Ethnicity In Eastern Europe

This volume provides a cross-national analysis of the changing identities of various national and ethnic groups, their new political influence in the emergent democracies and their efforts to revive suppressed cultures. It begins with a theoretical analysis of the concepts of national identity and ethnicity. It features case studies of contemporary Belarussian, Polish and Ukrainian national identities before turning to a study of Eastern Europe's hidden ethnic minorities, like the Finno-Ugric peoples in Russia, the Lemkos in Poland and the Gypsies in Bulgaria.

This guide charts national histories and policies, relevant statistics and chronologies, and the identities, programmes, and activities of the full spectrum of ethnically-based parties and organizations in Central and Eastern Europe.

This book examines the dynamic role that language plays as a unifying factor in maintaining and reinforcing national identity in Central and Eastern Europe in the post-communist period when new nation states were formed. It covers linguistic identity, linguistic exclusion or inclusion, languages in contact and languages in conflict.

This is the first volume in which the fate of democracy is directly related to ethnic diversity. It highlights the crucial episodes in modern European political history, and shows in what sense ethnic diversity was of vital importance.

The political and social upheavals following 1989 have had a significant impact on the minority languages of Eastern Europe. There have been attempts at enlightened treatment of minority linguistic groups in some of the new states but in others such groups have been openly oppressed. This volume draws on sociologically and ethnographically oriented work from a number of disciplines to allow the reader to compare developments in the different states, and to examine the interplay of language issues, ethnic nationalism, and processes of state formation and restructuring in the various political and historical contexts of Central and Eastern Europe. A companion volume (0-333-92925-X) examines the status of minority languages in the European Union.

Focusing on Europe this book explores the complex relationships between ethnicity and democratisation. Case studies cover ethnic experiences in a range of countries including Germany Spain, Russia, Hungary and Polnad.