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Examines and compares three constitutional mechanisms for the political recognition of ethnic minorities and their potential to ameliorate or aggravate ethnic tensions—communal representation through the electoral process (with examples from Cyprus, India, Bosnia‐Herzegovina, and Fiji), territorial autonomy through asymmetric federalism, and cultural autonomy.

This chapter evaluates the competing models or understandings of culture currently available to social theory using the concept of cultural autonomy. It highlights the fundamental flaws that characterize most of these models and proposes an alternative approach that can be broadly understood as a kind of structural hermeneutics. It explains that structuralism and hermeneutics can be made into fine bedfellows because the former offers possibilities for general theory construction, prediction, and assertions of the autonomy of culture while the latter allows analysis to capture the texture and temper of social life.

Three institutional forms of non-territorial autonomy (NTA) are presented as possible mechanisms of governance: personal autonomy, functional autonomy, and national cultural autonomy. National cultural autonomy is singled out for a more detailed study against the backdrop of Bauer and Renner’s theories, looking particularly at Estonia, Finland, and Serbia. Because territorial autonomy is clearly more common as a form of organization, different non-territorial forms of autonomy have remained in the sidelines. The need to tailor-make each solution means that setting up non-territorial forms of autonomy is probably perceived as difficult, complex, and arduous. Therefore, and somewhat unjustifiably, the category of NTA is commonly populated by examples of national cultural autonomy. If NTA is set up, such institutions should not become vehicles of symbolism and of façade participation, but be tasked with realistic functions and the necessary public power for the promotion of, inter alia, the linguistic rights of minorities.

Estonia has implemented the principles of national cultural autonomy in the interwar period and after 1991, that is, when its independence was regained. Cultural autonomy laws of 1925 and 1993 are different, especially as regards control over public education in minority languages. Cultural autonomies in pre-war Estonia led to or preserved self-segregation of Jewish and German minorities. Nowadays the autonomy concept seems to belong to the domain of symbolic rather than instrumental policies in Estonia. Cultural autonomy as a specific self-organization of minorities fits in with the idea of nation-state based on genuine ethnic nationalism. Autonomies have been founded by local Swedes and Ingrian Finns but not Russians. The creation of a single representative body for a heterogeneous minority group is hardly feasible. Furthermore, there are fears that cultural autonomy might be used for mobilization in Estonia of the largest Russian minority group.

This chapter explores the issue of cultural autonomy as it relates to our portrayals of religion. First, it looks at the recent move toward a more robust view of religion and culture. Then it considers at some of the critiques of the idea of cultural autonomy that have taken place over the last few decades. Finally, it reviews some alternatives for understanding the causal impact of religious culture.

This chapter explores mechanisms of realization of national minority cultural autonomy in Croatia that do not bear the traits of a conventional non-territorial autonomy. The competences for realization of cultural autonomy in this country are principally split between the Council for National Minorities, national minority associations, and national minority councils. In the first part the chapter therefore analyses means of cultural autonomy realization through financing projects of national minority associations that promote minority cultural autonomy. The chapter subsequently analyses the background of the establishment, competences, and achievement of the national minority councils, directly elected consultative bodies that will allow for more efficient participation of national minorities at the local and regional levels in Croatia, arguing that their role in the realization of national cultural autonomy, due to unclear mandate and limited competences, is quite marginal.

During the ‘long’ 18th century, the black presence in the British Empire assumed formidable proportions. Between 1680 and 1810, the Empire’s black population rose elevenfold. Although most Africans arrived in the Empire as slaves, their experiences were not uniform. The black world in the Empire is described in this chapter. A survey of the black population at the beginning, middle, and end of the long 18th century highlights the changing distribution of blacks throughout the Empire. The 18th-century black world was multi-faceted. There was a majority experience — located on plantations— where in many ways slaves suffered a similar fate. The black experience varied most fundamentally depending on the nature of population growth, the type of employment, the size of the slave-holding unit, the level of material well-being, the quality of family life, encounters with whites, patterns of interaction among blacks, the extent of cultural autonomy, and the degree of resistance and accommodation to the system. There was no single black experience in the Empire.

This chapter addresses non-territorial autonomy (NTA) as a mode of framing ethnic relations; respectively ‘policies of NTA’ are regarded as top-down arrangements which are designed for the accommodation and facilitation of collective activities pursued on behalf of identity-based groups and which imply special treatment of certain activities and organizations. The chapter analyses the post-Soviet official policies which rest on the idea of symbolic and instrumental treatment of ethnic groups as cohesive social entities possessing distinct identities, interests, will, and rights. Three types of arrangements, namely, cultural autonomy, mono-ethnic elected representative bodies, and multi-ethnic representative ‘assemblies of peoples’, fit into this framework. The chapter concludes that although these set-ups basically perform functions of symbolic participation in public life and are regulated by informal rules, they turn out to be efficient in terms of shaping public agendas and satisfying aspirations of ethnic activists and the general public.

This chapter focuses on Russia’s unlikely experiment in national cultural autonomy (NCA). It looks at the wide variety of forms of autonomy in the Russian Empire and provides an overview of a number of cases, including Finland, the Baltics, and Russian Germans. It examines religious diversity after Catherine II’s reforms, Bolshevik nationalities policy, the creation of the territorial autonomies in 1920–2, Terry Martin’s The Affirmative Action Empire, and the Russian government’s new ‘Strategy of State National Policy for the Period to 2025’, an apparent retreat from the NCA model. This chapter seeks in particular to address the paradox identified by Alexander Osipov—why does the concept of NCA sound attractive to ethnic activists? Its aim is to show that autonomy has rather deeper roots in Russia than might at first be supposed.

This introductory chapter discusses Thomas Mann's peculiar role as an authority on German culture to oppose the Nazi regime. It explains that two factors characterize Mann's unique position in literary history—the battle of cultural autonomy against totalitarian dependence and the struggle between international and national sources of literary esteem—both of which continue to have a clear relevance for literary production into the present day. To that end, this chapter briefly explores the complex relationship connecting his battle for cultural autonomy to his struggle for international recognition. It also considers what it means for Mann when he defines his theory of exile as a “cosmopolitan Germanness.” Finally, this chapter looks at how Mann developed and employed strategies to wage a cultural war against Nazism and how he found success in this endeavor in the United States.

This chapter discusses whether non-territorial autonomy can be granted to the Sorbian people according to German law. The Sorbs (numbering about 60,000) are one of the four recognized national minorities in Germany. They are organized in a number of civil society associations, and nearly all of them belong to Domowina, a civil law umbrella organization. Government grants allocated to the Sorbian institutions are distributed via the public law Foundation for the Sorbian People. The concept of establishing a corporation for them under public law is tested under the conditions of German administrative law. The main problem is the discrepancy between the public law principle that all members of a public law corporation of natural persons must be known and the principle of the freedom to manifest or not one’s affiliation to a national minority. Forms of cultural or functional collective autonomy are proposed as a solution.

The first chapter of the book maps out the manner in which Black manifestations of cultural autonomy, from music to visual arts, have been systematically eliminated from public education. This discussion is bookended by a discussion of the central force that fomented Black cultural enclosures – Western Christianity.

This chapter examines the pervasive pattern of disproportionate minority contact (DMC) in the existing juvenile justice system, suggesting that its origin can be traced to the oppressed status of African American communities within America's broader social/political/economic construct. As a result, African American children (and other communities of color with similar issues) are more likely to become involved with the juvenile justice system, are treated more harshly, and are more likely to end up in the deep end of the system. Because the juvenile justice system is itself a societal construct, it is structured—and functions—as a mechanism of social and political oppression. The chapter considers the Black nationalist norm of cultural autonomy and argues that this norm must be embraced in order to promote empowered communities that resist oppression and would reduce minority contacts with the juvenile justice system.

Bahia has played a central role in representing Brazil's African roots. Afro Bahians, whose ancestors were brought forcibly by the Atlantic slave trade, have reinvented its culture and maintained a cultural autonomy in Brazil. This book focuses on Bahia's racial ideology and its search for identity. It addresses the cultural transformation in Bahia as Athens lost its claim of privilege over Africa, and pays particular attention to the most important arena for racial thinking: medical discourse.

This chapter narrates David Whippy's turn away from dependence on Fijians as he engineered the emergence of an independent foreign community. Living in a Fijian village, dressing as a Fijian in wartime, and marrying Fijian women integrated Whippy into Fijian society but deceptively so since he retained a more profound loyalty to his own kind. As the number of foreigners in Fiji increased with each passing decade, he directed his energies toward meeting their needs. The relationships he formed with traders, missionaries, naval officers, and other beachcombers had at least three outcomes. His eagerness to help them earned him their accolades and gratitude. His efforts on others' behalf enabled them to fulfill their myriad intentions and make inroads on Fijian cultural and political autonomy from all directions. Lastly, his ties to other foreigners made him less dependent on Fijian patronage and fed the emergence of an independent enclave of “white men” at Levuka with Whippy as “their chief.” Indeed, he was commended for his usefulness and good character.

This introductory chapter analyzes Minae Mizumura's The Fall of Language in the Age of English, a novel that received a rather polarizing reception due to its underlying theme. The novel tackles the question of the role of the Japanese language—or any other language other than English—in a world dominated by the English language. Mizumura takes a critical look at the phenomenon of English as functioning as the singular national language in the digital era. The chapter argues that the negative reception the book received can be traced back to critics who took the title literally, believing the Japanese language to be at imminent risk of perishing under the dominance of English. Yet Mizumura makes no such claim, stating that the nation's cultural autonomy makes it highly improbable that Japanese will disappear in any foreseeable future.

This chapter explores the correlation between language revival and wellbeing. It suggests that there is an urgent need to systematically assess quantitatively the mental health impact of language reclamation on indigenous communities. The primary hypothesis is that there will be significant improvements in mental health during the language revival process, reduced suicide ideation (i.e. people would be less likely to come up with the idea of suicide as a possibility), reduced self-harm, and reduced instances of suicide. Language is postulated as core to a people’s wellbeing and mental health. The link between poor mental health and suicide has been clearly demonstrated. But it is one thing to have a statement about the importance of language and mental health; it is another to have the statistical evidence that governments often require to implement policies that will affect personal, community and social wellbeing. Hallett, Chandler, and Lalonde (2007) report a clear correlation between youth suicide and lack of conversational knowledge in the native language in British Columbia, Canada. However, there has been no systematic study of the impact of language revival on mental health and suicide, partly because language reclamation is still rare. This chapter suggests that just as language loss increases suicidal ideation and depression, language gain reduces ill mental health.