6533b82ffe1ef96bd12946fe
RESEARCH PRODUCT
The triumph of partisanship: political scientists in the public debate about Catalonia's independence crisis (2010-2018)
José Real-datoEsperanza Estévez-toledoEsther Martínez-pastorJuan Rodríguez-teruelsubject
relevance of political sciencemedia_common.quotation_subjectPublic debateContext (language use)roles of political scientistsPoliticsPolitical science050602 political science & public administrationPolitical philosophyPublic engagementLegitimacymedia_commonpartisan intellectuals05 social sciencesmedia systems050301 educationComparative politicsUNESCO::CIENCIAS JURÍDICAS Y DERECHOIndependence0506 political sciencecataloniaSpainPolitical economyPolitical Science and International Relations0503 educationqualitative content analysisComunitats autònomessecessiondescription
Participation in the public debate constitutes one of the most evident avenues for political scientists to demonstrate the social relevance of the discipline. This article focuses on two questions: the types of roles political scientists adopt in their public interventions and the potential tensions between their public engagement and the epistemic norms regulating academic and research activities. We investigate these questions in the context of very salient political debates, involving a high degree of political confrontation, where basic political beliefs, values, identities, and interests are at stake. Focusing on the case of the public debate surrounding the Catalan inde pendence crisis (2010–2018), we demonstrate that in this type of context, (1) politi cal scientists mostly adopt a partisan stance in their public interventions, yet it is also frequent that this is combined with the presence of academic elements in their discourse; (2) demand side factors (media outlets’ editorial lines) reinforce these partisan dynamics. These fndings show that opportunities for increasing the social relevance of political scientists in these highly contentious contexts might come at the price of creating tensions that could erode the legitimacy of political science knowledge before the public.
year | journal | country | edition | language |
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2021-01-01 |