Language policy can promote stability. For many individuals and groups, language is a key component of identity, and threats to it can raise tensions. Respect for linguistic rights, whilst also considering a state’s need to maintain cohesion, reduces conflict potential. The OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities promotes functional solutions to such contentious issues, and the Oslo Recommendations regarding the Linguistic Rights of National Minorities address these challenges. This book analyses the components of a balanced legal and policy framework on language use, with a view to preventing conflict. In addition to reviewing the work of the OSCE HCNM in this area, it also draws upon the expertise of other international organisations and leading academics working in this field. See inside the book.

The end of the twentieth- and beginning of the twenty-first centuries have witnessed a large scale increase in demands for international peace keeping mechanisms. Because of a complex history of spread and power, English has become the de facto lingua franca of international communication and negotiation, and the inevitable accompaniment to this is the growth in hostility against the perceived imperialism of the English language. This book argues that the growth of English(es) as a lingua franca has the potential to foster closer bonds between communities, countries and continents. Using the background methodology of Peace Studies, Patricia Friedrich applies political theory to linguistic evidence, to show how English can be instrumental both in the restoration of peace and in the building of social justice. In this analysis, the language classroom emerges as a central site in conflict prevention. A fascinating, innovative study of the place of the English language in the modern world, this book will be of interest to academics researching applied linguistics or world Englishes.

How do language policies in schools create inequalities among learners? How do policies marginalize some students while granting privilege to others? How do language policies in education serve the interests of dominant groups within societies? How can linguistic minorities further their interests through attempts to change language policies in schools? This new edition of Language Policies in Education takes a fresh look at these enduring questions at the heart of fundamental debates about the role of schools in society, the links between education and employment, and conflicts between linguistic minorities and "mainstream" populations. Reflecting developments in language policy since the publication of the first edition in 2002, all chapters are original and substantial contributions to the study of language policy and exemplify major theories and research methods in the field. Chapter authors are major scholars in language policy and critical language studies. The case studies, international in scope, present cutting-edge analyses of important language policy debates in countries around the world.

This book explores the discourse on conflict prevention and peacebuilding by bringing together researchers from China and Switzerland over a series policy dialogues. The Charter of the United Nations, adopted in the immediate aftermath of World War II, is clear about the fundamental necessity for the international community to act in partnership to prevent violent conflict. Given recent shifts in global power dynamics, there is an apparent need for international policy issues to be addressed in ways that are inclusive of a wider variety of perspectives and approaches. Chinese policy actors are increasingly interested in fostering their own discourse on issues of prevention and peacebuilding, rooted in Chinese experience, and engaging with peers from other contexts. The chapters in this volume explore the rationale for conflict prevention and review prevailing academic and practitioner discourses on fundamental questions such as the rationales for why conflicts should be prevented and whether 'mainstream approaches' are still relevant. This book will be of interest to students of peacebuilding, conflict resolution, Chinese politics, and International Relations. The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.routledge.com/New-Paths-and-Policies-towards-Conflict-Prevention-Chinese-and/Fung-Gehrmann-Madenyika-Tower/p/book/9780367683368, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

The end of the Cold War has changed the shape of organized violence in the world and the ways in which governments and others try to set its limits. Even the concept of international conflict is broadening to include ethnic conflicts and other kinds of violence within national borders that may affect international peace and security. What is not yet clear is whether or how these changes alter the way actors on the world scene should deal with conflict: Do the old methods still work? Are there new tools that could work better? How do old and new methods relate to each other? International Conflict Resolution After the Cold War critically examines evidence on the effectiveness of a dozen approaches to managing or resolving conflict in the world to develop insights for conflict resolution practitioners. It considers recent applications of familiar conflict management strategies, such as the use of threats of force, economic sanctions, and negotiation. It presents the first systematic assessments of the usefulness of some less familiar approaches to conflict resolution, including truth commissions, "engineered" electoral systems, autonomy arrangements, and regional organizations. It also opens up analysis of emerging issues, such as the dilemmas facing humanitarian organizations in complex emergencies. This book offers numerous practical insights and raises key questions for research on conflict resolution in a transforming world system.

The Routledge Handbook of Language in Conflict presents a range of linguistic approaches as a means for examining the nature of communication related to conflict. Divided into four sections, the Handbook critically examines text, interaction, languages and applications of linguistics in situations of conflict. Spanning 30 chapters by a variety of international scholars, this Handbook: includes real-life case studies of conflict and covers conflicts from a wide range of geographical locations at every scale of involvement (from the personal to the international), of every timespan (from the fleeting to the decades-long) and of varying levels of intensity (from the barely articulated to the overtly hostile) sets out the textual and interactional ways in which conflict is engendered and in which people and groups of people can be set against each other considers what linguistic research has brought, and can bring, to the universal aim of minimising the negative effects of outbreaks of conflict wherever and whenever they occur. The Routledge Handbook of Language in Conflict is an essential reference book for students and researchers of language and communication, linguistics, peace studies, international relations and conflict studies.

Language pervades everything we do as social beings. It is, in fact, difficult to disentangle language from social life, and hence its importance is often missed. The emergence of new communication technologies makes this even more striking. People come to "know" one another through these interactions without ever having met face-to-face. How? Through the words they use and the way they use them. The Oxford Handbook of Language and Social Psychology is a unique and innovative compilation of research that lies at the intersection of language and social psychology. Language is viewed as a social activity, and to understand this complex human activity requires a consideration of its social psychological underpinnings. Moreover, as a social activity, the use and in fact the existence of language has implications for a host of traditional social psychological processes. Hence, there is a reciprocal relationship between language and social psychology, and it is this reciprocal relationship that defines the essence of this handbook. The handbook is divided into six sections. The first two sections focus on the social underpinnings of language, that is, the social coordination required to use language, as well as the manner in which language and broad social dimensions such as culture mutually constitute one another. The next two sections consider the implications of language for a host of traditional social psychological topics, including both intraindividual (e.g., attribution) and interindividual (e.g., intergroup relations) processes. The fifth section examines the role of language in the creation of meaning, and the final section includes chapters documenting the importance of the language-social psychology interface for a number of applied areas.

The Handbook of Conflict Management cuts across theoretical perspectives, strategic models, and situational contexts as the first all-encompassing conflict management reference. A young field in both research and practice, this foundational text sets precedents for furthering academic study and real-world progress in managing diverse instances of c

In this book, Barbora Moormann-Kimáková analyses the possibility of finding an optimal language regime in multinational and multiethnic countries – either by defining the contents of an optimal language regime, or with the help of a criterion enabling to evaluate whether a language regime is optimal or not. The process of the selection or change of a language regime often becomes a matter of a language-related conflict. These conflicts are mostly accompanied by other political or social conflicts, as for example in Ukraine or former Yugoslavia, which render solutions – and their evaluation – difficult. The author claims that language regimes can be evaluated based on the increase or lack of their legitimacy in the eyes of the relevant actors. This is demonstrated in four language regime studies on the European Union, Soviet Union, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and South Africa.

The selected articles compiled in the present volume are based on contributions prepared for the 17th International L.A.U.D. (Linguistic Agency University of Duisburg) Symposium held at the University of Duisburg on 23-27 March 1992. The 13 papers in this book focus on problems and issues of intercultural communication. The first part is devoted to theoretical aspects related to the interaction of language and culture and deals with the issue from anthropological, cognitive, and linguistic points of view. Part II raises issues of language policy and language planning such as the manipulation of language in intercultural contact; it includes case studies pertaining to multilingual settings, for example in Africa, Australia, Melanesia, and Europe. The volume opens with a foreword by Dell H. Hymes.