Future of cultural minorities

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.