Collective residencies / POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY / Olot

KARLO BASTA

From Sunday, 31 March 2019 to Friday, 5 April 2019

KARLO BASTA
Associate Professor of Politics
St. John’s

Bio

Karlo Basta is Associate Professor of Comparative Politics at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. He writes about identity politics in multinational states, symbolic aspects of political institutions, and the politics of events and temporality. His work has been published in Comparative Political StudiesPublius: The Journal of FederalismNations and Nationalism, and other scholarly journals. He is currently completing a book manuscript on decentralization, recognition, and secessionist crises in multinational states.

Project

During my stay at Faber, I will be developing an ongoing project on independence referenda. While most referenda feature debates about the economic consequences of independence, there are no systematic studies of the role of the key economic actor in this process – regional big business and the related associations. My study is the first to do so, exploring the various strategies deployed by such actors in Catalonia, Scotland, and Quebec, and comparing them to the processes in Slovenia and Western Australia.

This was a wonderful residency

This was a wonderful residency, bringing together a diverse set of scholars and practitioners, all united by the common interest in issues of legitimacy and self-determination. Unfortunately, due to other obligations, I was unable to participate in the first half of the residency, but this meant that I arrived to what was already a group of people who shared a sense of community. I had many useful and pleasant exchanges on a daily basis with all of the colleagues. These conversations were useful both as intellectual exercises, and as a networking opportunity.

The residency itself was impeccably run by the team in Olot. All the organizational details, from information, to taxi arrangements, to the stay itself, were arranged to maximize the time and energy available to the residents to dedicate to their respective projects. The premises at the Hotel Riu Fluvià were very comfortable, with all the necessary amenities, and an insipring view of the surrounding valley, the hills and the mountains beyond. The hotel itself was in the ideal position between nature and the town itself. While I have visited a number of cities and towns across Catalonia, I have never been to Olot, and was pleasantly surprised by a town that is small, but full of things to experience. One of these was Ètic Cafè i Te Artesans that served better coffee than most cafes I have been to in Barcelona.  

During the five days of my stay at the Faber residency, I have made significant strides in my project on the role of business elites in the debates around independence. This is a comparative project that examines the dynamics in the lead-up to referenda in three cases that featured a large and diversified private business community (Catalonia, Scotland, Quebec) and two that did not have such business communities (Slovenia and Western Australia). I am very grateful to the Residency for providing the conditions to facilitate this work.

Notícies, articles i activitats

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