The RegioCat Project

RegioCat. Franco’s regionalisme from Catalonia: centripetal practices and discourses

“Franco’s regionalisme from Catalonia: centripetal practices and discourses” (PID2021-125227NB-I00) is about the collaboration spaces, proposals, discourses and cohabitation carried out by the regional elites during the Franco’s regime, especially – but not exclusively – in Catalonia. Its role as a kneecap and an intermediary between the interests and traditions of the territories and the project of modernization and sophistication of the dictatorship during the so-called desarrollismo was fundamental. Thus, the analysis of the role played by these collaborative elites more than just extractive ones should allow us to better understand the complex political, economic, social, and cultural transformations of the second half of the 20th century in Spain. Our hypothesis considers that the groups that emerged from the collaboration and imbrication (political, social, and family) between part of the local leaders and the growing peripheral civil service, participated in the governance and updating / modernization of the country, articulating a kind of centripetal regionalism, and maintaining its influence beyond the Democratic Transition.