Rescuing national unity with imagination: The case of Tabarnia

Abstract

This article analyses the drivers and developments of the recent rise of a fictional region: Tabarnia in Spain. This platform proposes the creation of a new autonomous region to oppose the project of secession of the independentist Catalan movement. Given the dearth of academic research, our article documents and explores the case of Tabarnia. We draw on a multimethod approach, entailing a thematic analysis and process-tracing, to reconstruct the trajectory of this platform and to uncover its drivers, goals and strategies. By building on this evidence base, this article construes Tabarnia as an instance of imaginary regionalism created ex nihilo in the noosphere. As such, Tabarnia represents an a-topia substantiated through a digital region-building process heavily relying on the use of humour.