Boundaries and Social Representations in Conflict. The Case of Occitanie in 2019, Between Linguistic Space and Administrative Region

Abstract

Abstract This paper focuses on the impact of the creation of the new administrative French region «Occitanie – Pyrénées, Méditerranée» under the social representations of the Occitan linguistic space point of view. This new region was created in 2016 by the union of two former regions, Midi-Pyrénées and Languedoc-Roussillon, and does not correspond precisely to the linguistic and historical Occitanie. Therefore, the name of the new region could delegitimize both the name and the linguistic practices – indeed, already remarkably jeopardized.