Suchergebnisse

Does cultural heritage create either bridges of engagement or walls of division within and beyond Europe? To capture these diverse interpretations, we provide some initial discussion on the concept of heritage and how this relates to identity, memory and the past. In order to introduce the various studies that comprise the forum, we identify a series of collective themes explored by our contributors. These are: the use of heritage sites and practices as a means of exploring questions of European unity; the idea of a decolonizing heritage alongside the reframing of contested transcultural encounters; and finally, the potential for heritage as a form of conflict resolution.

This article introduces the present forum edition on linguistic identities in twenty-first-century Europe. We consider how discourses of inclusion and exclusion, embedded in discourses of the nation, continue to be relevant in understanding and interpreting the social, cultural and political status of (minority) languages and their speakers. In order to introduce the various studies that comprise this forum, we relay how language debates provide a lens through which wider systems of prestige and hierarchy may be focused. Such debates can, at one and the same time, both alter and reflect the meanings and interpretations of Europe itself.

This paper provides an overview of the deliberations on cultural diversity and language policy that have occurred in Northern Ireland since the onset of the peace process. The paper looks specifically at how policy decisions and political debate on the Irish language and the languages of migrant communities are driven by competing notions of Britishness and Irishness, despite a supposed desire in the Belfast Agreement to promote 'respect, understanding and tolerance in relation to linguistic diversity'. The paper argues that the peace process has increased the level of policy discussion on both autochthonous and allochthonous language issues, but has also served to cement their position within ethnic conflict. While debates on new policy directions have raised discussions on intercultural awareness in policy delivery, the competing interests of the political parties have tended to act as a barrier to the development of a true linguistic pluralism. Adapted from the source document.