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Speaking Freely: Linguistic Domination, Republicanism and Federalism

Project description

Tackling linguistic domination

Linguistic domination refers to the phenomenon when a person, a group or a political institution controls the legal or official recognition of the language of a person or a group as well as the conditions in which they speak that language. The EU-funded Speaking Freely project aims to promote linguistic justice by tackling the issue of linguistic domination. The methodology of the project will propose innovative mechanisms to address linguistic domination based on the concept of self-government, for instance as found in federalism, which appears to be a good solution as it provides a less centralised framework and tends to include linguistic minorities.

Objective

Linguistic diversity is a common feature of contemporary societies, leading political philosophers to question how best to approach such diversity and the conflicts it sometimes engenders. One morally significant phenomenon that linguistically diverse societies are prone to is linguistic domination. This occurs whenever a person or group is subject to uncontrolled interference over their linguistic status (the legal/official recognition of a language), conditions (the social conditions in which individuals and groups perform their daily linguistic practices) and use (the daily linguistic practices of individuals and groups) by some other person, group or political institution.

Theories of linguistic justice have so far neglected the concept of linguistic domination, and one important aim of my project is to demonstrate that eliminating it is a necessary condition for linguistic justice. In addition to establishing the centrality of linguistic domination for theories of linguistic justice, my project will draw on insights from the study of federal societies to propose innovative mechanisms to address it. Federalism involves dividing political power amongst central government and sub-state units, including linguistic minorities, and as such can provide the basis for institutional remedies against domination.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2019

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Coordinator

UNIVERSITY OF LIMERICK
Net EU contribution
€ 196 590,72
Address
NATIONAL TECHNOLOGICAL PARK, PLASSEY
- Limerick
Ireland
Region
Ireland Southern Mid-West
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
€ 196 590,72