Tabarnia: A Political Game of “Imagined Community”

Abstract

In the 2010s, a social movement emerged in Catalonia, inspired by the desire of a large group of residents of this autonomous region of Spain to resist regional separatists. The movement’s participants insist on a deep and comprehensive – including cultural, linguistic, and historical – uniqueness of the inhabitants of the Barcelona and Tarragona area (Tabarnia) in comparison with other Catalans. On these grounds, they demand that they be recognized as a special people and that Tabarnia be separated from Catalonia as an autonomous community, which would remain part of the country regardless of the future fate of Catalonia. The article examines the process of constructing a new “imaginary community” and forming a sense of special identity in a population. It discusses the arguments, techniques, and technologies used in this case, considering the features dictated by the Spanish historical and political tradition, and shows the dependence of the development of events on the changing political context.