Language and Minority Rights: Ethnicity, Nationalism and the Politics of Language

by Dr Stephen May (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2001

  $41.00

  A provocative and ground-breaking contribution to the debate on language and identity. Calling for a major reappraisal of the long-held consensus in the sociology of ethnicity and nationalism - and to a lesser extent in the sociology of language - that dismisses language as an important feature of individual and collective identity. Using examples of many language-based historical and contemporary ethnic and ethno-national movements and conflicts, the author pinpoints the causes of many of these conflicts within the nation-state and its preoccupation with establishing a 'common' language and culture via mass education. Shortlisted for the 2002 BAAL Book Prize