LESS DIVIDED AFTER ETA? THE EVOLUTION OF IDEOLOGICAL CLEAVAGES IN THE BASQUE ENVIRONMENTAL FIELD, 2007–2017*
The Basque Country has traditionally been considered a strongly polarized political community. The influence of the center-periphery cleavage and the shadow of political violence have conditioned many aspects of social life, including relations among civic organizations. Previous literature suggests that differences in organizations’ national identities and/or position towards ETA’s (Euskadi ta Askatasuna, or Basque Country and Freedom in the Basque language) violence have often acted as cleavages fragmenting collective action fields. This research examines whether this picture changed substantially after ETA’s abandonment of violence in 2011 by taking the environmental field as a case study and looking at the evolution of patterns of interorganizational collaboration between 2007 and 2017. The results of statistical network analyses show that both Basque nationalism and ideological positions towards ETA’s use of violence had a strong influence on organizations’ decisions to collaborate with one another up to 2011, whereas during the more recent postconflict period, collaboration seems to occur in a more pluralistic and less ideologically driven fashion.
Contributor Notes
Alejandro Ciordia holds a PhD in Sociology and Social Research from the University of Trento (Italy), where he is a fellow of the research group on Collective Action, Change, and Transition (CoACT). Please direct all correspondence to a.ciordiamorandeira@alumni.unitn.it.
Considering that this research article condenses part of the results of my doctoral dissertation, I would like to thank the several faculty members of the Doctoral School of Social Sciences at the University of Trento who provided constructive feedback at early stages of the project, in particular to my supervisor, Prof. Mario Diani. Additionally, the generous scholarship I received from the Doctoral School allowed me to work full time on this research project. Earlier versions of this manuscript have been presented at several academic conferences and seminars in which I received useful feedback from several participants. I would also like to express my gratitude to the three anonymous reviewers for their extremely constructive comments and fair criticisms, as well as to my colleague Aurora Perego, who carefully read an advanced version of the manuscript and provided sound suggestions for its revision. Last but not least, I am certainly indebted to the many academics, journalists, and members of civic organizations in the Basque Country who generously contributed to this research with their time and thoughtful responses.