Future of cultural minorities
- London Macmillan Pub. 1979
- 221p.
One of the most topical of all problems today worldwide in its scope, is the fate of cultural minorities. They are, or have recently been, the centre of constitutional crises in Belgium. Britain, Canada, France and Spain, the objects of discrimination in Southern and Eastern Africa and the Far East; and the cause of civil war in Burundi, Cyprus, Iraq, Lebanon and Nigeria. In South America and Australia primitive cultures have been the victims of the process of economic development, while in North America the indigenous inhabitants are now clamouring for the restoration of old, forgotten or deliberately ignored economic and social rights. In Ireland efforts to revive and encourage the original culture have not been as successful as hoped. Yet examples of peaceful cultural co- existence in Switzerland and Finland show that the scene is not entirely dark. An original and interdisciplinary approach to the problems faced by cultural minorities is presented in this collection of essays by political and social scientists and experts in socio- linguistics, education, law and the mass media. The theme of the book is the future of cultural minorities caught between the development of national and global societies and the associated convergence of cultures on the one hand, and the growing centralism and uniformity of modern government on the other. Among the is examined are the economic, social and lira- stic factors making for the viability or oli vise si the minority culture itself; reverse discrimination; the position of the mass media; and the various constitutional measures used to promote or hinder the development of minority cultures.