ABSTRACT
Why is it that when debating the economic crisis, actors in the Portuguese parliament invoke more frequently countries affected by the crisis, whereas actors in the Spanish parliament invoke economically well-off countries more often? This article explores this mystery by studying how and why certain countries are evoked in the decision-making process. The analysis reveals that the actors mention different countries to contextualize the nation. We argue the actors in these two countries resort to different reference groups to identify or distance the nation in this concrete period even if they present similar challenges.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge members of the Tampere Research Group for Cultural and Political Sociology for comments on earlier versions.
ORCID
Laia Pi Ferrer http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8655-591X
Pertti Alasuutari http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4111-9641
Notes
1 The World Bank, Data Base. GDP per capita (current US$) in Portugal and Spain. Available online at: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?locations=PT-ES&view=chart.
2 Both newspapers are about general information and they have a great rank in readers. El País is the most widely read general newspaper in Spain with 1.851.000 readers per day [Data from the Asociación para la Investigación de Medios de Comunicación (Association for the research around media communication) from October 2012 to May 2013]. Correio da Manhã is the most widely read general newspaper in Portugal with 1.206.000 reader per day [Data from Barem Imprensa from 2014].
3 Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra. Observatório Sobre Crises e Alternativas. Available online at: http://www.ces.uc.pt/observatorios/crisalt/cronologia.php.
4 All data excerpts are translated from Spanish and Portuguese by the authors.