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SITUATED AT THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN THE FIELD OF ETHNIC POLITICS, MIGRATION AND SECURITY STUDIES, THIS ARTICLE ANALYZES PROCESSES OF SECURITIZATION IN SOUTH TYROL, AN ITALIAN PROVINCE WITH GERMAN AND LADIN-SPEAKING POPULATIONS AND A SOPHISTICATED CONSOCIATIONAL SYSTEM TO PROTECT THEIR CULTURAL FEATURES. SINCE THE 1990S, THE PROVINCE WITNESSED THE ARRIVAL OF MANY MIGRANTS FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES. SCHOLARSHIP ON SECURITIZATION HAS TENDED TO REPRODUCE KYMLICKA'S DYCHOTOMY BETWEEN ETHNIC/IMMIGRANT GROUPS AND NATIONAL MINORITIES; WHEREAS MANY SCHOLARS FOCUS ON THE SECURITIZATION OF MIGRANTS AND MIGRATION, OTHER RESEARCH APPLIES THE CONCEPT TO THE POLITICS OF ETHNO-NATIONALISM. DEPARTING FROM THIS DICHOTOMY, I CONSIDER CULTURAL DIVERSITY ITSELF, RATHER THAN A SPECIFIC COMMUNITY, AS THE TARGET OF SECURITIZING MOVES. WITH THIS FRAMEWORK, THE ARTICLE ANALYZES TO WHAT EXTENT, HOW AND ON WHAT TERMS SECURITIZATION DYNAMICS HAVE UNFOLDED IN SOUTH TYROL VIS-À-VIS THE PRESENCE OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND DIVERSE CULTURAL COMMUNITIES IN THE PROVINCE, WHETHER HISTORICALLY ROOTED OR DERIVING FROM RECENT MIGRATORY FLOWS. TO CONDUCT THE ANALYSIS, I ADOPT THE COPENHAGEN SCHOOL'S UNDERSTANDING OF SECURITIZATION AS A SPEECH ACT. I USE A QUALITATIVE METHODOLOGY FOCUSED ON ANALYZING DISCOURSES THAT EMERGED IN PARTY PROGRAMS AND POLITICAL SPEECHES. IN THIS WAY, THE ARTICLE AIMS TO BRING TO LIGHT HOW DIFFERENT FEATURES OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY BECOME TARGETS OF SECURITIZING MOVES AND HOW DISTINGUISHED PROCESSES OF SECURITIZATION INTERACT OVER TIME. ; open

This article contributes to recent work on the interplay between substate nationalism and migrant integration, showing the different government approaches toward migration developed in Catalonia and South Tyrol and exploring factors behind this divergence. In particular, the articles emphasised three main interplaying variables: (1) previous historical experience with internal migration; (2) how this experience shaped the process of national identity construction; (3) and the institutional context, that is, arrangements in place to regulate and manage 'old' diversity. In this way, the article lays bare additional contingent processes that advance accounts of the relationships between 'old' national minorities and 'new' migrant communities. ; open

Although security concerns have long been embedded in the field of ethnic politics and scholarship on mechanisms of ethnic conflict resolution and management of diversity in divided societies, a combination of real-world events and increasing cross-fertilization among research fields have accelerated the field of inquiry in the past fifteen years. On the one hand, security has become a relevant sphere of governmental action with repercussions in several policy areas, including accommodation of diversity. On the other hand, following the broadening and deepening of the Security Studies agenda, many scholars have applied security concepts to investigate minority issues and ethnic conflicts, from Roe's "societal security dilemma" to research on securitization/desecuritization of minorities. A variety of approaches and theories have developed, not always in relation with each other. The goal of this paper is to provide a state-of-the-art comprehensive overview of the attempts at cross-fertilization between Non- Traditional Security Studies and work on minority accommodation/conflict regulation in European countries, discussing theoretical underpinnings as well as methodological issues. Applying a Security Studies lens to the politics surrounding the governance of cultural diversity deepens and advances our understanding of minority issues and policy debates, in particular, around institutional designs in divided societies.

Situated at the junction between the field of ethnic politics, security studies, and migration, this paper analyses processes of (de)securitisation in Northern Ireland. The country is characterised by its violent past, consociational power-sharing institutions, experience with periods of political instability, and the recent arrival of several thousand people from other EU and non-EU countries. As a case study, Northern Ireland epitomises the problems of divided societies and the challenges posed by the presence of competing nationalisms in multinational and ever more diversifying countries. This paper applies the concept of (de)securitisation to analyse the extent to which past conflicts and tensions have been overcome; uncovering who or what is perceived as a threat, according to which terms, and how this affects majority-minority relations. To conduct the analysis, I adopt the Copenhagen School understanding of securitisation as a speech act. I use a qualitative methodology, examining (de)securitising discourses that emerged in the party programmes of the main political forces which won seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2017 and in previous elections since 1998. I look at the evolution and transformation of such discourses since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 to today, bringing to light the different security narratives that characterise Northern Ireland concerning the divisions and relationship among its communities and the broader issue of diversity.

AbstractSituated at the interplay between ethnic politics, migration, border, and security studies, this contribution analyzes processes of securitization of borders in South Tyrol, an Italian province bordering Austria and Switzerland with a German- and Ladin-speaking population and a past of ethnic tensions. South Tyrol is considered a model for fostering peaceful interethnic relations thanks to a complex power-sharing system. However, the arrival of migrants from foreign countries and the more recent influx of asylum seekers have revitalized debates around the borders between South Tyrol/Italy and Austria and among South Tyrolean linguistic groups. The current COVID-19 pandemic has brought further complexity to the issue. I use the concept of securitization—the process through which an issue is considered as an existential threat requiring exceptional measures—in order to understand why and how borders become exclusionary and restrictive, shaping dynamics of othering. With this framework, the article explores how South Tyrolean borders have been subjected to (de)securitizing and resecuritizing moves in discourses and practices. In this way, I shed new light on debates on the articulation of borders and interethnic relations that are occurring due to recent international migration, consolidation of nationalist agendas, and the current pandemic.

South Tyrol has been referred to as a model to deal with ethnic diversity and resolving ethnic conflicts. This article explains the South Tyrol model's success by blending ethnic politics with concepts from security studies: societal security and securitization. Societal security refers to threats that emerge from the fact that humans belong to communal groups that do not correspond to defined state borders. Securitization is the process by which an issue is considered as an existential threat that requires emergency measures. The article develops a framework to identify which dynamics made South Tyrol successful, analyzing factors that sparked security concerns and processes of securitization and highlighting actions and measures that tackled these dynamics. Concurrently, South Tyrol is used as an empirical case to expand our understanding of societal security and elaborate (and test) a detailed toolkit to prevent or dissolve the violent mobilization of ethnic diversity and societal security threats.

Il concetto di regionalizzazione è frequentemente utilizzato negli studi storici per indicare fenomeni di frammentazione connessi alla fine dell'Impero romano come struttura politica, istituzionale, economica, sociale e culturale. Scopo di questo contributo è analizzare il processo tramite cui il sistema monetario tardoantico, basato nel IV secolo su un'unica comune 'area monetaria', si suddivise in diversi sistemi 'regionali', chiaramente identificabili alla fine del VI e nel VII secolo. Viene qui presa in considerazione la valuta aurea, sia perché essa circolò nella tarda antichità sulla base di un sistema autonomo da quello del divisionale, sia perché l'alto potere d'acquisto e il grande valore simbolico dell'oro hanno fatto di questo metallo l'oggetto di grande attenzione tanto presso gli autori antichi (come Procopio) quanto presso gli storici moderni (come Henri Pirenne). ; The concept of 'regionalization' appears frequently in historical studies to describe the different forms of 'fragmentation' which are connected with the progressive disappearance of the political, institutional, economic, social and cultural structures which had characterized the Late Roman Empire. Theme of this article is an analysis of the process through which the Late Antique monetary system, based in the 4th century CE on a common 'monetary area' extended to the entire Empire, split in different 'regional systems', clearly recognizable since the end of the 6th and the 7th century CE. Only gold currency is here taken into consideration, both because it circulated on a parallel and independent circuit, and because the high economic and symbolic value of this metal attracted towards it a great deal of attention, both from ancient authors (such as Procopius) and from modern historians (such as Henri Pirenne).