Alistair Cole - The Politics of Ethnolinguistic Mobilization in Europe: Language Matters

Although language is a fundamental issue in contemporary societies, it remains relatively unaddressed by political scientists. The aim of this special issuebased on the workshop Ethnolinguistic Mobilizations and Regional Languages in Europe organized under the auspices of the Joint Sessions of the European Consortium for Political Research held in Munster, Germany in 2010is to explore and compare the different strategies used by linguistic movements to defend regional languages in Europe. The title Ethnolinguistic Mobilizations in Europe refers to the broad array of movements (including social movements, pressure groups, formal parties and political institutions) which defend vernacular languages.

The terms used to refer to vernacular languages can vary from one study to another. Nevertheless, vernacular languages and regional languages seem the most neutral expressions as they do not impose a symbolical hierarchy between the language of the state and the other languages spoken within the national borders. The state language is usually a regional language that historically was able to impose itself on the other ones. However, the focus on regional language clearly excludes the other tongues spoken in Europe, such as those imported by migrants (Swahili, Chinese, Arabic) or those spoken by very specific communities (like Hebrew, for instance). By using the concept of ethnolinguistic, we aim to study the political uses of languages spoken in different regions of Europe. We use the term regional as a generic one, to signify that our analysis refers to the sub-state level. In practice, the areas of influence of these languages rarely fit neatly into the administrative regional subdivisions of the European countries; indeed, these linguistic areas encompass different regions from different states at the same time (as in Catalonia or the Basque Country).