Language, Political Identity, and Regional Mobilisation: Evidence from Catalonia, Scotland, and Silesia

Regional separatist movements across Europe frequently mobilise linguistic claims to legitimise demands for political autonomy or independence. While the relationship between language and nationalism has been widely theorised, existing research often treats language as a background cultural attribute or a static marker of identity. Less attention has been paid to how language is actively constructed and mobilised through political communication as part of broader processes of contentious politics and centre–periphery conflict. This paper addresses this gap by examining how regional political actors discursively frame language as a component of political identity and as a resource for political mobilisation and collective action. The paper adopts a comparative qualitative research design based on the analysis of political advertisements, campaign videos, posters, and official movement communications produced by pro-independence and autonomist actors engaged in sustained mobilisation in Catalonia, Scotland, and Silesia. The analysis draws on an original qualitative corpus of approximately 90 political campaign materials, collected from key electoral and mobilisation periods across the three regions. The cases are selected to capture variation in language vitality, institutionalisation, and political status, allowing the study to distinguish between communicative and symbolic forms of linguistic mobilisation rather than assuming a direct relationship between everyday language use and political relevance. Methodologically, the paper employs discourse-analytical tools drawn from political communication and sociolinguistics, with a focus on how linguistic references are embedded within broader mobilisation narratives. The analysis examines recurring framing strategies through which language is reclassified, historicised, and moralised in order to construct collective political subjects. Particular attention is paid to how linguistic claims are linked to narratives of historical continuity, democratic legitimacy, and cultural marginalisation, thereby aligning cultural difference with political entitlement. Empirically, the cases reveal distinct but comparable patterns. In Catalonia, campaign materials consistently frame language as evidence of historical continuity and democratic maturity, embedding linguistic normalisation within broader claims to political sovereignty. In Scotland, references to Gaelic and Scots appear less frequently but are mobilised symbolically to evoke authenticity, heritage, and cultural depth within a predominantly civic nationalist discourse. In the Silesian case, political actors foreground processes of linguistic reclassification, explicitly contesting the designation of Silesian as a dialect and framing linguistic recognition as a matter of political justice and dignity. Across cases, language is shown to function not merely as an object of protection, but as a means of mobilising collective identity within contentious political struggles. The findings demonstrate that linguistic framing operates as a dynamic political resource rather than a fixed cultural attribute. The political relevance of language depends less on patterns of everyday usage than on how linguistic claims are articulated, circulated, and embedded within broader mobilisation strategies. By foregrounding these mechanisms, the paper contributes to research on political participation, social movements, and nationalism, offering a comparative account of how language is mobilised to construct political identity and legitimise centre–periphery claims across diverse European contexts.