| Research Abstract |
The main objective of this research is to investigate the identity transformation of historically minority regions in Western Europe in a global context. We take the case of Brittany, known for its Celtic roots, community cohesion, and struggle against the dominant French culture. After WWII, in the 1960-70s, new social movements emerged in the region, supported mainly by students and intellectuals. Qualified as an ethnic revival (A.D.Smith), and 《mouvement nationalitaire (A.Touraine) 》, this range of movements was followed by another regionalist phenomenon which took place in the late 1990s, mobilizing the media, local institutions and a much larger Breton public.
Based on field research on cultural associations and adopting an ethnographic framework, we tried to answer empirically whether the region's ethnonationalist consciousness of the 1960-70s has shifted toward a more globalized, multicultural, and civic identity.
The methods adopted were : semi-structured, qualitative interviews, and participant observation in association activities. Some other interviews were conducted in Barcelona, to take into account the institutional effects on the new regionalist phenomenon.
In Brittany, we can observe an emergence of new forms of regional identity, which affirm solidarity with different types of 《minorized cultures》 such as immigrants' culture, minority nations, aboriginal populations, and inhabitants of developing countries. Breton ethnicity, reinterpreted in a global context, has gotten a more personal,《soft》, flexible, and civic dimension. It is now used by individuals to resist against the cultural uniformization of the world as much as against the domination of the French state. Here, the sentiment of belonging does not signify an ethnoterritorial identity : rather, it seems to open up the space for another type of cultural 《metissage》 with others, both inside (ex. immigrants) and outside(ex. aboriginal peoples)the geographically and nationally confined region.
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