The works gathered in this special issue began to take shape during discussions that emerged at a congress held in Madrid in 2019. It is somewhat meaningful that the Spanish capital hosted those conversations, since—even though none of the articles focuses exclusively on the Spanish case—it was precisely that context which prompted us to open a forum for debate on the uses and functions of national flags.
It is well known that national flags have gained substantial public prominence in Spain over recent years, becoming a key marker of collective identification for some political parties and their supporters, while being systematically avoided by the leaders and sympathizers of others. Although the expressions of this phenomenon are familiar to many, we believed in 2019 (and still believe today) that they are rarely explained with solid argumentative grounding—despite the strength of the judgments and emotions that usually accompany any commentary on flags in the country.
Thus, reflecting on the Spanish case and, more broadly, on the recurring increase in the display and manipulation of flags in the public sphere during times of political instability, we began to ask ourselves a series of guiding questions: Why does this phenomenon occur? How does it manifest in different societies? What can we learn from its study about social dynamics, culture, and both individual and group behavior? These questions set the theoretical direction for the contributions gathered in this issue and also underpinned some of the political concerns that contributors continue to share today.
The articles explore and theorize the uses and functions of national flags in Chile, Cuba, Spain, Venezuela, and Australia (with a focus on the Catalan diaspora in that country), and include contributions from Gonzalo Saavedra (Universidad Austral de Chile), Álvaro Bello (Universidad de la Frontera, Chile), Marina Gold (University of Zurich / Fundación Mundo Sano), Rubén Pérez Hidalgo, and Luis Fernando Angosto (both from the University of Sydney). Taken together, the comparative scope of this issue contributes to a renewed analytical reflection not only on the Spanish case, but also more broadly on the how, when, and why national flags are used as vehicles of communication and collective identification.
