Substate nation-building and geographical representations of the "other" in Galicia, Spain (1860-1936)

Abstract

The "social construction" of otherness and, broadly speaking, the ideological-political use of "external" socio-spatial referents have become important topics in contemporary studies on territorial identities, nationalisms and nation-building processes, geography included. After some brief, introductory theoretical reflections, this paper examines the contribution of geographical discourses, arguments and images, "sensu lato", in the definition of the external socio-spatial identity referents of Galician nationalism in Spain, during the period 1860-1936. In this discourse Castile was typically represented as "the other" (the negative, opposition referent), against which Galician identity was mobilised, whereas Portugal, on the one hand, together with Ireland and the so-called "Atlantic-Celtic naionalities", on the other hand, were positively constructed as integrative and emulation referents.