Language politics and regional nationalist mobilization in Galicia and Wales

Language politics and regional nationalist mobilization in Galicia and Wales

Marshaling original data from surveys and interviews with regional nationalist party activists, this article compares language politics in two ‘stateless’ European nations with strong regional identities: Galicia (Spain) and Wales (UK). In Galicia, where the regional language is widely spoken, the n...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ethnicities 2006-12, Vol.6 (4), p.451-475
Main Author: VAN MORGAN, SYDNEY
Format: Article
Language:eng
Subjects:
Communities
Cultural Identity
Ethnicity
Ethnology
Europa
Galicia
Group identity
Language
Language Policy
Language Usage
Language use
Linguistic minorities
Minority Groups
National identity
Nationalism
Nationalist movements
Nationalist parties
Political Factors
Political mobilization
Political parties
Regional identity
Social relations. Intercultural and interethnic relations. Collective identity
Social structure and social relations
Sociocultural Factors
Solidarity
Spain
United Kingdom
Wales
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Summary:Marshaling original data from surveys and interviews with regional nationalist party activists, this article compares language politics in two ‘stateless’ European nations with strong regional identities: Galicia (Spain) and Wales (UK). In Galicia, where the regional language is widely spoken, the nationalist party places significant emphasis on language-related issues. Yet in Wales, despite the minority status of Welsh, the political arm of the nationalist movement assumes a restrained stance toward the regional language. What explains the apparent paradox that mobilization on language grounds is more pronounced where language is least threatened? The article concludes that Galicia and Wales differ in the way that language functions in society, which, in turn, conditions the possibilities for deploying language politically. It is more difficult for the nationalist party Plaid Cymru to mobilize on the Welsh question given the language's recent revival and the current recruitment objectives of the party. In Galicia, not only are the recruitment needs of the comparable nationalist party, the Bloque, less complex than in the Welsh case, but the perception of threat to the regional language is far greater.
ISSN:1468-7968
1741-2706