Eusko Ikaskuntza and the Government of Navarre - Euskarabidea have presented the conclusions report, which sets out ideas for social organisation that could serve as a basis for promoting the Basque language.
On 1 April, the results of a research project promoted by Eusko Ikaskuntza with the support of the Government of Navarre - Euskarabidea were presented in Pamplona, aimed at gaining a better understanding of the sociolinguistic reality of the region and the values that resonate most strongly among citizens in terms of the promotion of the Basque language.
The event was attended on behalf of Eusko Ikaskuntza by its president, Ana Urkiza; the second vice-president and councillor for Memory and Coexistence, External Action and Basque of the Government of Navarre, Ana Ollo; the researchers and scientific directors of the project, Xabier Erize and Carlos Vilches; and the managing director of Euskarabidea, Javier Arakama.
Ana Urkiza opened the session by pointing out the origins that led to this research, specifically ‘the participatory, deliberative and open work programme entitled Democratic management of diversity in Navarre which, through an agreement between the Government of Navarre and Eusko Ikaskuntza, was carried out between 2019 and 2023 (...) to find out the strengths and weaknesses of coexistence in the region’. He thanked the work of the research team ‘for making known the attitudes to promote the knowledge and use of Basque in Navarre and to clarify the direction that can be taken for the future’. To conclude, she pointed to the value of the research as ‘it corroborates that language -languages- should not be seen as elements of social fragmentation, but rather of integration based on respect for all identities’.
Afterwards, Ana Ollo, in addition to thanking the researchers for their work and highlighting the value of their trajectory, underlined the importance of the study for two reasons. With regard to the framework and purpose, Ana Ollo recalled that it is contextualised in "a commitment to stable collaboration between the Government of Navarre and institutions such as Eusko Ikaskunza, which allows debates and planning in the field of language policy to be tackled with a scientific and analytical support and vision. Something which, she added, favours a calm and in-depth approach, as well as being able to gauge the opinions and underlying currents that are at work in the society to which we are indebted". And in this sense, the Vice-President and Regional Minister responsible for the Department of Memory and Coexistence, External Action and Basque highlighted the usefulness of this research in guiding the language policies of a Government of Navarre that ‘reflects and takes into account the diversity of our community, is committed to the importance of coexistence - also linguistic coexistence - based on plurality and diversity; and, finally, sees Basque as an added value in the European context and an increasingly standardised world’.
The research is based on the premise that languages such as Basque share a challenge: to be promoted with social acceptance in a democratic society. The identification and analysis of discursive elements likely to achieve social acceptance or resonance could serve as a basis for the promotion of the Basque language in a culturally diverse territory with a particular sociolinguistic context: the percentage of Basque speakers in Navarre is lower than in other territories and its geographical distribution is very uneven; social opinions on the protection or support of the language have a particular impact; and the level of dialogue on language policy is low.
The main aim of the research was to identify and analyse the discursive elements on the promotion of the Basque language with greater and lesser social recognition in Navarrese society. The specific objective was to ascertain their basic social distribution: by linguistic groups (Basque speakers, Spanish speakers), by age groups, by gender and by sociolinguistic territories.
Following a mixed methodology, a qualitative phase was developed throughout 2023 in which, through group work with people representative of the main socio-demographic profiles of the population of Navarre, the most recurrent discursive elements were identified. This was validated quantitatively in 2024 by means of surveys in Basque and Spanish of almost a thousand people.
Conclusions of the research and evaluation
The report offers specific data from the empirical research carried out to analyse and interpret the social reality of Basque in Navarre. Among the main conclusions, it can be highlighted that 63% of the population of Navarre is favourable or very favourable to the promotion of the Basque language, and that 52% have a positive reference to the Basque-speaking community.
The scientific directors and editors of the report Fomento del euskera en Navarra a partir de elementos discursivos con resonancia social, the sociolinguist and doctor in Philology Xabier Erize, and the sociologist and doctor in Sociology Carlos Vilches, described the results as ‘novel and important’ when it comes to tackling the promotion of Basque in a society such as that of Navarre. They are results that also have practical applications for all the territories where Basque or other regional or minority languages are spoken, where it would be advisable to promote the language on the basis of discursive elements with a broad social resonance.
Innovative and inspiring research
The research has been singular and differential: it has been carried out for the first time in Navarre by asking the whole population, not just certain specific sectors, and with a mixed qualitative and quantitative methodology; in the concepts applied (although X. Erize had already used them previously); in the results, the difference with the research carried out to date can be seen; and lastly, in the analysis of the results, as the internal cohesion between the qualitative and quantitative phases has been worked on in particular. Moreover, in the other languages, no similar case with the social and methodological comprehensiveness of the current study is known, despite the existence of numerous high-quality sociolinguistic studies.
After the explanations of the experts who carried out the research work, Arakama led a brief discussion among the participants. There was a lively debate on the different possibilities opened up by this study, among others: How to promote the discursive elements that resonate most, who and how, and what influence they have on language policies. It is clear that this study has opened new doors and perspectives for further studies and research, not only in the territory of Navarre.
(Translated with DeepL.com)
