Following Catalonia’s referendum, ensuing protests, and the tensions between the Spanish government imposing a direct rule on the region, and the Catalan parliament declaring independence, we take a step back and look at the big questions behind this political crisis in our curated weekly briefing The Ideas Behind the Headlines.

We revisit our debate A World Without Borders, in which journalists Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and Sameer Rahim, and "the brains behind Brexit" Daniel Hannan analyse the tensions between our ideas of nationhood, democracy and freedom. Would we be better off to get rid of nations and borders in favour of a wider, global community?

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Is an independent Catalan state actually going to work out as Catalans hope it would, and if not, is that an argument against it? Perhaps our debate Dreaming the Future could inspire some answers. Do utopias fail because of the limits of our imagination or our leaders is its key question, with former leader of the Green Party Natalie Bennett arguing for the creative power of utopias and English philosopher Roger Scruton denouncing their dangers.

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In A Tribal World, we look at whether communities inevitably fall into tribalism, reinforce existing hierarchies or are a harmless part of what makes us human.