everyday Life in the Rural Basque Country in the Early Twentieth Century

The aim of this article is to show the process of transformation of everyday life in the rural Basque society of the beginning of the twentieth century. It is generally accepted the vision of the rural Basque Country situated in the past and contrary to the changes of modern society. However, a detailed research shows a different condition and the incipient change in different aspects of everyday life. The increase of literacy thanks to the development of the educational system, the improvement of the means of transport, the birth of an incipient consumer society and the appearance of modern leisure are examples of this change in a supposedly ‘old fashioned’ rural Basque Country. This process of transformation took place in the last decade of the nineteenth century but most evidently in the beginning of the following century, which places the social development of the rural Basque Country sooner than it had been thought.

Resisting Poems: Expressions of Dissent and Hegemony in Modern Basque Bertsolaritza

This paper analyzes the relevance of bertsolaritza—the art of sung improvised poetry in Basque in front of an audience—in light of the current situation of the Basques as a globalizing cultural and linguistic minority of France and Spain. In the context of the democratic freedom and degree of self-governance granted to the Basques with the creation a Basque autonomous community (Euskadi) in post-Franco Spain, bertsolaritza has been subjected to a large-scale process of institutionalization across the entire Basque country. Most significantly, this process redefined the organization of the practice into widely broadcast large-scale competitions which have increased its following by all segments of the Basque population (Bascophones and non-Bascophones alike) and made it the most popular expression of Basque culture today. Following a brief history and contextualization of the Basque Country and of Basque nationalism, the author considers how bertsolaritza, through the intercultural dimension of improvisation and the careful modernization of its organization, consolidates a hegemonic definition of Basque national identity based on the notion that ‘being Basque means speaking Basque.’ In the final section, the author examines the role of the Basque improviser as an activist, and how, at the same time as offering great potential for community-building within Basque society, modern bertsolaritza offers a complex discourse of resistance to other, more global forms of political, economic, and cultural hegemonies.

The Basque Country: the heart of Spain, a part of Spain, or Somewhere Else Altogether

The Basque Country exhibits contradictory symptoms of good health and chronic internal rupture. A flexible and robust economy and a vibrant cultural life are undermined by opposed senses of identity, which make almost any statement about the region deeply contentious. The verifiability—or otherwise—of Basque nationalist and Spanish nationalist readings of Basque history and culture matter less today than the fact that they are held with genuine conviction by big sectors of Basque society. Both traditions have their own legitimacy, but neither has been capable of fully acknowledging or including the other. Paradoxically, Francoism reinforced Basque nationalist identity, and anxieties about the survival of the Basque language stimulated radical Basque nationalism, with enduring consequences. An accommodation might be found in acceptance by both sides that Basque identities are multiple, and through recognition that there are several ways of being Basque, none of which need negate any of the others. The recent Irish settlement offers some pointers, though no rigid templates. Bernardo Atxaga’s declaration that Euskera is not the Basque language, but a Basque language, is an indication that this process of respecting multiple identities is already underway, though the obstacles to a resolution remain formidable.

War, judgment, and memory in the Basque borderlands, 1914-1945

The diverse ways in which Basques responded to war and displacement during the most tumultuous period in contemporary history War and occupation anywhere test the resilience of local values and institutions and often undermine accepted standards of human conduct. The Basque communities in the Pyrenees were no exception. Between 1914 and 1945, two world wars and the turbulent interwar years had a profound impact on Basque society, affecting even remote villages and rural farmers.In this book, anthropologist Sandra Ott examines the impact of war and occupation on four Basque communities in the French commune of Xiberoa. These communities were long accustomed to the exercise of ancient rights of self-determination and to unique forms of familial and vicinal interdependence. They had their own interpretations of what constituted legitimate private and public behavior, and they were normally reliant on their own forms of judgment, justice, and reconciliation to maintain social order.Using archival documents, many of them classified, and interviews with numerous Basque witnesses, Ott recounts how these tightly knit communities reacted to war, occupation, resistance, and denunciations, as well as to the upheavals of liberation. Finally, she reveals how Basque traditional culture allowed these communities to cope with the violence and tumult of war and how ancient traditions helped restore intracommunity harmony following the divisiveness of occupation and liberation, as well as shape communal memories of these events.War, Judgment, and Memory in the Basque Borderlands, 1914-1945 is an important contribution to our understanding of the ways a traditional community responds to crisis and change, and the way historical memory is shaped by popular local culture.