Implementing conviviality: managing (post) violence politics in Basque Country

• Grant number: 16/22641-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: January 01, 2017
• End date: April 10, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Omar Ribeiro Thomaz
• Grantee: Adriana Maria Villalón
• Supervisor: Gabriel Gatti
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidad del País Vasco, Bizkaia (UPV), Spain
• Associated to the scholarship: 13/21800-5 - Learning to live together: Ethnography of post-violence in the Basque Country. An interpretation as compared to South Africa, BP.PD

Abstract

In accordance with the associated post-doctoral Project, this proposal approaches central aspects of (post) violence policies of institutional management and intervention in Basque Country. Substantiating the request of a three months period of internship abroad (BEPE) (January - March 2017) in the Basque Country University, under the supervision of prof. Dr. Gabrial Gatti. This proposal is part of a larger comparative project which will be complemented with another nine months internship in South Africa (April - December 2017). After 80 years of changing political violence in the region (from civil war, Franco's dictatorship, and ETA's violent demands for autonomy from Spain), Basque government current agenda for pacification is marked by efforts to develop tools capable of situating death and violence in its historical and cultural intimacy (Herzfeld, 1997). Besides its legal aspects, this process has activated different narratives and institutional actions whose foremost objective is to create a platform for conviviality between the opposing sides of the conflict. Deeply rooted in local tensions, these efforts are framed by an array of local categories such as convivencia (coexistence), empatía (empathy) and diversidad (diversity). Generally associated with the management of extra-community relations, these concepts are incorporated by the Basque government to foster the recognition and acceptance of intra-community "political sensibilities" and linguistic pluralism, thus forging a common ground for managing the aftermath of political violence. This proposal is interested in the analysis of these overlapping systems of meaning, my utmost intention being to understand the complexity of internal tensions underlining Basque society. Based on previous research experiences on Basque administration, specifically on its migration and linguistic policies, this proposal provides for a unique approach to the study of transitional technologies in other (post) violence contexts, such as South Africa, Rwanda and Colombia. Focusing on "backstage" processes of (post) violence management, this proposal is organized around three central questions: What is being negotiated or managed in processes of internal political recovery? How does the promotion of convivencia interact with "contentious coexistences" Is the management and market of coexistence supported by an essentialized view of local tensions? (AU)