European Minorities in Times of Crisis

Europe has been struggling with a series of challenging global crises. Caught between the shockwaves and counter-measures are Europe's minority communities. By combining various methodologies with case studies from across Europe, this book stresses the importance of listening to the unique concerns of minority communities in times of crisis.

Over the last decade, Europe has been struggling to cope with a series of significant and challenging global crises. Dramatic scenes from the so-called migrant crises, global financial crises, the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have sent shockwaves across Europe's borders and have triggered drastic and sometimes even unprecedented responses from nation states. Caught between the shockwaves and counter-measures are Europe's national minority communities. With little say or influence in national discussions on which measures to take in response to each crisis and often situated in peripheral or border regions, it is likely that these communities have been subjected to shifts in power balances and this may have even impacted their regional, national and transnational identities. By combining various sociological and anthropological methodologies with case studies from across northern, central, eastern and southern Europe, this book stresses the importance of listening to the unique concerns of minority communities in times of crisis. Starting in the Arctic Circle and working down in a reverse C-shape through Europe, each stop along the journey visits a different national minority community, where we learn about their multicultural, multilingual and transnational lifestyles and the distinct challenges they have faced in recent years. This book will be of interest to academics and researchers working in the areas of human geography, border studies, European studies, sociology, politics, minority studies and language studies.

Autorentext

Dr Ruairidh Tarvet is a lecturer in Scandinavian studies at the University of Edinburgh, UK

Inhalt

1. Introduction 2. Covid-19 in Sápmi: Materialising the Colonial Fragmentation of Sámi Communities 3. No Single Model: How Minority Identities in the Danish-German and Austrian-Slovak Border Regions have been Shaped by Recent International Crises 4. Resilient Minorities in the Times of Polycrisis? Poles in Czechia and Germans in Poland in a Comparative Perspective 5. Do You Feel Ukrainian? Main Concerns and Self-perceptions of the Romanian Minority in Ukraine 6. In the Grip of the Crisis: Vulnerability and Resilience of the Hungarian Minority in Transcarpathia, Ukraine 7. A National or a Linguistic Minority? Slovene Identity in Contemporary Italy 8. "We're a nation, not a minority" Independentism and National Sentiment in Catalonia after the 2017 Referendum 9. Conclusion: Minorities and Identity in Times of Crisis - Lessons Learned and Implications for the Concept of National Minority as a Tool to Manage Diversity in a B/ordered World