Securitization Model and Referenda-2014 in Scotland and Catalonia

Abstract

The article deals with role of historical memory in the context of two referenda which have been held in 2014 — in Scotland on the18th of September and in Catalonia on the 9th of November, although not recognised by the Spanish government. Both of themreflect the issue of how the imperial past influences current political debates about independence. In spite of the different politicaland cultural contexts, the two referenda have been deeply connected with history and memory and have exploited imperial settingsto explain the ‘security choice’. This article argues that traumatic experience of transition between the imperial and national contextshas been the decisive factor in the process of securitization of memory. Although memory has been considered as a strategicrecourse in the two regions, the way it has been utilized is different. The memory of the past was shifted from the sphere of politicsto the sphere of security, and memory has been utilized as a means of securitization. Desecuritization of the national memory in theScottish and the Catalan contexts is connected with its politicization as well as with placing it within the cultural context. Britishand Spanish imperial pasts have been sublimated in the form of cultural symbols and memories.