Download and Read online, DOWNLOAD EBOOK, [PDF EBOOK EPUB ], Ebooks

download, Read Ebook EPUB/KINDE, Download Book Format PDF

Nationalism, Liberalism and Language in Catalonia

and Flanders Daniel Cetrà

OR CLICK LINK
https://textbookfull.com/product/nationalism-
liberalism-and-language-in-catalonia-and-flanders-
daniel-cetra/

Read with Our Free App Audiobook Free Format PFD EBook, Ebooks dowload PDF
with Andible trial, Real book, online, KINDLE , Download[PDF] and Read and Read
Read book Format PDF Ebook, Dowload online, Read book Format PDF Ebook,
[PDF] and Real ONLINE Dowload [PDF] and Real ONLINE
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

The Sociolinguistics of Higher Education Language

Policy and Internationalisation in Catalonia Josep
Soler

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-sociolinguistics-of-higher-
education-language-policy-and-internationalisation-in-catalonia-
josep-soler/

Biota Grow 2C gather 2C cook Loucas

https://textbookfull.com/product/biota-grow-2c-gather-2c-cook-
loucas/

Economic Philosophies: Liberalism, Nationalism,

Socialism: Do They Still Matter? Alessandro Roselli

https://textbookfull.com/product/economic-philosophies-
liberalism-nationalism-socialism-do-they-still-matter-alessandro-
roselli/

The Language of Suspense in Crime Fiction: A Linguistic

Stylistic Approach 1st Edition Reshmi Dutta-Flanders

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-language-of-suspense-in-
crime-fiction-a-linguistic-stylistic-approach-1st-edition-reshmi-
dutta-flanders/
Nationalism Language and Muslim Exceptionalism Haney
Foundation Series Tristan James Mabry

https://textbookfull.com/product/nationalism-language-and-muslim-
exceptionalism-haney-foundation-series-tristan-james-mabry/

AP Spanish Language and Culture Tenth Edition Daniel

Paolicchi

https://textbookfull.com/product/ap-spanish-language-and-culture-
tenth-edition-daniel-paolicchi/

The Rhetoric of Hindu India Language and Urban

Nationalism 1st Edition Manisha Basu

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-rhetoric-of-hindu-india-
language-and-urban-nationalism-1st-edition-manisha-basu/

DK Eyewitness Barcelona and Catalonia Travel Guide Dk

Eyewitness

https://textbookfull.com/product/dk-eyewitness-barcelona-and-
catalonia-travel-guide-dk-eyewitness/

Language and Culture in Mathematical Cognition Volume 4

Mathematical Cognition and Learning 1st Edition Daniel
B. Berch

https://textbookfull.com/product/language-and-culture-in-
mathematical-cognition-volume-4-mathematical-cognition-and-
learning-1st-edition-daniel-b-berch/
C O M P A R AT I V E T E R R I T O R I A L P O L I T I C S

Nationalism, Liberalism
and Language in
Catalonia and Flanders

Daniel Cetrà
Comparative Territorial Politics

Series Editors
Michael Keating
University of Aberdeen
Aberdeen, UK

Arjan H. Schakel
Maastricht University
Maastricht, The Netherlands

Michaël Tatham
University of Bergen
Bergen, Norway
Territorial politics is one of the most dynamic areas in contemporary
political science. Rescaling, new and re-emergent nationalisms, regional
devolution, government, federal reform and urban dynamics have
reshaped the architecture of government at sub-state and transnational
levels, with profound implications for public policy, political competition,
democracy and the nature of political community. Important policy fields
such as health, education, agriculture, environment and economic devel-
opment are managed at new spatial levels. Regions, stateless nations and
metropolitan areas have become political arenas, contested by old and
new political parties and interest groups. All of this is shaped by transna-
tional integration and the rise of supranational and international bodies
like the European Union, the North American Free Trade Area and the
World Trade Organization. The Comparative Territorial Politics series
brings together monographs, pivot studies, and edited collections that
further scholarship in the field of territorial politics and policy, decentral-
ization, federalism and regionalism. Territorial politics is ubiquitous and
the series is open towards topics, approaches and methods. The series
aims to be an outlet for innovative research grounded in political science,
political geography, law, international relations and sociology. Previous
publications cover topics such as public opinion, government formation,
elections, parties, federalism, and nationalism. Please do not hesitate to
contact one of the series editors in case you are interested in publishing
your book manuscript in the Comparative Territorial Politics series. Book
proposals can be sent to Ambra Finotello (Ambra.Finotello@palgrave.
com). We kindly ask you to include sample material with the book pro-
posal, preferably an introduction chapter explaining the rationale and the
structure of the book as well as an empirical sample chapter.

More information about this series at

http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14910
 Daniel Cetrà

Nationalism,
Liberalism and
Language in Catalonia
and Flanders
Daniel Cetrà
University of Aberdeen and Centre
on Constitutional Change
Edinburgh, UK

Comparative Territorial Politics

ISBN 978-3-030-08273-4 ISBN 978-3-030-08274-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-08274-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018965778

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction
on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and
information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication.
Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied,
with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have
been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published
maps and institutional affiliations.

Cover image: © EricFalco/Getty Images

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 Acknowledgements

Over the years, I have accumulated sizable debts to colleagues and

friends. I am especially grateful to Jonathan Hearn, Wilfried Swenden,
David McCrone and Jimmy Kennedy—each of whom offered support,
encouragement and penetrating critical feedback on several occasions.
I also owe debts of gratitude to Michael Keating, Helder De Schutter,
Robert Liñeira, Rudi Janssens, Sergi Morales-Gálvez, Ivan Serrano, Marc
Sanjaume and Kasper Swerts—they generously sent me written feedback
on chapter drafts and discussed the book’s ideas with me.
I am enormously grateful to the Université de Liège for funding
my fieldwork in Belgium and to the whole team at the Spiral Research
Centre for their support and kindness. I am especially grateful to Hugues
Renard for his assistance and hospitality and, above all, for taking me to
Standard de Liège matches.
I would like to thank many colleagues who generously discussed
aspects of this book and offered suggestions, assistance and encour-
agement. Philippe Van Parijs, Jérémy Dodeigne, Linda Cardinal,
Bettina Petersohn, Eve Hepburn, Min Reuchamps, Bernard Yack,
Esma Baycan, Juan Jiménez Salcedo, Klaus-Jürgen Nagel, Liliana Riga,
Frédéric Claisse, Marc Jacmain, Pierre Verjans, Raf Geenens, Michael
Jewkes, Jean-François Gregoire, Els Witte, Rémi Léger, Till Burckhardt,
Coree Brown Swan, Nicola McEwen, Clare de Mowbray, Albert
Branchadell, Ignasi Vila, Xavier Vila i Moreno, Andrew Shorten, Alix
Dassargues. I also wish to thank the anonymous reviewers for Palgrave
Macmillan for offering very insightful and constructive feedback, and

v
vi    Acknowledgements

all my interviewees for their great disposition. I am also grateful to the

Territorial Politics Research Group at the University of Edinburgh and
audiences at various academic conferences.
My friends inside and outside of academia, only some of whom I am
able to name here, kept me happy and sane throughout this intellec-
tual journey. For offering emotional support and much-needed distrac-
tions, I am deeply grateful to David Martí, Ceren Şengül, Eirik ‘Viking’
Fuglestad, Shruti Chaudhry, everyone at the Centre on Constitutional
Change, Erin Hughes, Gëzim Krasniqi, Marie-Eve Hamel, Nonna
Gorilovskaya, Neşe Karahasan, Lisa Kalayji, Elvira Prado, Katherine
Baxter, Alexandra Remond, the School of Social and Political Science
football team, Hugo Coves, Martí Puigbó, Marc Bassols, Gerard Galbete
and all the members of the Barcelona-based ‘Xunga Gang’.

This book is dedicated to my family and to Mariola.

 Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Revisiting Liberal Nationalism 11

3 The Politics of Language and Nationalism 31

4 Nationalism in Catalonia and Flanders 55

5 The Catalan Linguistic Dispute 87

6 The Flemish Linguistic Dispute 125

7 Debating within Liberal Nationalism 169

8 Conclusion: Speaking for the Nation 193

Index 205

vii
 List of Figures

Fig. 2.1 Liberal nationalism in the liberal-communitarian debate 19

Fig. 3.1 Dutch speaking territories 35
Fig. 3.2 Catalan speaking territories 35
Fig. 3.3 Positions in the linguistic justice debate 41
Fig. 6.1 The Flemish Periphery 126
Fig. 6.2 The electoral district of BHV 134

ix
 List of Tables

Table 2.1 Conceptual framework 12

Table 5.1 The discursive defence of the system 100
Table 5.2 The discursive opposition to the system 110

xi
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

The triumph of nationalism in modern social and political life raises

­several challenges for liberal democracies. Some are conceptual: can the
two ideologies really coexist when liberalism focuses on the individ-
ual and nationalism focuses on groups? Others are normative: when do
­policies protecting national interests become unacceptable breaches of
individual rights? Yet other challenges are practical: there are many liberal
principles, but which ones are liberal democracies meant to apply exactly?
And to whom, to which people? These questions arise in some shape or
form in every liberal democracy and compel us to reflect upon the points
of contact and tension between the modern enhancement of individual
rights and the value of national membership.
This book addresses these questions by examining the linguistic dis-
putes in Catalonia and Flanders. These controversies are paradigmatic
examples of fundamental debates around rights and identity. Catalonia
and Flanders are two sub-state nations with a distinct language and
culture placed within liberal democratic states. They use their political
autonomy to protect and promote their language, often as part of the
wider aim to develop and assert the national character of the territo-
ries. Recently, self-determination demands in Catalonia and decentrali-
sation in Flanders have become more central than language. However,
there are in the two places ongoing debates about the way speakers of
Castilian and French, the dominant languages in the rest of Spain and
Belgium, are treated. In Catalonia, the dispute is primarily about the

© The Author(s) 2019 1

D. Cetrà, Nationalism, Liberalism and Language in
Catalonia and Flanders, Comparative Territorial Politics,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-08274-1_1
2 D. CETRÀ

use of languages in education. In publically funded schools, Catalan

is the only language of instruction and Castilian is taught as a second
language. In Flanders, the dispute is largely limited to the mismatch
in some towns around Brussels between language use (mostly French-
speaking) and language regime (monolingual Dutch with linguistic
facilities for French-speakers in six towns). Vocal minorities within these
territories draw on the vocabulary of liberalism to oppose these linguistic
policies.
This book argues that the linguistic disputes in Catalonia and Flanders
are not between liberals and nationalists, but between liberal nationalists.
I show that defenders and opponents of the controversial policies rely
in different forms and degrees on the view that membership to national
groups is important for individuals. The caveat is that political actors
are more concerned with issues of national belonging and community
than the dominant liberal nationalist justification, as typified by Will
Kymlicka’s autonomy argument (1995). In fact, Kymlicka has recently
conceded that his argument, with his emphasis on inevitably vague
ideas of ‘cultural structures’ and ‘societal groups’, risks misdiagnosing
the actual aspirations and grievances of many minority groups (2016).
My suggestion throughout the book is to nationalise liberal national-
ism. In contrast with Alan Patten (2014) and other liberal culturalists,
I put forward the view that issues of national belonging and community,
as opposed to the instrumental role of culture for individual autonomy,
deserve greater attention as justifications for national rights. In my view,
restricting the normative defence of national attachments to its instru-
mental role for individual autonomy runs the risk of being unable to
account for people’s interests and attachments. In the real world, as evi-
denced by the Catalan and Flemish linguistic disputes, collective issues of
belonging, integration, cohesion, survival and prevalence play a signifi-
cant role.
With regards to language, this book establishes that the relationship
between language and nationhood is politically constructed through
two broad processes, state nation-building and ‘peripheral’ activism,
and compares and contrasts the way the link was historically forged in
Catalonia and Flanders. Theoretically, the book concurs with Philippe
Van Parijs’s (2011) argument that linguistic justice requires offering
equal dignity because individuals have dignity interests in their lan-
guage. I suggest the notion of the national identity interest in language
 1 INTRODUCTION 3

as a complement to Van Parijs’s dignity argument. My point is that shift-

ing directly from individual to language rights, as the dignity argument
does, and as language justice theorists tend to do, runs the risk of miss-
ing the crucial link that may exist—namely, nationalism. This centrality
of nationalism renders many existing normative theories of language
rights—such as Van Parijs’s—insufficient. Empirically, the book shows
the diversity of language ideologies in the two cases, from the persistent
appeal of the classical monolingual nation-state model to more pluralistic
forms and positions exhibiting ambivalence.
In the process of writing this book, the world and I have changed.
The perception of liberal democracy has moved from strength to fragility
due to the rise of illiberal nationalism and its calls for the dismantlement
of protections for individuals and minorities. From Orban’s Fidesz in
Hungary to Salvini’s Lega Nord in Italy and Bolsonaro’s Social Liberal
Party in Brazil, exclusionary narratives are putting into question trium-
phalist claims about the success of multiculturalism and minority rights
schemes. Another aspect that has changed is my own position on these
issues. While I began this project in a strictly pro-Kymlicka fashion, in
the course of writing this book I have moved towards Charles Taylor’s
position, or perhaps somewhere in between the two. After conducting
research in the two cases and learning about disputes elsewhere, I now
find Taylor’s (1994) quasi-communitarian emphasis on issues of recogni-
tion and cultural survival more persuasive and closer to social experience.
I have come to think that, while academic forms of liberal nationalism
offer a form of national accommodation around rights, they generally do
not get at the ways in which people experience identity. Of course, one
could argue that the mismatch between the academic and the political
arguments is not especially relevant because the aim of normative theo-
rising is not to mirror how things are but to assess them. I address this
issue in Chapter 2 and—more briefly—the conclusion. A third significant
change has been the political situation in Catalonia. Once a textbook
case of non-secessionist nationalism, Catalonia has recently experienced
an unprecedented social mobilisation for independence, a unilateral ref-
erendum which included episodes of violence by the Spanish police, and
a failed declaration of independence. While previous debates on political
and cultural accommodation have been replaced by self-determination
and independence, we are likely to see a return to those initial debates
after the failure of the independence agenda.
4 D. CETRÀ

Cases
What makes Catalonia and Flanders interesting with regard to these
questions? As two major cases of sub-state nationalism where language
is a national identity marker facing challenges of illiberalism, they are
illuminating case studies for exploring the points of contact and tension
between cultural, individual, and national rights. Their two linguistic dis-
putes capture the enduring challenges and puzzles that stem from the
pervasiveness of nationalism in the world in which we live.
In Catalonia, opponents argue that the policy infringes their right to
be educated also in Castilian; indoctrinates students into Catalan nation-
alism; and discriminates against students whose first language is Castilian.
In Flanders, French-speaking political actors argue that Flemish nation-
alism has gone too far and discriminates against them, because their lan-
guage is not official in towns where they are the majority. Defenders of
the policies counter that these are democratically-backed measures which
protect social cohesion and facilitate the integration of newcomers with-
out unduly damaging rights. Group-oriented arguments are combined
with other types, e.g. the individual right to live in Catalan in Catalonia
and in Dutch in Flanders, and notions of historic repair. Defenders of
the policies often add that what opponents really seek is the protection
of their linguistic privileges. In the Flemish case, they also remind oppo-
nents that the linguistic facilities are constitutionally enshrined and part
of a general set of compromises between Dutch and French-speakers.
The Catalan and Flemish circumstances with regards to the language
dispute are similar and yet different. The most important difference is
the type of linguistic dispute: the dispute in Catalonia is mostly ‘edu-
cational’, while the dispute in Flanders is mostly ‘territorial’. The insti-
tutional regulation of language and the sociolinguistic compositions
are also different: Catalonia is officially bilingual and linguistically
more mixed, while Flanders is officially monolingual and linguistically
more homogeneous. In fact, the dispute in Flanders emerges basically in
the Flemish Periphery, the only place where French-speakers outnum-
ber Dutch-speakers. The cases also differ on the level of authority with
regard to language: the Flemish government has full legislative powers
on the linguistic regime of the Flemish Periphery, while in Catalonia
education is mostly devolved but partly shared with the Spanish gov-
ernment. Linguistically, they differ on the proximity between lan-
guages, which is one of the elements in structures of incentives to learn
 1 INTRODUCTION 5

the smaller language: Catalan and Castilian belong to the same linguis-
tic family while Dutch and French do not. Politically, there is consen-
sus in Catalonia since the restoration of democracy in the 1970s that the
community is open to incorporating immigration, while illiberal forms
of nationalism have been dominant in Flanders for many years and have
only been recently side-lined. Catalonia and Flanders are thus not similar
in all their attributes, but they share fundamental similarities regarding
the topic of this book. The similarities make the comparison plausible,
and the differences make it interesting. They allow us to explore the
arguments at work in different types of linguistic disputes set in distinc-
tive political and historical circumstances.

Approach
This book builds on the fertile tendency within contemporary polit-
ical theory to combine normative reasoning and empirical research.
Exploring normative issues in real-word arguments allows for a bet-
ter understanding of the disputes by highlighting the values involved
in political debates, and allows us to refine theory (Bauböck 2008).
Political theorists can sometimes misidentify the real issues at stake,
partly because they do not pay enough attention to the way people jus-
tify their claims. After all, anybody who argues for any policy is taking a
normative position, whether she realises it or not. Contextualising nor-
mative theory also relaxes the ambitious aim of applying universal crite-
ria to varied circumstances, showing awareness that the meaning and use
of concepts varies contextually and that shared normative principles have
different implications in different places (Flyvbjerg 2001).
Drawing on the combination of normative and empirical work, some
scholars have sought to assess the acceptability of linguistic laws in con-
texts such as Catalonia and Quebec (Branchadell 1997; Kymlicka 1998;
Costa 2003; Miley 2006: 363–410; Vergés 2013: 61–99, 2014). This
has typically been done by analysing whether contested linguistic laws are
‘liberal’ or ‘illiberal’, which reflects the broad academic consensus in favour
of liberal democracy. The risk in assessing whether linguistic laws are liberal
is to disregard that political liberalism is an umbrella term and that con-
tested linguistic laws can typically be defended or rejected in at least one
of the many strands of liberal thinking. The fact that a given law can be
simultaneously liberal and illiberal, depending on what form of liberalism
we embrace, does not take us very far. For this reason, I take the view that
6 D. CETRÀ

the focus on rights might be misconceived and that a more useful approach
is to examine claims. This is the approach I adopt in this book. I concur
with Joseph Carens’s context-sensitive approach (2004), according to
which judgements on the moral permissibility of linguistic policies ought
to be based not on a generic decontextualised approach to formal rights,
but rather on the careful balancing of the existing claims of real-world
actors. While Leigh Oakes and Yael Peled (2017) have interestingly drawn
on Carens’s approach to assess Quebec’s language policy, my overall aim in
this book is more diagnostic than prescriptive.
Rather than tell two distinct stories, coming to the banal conclusion
that places are different, I place my cases within a common framework and
look at the same issues in each of them. Yet, of course, I need a concep-
tual starting point and this is the academic debate about the compatibility
between liberalism and nationalism. I restrict the intellectual dispute about
individual and group-specific rights to a basic core set of principles in com-
petition within three main positions—classical liberalism, the communitar-
ian critique, liberal nationalism. This is a short-hand way to approach the
debates on the ground, ‘operationalising’ complex normative debates to
turn them into useful conceptual lenses. The question is whether propo-
nents and opponents in the linguistic disputes in Catalonia and Flanders
prioritise individual or group-specific rights. Thus, my research strategy
consists in testing normative political theories against the actual practice of
real-world claims-making. I do not apply theory in a strong sense. Taken
to the extreme, I would be ‘finding’ examples of, say, classical liberalism
because I would be looking for them. My approach stresses interpretation
and understanding rather than transliteration of terms. After careful inter-
pretation, I situate the accounts provided by political actors in the concep-
tual framework. I have chosen a comparative case study approach, seeking
to understand each case and then the similarities and differences among
them. Comparing allows for a better understanding of the general phe-
nomenon under investigation, namely linguistic disputes in political com-
munities with competing national projects.
The book is based on rich primary data, drawing on interviews and
documents collected between 2013 and 2015. I conducted 43 inter-
views with political actors in Catalonia and Belgium; I analysed 17 par-
liamentary debates between 2008 and 2014 on the 2009 Catalan Law
of Education and the split of the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde electoral
district; and I analysed 15 political documents including party press
releases, government reports, and publications by civil society groups.
 1 INTRODUCTION 7

By political actors I refer to three non-exclusive categories: politicians at

the government level, politicians who are members of parliament, and
leaders and spokespersons of civil society organisations. They are all
individual actors participating in public life and creating discourse or
­policies on linguistic matters. The main aim in the selection of sources
was to grasp a pluralistic picture of the different views articulating the
linguistic disputes. I am however aware that this book over-represents
the political actors for whom the linguistic issue is salient. This is so
because they are the ones who contribute the most to the articulation
of the disputes, acting as leaders who have an impact on public opin-
ion. This over-representation is attenuated by interviews with MPs of all
political parties and with the analysis of parliamentary debates, because
both include variation not only about the justifying arguments but also
about how important actors consider the language rights issue.
This research does not have hypotheses in a strict sense, but it does
have a priori expectations. My first expectation is that political actors
advocating Catalan and Flemish linguistic rights will express themselves
in the vocabulary of liberal nationalism, whereas those opposing the
same will express themselves in the vocabulary of classical liberalism. The
reason for this is pragmatic. Liberal nationalism, with its emphasis on
the importance of cultural membership for individual well-being, offers
suitable normative conditions for small language speakers to argue for
the protection of their language. Classical liberalism, with its emphasis
on the individual and its uneasiness with collectively defined goals, goes
along with the position of critics with the Catalan and Flemish linguis-
tic policies. I do not expect a great deal of openly communitarian argu-
ments due to the general discredit of ideologies emphasising groups
over individuals after the Second World War. The second expectation is
that the conflict is not between classical liberalism and liberal national-
ism, but between competing forms of liberal nationalism. This expecta-
tion suggests that the use of the vocabulary of individual rights might
be, in reality, a way of framing and subscribing to a particular group
identity. Although the opposing political actors will claim the right to
express themselves in town halls in French or to be educated in Castilian
in Catalonia in the vocabulary of individual rights (hence it might ‘look
like’ classical liberalism), the justification for these individual rights claims
may come from a worldview that draws a close connection between indi-
vidual identity and belonging to a cultural and national group (that is to
say, a worldview that falls under liberal nationalism).
8 D. CETRÀ

Plan of the Book

I like to think that there is something for everyone in this book. If you
are interested in political theory on nationalism, liberalism and language,
the first two chapters and the last one are especially for you. If you are
attracted to the cases themselves—their national movements, their dis-
putes, their historical trajectories, etc.—then your chapters are four, five
and six. But read all of them to get a rounded view!
Chapter 2, Rethinking Liberal Nationalism, is the main theoretical
chapter. It contrasts the three main schools of thought—personified
in the work of Brian Barry, Charles Taylor and Will Kymlicka—and
suggests that we need to rethink liberal nationalism to incorporate
the issue of national belonging without treating groups as artificially
real.
Chapter 3, The Politics of Language and Nationalism, is a defence of
a political approach to understanding the relationship between language
and nationalism and a critical discussion of scholarship on linguistic
justice.
Chapter 4, The Development of Nationalism in Catalonia and
Flanders, is a transition towards the more empirical section of the book.
It charts the evolution of the Catalan and Flemish national movements
and suggests that key events during the development of Catalan and
Flemish nationalism as mass movements help to explain the variation in
the type of linguistic disputes.
Chapter 5, The Catalan Linguistic Dispute, and Chapter 6, The
Flemish Linguistic Dispute, draw on my field research to provide a con-
ceptual analysis of the arguments by social and political actors for and
against the use of Catalan as the language of instruction.
Chapter 7, Debating within Liberal Nationalism, connects the polit-
ical principles for and against the contested linguistic policies with the
debate around liberalism and nationalism. It shows that liberal nation-
alism provides a useful but imperfect framework for interpreting the lin-
guistic disputes in Catalonia and Flanders.
The Conclusion: Speaking for the Nation, emphasise the relevance of
nationalism in contemporary social and political life, provides ten sum-
mary theses or take-away points of the book, and discusses the reasons
why political actors use some arguments and not others, placing an
emphasis on context.
 1 INTRODUCTION 9

References
Bauböck, R. (2008). Normative Political Theory and Empirical Research.
In D. Della Porta & M. Keating (Eds.), Approaches and Methodologies in the
Social Sciences (pp. 40–60). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Branchadell, A. (1997). Liberalisme i Normalització Lingüística. Barcelona:
Editorial Empúries.
Carens, J. H. (2004). A Contextual Approach to Political Theory. Ethical Theory
and Moral Practice, 7(2), 117–132.
Costa, J. (2003). Catalan Linguistic Policy: Liberal or Illiberal? Nations and
Nationalism, 9(3), 413–432.
Flyvbjerg, B. (2001). Making Social Science Matter: Why Social Inquiry Fails and
How It Can Succeed Again. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kymlicka, W. (1995). Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority
Rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kymlicka, W. (1998). Finding Our Way: Rethinking Ethnocultural Relations in
Canada. Toronto: Oxford University Press.
Kymlicka, W. (2016). Liberalism, Community and Culture Twenty-Five Years
On: Philosophical Inquiries and Political Claims. Dve Domovini, 44, 67–76.
Leigh, O., & Peled, Y. (2017). Normative Language Policy: Ethics, Politics
Principles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Miley, T. J. (2006). Nacionalismo y política lingüística: el caso de Cataluña.
Madrid: Centro de Estudios Constitucionales.
Patten, A. (2014). Equal Recognition: The Moral Foundations of Minority Rights.
Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Taylor, C. (1994). Multiculturalism and ‘The Politics of Recognition’. Princeton:
Princeton University Press.
Van Parijs, P. (2011). Linguistic Justice for Europe and for the World. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Vergés, J. (2013). La nació necessària: Llengua, Secessió i Democràcia. Barcelona:
Angle Editorial.
Vergés, J. (2014). A Typology of Arguments in Defence of a Coercive Language
Policy Favouring a Cultural Minority. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 37(2),
204–221.
 CHAPTER 2

Revisiting Liberal Nationalism

The Terms of the Debate

In this book, I am mostly concerned with the academic debate about the
compatibility between individual rights (liberalism) and group-specific
rights (nationalism).1 I group the competing logics in three positions:
classical liberalism, the communitarian critique, and liberal nationalism.
To do this I draw from the liberal-communitarian debate of the 1980s
and 1990s around theories of justice and, more substantially, from the
contemporary debates about nationalism and minority rights. The three-
fold distinction is a simplification of what in reality is a rich and complex
intellectual dispute, but it is useful to operationalise the key concepts.
These intellectual debates have been mostly held in Quebec, and the
book makes the arguments travel and account for two different contexts,
Catalonia and Flanders. In this section, I engage critically with the three
positions and I defend the view that liberal nationalism is the most con-
vincing of the three but it reifies groups and does not devote enough
attention to the value of national belonging in contemporary life.
The liberal-communitarian debate emerged in the 1980s, when schol-
ars such as Michael Sandel (1982) and Charles Taylor (1985), among

1 Of course, not all group-specific rights are national rights. I focus here on liberal
nationalism more narrowly, as opposed to liberal culturalism more broadly, because of the
book’s focus on two cases of sub-state nationalism and competing nation-building projects.

© The Author(s) 2019 11

D. Cetrà, Nationalism, Liberalism and Language in
Catalonia and Flanders, Comparative Territorial Politics,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-08274-1_2
12 D. CETRÀ

others, criticised the ‘insensitivity’ of John Rawls’s theory of justice

(1971) to the importance of communities and cultures for individuals.
Things have moved on since the height of that debate. The dichotomy
between liberal and communitarian views has been criticised on numer-
ous grounds (see Caney 1992; Walzer 1990; Taylor 1994) and a lib-
eral culturalist consensus has emerged in the literature suggesting that
the two can be reconciled under certain conditions. The main scholar in
forging this rapprochement has been Will Kymlicka (1989, 1995, 1998,
2001), who defines liberal culturalism as ‘the view that liberal-democratic
states should not only uphold the familiar set of common civil and polit-
ical rights of citizenship which are protected in all liberal democracies;
they must also adopt various group-specific rights or policies which are
intended to recognize and accommodate the distinctive identities and
needs of ethnocultural groups’ (2001: 42). Liberal nationalism is a type
of liberal culturalism seeking to explain the link between liberal democ-
racy and nationhood by stressing the importance of membership to
national groups. The liberal culturalist ‘third way’ has contributed to the
acceptance of schemes of minority rights and group protections in liberal
democracies, but consensus is not unanimity: in reaction to the liberal
culturalist wave, some liberal theorists have argued that classical under-
standings of political liberalism are perfectly adequate for thinking about
the claims of cultural and national minorities (Barry 2001). In addition,
the liberal culturalist consensus exists at the academic level only. Old
concerns about ‘identity politics’, and old juxtapositions between ‘lib-
erals’ and ‘nationalists’, have not gone away in disputes on the ground
(Table 2.1).

Table 2.1 Conceptual framework

Categories Classical liberalism Communitarian Liberal nationalism

critique

Moral ontology Isolated individuals Contextual Contextual

individuals individuals
Core value Individual liberty Participation in social Individual autonomy
life
Advocacy position Egalitarian liberalism: Cultural survival: Liberal
primacy of rights and a collective goal accommodation
equal treatment which sometimes has of all national groups
priority over equal within the state
treatment
 2 REVISITING LIBERAL NATIONALISM 13

Classical Liberalism
Let us begin with the classical liberal position in this debate. Classical lib-
eral thinkers defend the idea that individuals are of first importance and
of equal moral worth, that each individual must have liberty (typically
in a negative sense), and that this requires a limited and neutral state.
It is also possible to identify hostility to forms of group-specific rights.
The classical liberal position opposes the idea of equal outcomes defined
over groups, and defends that justice requires that individuals be treated
equally through a framework of egalitarian liberal laws.
To explore further arguments against group-specific rights, I personify
this position in the work of Brian Barry. His book Culture and Equality
(2001) is an enthusiastic and forceful attempt to defend egalitarian liber-
alism and to refute the validity of any form of multiculturalism. Barry’s
general argument is that the politicisation of cultural differences is a
challenge to freedom and equality. For him, liberal justice requires equal
treatment. The right liberal answer to situations of cultural and national
diversity is to guarantee the same legal and political rights to all citi-
zens of a given political community. Giving priority to cultural demands
over individual rights runs the risk of turning human beings into ‘mere
cyphers, to be mobilized as instruments of a transcendent goal’ (2001:
67), beyond the interests of the individual bearers of the culture. In
Barry’s view, the point of political liberalism is to ensure precisely that
people who are different are treated equally, which is possible because
liberalism can offer a neutral ground on which people of all cultures
can meet and coexist. Indeed, for him the defining feature of a liberal
is ‘someone who holds that there are certain rights against oppression,
exploitation and injury to which every single human being is entitled to
lay claim, and that appeals to ‘cultural diversity’ and pluralism under no
circumstances trump the value of basic liberal rights’ (2001: 132–133—
my emphasis).
The starting point in Barry’s argument is the concern about the
protection of the rights of those who wish to pursue individual goals.
Specifically, he focuses on the interests of individuals in being protected
against groups to which they belong. He is preoccupied about coercive
measures infringed by those who want to protect cultures to those who
do not (we will see that liberal nationalists are also concerned about this,
which Kymlicka calls ‘internal restrictions’). Barry’s position echoes the
classical liberal view that individual freedom sits uneasily with expressions
14 D. CETRÀ

of communal and national goals and loyalties. Insofar as liberals take lib-
erty and individuality seriously, they should resist schemes of cultural and
national recognition that impose a false homogeneity.
Not only that: for Barry, the ‘politics of difference’ (an umbrella term
which refers to any form of differential treatment aimed at minority
protection) rest on a rejection of the politics of solidarity, according to
which citizens belong to a single society and share a common fate. Barry
sees ‘the politics of difference’ as grounded on the romantic national-
ist idea that people can flourish only within their ancestral culture, and
he criticises the strong emphasis on the culturalisation of groups in the
literature, because it ‘inevitably leads to the conclusion that all disadvan-
tage stems from the misrecognition of a group’s culture’ (2001: 308).
For him, culture is not the problem and culture is not the solution.
Therefore, individual rights must be distributed but group-differentiated
rights around identity must not.
I find unconvincing the classical liberal position as personified in the
work of Brian Barry. My critical disagreement concerns Barry’s view that
identity interests are not morally valuable and therefore a just liberal state
must not accommodate them. For the purposes of this book, I would
like to emphasise the more specific problem of sticking to the princi-
ple of equality in cases where the boundaries of political communities
are contested because equality presupposes a political community of citi-
zens to whom the principle applies equally. For example, left-wing pleas
for greater redistribution between rich and poor regions presuppose a
national community of citizens sharing solidarity and a mutual sense of
belonging. In plurinational contexts such as Belgium and Spain, these
presumptions to nationhood and shared belonging cannot be taken for
granted. Moreover, the aspirations of majority nationalists can conflict
with the aspirations of minority nationalist movements, leading to con-
flict over symbolic recognition, resources and the structure of the state.
Yet the presumption of a mononational state underpins Barry’s defence
of a single society with a common fate.

The Communitarian Critique

Let us turn now to the communitarian critique. Modern-day commu-
nitarianism emerged among American, British and Canadian academ-
ics in the 1980s and 1990s in the form of a critical reaction to John
Rawls’s A Theory of Justice. The main scholars involved in this critique
 2 REVISITING LIBERAL NATIONALISM 15

were Michael Sandel (1982, 1984), Alasdair MacIntyre (1984) and

Charles Taylor (1985, 1994). They did not offer a grand communi-
tarian theory as a systematic alternative to liberalism and, as Bell
notes (2001), the communitarian label was in fact pinned on them
by others, usually critics. Communitarians’ criticism of classical lib-
eralism is grounded on an attempt to mitigate the excesses of liberal
modernity in the West, with its extreme individualism and its devalu-
ation of community. Communitarians criticise that classical liberals
conceive individuals too narrowly, as not sufficiently bound up with
claims of community, history and tradition. They emphasise belong-
ing and the collective goal of cultural survival, grounded on a holistic
ontology that sees the self as ‘encumbered’, at least to some extent, by
communities.
The communitarian critique stresses that we commonly recognise
moral and political obligations of membership, loyalty, solidarity, etc.,
that we cannot trace to an act of consent. This seems to me an impor-
tant point for the purposes of this book. We cannot make sense of the
linguistic and national contestation that is the subject of this research
without bringing in notions of community and belonging in one way or
another. It is difficult to see why the dispute would be articulated in the
first place if individuals did not recognise moral ties (to a language, to a
nation) that cannot be traced to an act of consent (because we cannot
chose the linguistic and national context we are born in). The idea that
people care about things they have not chosen is a powerful one. Some
liberal nationalist scholars, like David Miller (1995: Chapter 3), have also
stressed this point. It is puzzling, however, that the emphasis on commu-
nities does not translate into an interest to examine people’s attachments
to nations and to references to nationalism. Bernard Yack is also sur-
prised by this fact, which he captured in the following eloquent remark:
‘how could anyone think of the individuals chanting “U.S.A., U.S.A.”
at the Los Angeles Olympics of 1984 as “unencumbered selves,” to use
the expression Michael Sandel made popular? (…) How could social and
political theorists talk so much about whether or not American indi-
vidualists could live without community and yet show no interest in
Americans’ intense and noisy attachment to their nation?’ (Yack 2012:
preface x). As we shall see, for liberal nationalists like Kymlicka we are
not just embedded in cultures, but in national cultures.
To explore the communitarian position further with a focus on
nationalism, I personify it in the work of Charles Taylor. While it is true
16 D. CETRÀ

that Taylor is a communitarian who does not disown a certain form of

liberalism,2 I have selected his account because he explicitly addresses
one of the issues that lay at heart of this chapter: the opportunities and
constraints that different forms of political liberalism offer to accom-
modate cultural demands. In doing so, he departs partly—but not
completely—from the standard liberal nationalist position which, as we
shall see, is characterised by a concern with the liberal limits of policies
aimed at reducing inter-group inequality.
Charles Taylor (1994) accuses classical liberalism—which he terms
‘liberalism of equal rights’, ‘procedural liberalism’ and ‘difference-blind
liberalism’—of being inhospitable to difference because in his view it
cannot accommodate what the members of ‘distinct societies’ really
aspire to, which is survival. He sees classical liberalism as too rigid in its
insistence on the uniform application of rules and rights, and too suspi-
cious of collective goals. Taylor sees Dworkin’s essay Liberalism as the
quintessential example of ‘difference-blind liberalism’, that is to say, of
‘those who take the view that individual rights must always come first,
and, along with non-discrimination provisions, must take precedence
over collective goals’ (1994: 56). In that short paper, Dworkin defends
the familiar view that a liberal society is one that as a society adopts no
particular substantive view about the ends of life. Instead, a liberal soci-
ety is united around a strong procedural commitment to treat people
with equal respect. For Taylor the claim that ‘difference-blind’ liberal-
ism can offer a neutral ground on which people of all cultures can meet
and coexist is implausible, because ‘blind’ liberalisms are themselves the
reflection of particular cultures, ‘a particularism masquerading as the uni-
versal’ (ibid.: 44).
Taylor proposes an alternative form of liberalism that ‘weights the
importance of certain forms of uniform treatment against the importance
of cultural survival, and opts sometimes in favor of the latter’ (ibid.: 61).
For Taylor, a society with strong collective goals can be liberal, which
he illustrates with reference to Quebec. The criteria to distinguish

2 The reader could counter that Charles Taylor is considered the ‘father’ of ‘Liberalism 2’

(or Liberal Nationalism) by Walzer (1994), and that he does not qualify as a pure com-
munitarian thinker. I would agree, but I would add that none of these authors actually do.
The ‘communitarian critique’ is understood here as a loose category that includes
­‘culturalist’ critics of classical liberalism who do not show the concern for liberal constraints
that is characteristic of liberal culturalists.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 Chapter V
VENETIAN AND FLORENTINE METAL-WORK

In Italy, many years ago, there originated the pretty household art
of making small objects from metal strips bent into graceful curves
and scrolls, and then banded together. During the past few years
American and English boys have taken up this Venetian and
Florentine metal-work, and to-day the materials may be purchased at
hardware stores in all the large cities.
The tools required are a pair of flat and a pair of round-nosed
pliers, or pincers, a pair of heavy shears, and a pair of wire-cutters; a
small bench-vise will also be useful.
The materials include a few sheets of thin stove-pipe iron of good
quality (it may be purchased from a tinsmith), several yards of fine,
soft iron wire, and some heavier wire for framework.
From the sheets of iron narrow strips are to be cut with the shears,
and for ordinary work they should be not more than three-sixteenths
of an inch in width; for heavier or lighter work the width may be
varied. If it is possible to obtain the prepared strips at a hardware
store, it will be better than making them at home, since it is a
tiresome task to cut many of the strips from sheet-iron. Soft, thin iron
that will bend easily is the only kind that is of use, as the hard or
brittle iron breaks off and it is impossible to bend it into uniform or
even scrolls.
A little patience and perseverance will be necessary at first until
the knack of forming scrolls has been mastered, but once learned it
will then be an easy matter to make many pretty and useful objects.

A Lamp-screen

An attractive design for a lamp-screen is shown in Fig. 1 A. When

completed and backed with some pretty material it will be found a
useful little affair to hang against the shade of a lamp to shield one’s
eyes from the direct rays of a bright light.
To begin with, form a square of six inches, and at the top where
the ends meet make a lap-joint by allowing one end to project over
the other; then bind them together with some very fine wire—about
the size that florists use. Inside of this square make a circle six
inches in diameter, and wire it fast to the square where the sides,
bottom, and top touch it.
Bend four small circles, and fasten one in each of the four angular
corners between the circle and square; then form the centre scrolls
and the hoop in the middle of the screen.
To form a scroll like that shown in Fig. 1 bend a strip of metal in
the form of a U, as shown in Fig. 2, and with the round-nosed pair of
pliers begin to curl one end in, as shown in Fig. 3. When it has been
rolled far enough in to form one side of the scroll, it will appear as
shown in Fig. 4. By treating the other end in a similar manner the
finished result will be a perfect scroll like Fig. 1. Four of these scrolls
are to be made and banded to the circle and to each other, and in
the centre the hoop must be made fast with little metal bands.
 Fig. 1. Fig. 1 A. Fig. 2. Fig. 3. Fig. 4. Fig. 5. Fig. 6. Fig. 7.

When uniting or binding two strips of metal together they may be

fastened with wire or bands, as a matter of choice. If the latter mode
is employed, short pieces of the metal strips are to be cut and
partially bent in the form of a clamp, as shown in Fig. 5. Bring the
two sides together and bend one ear of the clamp over them (Fig. 6),
and if the other ear is the proper length, bend that down in place,
and squeeze all together with the flat-nosed pair of pincers. The
perfect joint will then appear as shown in Fig. 7. When using metal
clamps the ears should be of such a length that, when pressed down
over the united strips of metal, the ends will just come together and
not overlap.
Having made the body part of the screen, form the scrolls of the
top, and bind them in place with wire or the little metal clamps. This
top should measure some three inches high from the top rib of the
screen, and the end scrolls should project about three-quarters of an
inch beyond the body of the screen at either side.
For the sides and bottom form a frill of metal and fasten it to the
screen with wire; it should not be more than three-eighths or half an
inch in width, and can be bent with the round-nosed pincers and the
fingers. Better wear gloves for this part of the work.
When the metal-work is finished it will be necessary to coat it with
black paint to improve its appearance and prevent its rusting. There
are several good paints that may be used for this purpose, but if they
are not easy to obtain an excellent coating may be made by
dissolving a little shellac in alcohol and adding dry lamp-black so it
will be about the consistency of cream. It should be applied to the
metal with a soft brush, and if it should become too thick it may be
thinned by adding alcohol.
Two thin coats will be all that are required for ordinary purposes,
but if the metal-work is exposed to the weather, or any dampness
that might cause it to rust, a coat of red lead should be applied next
the iron. Red lead can be mixed with boiled linseed-oil to make a
good metal paint.
A backing of some pretty, light-colored silk is required to complete
the screen, using one, two, or three thicknesses to properly shield
the light. The backing should be attached to the grille, or framework,
with black silk, and it may be cut to fit either the round or square
portion of the framework. The stitches should be close together, to
prevent the goods drawing away from the metal ribs.

Pattern-making

When constructing any piece of grille-work it is always best to

have a full-sized drawing to work over. For example, it is a simple
matter to lay out the plan for Fig. 1 A, and you may proceed as
follows: Pin to a lap-board a smooth piece of heavy brown paper,
and with a soft pencil draw a six-inch square. Inside this describe,
with a compass, a six-inch circle; then draw the four corner circles,
and divide the larger Circle into quarters. In each of these quarters
draw, in free-hand, the scroll shown in Fig. 1 A. The top is to be
drawn in free-hand, but if it is difficult to get both sides alike you may
first draw one side; then double the paper, and transfer the design by
rubbing the back of the paper. It will then be found an easy matter to
bend and fit the scrolls, since each member may be accurately
shaped to conform to the lines, and afterwards banded together.

A Standard Screen

For a standard screen in the shape of a banner the design shown

in Fig. 1 A may be used, leaving off the top ornament, and
suspending it from the upper end of a supported stick with cord or
wires, as shown in Fig. 8.
The stick should be about eighteen inches high, and the scroll feet
should stand seven inches and a half up from the bottom. At the
widest part they should measure six inches across, and there should
be four of these feet to constitute a stable base. At the top of the
stick (which should be about one-quarter of an inch square) a scroll
and a hook will serve to support the screen. In a library or sitting-
room, where one large lamp is used to read by, one or two banner-
screens will keep the strong light from the eyes and the heat from
the head without cutting off the needed illumination from the book or
work in hand.

A Candlestick

The illustration shown in Fig. 9 gives a pleasing pattern for a

small-based candlestick.
 A STANDARD SCREEN AND A CANDLESTICK

Fig. 8. Fig. 9. Fig. 10.

To begin with, secure an old tin or brass candlestick and rip off the
bottom, leaving only the sheath and collar at the top. Have a tinsmith
cut the lower end away, leaving about two inches of the top, and
solder a bottom in it. Cut a pine stick about four inches long and not
more than three-sixteenths of an inch square, or the same thickness
as the width of the metal strips from which the scrolls are to be
formed. Punch a small hole in the bottom of the socket, and drive a
slim steel-wire nail down through it and into the middle of one end of
the stick, so that the attached pieces will appear as shown in Fig. 10.
The socket will hold a candle, and the stick will act as a centre staff
against which the four scroll sides are to be fastened.
A paper pattern should be used over which to bend the scrolls,
and across the bottom they should measure four and a half inches,
and five or six inches high. To the upper part of one side-scroll a
handle should be shaped and fastened, as shown in Fig. 9.

A Candelabra

The design for a four-armed candelabra to hold five candles is

shown in Fig. 11.
Cut two sticks a quarter of an inch square and ten inches long,
another one thirteen inches long, and a short piece two inches long.
At the middle of the ten-inch lengths cut laps, as shown in Fig. 12,
and bore a hole through the centre and into an end of the long stick.
Drive a slim nail down into the hole at the end of the stick, as shown
in Fig. 13, and over it place the cross-arms, as shown in Fig. 14. In
one end of the short stick bore a hole, snug it over the top of the nail,
and drive it down so that it will fit securely on top of the cross-sticks.
The completed union will have the appearance of Fig. 15, and to this
wood frame the scroll and ornamental work is to be attached.
 A CANDELABRA

Fig. 11. Fig. 12. Fig. 13. Fig. 14. Fig. 15. Fig. 16.

Lay out the plan of one side on paper, making the distance from
the stick to outer edge of the foot about four and a half inches. At the
narrowest place, near the top, the side should measure one and
three-quarter inches in width. The scrolls should be securely bound
to the wood frame with wire, and for candle sockets five six-pointed
stars should be cut from the pattern given in Fig. 16. They should be
two and a half inches in diameter, and bent to receive a standard-
sized candle. A small screw passed through a hole in the centre will
fasten them to the wood arms, and when placing them the wood
should extend entirely under each socket, as may be seen in Fig. 11.
Canopy shades and holders should be made or purchased, and
when complete with candles and shades this candelabra should
present a very pleasing appearance.

A Fairy Lamp

It will be found quite a simple matter to make a fairy lamp similar to

the one shown in Fig. 17.
The bracket should be twelve inches high and five inches wide
from the back stick to the end of the projecting arm, on the end of
which the suspending hook is located. The arm should be placed
about three inches from the top, and both the arm and the upright
are to be of wood one-quarter of an inch square. It would be well to
make a pattern of the scroll-work over which to bend the metal in
true shape.
The scrolls should be securely bound to the wood ribs with wire
instead of metal clamps, since the weight of the candle-sconce
would have a tendency to open the clamps and weaken the support.
For the lamp part, it will be necessary to have the socket of a
candlestick arranged as described for the candlestick in Fig. 9. The
stick at the bottom should be one and a half inches in length. Against
this the scroll-work is attached. Each side should measure two and a
half inches long and three inches high from the place where the
suspension-wire is attached to the bottom, where the pendants are
fastened. The four scrolls must be securely bound to the socket and
stick with wire, and from a screw-eye driven in the lower end of the
centre stick three drops, or pendants, may be hung. These pendants
are in the shape of bell-flowers, and may be of any size, cut from the
diagram shown in Fig. 18. They should be strung on a wire having a
knot made in it wherever it is desired to place a flower.
From the scroll ends of each side-grille a wire is fastened and
carried up to a ring that hangs on the arm-hook. These wires form a
light and graceful mode of suspension, and near the upper end a
canopy shade can be made fast. Pink red, orange, light-green, or
electric-blue candles and shades always look well with the black
iron-work of the bracket and sconce.

A Burned-match Holder

Fig. 19 gives a design for a small receptacle to be used for burned

matches or other small waste scraps.
Notice that the drawing shows but one side of a three or four sided
affair. The outside frame should measure about three inches across
at the top, two inches at the bottom, and two and a half inches high.
Small hooks should be fastened to each upper corner. From them
small chains extend up to a single ring that may be of wire; or a
small iron harness-ring may be employed for the purpose.
The three or four sides forming the receptacle are to be securely
bound together with wire, and for a bottom a thin piece of wood or a
sheet of light metal can be sewed in with wire. Whether the bottom is
of metal or wood, it will be necessary to make small holes around the
edge through which the fine wire can be passed. The wire should be
caught around the bottom ribs of the sides, and manipulated in much
the same manner that cloth is attached with needle and thread.
Each side should be backed with silk or other pretty material, and
to prevent burning or blackening from match ends the entire
receptacle may be relined with card-board, tin-foil, or asbestos
paper.
The links forming the chain are made of very narrow strips of the
metal. Fig. 19 A shows the construction of the centre, and B that of
one side. Two of the latter are to be made for each link and banded
to the centre, so that a finished link will appear like C in Fig. 19. The
links should be connected with little wire rings, or small brass rings
may be purchased at a hardware store. The latter, when painted
black, will appear as if made of iron.

Fig. 17. Fig. 18. Fig. 19.

 This same design can be carried out on a larger scale, and
adapted as a hanging jardinière in which a potted vine may be
placed. If employed for that purpose, an outlet for the water must be
provided in the bottom. Instead of using a clay flower-pot, it would be
well to have a tinsmith make a zinc inner box, with a small pipe
through the bottom to convey the waste water into a small cup that
may be suspended underneath. As the proportions of the box are
enlarged, the links of the chain must be made larger and stronger, so
that the chain will be heavy enough to support the weight; and
instead of using wire or brass rings, it would be advisable to employ
small iron harness-rings.

A Photograph-frame

Among the many pretty little objects that can be made from thin
metal strips, frames for small pictures are always serviceable and
attractive (Fig. 20). Black is not always a desirable color for a frame,
and there are several good enamel paints on sale. They may be
procured in almost any light shade, such as pink, blue, green, brown,
and the pale yellows or cream colors. Several successive thin coats
of these enamel paints will give the iron scrolls a pretty finish.
It is hardly necessary to lay down a size for this frame, as it can
readily be adapted to any photograph or small picture. The
proportions, however, should be followed as closely as possible, so
that the design will work out about as shown in the drawing.
This frame may be hung against the wall, or arranged as an easel
for a table, mantel-shelf, or wall-bracket. If the latter scheme is
preferred, a support may be made from narrow metal strips and
attached to the back of the frame with wire. This support should be
of the design shown in Fig. 20 A; it is attached by the top cross-bar
to the back of the frame. This cross-bar is of round iron, and the
projecting ends are to be caught with wire loops, which will allow the
back leg to act as if arranged on a hinge. To prevent it from going too
far back, a wire or string at the bottom will hold it the proper distance
from the frame.
 Fig. 20. Fig. 20 A. Fig. 21. Fig. 22. Fig. 23.

The frame proper is made from a strip of metal half an inch wide,
and bent in angular form, showing less than quarter of an inch on
each side of an L. In the strip cut angle-notches with a pair of
shears, as shown in Fig. 21, thus forming the corners. The notches
should be made half-way across the width of the metal, so that the
point of each angle will just reach the middle of a strip. With a flat-
nosed pair of pliers bend the strip in the form of the oblong, so that
each corner will appear like Fig. 22. Join the frame at the bottom,
allowing the metal to lap over an inch at the ends, and make the
union by punching little holes and passing through small copper
tacks that can be clinched or riveted.
With a small bench-vise and a hammer, or with two pairs of pliers,
grasp the strip forming the frame and bend it in the shape of an L all
around, as shown in Fig. 23, taking care to match the edges of each
notch so that they will form a mitre, as shown also in Fig. 23. Where
the scrolls are attached to the side of this frame, they may be held in
place by small copper tacks passed through holes made in both
scrolls and frame and riveted.

A Handkerchief-box

One of the most interesting branches of the light strap metal-work

is in making boxes of all shapes and sizes. The variety of designs
that can be employed is practically inexhaustible, but certain general
principles should be observed. For instance, a box to hold matches
should be of small and neat design, while in a larger box the
ornament may be more open and bolder, and the strips from which it
is made should be heavier and stronger.
A handkerchief-box fashioned after the design shown in Fig. 24 is
a pretty as well as a useful article for a bureau or dressing-table. A is
the pattern for the top, and B represents one of the sides.
It should measure eight or ten inches square and three inches
deep, or larger if desired, and the frame should be of wire or wood. If
wood is employed, sticks three-sixteenths of an inch square must be
lap-jointed at the angles, as shown in Fig. 25, and the union made
with glue and screws or fine steel-wire nails.
 Fig. 24 A. Fig. 24 B. Fig. 25. Fig. 26. Fig. 27.

If the box should be made of brass scrolls, it would be well to

obtain some brass rods about one-eighth or three-sixteenths of an
inch square, and bend them to form the framework. Where the ends
meet, lap-joints should be cut and wired.
If the brass should be too hard to bend in a vise without breaking,
the part it is desired to work should be heated over a spirit-lamp or in
a gas flame for a moment or two; when cool, it will be soft and
pliable. If brass should be employed for the frame, the joints must be
soldered instead of wired. To solder them it will be necessary to have
some soldering solution, a spirit-lamp, and some wire solder.
To unite the metal ends apply some of the soldering solution to the
parts with a piece of wood or an old camel’s-hair brush, and then
hold them over, or in the lamp flame, until they are quite hot. When
sufficiently heated touch them with the end of a piece of solder, and
the heat of the metal will instantly melt the solder, so that it will
adhere to the brass. To hold the parts together while they are being
soldered, give them a turn or two of fine iron wire. After they have
been united and the brass is cold, the wire may be removed and the
rough parts of the solder filed away.
Small brass hinges may be screwed fast to the wood ribs to attach
the lid to the box, and if brass is employed for the frame and grille
work the hinges must be soldered to the frame.

A Sign-board

For a sign-board an idea is suggested in Fig. 26. At one’s place of

business, in front of a cottage, or on a mile-post, it may be displayed
to good advantage.
It is only a board on which sheet-iron or lead letters have been
fastened, and the edges bound with metal and large-headed nails. A
rod set at right angles to a post supports the sign-board, and to
ornament it some scroll-work is attached at the top. Scroll ornaments
decorate the sides and bottom of the board. These are fastened on
with steel-wire nails driven through holes made in the metal and into
the edges of the board. The ornamental scroll-work should be made
of somewhat thicker and wider iron strips than the more delicate
articles for indoor use, and all the iron should be given one or two
coats of red-lead paint before the black finish is applied. To prevent
rust-marks from running down on the wood board, it is necessary to
coat the back part of the letters and all iron straps which may lie
against the wood. It is much better to use sheet-lead for the letters,
since it cuts easier, and will not stain the wood with rust or corrosion
marks.

Double Doorway Grille

For a double doorway a pretty effect is shown in Fig. 27, where a

long grille is arranged at the top of a doorway, and under it the
curtain-pole is attached.
The outer frame for a grille of this size should be made by a
blacksmith from an iron rod about three-eighths of an inch square.
The inner frame may be made of strip-iron three-eighths of an inch
wide, and three inches smaller all around than the larger one. The
metal strips employed to form the grille design should be three-
eighths of an inch wide, and cut from box strap-iron.
The full-size drawing should be laid out on paper, over which it will
be an easy matter to shape the scrolls. If the grille should be too
open when the pattern is completed, some more scrolls may be
added to fill the spaces, taking care not to injure the general design
of the pattern.
The grille may be anchored to the wood-work of the casing with
steel-wire nails or staples, and several coats of black should be
given the iron to finish it nicely.

A Moorish Lantern

Having gained by experience the knowledge and art of working in

strip-metal, and after successfully making a number of the smaller
objects already described, it is perhaps time to undertake the
construction of something larger and more elaborate.
As an example of such work, a very beautiful design for a Moorish
lantern is shown in Fig. 28. It is not a difficult piece of work, nor is it
beyond the ability of any smart boy, but it must not be attempted
before a thorough knowledge of forming frames and scrolls and of
pattern drawing has been gained through experience in making more
simple objects.
In size this lantern is not limited, and it may be made from twelve
to thirty-six inches high, not including the suspension chain and rings
and the drop of flower-pendants at the bottom.
For a lamp twenty inches high having six sides, each panel should
be made on a wire frame. The middle panels measure six inches
high, four inches wide at the top, and three inches at the bottom. The
top panels are five inches across at the widest place, and the lower
ones four and a half inches. One of the middle panels can be
arranged to swing on hinges, in order to place a lamp within the
lantern, and also to make it possible to line the inside of the lantern
body with some plain silk or other material.
 Fig. 28.

At the top and bottom scrolls are to be formed of the stout wire
employed for the ribs or framework. Under the crown top, at the six
corners, brackets may extend out for a distance of five inches, from
which sconces for tapers or small candles may be hung. Or these
brackets may be omitted, and in place of the hooks a small scroll
may be formed at the extending ends. Each little sconce is two
inches deep and two and a half inches in diameter, and in them
candle-holders may be placed, over which colored glass globes will
appear to good advantage. From the top of the lower lobe six arms
support flower-drops four or five inches long, and from the extreme
bottom a pendant of flowers finishes off the whole. No matter what
size this lantern is made, the proportions should be carefully
preserved, or the effect will be spoiled.
 A long chain made up of links and rings may be used to suspend
the lantern. Should a more secure anchorage be desired, four chains
may be attached at four places on the ceiling of a room, from which
anchorage they all meet at the top of the lantern.
The illustration shows the lantern in perspective, but it must be
borne in mind that it has six sides, and the patterns of the six sides,
of the top, middle section, and bottom are like those in the three front
sections that face the reader as he looks at the drawing.
 Chapter VI
METAL-BOUND WORK

Thin sheets of various metals may be used to great advantage in

the decoration of household furniture, either serving as artistic
edgings, or representing strengthening straps, hinges, etc. When
finished off with heavy wrought-iron or bellows nails, the effect is
both striking and pleasing. The art is not a difficult one to acquire,
and the hints and suggestions that follow should enable any smart
boy to pick it up in a comparatively short time.

A Metal-bound Box

As a receptacle for photographs, picture-cards, and the other

small trifles that accumulate in a library or living-room, a box such as
shown in Fig. 1 will be found most useful.
Obtain some smooth pieces of wood, not more than three-eighths
or half an inch thick, and construct a box eighteen inches long, ten
wide, and eight inches deep, including top, bottom, and sides. These
parts are to be glued and nailed together so as to form an enclosed
box. Use a good liquid glue and slim steel-wire nails to make the
joints. When the glue is dry, cut the box through all around the sides,
one and a half inches down from the top. The lid, or cover, is thereby
cut loose, and it will match the body of the box much more
accurately than if made separately and fitted.
Plane and sand-paper the rough edges left by the saw, and attach
the lid to the back edge of the box with hinges. The outside of the
box may be stained or painted any desirable color, and when dry it
will be ready to receive the metal decorations.