The Nation in Spain: An Instrument for Qualitative Inquiry into a Complex Question

Abstract

This paper is an innovative study about the territorial organisation of the Spanish State (TOSS) and how it is anchored and fits within definitions of nationhood. This is a technical contribution in the form of a codification protocol designed to measure changes in preferences regarding the TOSS and feelings of belonging to Spain and a given region in political discourse. Both social phenomena have experienced major changes in recent years; but in order to understand how these changes have occurred and how they have been legitimised by political elites, an instrument is needed to measure these changes systematically over time. A methodological framework is presented here that has been applied to a comparative study of five different Statutes of Autonomy and the reforms that they have undergone, together with a preliminary overview of the results produced by the protocol.