Nothing will be like before. Transformations in Catalan society during the “procés”

Abstract

The massive demonstration of September 11, 2012 is considered the beginning of the pro-independence process in Catalonia. Just after this date, Convergència i Unió (the historic nationalist center-right coalition) embraces the secessionist thesis for the first time. Mariano Rajoy does not accept to negotiate a fiscal pact for Catalonia and then Artur Mas calls early elections in which the national question is at the center. Catalan political life has always been crossed by two axes, although the ideological prevailed over the Catalan-Spanish one.
From then on and for five years a cycle of intense social, political and institutional mobilization develops. This paper explores a field that is still little traveled in relation to the analysis of the period. The focus is placed on background social dynamics, cultural changes, little visible but present, that occur in Catalan society. That is, it deepens the transformations in the political culture and public opinion that are experienced in this contentious framework.