Getting close: some methodological intuitions to approach secessionist activists in exposed contexts

Departing from a research project on emotions and politics in the Catalan secessionist movement (Weaving Together Sovereignty and Secessionism: Politics, Emotions and Affects, ref. 2018 IEA5 00008, Institut d’Estudis de l’Autogovern, Generalitat de Catalunya), in this workshop I would like to discuss the methodological and theoretical challenges that research on secessionist movements and organisations pose for researchers. Between October 2019—the month in which the prison sentence for the leaders of the Catalan independence process accused of sedition was made public—and June 2021, we conducted qualitative research on how politics and emotions affect each other and influence collective action, giving rise to movements of solidarity and community building, but also giving rise to movements of separation from those perceived as ‘the Others.’ This project aimed to position emotions as an essential field of study in relation to contemporary politics and to approach the lived experiences of activists and non-militant citizens. Much has been published on the political cycle commonly referred to as the Catalan independence process; however, there is still a lack of research that, from a qualitative perspective, brings us closer to the experiences of those involved in pro-independence organisations and parties and shows us what elements they consider fundamental to their awareness as pro-independence supporters and their participation in the movement. The research was based on qualitative techniques, including elicitation techniques, participant observation and 50 in-depth interviews with activists of the six main independentist organisations/ parties (39 interviews), as well as people not affiliated with any organisation (11 interviews). The organisations/parties studied were: Assemblea Nacional de Catalunya (ANC), Òmnium Cultural (OC), Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), Partit dels demòcrates de Catalunya (PdeCat/later Junts), Candidatura d'Unitat Popular (CUP) and Arran. They represent the entire ideological spectrum and include political parties with institutional representation (ERC, Junts, CUP), civic-based organisations (ANC, Òmnium) and left-wing pro-independence organisations (CUP, Arran). Some of the challenges I would like to address in my paper are: - How can our methodologies account for matter, discourse and affects in qualitative research and particularly in relation to ethnographic observation of public protest and in-depth interviews? - How do we negotiate the field of politics? Is politics with a capital letter –parties, organisations, institutions- different from politics as embodied, critical and transformative experiences, as, for instance, in feminist politics? - Being tied to the present is an ethnographic mandate but my experience with this project showed me how difficult ethnographic research can be in a sensitive and changing context. How can we deal with the rapidly changing political context and the strict deadlines of funded research? - How can we deal with the vulnerability of the participants and researchers in this field? - When making public our results, what do we say and what do we silence in order not to include any ‘sensitive’ information that could endanger participants?