Intersections of national identity, gender, race and class: the Catalan case study

This abstract draws on the example of Catalonia to make a theoretical contribution to the study of national identities from an intersectional perspective. We argue that the national imagination is a fundamental element in studying how contemporary national communities are constructed and the power relations that play out in them. Identities, in this sense, reflect the structures and social relations of national communities, and can therefore be studied for their social function. This article focuses on the forms of representation of Catalan identity in the 21st century, highlighting the role of various historically subaltern communities not usually recognized as central to the constitution of national imaginaries, such as women, migrants and the Roma people. We argue that these subjects maintain a dialectical relationship with the traditional and hegemonic representations of the Catalan national identity in terms of class, gender, and race. We explain how workers, women, and migrants are involved in the representations of Catalanness from an intersectional perspective. This allows us to present a new conceptual orientation in theorizing about nation-building. In this sense, we propose three strategies for achieving alternatives to the forms of national imagination of hegemonic mass Catalanism: 1) to build new hegemonic symbolic and social imaginaries focused on class, gender, and race; 2) to build a collective memory that relocates the central role of workers, women, and the migratory experience within the historical memory of Catalonia, that is, as a place of memory of nation-building; and, 3) to link the discourses of social and national cohesion in terms of well-being and improving the material living conditions of subordinate groups such as women and migrants. In proposing these strategies, we build upon the theoretical framework of Open Marxism together with the approach of materialist and anti-racist feminism. We develop a critique of the orthodox conceptualization of the category of class and class struggle, highlighting the potential of the different political identities involved in the exercise of nation-building.