News from the ECMI InfoChannel

2024-04-12

ECMI at the Annual Conference of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (BASEES)

Researcher Craig Willis organised and chaired a Roundtable on Kin-state Minorities and Media Consumption. He also presented an individual paper on Football Clubs and Kin-States. ECMI’s post-doctoral researcher, Elmira Muratova, was also present in Cambridge. She organised and chaired a panel on Ukraine's Minorities at War.

2024-04-02

DEUTSCHE ZUGEZOGENE IN NORDSCHLESWIG/ TYSKE TILFLYTTERE I DANMARK

Welchen Einfluss hat deutsche Immigration auf die nordschleswigsche Minderheitengemeinschaft?
Hvordan påvirker tysk indvandring det nordslesvigske mindretalssamfund?
Die Ergebnisse unserer Befragung liegen vor.
Resultaterne af vores undersøgelse er nu tilgængelige.

2024-04-02

Newspaper of the German minority in Denmark wins the first International Award for Local Media

The award recognises the newspaper's transformation from a daily print publication to a digital platform that now extends its reach beyond its primary audience, the German minority in Danish North Schleswig. Our researchers, Sergiusz Bober and Craig Willis, examined the transition process during the digitalization of Der Nordschleswiger and analysed the strategic changes, focusing also on the theoretical reflections concerning the role of minority language media.

2024-03-05

DISKURS: A NEW DANISH-GERMAN NEWSLETTER

With its recent expansion into more regional minority research and collaboration, the ECMI introduced a new Danish- and German-language newsletter.
D I S K U R S features profiles of ECMI’s work as well as updates on research results and impact.

2024-02-21

Publish in the Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe (JEMIE)

The Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe (JEMIE), published by the ECMI, is welcoming submissions! Our open-access international academic journal journal is a hub for discussions on ethnicity, minority rights, and diverse societal challenges.

2024-01-30

ECMI Minorities Blog. Indigenous Inequalities in Egalitarian Societies: The Case of the Sámi People in Norway and Sweden

Fabian Bergmann

Many Indigenous peoples live in firmly unequal societies and face substantial material disparities towards the ethnic majority populations. Yet, inequalities between ethnic groups are usually multidimensional and go beyond material status. But are they also present when economic inequality is absent? That is, what kind of inequalities do Indigenous peoples face in societies conventionally considered egalitarian? This blog post reports on new research about the situation of the Sámi people in Norway and Sweden. It indeed supports the proposition that the Sámi are on a material par with their non-Indigenous compatriots. Nonetheless, they are more likely to experience discrimination, and these experiences are strongly linked to how proficient Sámi are in their Indigenous languages and how frequently they use them. This shows that the Sámi face inequalities especially in the dimension of cultural status. Finally, the post points out potential further inequalities in the case of the Sámi that research has yet to address.

2024-01-26

Interview mit einer Minderheitensprachenpromoterin

Die 15. Folge der ECMI Videoserie Conversations with Experts bot für ECMI Forscherin Ruth Kircher den perfekten Anlass, um Mirjam Vellinga zum Gespräch zu bitten. "Language promoter / Sprachenpromoterin" steht auf Mirjam Vellingas Visitenkarte und das macht natürlich neugierig: Was macht eine Sprachenpromoterin – und wie wird man das? Entstanden ist ein spannendes Gespräch zum Thema Sprachförderung von Minderheitenfragen.

2023-12-22

Job Announcements: Researchers

As part of its research agenda for the coming years, the ECMI is offering two researcher positions: one with a focus on studying different aspects of the national minority communities in the Denmark-Germany border region, and the other one with a specific focus on the intergroup relations and minority language issues in the Denmark-Germany border region.

2023-12-14

ECMI Addresses Key Challenges at the "Challenges of Monitoring in the European Multicultural Environment" Conference

The ECMI, represented by its Director Vello Pettai and Senior Researcher Ljubica Djordjević, significantly contributed to the international scientific conference titled "Challenges of Monitoring in the European Multicultural Environment" hosted by the Institute of Social Sciences, Belgrade.

2023-12-11

ECMI Minorities Blog. Ethnic Identity and Football in Mostar – A Clear Divide along the Old Front Line

Craig Willis

This blogpost addresses the question of how ethnic identities (and societal divisions) in the city of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, are expressed through football and considers how this dominates the city’s linguistic landscape. It is therefore embedded in the context of previous literature on sport and identity but also the discipline of sociolinguistics. The post discusses the prominence of street murals and graffiti relating to Mostar’s two football clubs, FK Velež Mostar and HŠK Zrinjski Mostar, outlining how the situation is very much territorially divided along the same geographical points of the ethnic conflict in the early 1990s.

2023-12-10

ECMI Researcher Elmira Muratova Explores Crimean Tatars' Resilience in the Face of Annexation

Dr. Elmira Muratova, a recent addition to the ECMI's research team, captivated audiences with her recent engagements in the academic arena, shedding light on the dynamics faced by the Crimean Tatar community post the 2014 annexation of Crimea at both the Humboldt University Lecture Series and the George Washington University's Petrach Program on Ukraine.

2023-12-06

Call for Papers for Global Autonomy Network Group (GANG) Workshop: "Navigating Change. The Resilience of Territorial Autonomy"

We are delighted to announce the next workshop of the Global Autonomy Network Group (GANG) on "Navigating Change. The Resilience of Territorial Autonomy", which will take place at the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) in Flensburg, Germany, on 13-14 June 2024. The deadline for abstract submissions is 31 January 2024

2023-11-27

ECMI Minorities Blog. Francophone, Francophile, and Gallo-Romance peripheries in Piedmont and the Aosta Valley

Mattia Bottino

The blog post discusses the linguistic and cultural peculiarities of Piedmont and the Aosta Valley, two regions that have historically straddled France and Italy. It provides a brief historical linguistic overview of the development of Gallo-Romance languages (French, Franco-Provençal, and Occitan) in these regions. The piece describes the Francophile and Francophone orientation of Piedmont throughout its history, as well as the belated introduction of Tuscan (Italian). It stresses the singularity of Piedmontese, and its close linguistic relation to neighbouring Gallo-Romance languages. Against this background, the text assesses the current state and vitality of Franco- and Gallo-Romance peripheries within the borders of Italy, and explains how such identities have evolved, been reshaped or become politicized. Primordialist and constructivist perspectives on national (and minority) identities are combined to better understand the development, decay, and reconfiguration of linguistic and cultural identities in Piedmont and the Aosta Valley.

2023-11-24

Senior Researcher Felix Schulte Explores Territorial Autonomy and Ethnic Conflict Resolution at Åland Islands Peace Institute

In a recent visit to the Åland Islands Peace Institute, Senior Researcher Felix Schulte addressed members of the Åland regional parliament and presented his research at the Institute's research seminar.

2023-11-07

ECMI Senior Researcher Andreea Cârstocea's Crucial Role in Crafting OSCE High Commissioner's Recommendations

In a significant milestone, Andreea Cârstocea, an ECMI senior researcher, played a pivotal role in the development of the Recommendations on the Effective Participation of National Minorities in Social and Economic Life. The recommendations were officially launched on 24 October during the 30th Anniversary Conference of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) at the Peace Palace in The Hague.

2023-10-23

ECMI Minorities Blog. From Acquisition to Activation: How Language Planning Can Promote New Speakers’ Minority Language Use

Ruth Kircher & Mirjam Vellinga

New speakers (individuals acquiring minority languages outside the home, typically later on in life) can make important contributions to minority language revitalisation. However, this can only happen if they become active and frequent users of the minority languages they have learnt. In many contexts, this is not the case. Taking Frisian in Fryslân as a case study, this blog post examines new speakers’ activation (the process by which they become active and habitual minority language users) – focusing specifically on how this is affected by traditional minority language speakers’ behaviours. The findings highlight how the complex dynamics between traditional and new speakers can hinder the latter’s activation. The blog post discusses the implications of these findings, concluding that there is a need for prestige planning to ameliorate intergroup relations – and thereby foster new speakers’ activation and promote minority language revitalisation.