English
Język Polski
Official use of minority languages. Between symbolic politics and local public policies
Artur Wołek
Marcin Wądołowski
Abstract
Research objective: The aim of the article is to examine the circumstances of introduction and subsequent functioning of the minority language from the perspective of local authorities. The hypothesis that bilingualism is a part of the creation of a multicultural image of communes, as well as an element of their promotion and strategic development has been verified.
The research problem and methods: The main problem of the publication is the non-symbolic daily practice of language policy in 33 communes that introduced an auxiliary minority language. In the research process, the analysis of evoked sources, critical analysis of content posted on the Internet and the case study method were applied.
The process of argumentation: The argument consists of four main parts. The first part discusses the symbolic use of the minority language. The second part presents basic information on the Polish context of policy towards minority languages. The third part presents the main assumptions and results of empirical research. The last part of the paper is devoted to theoretical remarks on the limitations of the analysis of public policy in relation to social phenomena heavily loaded with symbolism.
Research results: Research shows that non-symbolic language policy practices are rarely used. Local authorities do not promote the possibility of communicating in a minority language and do not use it themselves. Communes that have introduced a minority language as an auxiliary language rarely use bilingualism in the creation of a local brand or as an element of tourism promotion or in the context of cross-border cooperation in the development of business.
Conclusions, innovations, and recommendations: Identity-oriented preferences differ from preferences public policy typically deals with because they do not fulfill the instrumental rationality expectation assumed by the public policy analysis.Details
References
Indicators
Authors
Zasady cytowania
Licence
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a CC BY-ND licence that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are asked to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access). We advise to use any of the following reserach society portals: