Journal articles by Mark F . Hau
Genealogy, 2020
Issues related to Catalan secessionism are central to current debates on European integration, na... more Issues related to Catalan secessionism are central to current debates on European integration, nationalism, and territorial politics, and the Catalan independence movement has become famous for its large annual demonstrations on Catalan national day, the Diada. This paper represents the first attempt at a thorough empirical investigation of the most important political event in Catalonia combining historical and ethnographic analysis that covers the current modern period from 1977 to 2019. This paper uses a mixed-methods approach to study the Diada mobilisations with two different main approaches determined principally by the availability of sources. We investigate the recent period of activating the Diada since 2012 using qualitative interviews, ethnographic data, and social media analysis. For the more distant periods of the Diada celebration, we use a more classical historical approach centred on discourse analysis of print media and public discourses. We find that there has been a marked shift in the perception and organisation of the Diada in recent years. We conclude that when civil society organisations are in charge of the Diada celebration, the result is a more politically charged event that mobilises a much larger proportion of the population than when politicians and political parties organise the celebration. Further, when political parties are in charge, the Diada not only mobilises far fewer people, but usually takes on a much more cultural and festive character compared with the explicitly political Diada demonstrations organised by civil society actors since 2012.
Environmental Politics, 2021
Climate change is arguably the single most important political issue in the world today. As yet, ... more Climate change is arguably the single most important political issue in the world today. As yet, however, there has been little research on the relationship between climate change and nationalism. In this contribution we investigate the possible existence of a ‘green nationalism’ among progressive and social democratic sub-state nationalist parties in minority nations. We identify an uncharted rhetorical and ideological continuity between how climate issues are perceived and championed among minority nations across time. This is a clear instance of ‘frame bridging’, where seemingly disparate policy elements are combined and reinforce one another. We show how sub-state political actors actively seek to use this link with climate-related environmental issues to bridge policy issues. We conclude by cautioning that it is unclear whether this sub-state ‘green nationalism’ might survive an ascent to statehood, in which state-building and other forms of realpolitik might trump and eclipse environmental concerns.
Book chapters by Mark F . Hau
Pulling Together or Pulling Apart? Perspectives on Nationhood, Identity, and Belonging in Europe, 2020
This chapter offers novel perspectives on how Catalan national identity, rather than being a pre-... more This chapter offers novel perspectives on how Catalan national identity, rather than being a pre-determined, passively assigned ethnic category, is socially constructed through active choices and technologies of the self. Drawing on ethnographic data gathered among activists of the pro-independence, left-wing party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, and employing ethical self-transformation terminology previously used primarily in the study of religious behaviour, it explores the construction of contemporary Catalan national identity, cultivated and embodied through daily communicative practice and shared narratives. As national senses of belonging become inextricably linked with realpolitik, political constructions of ‘the good life’ increasingly take Catalan independence and Catalan national identity as the starting point, linking the political and the moral. Catalan nationalist activists attempt to align personal and communal narratives by discursively equating a Catalan ideal-self with morally correct behaviour, contrasting Catalan virtues with Spanish vices.
Thesis Chapters by Mark F . Hau
PhD Thesis, University of Aarhus, 2019
This thesis aims to contribute to the study of (minority) nationalism and political parties. Focu... more This thesis aims to contribute to the study of (minority) nationalism and political parties. Focused on a comparative investigation of the two pro-independence parties the Scottish National Party in Scotland and Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya in Catalonia, I make the case that the SNP and ERC are like actors in unlike circumstances, highlighting their internal similarities and their highly different contexts without seeking to conflate them. Although there exists a thriving literature on minority nationalism and political parties, few studies have used ethnography and qualitative data. I employ ethnographic methods in order to deepen our understanding of the Scottish and Catalan independence movements as represented by the SNP and ERC. This doctoral thesis is an attempt to further the use of ethnographic methods to study parties and party membership, further contributing to the incipient sub-subfield of political anthropology that I have termed an ‘anthropology of party politics’.
Other work by Mark F . Hau
Based on 6 months of fieldwork in a Barcelona neighborhood among the left-‐wing nationalist part... more Based on 6 months of fieldwork in a Barcelona neighborhood among the left-‐wing nationalist party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), this thesis attempts to explain how the independence movement in the Spanish region of Catalonia has achieved massive popularity in later years. I argue that certain social mechanics and practices help the formation of a populist people and provide the foundation for a broad independence movement. These include ERC members’ ethical framing of a Catalan self in which universal values are equated with Catalan ones and a view of Catalan nationhood as something achieved rather than ascribed. Rather than being reducible to either a purely ethnic or civic type of nationalism, I have termed Esquerra’s Catalist ideology inclusionist, as it allows the entry of foreigners into the Catalan nation with relative ease. Due to a recent change in the political logic of the Catalanist political scene, primarily led by the efforts of Esquerra, the inclusionist tendencies and identification with broad values characteristic of Catalanist ideology have laid the foundation for the political presentation of all of Catalonia as a unified people. Independence is used as the political goal around which otherwise unrelated issues can coalesce, bringing unity to a populist movement for Catalan independence. Focusing on universal values such as democracy, tolerance and peace are ways in which members can agree while maintaining their own opinions and enable them to associate their own lives with the values of Catalanist discourse. This allows many sectors in Catalan society to identify themselves with said values and forms the basis for a high degree of political mobilization. This includes the formation of heterogeneous political issues or demands into an equivalential chain, cuting across many sectors of Catalan society, because it allows for individual interpretation and shared form rather than meaning. This promotes a nominal unity sustained by the common goal of independence and by the articulation of the Catalan people as a distinct political actor.
Exam paper from a graduate course on Recent Anthropological Theory in 2013
Papers by Mark F . Hau
Social Science Research Network, 2022
Work, Employment and Society
Since both ‘conflict and co-operation are at the heart of employment relations’, unions need to s... more Since both ‘conflict and co-operation are at the heart of employment relations’, unions need to strike a balance between mobilizing workers against employers and ‘social dialogue’ when communicating with members and the public. Drawing on a case study of unions and grassroots communication on Facebook during sector collective bargaining, this article develops a framework of politico-communicative logics that inform the social media strategies of unions and their grassroots: a logic of mobilization and a logic of settlement. These logics are reflected in how unions and grassroots engage with followers, their choice of words and the topics they address. These theoretical developments on politico-communicative logics on Facebook open up the door for further studies of intra-organizational union communication in an increasingly digitalized world.
New Technology, Work and Employment
Platform work represents an important challenge for the ‘Danish model’ of unionisation. Using int... more Platform work represents an important challenge for the ‘Danish model’ of unionisation. Using interviews and ethnographic data, this article analyses the strategies of the Danish grassroots union movement the Wolt Workers' Group, representing principally migrant couriers using the food‐delivery platform Wolt. This study is an attempt to map an emergent form of flexible labour organisation based on horizontal, informal online networks while supported in different ways by established unions. We term this strategy of balanced autonomy and support ‘social media unionism'. Wolt couriers' attempts at grassroots organisation via social media is an important and understudied issue, especially their complex relationship to union actors. The ‘social media unionism' explored in this article allows for the formation and maintenance of nimble grassroots mobilisation among workers that are otherwise hard for unions to reach, such as migrants platform workers. We argue that this st...
Editorial Universidad del Rosario, 2021
Genealogy, 2020
Issues related to Catalan secessionism are central to current debates on European integration, na... more Issues related to Catalan secessionism are central to current debates on European integration, nationalism, and territorial politics, and the Catalan independence movement has become famous for its large annual demonstrations on Catalan national day, the Diada. This paper represents the first attempt at a thorough empirical investigation of the most important political event in Catalonia combining historical and ethnographic analysis that covers the current modern period from 1977 to 2019. This paper uses a mixed-methods approach to study the Diada mobilisations with two different main approaches determined principally by the availability of sources. We investigate the recent period of activating the Diada since 2012 using qualitative interviews, ethnographic data, and social media analysis. For the more distant periods of the Diada celebration, we use a more classical historical approach centred on discourse analysis of print media and public discourses. We find that there has been...
Environmental Politics, 2021
Issues related to anthropogenic climate change such as global warming, fossil fuel emissions, and... more Issues related to anthropogenic climate change such as global warming, fossil fuel emissions, and renewable energy have emerged as some of the most important and pertinent political questions today. While the role of the state in the Anthropocene has been explored in academia, there is a severe dearth of research on the relationship between climate change and nationalism, especially at the sub-state level. This paper builds on the concept of "green nationalism" among sub-state nationalist parties in European minority nations. Using a multimodal analysis of selected European Free Alliance (EFA) campaign posters from the past 30 years, the article explores an extensive "frame bridging" where minority nationalist political actors actively seek to link environmental issues to autonomy. Although there is an apparent continuity in minority nationalist support for green policies, earlier initiatives focused on preservation of local territory while EFA parties today frame climate change as a global challenge that requires local solutions, which only they can provide. The frame bridging between territorial belonging and progressive politics has lead to the emergence of an environmentally focused, minority nationalist agenda that advocates for autonomy in order to enact more ambitious green policies, or "green nationalism". This shows that nationalism in the right ideological environment can be a foundation for climate action, as minority nationalist actors base their environmentally focused agenda to address the global climate crisis precisely on their nationalist ideology.
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Journal articles by Mark F . Hau
Book chapters by Mark F . Hau
Thesis Chapters by Mark F . Hau
Other work by Mark F . Hau
Papers by Mark F . Hau