Imaginarios, despoblación y desindustrialización. El caso de las Cuencas Mineras asturianas / Imaginaries, depopulation and deindustrialization. The case of the Asturian Mining Basins

Abstract

The problem of depopulation in Spain has led to the term “emptied Spain". According to data from the Spanish National Institute of Statistics in its 2021 Population and Housing Census, out of the eight municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants that have lost the most population in the last decade, seven are in Asturias. This depopulation process is strongly associated with deindustrialization and the lack of effective reconversion. The objective of this work is to analyze the repercussions that these processes have had on the population of the Asturian mining areas; and this, specially, in the sense of identity, discourses and imaginaries. The methodology is mixed and qualitative, using semi-structured interviews. The dimensions of identity, discourses, spaces and their transformation from the process of population loss were analyzed. The results show the existence of a society fully traversed by a phenomenon of collective nostalgia at different levels, as well as a territory and a landscape that are composed through the image of ruin and emptiness; to end, an identity built and read through past referents and which seems to remain linked to the industrial past.