St Andrews Research Repository

St Andrews University Home
View Item 
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  • Login
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

Poland and the Silesians : Minority rights à la carte?

Thumbnail
View/Open
4._JEMIE_Kamusella.pdf (329.2Kb)
Date
21/12/2012
Author
Kamusella, Tomasz Dominik
Keywords
Census
Ethnolinguistic nationalism
Linguistic rights
Minority rights protection
Misuse of statistics
Silesians
Silesian language
Poland
Non-recognition
JN Political institutions (Europe)
PG Slavic, Baltic, Albanian languages and literature
Metadata
Show full item record
Altmetrics Handle Statistics
Abstract
The Silesians are an ethnic or national group that coalesced in the nineteenth century. During the subsequent century, they survived repeated divisions of their historical region of Upper Silesia among the nation-states of Czechoslovakia (or today its western half, that is, the Czech Republic), Germany, and Poland, which entailed Czechization, Germanization, and Polonization, respectively. The ideal of ethnolinguistic homogeneity, a typical goal of Central European nationalism, was achieved in post-war Poland. After the end of communism (1989) and the country‟s accession to the European Union (2004), this ideal is still aspired to, though it appears to stand in direct conflict with the values of democracy and rule of law. The Silesians are the largest minority in today‟s Poland and Silesian speakers are the second largest speech community in this country after Polish-speakers. Despite the Silesians‟ wish to be recognized as a minority, expressed clearly in their grassroots initiatives and in the Polish censuses of 2002 and 2011, Poland neither recognizes them nor their language. This inflexible attitude may amount to a breach of the spirit (if not the letter) of the Council of Europe‟s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, both of which Poland signed and ratified. The case of the Silesians is a litmus test of the quality of Polish democracy. In order to resolve the debacle, the article proposes a genuine dialogue between representatives of Silesian organizations and the Polish administration under the guidance of observers and facilitators from the Council of Europe and appropriate international non-governmental organizations.
Citation
Kamusella , T D 2012 , ' Poland and the Silesians : Minority rights à la carte? ' , Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe , vol. 11 , no. 2 , pp. 42-74 .
Publication
Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1617-5247
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © ECMI 21 December 2012. This article is located at: http://www.ecmi.de/publications/detail/issue-22012-vol-11-254/
Collections
  • University of St Andrews Research
URL
http://www.ecmi.de/fileadmin/downloads/publications/JEMIE/2012/Vol_2_Dezember_2012/4._JEMIE_Kamusella.pdf
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/3317

Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Advanced Search

Browse

All of RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunderThis CollectionBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunder

My Account

Login

Open Access

To find out how you can benefit from open access to research, see our library web pages and Open Access blog. For open access help contact: openaccess@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Accessibility

Read our Accessibility statement.

How to submit research papers

The full text of research papers can be submitted to the repository via Pure, the University's research information system. For help see our guide: How to deposit in Pure.

Electronic thesis deposit

Help with deposit.

Repository help

For repository help contact: Digital-Repository@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Give Feedback

Cookie policy

This site may use cookies. Please see Terms and Conditions.

Usage statistics

COUNTER-compliant statistics on downloads from the repository are available from the IRUS-UK Service. Contact us for information.

© University of St Andrews Library

University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013532.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter