The social construction of the Spanish nation :

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" The social construction of the Spanish nation : "
Garralda Ortega, Ángel

Document Type	:	Latin Dissertation
Record Number	:	1100048
Doc. No	:	TLets600359
Main Entry	:	Garralda Ortega, Ángel
Title & Author	:	The social construction of the Spanish nation :\ Garralda Ortega, Ángel
College	:	University of Birmingham
Date	:	2014
student score	:	2014
Degree	:	Ph.D.
Abstract	:	This thesis analyses Spanish nation-building from a social-constructionist perspective assuming that nations are historically evolving social constructs and that nationhood is a largely modern phenomenon with pre-modern antecedents. A theoretical model for studying nationhood is proposed based on a critique of nationalism theories, Giddens’s social structuration model (Giddens 1984) refined by Sewell (2005); modernisation theories and discourse analytical approaches. A discourse-oriented methodology is proposed: Spanish nation-building, conceptualised as semiotically-mediated social action situated across time-space, is analysed nomothetically and ideographically, both in its broad historical context and in connection with recent narratives extracted from a large purpose-built corpus of newspaper articles. Several factors behind Spain’s problematic nation-building are identified in the socio-historical analysis: an unyielding geography inhibiting communications, a long history of political and cultural fragmentation, a late and uneven modernisation and the lack of hegemonic national narratives in the context of a long history of confrontation between different identities. The corpus-based discourse analytical approach employed in the latter part of the analysis illustrates the potential offered by corpus-assisted discourse studies in social research, revealing that a widely-accepted Spanish identity discourse from the centre’s perspective has not yet emerged.
Subject	:	PB Modern European Languages
Added Entry	:	University of Birmingham