Language and Minority Rights

Language and Minority Rights

Author: Stephen May

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-06-17

Total Pages: 450

ISBN-13: 1136837078

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Second Edition of this award-winning volume in the field of language rights and language policy is a timely and useful revision of its core arguments and examples, addressing new theoretical and empirical developments since its initial publication.


Language and Minority Rights

Language and Minority Rights

Author: Stephen May

Publisher:

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 408

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In this provocative and ground-breaking book, Stephen May argues for a non-essentialist understanding of language rights, while at the same time outlining why language rights, particularly for minority groups, are defensible and important, both academically and politically. May argues that the causes of many of the language-based conflicts in the world today lie with the nation-state and its preoccupation with establishing a 'common' language and culture via mass education. The solution, he suggests, is to rethink nation-states in more culturally and linguistically plural ways while avoiding, at the same time, essentialising the language-identity link.Language and Minority Rights - a benchmark volume in the field of language rights and language policy - is an outstanding interdisciplinary analysis which draws together debates on language from widely different academic fields, including the sociology of language, ethnicity and nationalism, sociolinguistics, social and political theory, education, history and law, illustrating these debates via a wealth of different national contexts and examples. It is essential reading for students, teachers and researchers in the sociology of language, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, language policy and planning, sociology, politics, and education.


Language Attitudes and Minority Rights

Language Attitudes and Minority Rights

Author: James Hawkey

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-04-12

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 3319745972

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book presents a detailed sociolinguistic study of the traditionally Catalan-speaking areas of Southern France, and sheds new light on language attitudes, phonetic variation, language ideologies and minority language rights. The region’s complex dual identity, both Catalan and French, both peripheral and strategic, is shown to be reflected in the book’s attitudinal findings which in turn act as reliable predictors of phonetic variation. The author’s careful discursive analysis paints a clear picture of the linguistic ideological landscape: in which French dominates as the language of status and prestige. This innovative work, employing cutting-edge mixed methods, provides an in-depth account of an under-examined language situation, and draws on this research to propose a number of policy recommendations to protect minority rights for speakers of Catalan in the region. Combining language attitudes, sociophonetics, discourse studies, and language policy, this will provide an invaluable reference for scholars of French and Catalan studies and minority languages around the world.


Language, Minorities and Human Rights

Language, Minorities and Human Rights

Author: Fernand de Varennes

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2021-09-27

Total Pages: 552

ISBN-13: 9004479252

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

One of the most vexing issues in many of the world's so-called ethnic or minority conflicts is the question of language use by the State and its citizens. While international and national law has traditionally viewed language preference to be within a State's prerogative - at least when involving governmental activities and machinery - this position has proved to be a continuous source of acrimony and conflict, and wrong in some respects. Language, Minorities, and Human Rights is the most complete book ever written on the topic, providing for the first time an analysis of every aspect of language and the law. In addition to presenting a theoretical model for language's particular position and relevance in human rights, it constitutes an invaluable reference document by including the provisions of close to 100 international, multilateral and bilateral instruments involving language rights, as well as the constitutional provisions of 140 countries dealing with language. By addressing little explored areas such as the language rights of indigenous peoples, non-citizens and even the use of script, in addition to more traditional topics such as nationalism and language, freedom of expression and non-discrimination, Language, Minorities and Human Rights proposes a complete descriptive picture of language and human rights as well as proposing a number of suggestions on how to address and balance the many problems currently caused by the linguistic demands of various individuals and the interests of states in nation building.


Language Rights in a Changing China

Language Rights in a Changing China

Author: Alexandra Grey

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2021-05-10

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13: 1501512552

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

China has had constitutional minority language rights for decades, but what do they mean today? Answering with nuance and empirical detail, this book examines the rights through a sociolinguistic study of Zhuang, the language of China’s largest minority group. The analysis traces language policy from the Constitution to local government practices, investigating how Zhuang language rights are experienced as opening or restricting socioeconomic opportunity. The study finds that language rights do not challenge ascendant marketised and mobility-focused language ideologies which ascribe low value to Zhuang. However, people still value a Zhuang identity validated by government policy and practice. Rooted in a Bourdieusian approach to language, power and legal discourse, this is the first major publication to integrate contemporary debates in linguistics about mobility, capitalism and globalization into a study of China’s language policy. The book refines Grey’s award-winning doctoral dissertation, which received the Joshua A. Fishman Award in 2018. The judges said the study “decenter[s] all types of sociolinguistic assumptions." It is a thought-provoking work on minority rights and language politics, relevant beyond China.


EC Law and Minority Language Policy

EC Law and Minority Language Policy

Author: Niamh Nic Shuibhne

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2021-10-25

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 900447871X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The European Community has pledged respect for the cultural and linguistic diversity of its Member States and has recognized minority languages as an inherent constituent in this regard. This development reflects a broader trend within the Community towards grappling with less obvious aspects of supranational governance. Minority language groups turn optimistically to `Europe' in response. But, despite rhetorical promises, just what can the EC actually be expected to do in the realm of minority language protection, a politically sensitive and traditionally domestic concern? Arguments put forward to date focus primarily on philosophical, moral, economic, and political discourse. While these considerations are a vital aspect of the debate on minority languages and on linguistic diversity more generally, the question of legal basis remains largely unanswered. For the first time, this book traces comprehensively the existence of an appropriate legal basis for action undertaken by the EC in this domain, striving in particular to locate a pragmatic yet effective balance between legitimate possibility and acceptable limitations.


Language, a Right and a Resource

Language, a Right and a Resource

Author: Mikl¢s Kontra

Publisher: Central European University Press

Published: 1999-01-01

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 9789639116641

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"This study broadens our knowledge of the important role of language in minority rights and in social and political struggles for LHRs. Exploring the interactions of linguistic diversity, biodiversity, the free market and human rights, the contributors present case studies to highlight such issues as Kurdish satellite TV attempting to create a virtual state on the air through trying to achieve basic LHRs for Kurds in Turkey; the implementation of LHRs in the Baltic states; language rights activism in Canada; the spread of English as an international language; and the obstacles met in education by Roma and the Deaf in Hungary because of lack of appropriate LHRs." "Language: A Right and a Resource is a multi-disciplinary text which can be used in a variety of different areas of study in the legal profession, linguistics, cultural and political studies."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved


Minority Languages and Group Identity

Minority Languages and Group Identity

Author: John Edwards

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2010-01-13

Total Pages: 243

ISBN-13: 9027288682

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The central concern in this book is the relationship between language and group identity, a relationship that is thrown into greatest relief in ‘minority’ settings. Since much of the current interest in minority languages revolves around issues of identity politics, language rights and the plight of ‘endangered’ languages, one aim of the book is to summarise and analyse these and other pivotal themes. Furthermore, since the uniqueness of every language-contact situation does not rest upon unique elements or features – but, rather, upon the particular weightings and combinations of features that recur across settings – the second aim here is to provide a general descriptive framework within which a wide range of contact settings may be more easily understood. The book thus begins with a discussion of such matters as language decline, maintenance and revival, the dynamics of minority languages, and the ecology of language. It then offers a typological framework that draws and expands upon previous categorising efforts. Finally, the book presents four case studies that are both intrinsically interesting and – more importantly – provide specific illustrations of the generalities discussed earlier.


Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Minority Rights

Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Minority Rights

Author: Stephen May

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2004-11-11

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 9780521603171

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Focusing on minority rights and recognition, this interdisciplinary collection addresses the position of minorities in democratic societies. Featured topics include the constructed nature of ethnicity, class and the "new racism," different forms of nationalism, self-determination and indigenous politics, the politics of recognition versus the politics of redistribution, and the re-emergence of cosmopolitanism.


Monitoring State Compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Monitoring State Compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Author: Ziba Vaghri

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-01-03

Total Pages: 429

ISBN-13: 3030846474

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This open access book presents a discussion on human rights-based attributes for each article pertinent to the substantive rights of children, as defined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). It provides the reader with a unique and clear overview of the scope and core content of the articles, together with an analysis of the latest jurisprudence of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. For each article of the UNCRC, the authors explore the nature and scope of corresponding State obligations, and identify the main features that need to be taken into consideration when assessing a State’s progressive implementation of the UNCRC. This analysis considers which aspects of a given right are most important to track, in order to monitor States' implementation of any given right, and whether there is any resultant change in the lives of children. This approach transforms the narrative of legal international standards concerning a given right into a set of characteristics that ensure no aspect of said right is overlooked. The book develops a clear and comprehensive understanding of the UNCRC that can be used as an introduction to the rights and principles it contains, and to identify directions for future policy and strategy development in compliance with the UNCRC. As such, it offers an invaluable reference guide for researchers and students in the field of childhood and children’s rights studies, as well as a wide range of professionals and organisations concerned with the subject.