Language-related Conflicts in Multinational and Multiethnic Settings: Success and Failure of Language Regimes - Softcover

Moormann-Kimáková, Barbora

Softcover

ISBN 10: 3658111747 ISBN 13: 9783658111748

Publisher: Springer VS, 2015

Synopsis

In this book, Barbora Moormann-Kimáková analyses the possibility of finding an optimal language regime in multinational and multiethnic countries – either by defining the contents of an optimal language regime, or with the help of a criterion enabling to evaluate whether a language regime is optimal or not. The process of the selection or change of a language regime often becomes a matter of a language-related conflict. These conflicts are mostly accompanied by other political or social conflicts, as for example in Ukraine or former Yugoslavia, which render solutions – and their evaluation – difficult. The author claims that language regimes can be evaluated based on the increase or lack of their legitimacy in the eyes of the relevant actors. This is demonstrated in four language regime studies on the European Union, Soviet Union, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and South Africa.

About this title

About the Author

Barbora Moormann-Kimáková received her doctorate in political science from the Institut für Sozialwissenschaften, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany.

From the Back Cover

In this book, Barbora Moormann-Kimáková analyses the possibility of finding an optimal language regime in multinational and multiethnic countries – either by defining the contents of an optimal language regime, or with the help of a criterion enabling to evaluate whether a language regime is optimal or not. The process of the selection or change of a language regime  often becomes a matter of a language-related conflict. These conflicts are mostly accompanied by other political or social conflicts, as for example in Ukraine or former Yugoslavia, which render solutions – and their evaluation – difficult. The author claims that language regimes can be evaluated based on the increase or lack of their legitimacy in the eyes of the relevant actors. This is demonstrated in four language regime studies on the European Union, Soviet Union, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and South Africa.

Content

• The search for the optimal language regime
• The conflict potential of multilingualism
• Actors in language-related conflicts
• The dimensions of language-related conflicts
• Monolingualism
• Multilingualism without and with a lingua franca

Target Groups

• Lecturers and students of the social sciences, humanities and sociolinguistics.

• Readers interested in language-related political issues and diversity politics.

About the Author
Barbora Moormann-Kimáková received her doctorate in political science from the Institut für Sozialwissenschaften, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer VS
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3658111747
• ISBN 13: 9783658111748
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 289