The legitimization of political violence: A case study of ETA in the Basque country.

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.

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Ethnogenesis in the Pyrenees: The Contentious Making of a National Identity in the Basque Country (1643–2017)

European History Quarterly ◽

10.1177/0265691418777994 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 48 (3) ◽

pp. 462-489 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ludger Mees

Keyword(s):

National Identity ◽

Identity Formation ◽

Political Violence ◽

Basque Country ◽

National Identities ◽

Identity Change ◽

Social Scientists ◽

Nationalist Movement ◽

Political Religion

Focusing on the Basque case study, this article adopts a historical longue-durée perspective over more than two centuries (nineteenth and twentieth) in order to better identify the dialectic in the process of identity formation and change of a small European, stateless community, separated by a borderline and living in two different political, socioeconomic and cultural settings. The political expression of this long process of Basque ‘ethnogenesis’ (A.D. Smith) was the rise of the nationalist movement in the Spanish Basque Country at the end of the nineteenth century. By tracing the analysis of Basque identity back to pre-modern times and following its path to the present, this article aims to produce new insights into the factors that trigger the crucial moments of identity change that bring to an end previous periods of stability. Its epistemological fundaments are connected to some prominent topics that have been widely discussed by historians and other social scientists concerned with nationalism and national identity (the cultural shape of national identities; ‘modernists’ versus ‘ethno-symbolists’; nationalism and political religion; national identity and political violence).

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A Holistic Approach to Integrate and Evaluate Sustainable Development in Higher Education. The Case Study of the University of the Basque Country

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13010392 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 392

Author(s):

Estibaliz Sáez de Cámara ◽

Idoia Fernández ◽

Nekane Castillo-Eguskitza

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Sustainable Development ◽

Basque Country ◽

Holistic Approach ◽

Institutional Setting ◽

Practical Case ◽

Development Indicators ◽

Agenda 2030 ◽

The University

Since the United Nations (UN) approved the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development in 2015, higher education institutions have increasingly demonstrated their commitment by supporting several initiatives. Although a great deal of progress has been made, there is still a lack of integrative approaches to truly implement Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in higher education. This paper presents a practical case that illustrates how to design and articulate SDGs within an institutional setting adopting a holistic approach: EHUagenda 2030 plan of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). It is based on empirical inquiry into global and holistic sustainable transformation and a real experience to move towards a verifiable and pragmatic contribution to sustainability. This plan describes the contribution to 12 of the 17 SDGs, along with three sectorial plans (Equality Campus, Inclusion Campus and Planet Campus), as well as the refocus of the UPV/EHU’s Educational Model and the panel of sustainable development indicators, which addresses the technical aspects of monitoring the SDGs. The methodology (mapping; mainstreaming; diagnosis and definition and, finally, estimation) is systematic and replicable in other universities yet to embark upon this integration. This case study makes a contribution towards the understanding of the complexity of the changes in Higher Education and the ways to approach it.

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The Politics of Domestic Implementation of International Human Rights Law

Asia Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law ◽

10.1163/15718158-01601006 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 16 (1-2) ◽

pp. 104-149 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Deepika Udagama

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Political Violence ◽

Social Indicators ◽

Interesting Case ◽

International Human Rights Law ◽

Human Rights Law ◽

International Human Rights ◽

Political Factors ◽

International Human

Domestic application of international human rights law may encounter more serious obstacles than purely doctrinal constraints due to political factors. Sri Lanka offers an interesting case study in that regard. Once a committed democracy with high social indicators, it descended into authoritarianism and political violence a few decades after independence. This article examines the interplay between Sri Lanka’s dualist legal system and its international human rights obligations and points to how the relationship is increasingly being defined by political factors than doctrinal complexities. It argues that in such circumstances remedial action may lie more within the political arena than before legal forums.

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Anatomy of a Violent Protest Wave: Understanding the Mechanisms of Escalation and De-Escalation in Far-Right and Anti-Fascist Street Clashes

Youth and Globalization ◽

10.1163/25895745-02020004 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 186-209

Author(s):

Leanne C. Serbulo

Keyword(s):

Political Violence ◽

Event Analysis ◽

Right Wing ◽

Far Right ◽

Security Forces ◽

Protest Movements ◽

State Security ◽

Social Polarization ◽

Insight Into

Abstract With the rise of right-wing populist ideologies and ensuing social polarization, political violence has become more widespread. Between 2017 and 2019, far-right extremists and anti-fascists engaged in more than twenty violent protest clashes in Portland, Oregon, USA. Through a protest event analysis of those clashes supplemented with a case study of the protest wave, this paper explores how the mechanisms of radicalization and de-radicalization operate when two violent protest movements collide and interact with state security forces. The three-way interaction among a movement, counter-movement, and the police can produce unanticipated outcomes. For example, rather than de-escalating the situation, police underbidding resulted in an increase in violence between the two movements. Understanding how the mechanisms of radicalization and de-radicalization function in a movement/counter-movement protest cycle can provide insight into the ways in which a movement’s strategy and their adversaries’ responses to it can increase or decrease levels of violence.

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El lazo azul en el País Vasco: una aproximación desde la historia oral veinte años despuésThe Lazo Azul (blue ribbon) in the Basque Country: an approach from oral history twenty years after

Vínculos de Historia Revista del Departamento de Historia de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha ◽

10.18239/vdh.v0i6.284 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 381

Author(s):

Irene Moreno Bibiloni

Keyword(s):

Collective Action ◽

Oral History ◽

Political Violence ◽

Basque Country ◽

Collective Behaviour ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

La Paz ◽

Blue Ribbon ◽

Primary Element ◽

Pais Vasco

El siguiente trabajo tiene como objetivo fundamental realizar un acercamiento a las campañas del lazo azul que se dieron en los años noventa en el País Vasco propiciadas por la Coordinadora Gesto por la Paz de Euskal Herria, en tanto que iniciativa social novedosa ante la violencia terrorista en el País Vasco. Partimos de la hipótesis de la importancia de los movimientos sociales, en este caso el pacifista, para comprender la historia reciente del País Vasco y la evolución de la actitud frente a ETA. La clave para este acercamiento ha sido el estudio de los sentimientos y las emociones como elemento a tener en cuenta en el comportamiento colectivo, más allá de los aspectos racionales que han venido destacando las teorías clásicas de la movilización social. Propongo para este análisis una metodología basada en la historia oral, para tratar de centrar la atención en lo que la emoción genera en relación a la acción colectiva y la movilización ciudadana. Así pues, a las fuenteshemerográficas y documentales se han sumado las orales, a través del análisis de entrevistas semiestructuradas a integrantes de Gesto por la Paz, para reconstruir y comprender qué suponía significarse públicamente contra la violencia política.PALABRAS CLAVE: País Vasco, movilizaciones pacifistas, Gesto por la Paz, historia oral, lazo azul.ABSTRACTThe following study seeks to carry out an examination of the so-called lazo azul (blue ribbon) campaigns during the 1990s in the Basque Country, promoted by the Coordinadora Gesto por la Paz de Euskal Herria. The key to this approach is the study of the feelings and emotions as the primary element to consider in collective behaviour, going beyond the rational aspects which have been highlighted by the classical theories concerning social mobilizations. In order to develop the analysisI use a methodology based on oral history to try to focus on what emotion generates in relation to collective action and citizen mobilizations. Apart from documentary and newspapers sources, oral ones have been added through the analysis of semi-structured interviews of members of Gesto por la Paz, so that what it meant to declare oneself in public against political violence and what was felt when participating in these mobilizations can be rebuilt and understood.KEY WORDS: Basque Country, peace demonstrations, Gesto por la Paz, oral history, blue ribbon.

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