Mobile Identities in Eco-Social Context; Beyond Spain

This round table focuses on contexts, both historical and contemporary, where human groups transcend national rhetoric searching for visions of democratic citizenship. How techno-science, and economy on one hand, and environmental degradation and climate change, on the other intervene in post-national community formations? What would the role of the arts and the Humanities be in the formation of a democratic citizenship? In answering these questions, we visit the following contexts: (1) “Museums of the People” emerging in France and Spain in the 1920s and 30s shows that the idea of ‘people’ has not always been nationalistic, but rather transnational as in the programs under the auspices of League of Nations (2) Maghrebian Migrations to the Iberian Peninsula that has led to formation of Catalano-Amazigh community, in recent years has refused to embrace an ethnic identity in response to fluid socio-economic challenges. (3) Hydropolitics, waged in the name of progress, created turbulent socio-ecological shifts, migrations and flights that provoked important questions about Spain's system of autonomous communities as well as ecological sovereignty. (4) Media narratives emerging to make sense of water scarcity and climate change in the Iberian Peninsula involve forming of the Anthropocene generation identity. (5) An artistic practice of incorporating sign language into performances is transformative in building new interpretive "frames" inclusive of deaf and hard of hearing individuals into mainstream Spanish society. (6) Left-wing activists and politicians in Catalonia are loosening what were previously considered firm bonds between nationalism and support for independence.