Sovereignty, prefigurative politics, and basques’ joy to decide

• Autores: Gaztañaga, Julieta
• Año de publicación: 2021
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: artículo
• Materia: BASQUE COUNTRY; ETHNOGRAPHY; POLITICAL ANTHROPOLOGY; POLITICAL PLEASURE; SOCIAL MOVEMENTS; SOVEREIGNTY
• Institución: Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas

The literature about Basque politics and the anthropology of sovereignty often define the political within the boundaries of violence, desire, and statehood: a sort of pessimism pervades the general assumptions and the end results. In this article, I shift the focus to a different aspect of the problem of sovereignty, drawing on ethnographic research about a Basque social movement that asserts self-determination in terms of a democratic and pacifist ‘Right to Decide’. Exploring the movement’s organization, daily activities, performances, sociality, and discourses, I argue that they prefigure political pleasure in a way that encourages the performance of sovereignty as a positive force. I show how the movement creates an environment in which producing sovereignty becomes a joyful experience.
Fil: Gaztañaga, Julieta. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Instituto de Ciencias Antropológicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina