Routledge Advances in Minority Studies – serie

Minority movements tirelessly continue to engage in the process of social change, trying to promote and enforce minority protection norms and to have their world views, cultural practices, and norms recognized by the state. Through an examination of selected cases, this book problematizes how collective identities are not structurally guaranteed but rather constructed in dialectically interrelated positions and identity layers. The authors show the kind of impact that these processes can, or fail to, have on minority norms, actors, and strategies.Going beyond abstract normative principles, this collection reflects both Global North as well as Global South perspectives and examines through a variety of angles the role that race and ethnicity, culture, or religion play within social mobilization towards social change. The volume offers global insight on actor and strategy attempts to foster social change through the instrumental use and interpretation of minority rights as norms. This book will be of interest to those researching minority rights broadly understood within the disciplines of law, anthropology, sociology, and political science.

Minority movements tirelessly continue to engage in the process of social change, trying to promote and enforce minority protection norms and to have their world views, cultural practices, and norms recognized by the state. Through an examination of selected cases, this book problematizes how collective identities are not structurally guaranteed but rather constructed in dialectically interrelated positions and identity layers. The authors show the kind of impact that these processes can, or fail to, have on minority norms, actors, and strategies.Going beyond abstract normative principles, this collection reflects both Global North as well as Global South perspectives and examines through a variety of angles the role that race and ethnicity, culture, or religion play within social mobilization towards social change. The volume offers global insight on actor and strategy attempts to foster social change through the instrumental use and interpretation of minority rights as norms. This book will be of interest to those researching minority rights broadly understood within the disciplines of law, anthropology, sociology, and political science.

This volume places scarcity as a defining aspect of minorities’ experience and as a tool to comprehend ongoing and unresolved societal friction and global environmental challenges, strategies for survival and reproduction of the status quo, and aspirational desires for social mobility. The book is an experimental collective intellectual project departing from conventional approaches to scarcity solely as a resource-based economic or demographic concept. Boldly, the book looks at the ways in which disadvantaged social groups navigate their lives through scarcity, and how these circumstances are endured, interpreted, accepted or challenged.In a thought-provoking turn, the book makes a novel contribution to minority studies by engaging with scarcity not only concerning resources but also emotion, memory and affect. In analysing scarcity as a multidimensional analytical framework and interrogating it from manifold angles, the book unpacks uncharted ramifications of debates around scarcity and opens new lines of enquiry.The collection will be a valuable resource for academics, researchers and policymakers working in the areas of law, political anthropology and sociology.

Over the last decade, Europe has been struggling to cope with a series of significant and challenging global crises. Dramatic scenes from the so-called migrant crises, global financial crises, the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have sent shockwaves across Europe’s borders and have triggered drastic and sometimes even unprecedented responses from nation states. Caught between the shockwaves and counter-measures are Europe’s national minority communities. With little say or influence in national discussions on which measures to take in response to each crisis and often situated in peripheral or border regions, it is likely that these communities have been subjected to shifts in power balances and this may have even impacted their regional, national and transnational identities. By combining various sociological and anthropological methodologies with case studies from across northern, central, eastern and southern Europe, this book stresses the importance of listening to the unique concerns of minority communities in times of crisis. Starting in the Arctic Circle and working down in a reverse C-shape through Europe, each stop along the journey visits a different national minority community, where we learn about their multicultural, multilingual and transnational lifestyles and the distinct challenges they have faced in recent years. This book will be of interest to academics and researchers working in the areas of human geography, border studies, European studies, sociology, politics, minority studies and language studies.

This collection focuses on Ukraine’s ethno-cultural minorities who in recent years have undergone forced displacement, emigration, the destruction of familiar ways of life, and a transformation of identity and language behaviour. The book examines the impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine, which began with the annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbas in 2014. It shows what happens to the cultural identities of minority groups and considers the mechanisms and components of their resilience in times of crisis. Key themes addressed include minorities’ collective memory and coping strategies, mobilisation and humanitarianism, forced displacement, and the preservation of identity. While most works on the Russo-Ukrainian war focus on the international context and the causes of the war and its humanitarian consequences for the population of Ukraine and the region as a whole, this book seeks to mainstream the issue of ethno-cultural minorities, which is often neglected in the coverage of this type of conflict. The book will be of interest to academics, researchers and policy-makers working in the areas of Law, Political Science, Anthropology, Human Geography, Religious Studies and War and Peace Studies.Chapter 6 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.Chapter 11 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Over the last decade, Europe has been struggling to cope with a series of significant and challenging global crises. Dramatic scenes from the so-called migrant crises, global financial crises, the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have sent shockwaves across Europe’s borders and have triggered drastic and sometimes even unprecedented responses from nation states. Caught between the shockwaves and counter-measures are Europe’s national minority communities. With little say or influence in national discussions on which measures to take in response to each crisis and often situated in peripheral or border regions, it is likely that these communities have been subjected to shifts in power balances and this may have even impacted their regional, national and transnational identities. By combining various sociological and anthropological methodologies with case studies from across northern, central, eastern and southern Europe, this book stresses the importance of listening to the unique concerns of minority communities in times of crisis. Starting in the Arctic Circle and working down in a reverse C-shape through Europe, each stop along the journey visits a different national minority community, where we learn about their multicultural, multilingual and transnational lifestyles and the distinct challenges they have faced in recent years. This book will be of interest to academics and researchers working in the areas of human geography, border studies, European studies, sociology, politics, minority studies and language studies.

This collection focuses on Ukraine’s ethno-cultural minorities who in recent years have undergone forced displacement, emigration, the destruction of familiar ways of life, and a transformation of identity and language behaviour. The book examines the impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine, which began with the annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbas in 2014. It shows what happens to the cultural identities of minority groups and considers the mechanisms and components of their resilience in times of crisis. Key themes addressed include minorities’ collective memory and coping strategies, mobilisation and humanitarianism, forced displacement, and the preservation of identity. While most works on the Russo-Ukrainian war focus on the international context and the causes of the war and its humanitarian consequences for the population of Ukraine and the region as a whole, this book seeks to mainstream the issue of ethno-cultural minorities, which is often neglected in the coverage of this type of conflict. The book will be of interest to academics, researchers and policy-makers working in the areas of Law, Political Science, Anthropology, Human Geography, Religious Studies and War and Peace Studies.Chapter 6 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.Chapter 11 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

This book provides a global perspective on the accommodation of diversity within constitutional traditions, considering the most innovative approaches and legal instruments of the Global North and Global South. This field of study, traditionally dominated by a Global North approach based on majority-minority and rights-based discourse, is undergoing significant development. The work thus assesses the appropriateness of the existing mainstream theoretical tools and concepts – in particular minority and minority-related concepts as well as rights discourse – to grasp the ongoing evolution of this field of law. A reconsideration of the traditional conceptual categories and the introduction of the concept “Law of Diversity” is proposed as a theoretical framework to grasp the ongoing developments in this area. Among the models studied, those that are referred to as emergent models for the accommodation of diversity in the Global North appear to be particularly in need of theoretical recognition. To this end, the theory of federalism is used to serve a rather unexplored theoretical function. Federal theory is put forward as a theoretical instrument to frame and explain the emergent instruments for the accommodation of diversity, as well as provide practical solutions for their development. The book will be of interest to researchers, academics, and policy-makers working in the areas of comparative constitutional law, minority and indigenous rights law, and federal studies.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

This book provides a global perspective on the accommodation of diversity within constitutional traditions, considering the most innovative approaches and legal instruments of the Global North and Global South. This field of study, traditionally dominated by a Global North approach based on majority-minority and rights-based discourse, is undergoing significant development. The work thus assesses the appropriateness of the existing mainstream theoretical tools and concepts – in particular minority and minority-related concepts as well as rights discourse – to grasp the ongoing evolution of this field of law. A reconsideration of the traditional conceptual categories and the introduction of the concept “Law of Diversity” is proposed as a theoretical framework to grasp the ongoing developments in this area. Among the models studied, those that are referred to as emergent models for the accommodation of diversity in the Global North appear to be particularly in need of theoretical recognition. To this end, the theory of federalism is used to serve a rather unexplored theoretical function. Federal theory is put forward as a theoretical instrument to frame and explain the emergent instruments for the accommodation of diversity, as well as provide practical solutions for their development. The book will be of interest to researchers, academics, and policy-makers working in the areas of comparative constitutional law, minority and indigenous rights law, and federal studies.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

This collection focuses on minority women through the perspectives of minority rights and intersectionality to investigate key concepts such as discrimination, inequality, agency, participation, resistance, and solidarity while also unpacking dynamics of power. It presents diverse grounded empirical cases drawing on field research and data collection while offering a global perspective that explores intersectionality and its effects on minority women ascribed alternately by nationality, religion, ethno-culture, gender, migration background, and race in seven countries as well as in digital and international political spaces. The authors include legal scholars, political scientists, sociologists, and anthropologists who study inequality, minority rights, race and gender issues, and the digital sphere. This interdisciplinary concatenation of authors offers an advantage when working at the junction between intersectionality and minority rights. Interdisciplinary in approach, the book will be of interest to researchers, academics, and policy-makers working in the areas of Human Rights Law, Minority Rights, Gender Studies, Political Science, Social and Cultural Anthropology, and Sociology.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons [Attribution (CC-BY)] 4.0 license.

Intermarriages, uniting partners from diverse social, ethnic, religious, or racial backgrounds, play a pivotal and perhaps conflictual role in shaping group identities. Celebrated by some for fostering social integration, they are perceived by others within ethnic minority circles as a form of acculturation or even assimilation.This volume delves into the intricate interplay between identity, kin-state identity policies, and intermarriage, particularly among national minorities. By weaving together historical analysis, autoethnography, and sociology, it aims to debunk the myth of homogeneity within European nation-states, spotlighting the rich diversity within minority groups. The book challenges the traditional view of minority groups as monolithic, instead revealing how intermarriage can blur the lines between different identities, thereby enriching our understanding of identity construction and group unity. It provides a nuanced examination of intermarriages that share citizenship yet differ in ethnic or national backgrounds—an area hitherto largely unexplored. The discussion extends to the effects of such unions on both personal and communal identities, addressing underlying tensions, stereotypes, and prejudices. The work further considers how these choices impact language, education, religious practices, and parenting within minority communities, ultimately strengthening the argument for intermarriage as a significant, transformative social practice.The collection will be of interest to academics and researchers working in the areas of Anthropology, Cultural Studies, History, Law, Sociology and Minority Studies.

This book illuminates the underexamined histories and lived experiences of Bahá’í women in Iran, tracing their engagement with structures of exclusion, resistance, and social transformation from the nineteenth century to the present. Situating these narratives within the longue durée of Iranian sociopolitical change, the book explores how religious marginalization and gendered inequality intersect to shape both constraints and possibilities for agency.Combining historical analysis with close attention to lived experience, this study foregrounds voices that have remained largely absent from both nationalist historiography and dominant feminist accounts. In doing so, it highlights how Bahá’í women have negotiated complex forms of belonging while contributing to broader processes of social and political change, including those reflected in the contemporary “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement.By placing these experiences in dialogue with debates on social movements, minority rights, and political participation, the book offers a nuanced rethinking of agency under conditions of constraint. Both analytically rigorous and accessible, this work will engage scholars of gender and Middle Eastern studies while inviting a wider readership to reconsider the role of marginalized actors in shaping modern Iran.

The demise of socialism in Southeast Europe coincided with the breakout of wars and genocidal violence against local Muslim populations. After being displaced and forced to migrate to different European countries, those former socialist citizens quickly developed institutions of sociability and unobtrusively enacted postulates of solidarity. This book brings a spotlight on the “generations after” born to Balkan Muslim families whose repatriation could not take place due to the continuous political instability and insecurity in their homelands. It investigates the new modes of these “second generations” to respond to the current crisis of liberal democracy and rampant Islamophobia in their places of residence. By relating spatial issues to broader religious and political questions, this study shines a light on the civic engagement, religious practices and political sensitivities of young Muslims with Balkan roots in Belgium, Germany, Italy and Poland. The book will be of interest to academics, researchers and policy-makers working in the areas of Islamic Studies, Migration Studies, Anthropology of Religion and Memory Studies.

The demise of socialism in Southeast Europe coincided with the breakout of wars and genocidal violence against local Muslim populations. After being displaced and forced to migrate to different European countries, those former socialist citizens quickly developed institutions of sociability and unobtrusively enacted postulates of solidarity. This book brings a spotlight on the “generations after” born to Balkan Muslim families whose repatriation could not take place due to the continuous political instability and insecurity in their homelands. It investigates the new modes of these “second generations” to respond to the current crisis of liberal democracy and rampant Islamophobia in their places of residence. By relating spatial issues to broader religious and political questions, this study shines a light on the civic engagement, religious practices and political sensitivities of young Muslims with Balkan roots in Belgium, Germany, Italy and Poland. The book will be of interest to academics, researchers and policy-makers working in the areas of Islamic Studies, Migration Studies, Anthropology of Religion and Memory Studies.