"We're a nation, not a minority": Independentism and national sentiment in Catalonia after the 2017 referendum

Studies of minorities in Europe frequently focus on Catalonia, and yet Catalans do not always fulfil archetypal criteria for minority status. Indeed, the turn towards secessionism from Spain seen throughout the 2000s and 2010s has served to highlight the status of Catalonia as a nation, rather than a typical minority. The unsuccessful declaration of independence in 2017 has resulted in a reconsideration of national sentiment in Catalonia, and this chapter focuses on political and media discourse in order to trace developments in (and responses to) Catalan independentism since then. This will allow us to reconsider how the boundaries between terms like ‘minority’ and ‘nation’ are discursively created, maintained or challenged.