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Paper short abstract:

Bryant and Knight’s perspective on how future as imagined affects social relations and conditions at present, is used to discuss how a new referendum, though still only a rumour, already affect relationships and strategies in Tokelau and its diaspora.

Paper long abstract:

Tokelau, an atoll society in the Pacific, comprising about 1500 people, has since 1925 been in a political relationship with New Zealand. Coming under the New Zealand Administration of then Western Samoa, Tokelau has been on a path to an act of eventual self-determination since entering the UN list of decolonizing territories.

The first ever referendum on the atolls’ future political status was held in 2006, followed by another in 2007 (Hoëm 2015, Ickes 2009, Huntsman and Kalolo 2007). The referenda were occasions for intensive infrastructural investments, and lengthy consultation, with villagers and the diaspora. However, perceptions of the issues at stake, and particularly the consequences of the different alternatives on the table varied greatly.

The two referenda made visible both distance and complex entanglements between village and national political institutions, and between these and the public service. They also made old allegiances relevant in new ways, and re-awakened issues of mistrust between different communities and associations.

As the 100-year celebration of the relationship between New Zealand and the still “non-self-governing territory of Tokelau” is coming up in 2025, plans of a new referendum is emerging. I use Bryant and Knight’s perspective on how future as imagined affects social relations and conditions at present, to discuss how this new referendum, though still only a rumour, already affect relationships and strategies in Tokelau and its diaspora.

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Through an ethnographic analysis of the Scottish National Party this paper proposes a temporal analytical framework that centralises future-oriented temporalities, showing the ways in which people are ‘pulled’ rather than ‘pushed’ into political action in the lead-up to a vote.

Paper long abstract:

Within the last three decades Scotland has lived through three separate seismic referenda that have changed its socio-political landscape. From devolution in 2000, to the independence referendum in 2014, and Brexit in 2016, these referenda have forced the Scottish public to repeatedly re-consider the future of their nation. Today, as the 2024 general election looms, Scotland braces itself for yet another independence referendum in the near future. Based on fifteen months of ethnographic fieldwork amongst Scottish National Party (SNP) activists, this paper explores the process of future making and nation building that happens in referenda times. It proposes a temporal analytical framework that centralises future-oriented temporalities in political anthropological studies, uncovering the ways in which people are ‘pulled’ rather than ‘pushed’ into political action in the lead-up to a vote. Drawing from contemporary work on the anthropology of the future this paper analyses the imaginations of the future that drive SNP activists and give shape to Scotland’s potential independent future. It is these imaginations of utopian/dystopian futures that incites SNP activists to believe in, and campaign for, a second Scottish independence referendum. The future is revealed as a site of intense political contestation that affects and is affected by the present, concrete yet continuously transformed through the everyday affective experiences of activists. In this way, I argue that Scottish independence is best understood as a timescape comprised of both present and future and the complex temporal interactions between the two.

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On Oct 14, 2023, Australians cast a largely No Vote in a national referendum calling to establish an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to the Australian Parliament. This paper examines how a ‘habitus of ignorance’ (Jeon 2019) infused the framing and particularities of this referendum

Paper long abstract:

Voting No: Denialism, Racism and a politics of ignorance in an Australian Referendum

On Oct 14, 2023, Australians cast a largely No Vote in a national referendum calling to establish an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to the Australian Parliament and the executive Government. This referendum came afoot of the Australian Government's commitment to implement the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart-one which asks for Voice, Treaty, and Truth telling to be made more central in Australian every-day and political life and many years of campaigning by Indigenous Australians. Anecdotal evidence pointed to heightened experiences of racism by Indigenous Australians in the lead up to the referendum. Further, denialism and a politics of ignorance infused much of the NO campaign in spite of many years of work on reconciliation and reparation. The 1967 referendum also featured in discussions in the lead up to the 2023 referendum, much of it, however, tethered to discourses of misrecognition and misrepresentation (Goot and Rouse 2023). This paper will take as its starting point the question of how a politics of ignorance, even a ‘habitus of ignorance’ (Jeon 2019) infuses the framing and particularities of a given referendum. It will reflect on how the social production of ignorance can be hardened by framing techniques which plays into amplifying discourses anchored in racism and denialism-particularly visible in this most recent of referendums in Australia in 2023.

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This paper discusses how referenda in Ireland (popular votes to alter Bunreacht na hÉireann, the Constitution) shape and are shaped by profound social changes over recent decades, particularly in relation to reproductive rights, gender and sexuality, and the family.

Paper long abstract:

Ireland is known for its progressive referenda in recent years, legalising abortion and equal marriage. These have reflected (and shaped) major social and political changes within the 26 counties, as society has broadly shifted from a state of Catholic quasi-theocracy, with concomitant amendments to Bunreacht na hÉireann, its Constitution. Referenda are thus relatively common in Ireland and a familiar mechanism of popular political participation. Many of these referenda have, unsurprisingly, involved political controversy and disagreement, including the 2009 referendum to ratify the Treaty of Lisbon, which was run twice - the second time in order to provide the "correct" result.

This paper examines the referenda on equal marriage and abortion, as well as the discourse around the (at time of writing) upcoming referenda on March 8th, 2024 (International Women's Day), to delete Article 41.2 from Bunreacht na hÉireann - Ireland's "women in the home" clause, and to amend Article 41, on the family. These referenda have also been controversial, in part due to the temerity of lawmakers to discuss and define the terms "woman" and "family," as transphobic rhetoric becomes normalised in a time of global shifts to the right and an ever more toxic social media landscape. As a tool of political participation in a representative democracy, with its own idiosyncratic norms and attempts at democratisation (e.g. that "both sides" be given equal airtime in public debates), this paper argues that referenda in Ireland can be thought of as both enacting and reflecting social life in Ireland.

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This paper examines the evolution of anti-nostalgia – a mode of remembrance that Emilie Pine (2011) argues demarcates the past from the present by constructing the former as a site of trauma and the latter as an idealised space of progress – in the years after Ireland’s 2018 abortion referendum.

Paper long abstract:

On 25th May 2018, the Irish public voted overwhelmingly to repeal the Eighth Amendment, overturning the country’s near-total ban on abortion. Popular reporting at the time often framed this result as a watershed moment: proof of Ireland’s “coming-of-age” as a secular, modern nation and “the final nail in the coffin” of Catholic Ireland. Speaking to Repeal supporters in 2021-22, however, many were sceptical about these narratives of cultural renewal and rebirth. In this paper, I examine this scepticism through the lens of anti-nostalgia. Emilie Pine (2011) defines anti-nostalgia as a mode of remembrance that demarcates the past from the present by constructing the former as a site of trauma and the latter as an idealised space of progress and prosperity. By examining the persistence and evolution of anti-nostalgia in the years since the abortion referendum, my paper demonstrates how such temporal demarcations, which rhetorically powerful, are difficult to maintain in practice. I do this by analysing the experiences of three Irish women whose votes for Repeal were informed, to varying degrees, by anti-nostalgic desires for cultural transformation that have yet to be fulfilled. Taken together, these accounts point to a national project of historical reckoning that is still very much ongoing, and a past that continues to bleed into the present and reshape visions of the future. The paper also highlights the analytical importance of attending to the afterlives of referenda, and how their historicising and temporalising work can evolve over time.

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Examining the ritual renewal of the memory of Gibraltar's 1967 sovereignty referendum, this paper examines the National Day celebrations that mark the anniversary of the vote, and how the interplay between celebration, commemoration, and suspicion sustains identity and shapes political futures.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines an apparent anomaly. Many national days around the globe commemorate the day of independence from the colonial power; Gibraltar’s is distinctive in commemorating a vote to remain a British territory. The annual national day celebrations demonstrate the continued afterlife of the 1967 referendum in which Gibraltarians voted to remain under British sovereignty with self-governing institutions rather than pass under Spanish sovereignty. Through ethnographic and archival research I examine this ritual renewal of the memory of the referendum and its political instrumentality, especially in the wake of another referendum – the vote for Britain to leave the EU – which creates acute political and economic uncertainty in Gibraltar’s future. Exploring the role the referendum and its recollection plays in sustaining an agonistic relationship with Spain, as well as marking a pointed expression of loyalty to Britain, I consider how the interplay between celebration, memory, and suspicion shapes political futures.

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The paper explores the impact of Catalonia's 2017 referendum on self-determination, focusing on leftist individuals and Catalan anarchists facing a dilemma at the intersection of national and social priorities. The analysis shows the complexity of the dynamics of identity choices in such contexts.

Paper long abstract:

This paper presents ethnographic research examining the repercussions of a call for a referendum on self-determination, focusing on the events surrounding the non-legal secessionist referendum held in Catalonia (Spain) on October 1st, 2017. The Catalan nationalist movement leading up to this referendum had its roots in a process initiated in 2012, marked by escalating demands for establishing an independent Catalan state.

The practical organization of the ballot and the ensuing political debates revealed the desires and fears of the people regarding its potential outcomes. These elements contributed to a polarization within Catalan society, pitting secessionists against non-secessionist factions, thereby impacting the national identities and personal relations of individuals caught in the political conflict.

The political dilemma experienced by individuals with left-leaning perspectives is of particular interest, as they were compelled to weigh their priorities at the intersection between the national and the social axis. This internal conflict was especially challenging for Catalan anarchists, who found themselves in the tension between their ideological rejection of any form of state and nationalism and the greatest challenge to the established Spanish state in decades.

An analysis of the fieldwork and interviews reveals that responses to such national(ist) conflicts can be complex, emphasizing the intricate dynamics of political and identity choices in such contexts.

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Before the long-divided island of Cyprus joined the EU in 2004, the ‘Annan Plan’ was placed before the two communities in a reunification referendum. I trace how its enduring effects reshaped the Cypriot Left and play a key role in how peace and re-unification are debated by Cypriots today.

Paper long abstract:

Before Cyprus joined the EU in 2004, hope was briefly raised that the long-divided island could be unified. In November 2002, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan released a plan for the reunification of the island and the solution of the ‘Cyprus problem’. After countless rounds of negotiations, what became known as the ‘Annan Plan’ was placed before the two communities in a vote in the reunification referendum of 24 April 2004. Political discussions on the plan took interesting and, in some cases, unexpected directions to the extent that they ‘seem to have transformed the historical division between left and right into a much more complex confrontation’ (Vural and Peristianis 2008: 40). The strongest supporters of the plan appeared to be the leftist CTP (the Republican Turkish Party) on the Turkish Cypriot side and the right-wing DISI (Democratic Rally) on the Greek Cypriot side. Although it initially supported the plan, the Greek Cypriot communist party AKEL invited its supporters to reject it in a last-minute manoeuvre, for a number of reasons that will be unpacked in the paper. While the proposal received a 65% favourable vote from the Turkish community, the Greek Cypriot community rejected it by over 75%. Based on long-term fieldwork in Cyprus and the Cypriot diaspora, I trace here how hope and disappointment around the referendum reshaped the Left in Cyprus, and how the enduring effects of the referendum play a key role in how peace and re-unification are debated and considered by Cypriots today. On the other hand, I also argue that different visions of and desires for the future also shift the ways in which the referendum is remembered, narrated, and historicised.

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This paper tries to understand how in Libya, in the absence of a referendum, a variety of constituent bodies (elected, self-proclaimed or mandated) coexist and compete with each other? More particularly, how deliberation becomes a central political norm.

Paper long abstract:

The security challenges of organizing a referendum and the Libyan controversies over the modalities of referendum vote of the constitutional project legitimize the claims of different social and political groups to hold or request a constituent function (pre-constituent, original constituent or derived constituent).

To stabilize the political configuration by remaining in power, the members of both parliamentary assemblies elected in 2012 and 2014 (maintained until today), are challenged in their action by a dilemma: they call for respect to democratic legality and claim legislative and constituent monopoly. However, aware that electoral legitimacy provides them neither political domination nor a security guarantee; they assume the need to associate non-elected actors. Thus, the two elected assemblies accept a “measured sharing” of their constituent power with deliberative forums including actors who are not present in these parliamentary assemblies. This “sharing” as political arrangement, put in place, temporarily and repetitively, hybrid bodies (dialogue forums, expert committees, etc.) in the constituent configuration.

This situation weakens established political roles, reveals a deficit in the elected political representation, and opens the way to a hybridization of fields with the inclusion of new contenders for broader political representation. This deficit in representation will also encourage international mediation professionals (UN, EU, special envoys, etc.) to pretend to fix it through the creation of “inclusive” dialogue spaces (outside elected assemblies) to listen the voices of all Libyan components and to find a national compromise.

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Paper short abstract:

The year of 2023 marked the 30th anniversary of the split of Czechoslovakia. The aim of this paper, drawn upon ethnographic research, is to try to reflect on how, even though there had not been any referenda, a feeling of close friendship and even brotherhood among Czechs and Slovaks persists.

Paper long abstract:

The year of 2023, marked the 30th anniversary of the split of the State of Czechoslovakia. The aim of this paper, drawn upon ethnographic research, is to try to analyze and reflect on how, even though there had not been any public referenda on the issue, everything was decided from above, today a feeling of belonging- call it close friendship or even brotherhood, among Czechs and Slovaks still persists. Some of the questions that will be addressed and debated are: Beyond the nation-state, how does this sentiment of transnational belonging and brotherhood among Czechs and Slovaks is defined and put into practice in the everyday relations? Can we say that since the Split of Czechoslovakia, and its entrance later in the EU in 2004, and as members of the Visegrád group (V4), this sentiment it is understood in more equal terms? Does it imply any kind of solidarity and responsibility? If yes, which ones? Finally, in a hostile world where hatred and violence, unfortunately, is on the rise, to what extent this peaceful sentiment of belonging and collaborative relation among Czechs and Slovaks can be taken as a reference to consider? Although, in the case Czechoslovakia, a democratic referenda never took place