CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2007
| Author | Ragossnig, Gudrun Elisabeth |
|---|---|
| Title | MINORITY MOBILIZATION FOR LANGUAGE RIGHTS A COMPARATIVE CASE STUDY OF THE CARINTHIAN SLOVENE AND BURGENLAND CROAT MINORITIES IN AUSTRIA |
| Summary | Linguistic diversity has emerged as a major source of political controversy in the modern world. My thesis seeks to address the following questions related to language conflict: First, why are certain minorities mobilized around language claims whereas others are not? Second, why does the intensity of minority mobilization change over time? I address these questions through a combination of a longitudinal and comparative analysis of the Carinthian Slovene and the Burgenland Croat minority in the period from 1945 to 2003. Both minorities have mobilized for their language rights, however to very different degrees. In this comparison I use the method of difference, as the dependent variable – mobilization of the ethnic minority for language rights – differs while minority size, cultural and linguistic features and the political context are similar. Adopting the insights of social movements’ literature, I focus on the external and the internal mobilization powers of the minorities to explain differences between the two cases as well as the differences within each case over time. The analysis shows that minority mobilization for language claims is largely a function of discursive or institutional political opportunity structures and of internal resources – such as elite cohesion or mobilizing structures of minorities. Since these factors are always subject to change, the capacity of a minority to mobilize and the intensity of mobilization changes. Minority mobilization is not a function of assimilationist policies in the first place, but a function of the existing internal and external mobilizational resources, which empower them to defend their interests. |
| Supervisor | Jenne Erin K. |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2007/ragossnig_gudrun.pdf |
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