The Basque diaspora webscape: Online discourses of Basque diaspora identity, nationhood, and homeland

The purpose of this research is twofold: To ascertain the ways that Basque diaspora institutional web sites represent, reimagine, and redefine Basque identity online; and to ascertain the ways that Basque diaspora institutional web sites represent, reimagine, and redefine the nationhood and the Basque homeland.;According to the aforementioned research objectives, the hypothesis is:;Null. Basque diaspora institutional web sites are promoting a notion of Basque identity based on subjective criteria and broadly defined (e.g., Basque is anyone who feels Basque), in opposition to an essentialist definition of Basqueness based on objective criteria and narrowly defined (e.g., Basque is anyone who has Basque ancestry).;Alternative. Basque diaspora institutional web sites are promoting a notion of Basque identity related to an essentialist definition of Basqueness based on objective criteria and narrowly defined (e.g., Basque is anyone who feels Basque), in opposition to a notion of Basque identity based on subjective criteria and broadly defined e.g., Basque is anyone who has Basque ancestry).;Null. Basque diaspora institutional web sites are promoting a notion of nationhood and Basque homeland that differs from the Basque nationalist principles that portray the homeland as a unified political and territorial homogeneous nation formed by seven historical provinces.;Alternative. Basque diaspora institutional web sites are promoting a notion of nationhood and Basque homeland based on Basque nationalist principles that portray the homeland as a unified political and territorial homogeneous nation formed by seven historical provinces.;I examine the ways that the Basque institutional diaspora represents and imagines itself, the nationhood, and homeland---the Basque Country---according to the discourses of cultural and political self-identification and re-imagination as constructed on their current organizations' official web sites. I address the following questions:;Why does the Basque diaspora use new technologies such as the Internet? And what difference do they make? Which is the impact of new global technologies of communication such as the Internet on strengthening and maintaining Basque identity in the diaspora? How do the Basque diaspora institutional web sites help to maintain Basque identity outside of the Basque Country?;What do the Basque diaspora online discourses emerging from the contents reveal about Basque diaspora identity? What are the discourses produced by the Basque diaspora webscape? What are the goals, meanings, and characteristics of these discourses? Why does the Basque diaspora articulate those discourses? And why does the Basque diaspora define and imagine itself in such ways?;What do the Basque diaspora online discourses emerging from the contents reveal about the Basque diaspora institutions' political ideology, political symbolism, or political definitions of nationhood, and homeland? Are there connections between Basque diaspora online discourses and those constructed by the Basque Government? What are these connections? And why are there connections between both set of discourses? What are the Basque diaspora attitudes, portrayed in the Basque institutional diaspora web sites, toward the homeland and hostland (opposition, neutrality, support)? And why does the Basque diaspora exhibit such attitudes? In what ways do diaspora Basques reimagine the homeland as the birth place or ancestral land? Why does the Basque diaspora define and imagine the homeland in such ways? And finally, does the Internet empower diaspora Basques to get actively involved in homeland politics?...