Language, Identity and Culture
Thematic Area A "Language, Identity and Culture" analyses the interplay between language, identity and culture in Europe.
Summary Results
- The image of Europe as promoted by the EU might be just too good to be true.
>>> read article - Dialects are important markers of identity.
>>> read article - "Ordinary people" see language and identity not the way politicians do.
>>> read article - Tourism organizations present cultural attractions not only as local attractions but also as belonging to Europe. This is changing not only perceptions of tourists, but of citizens as well.
>>> read article - Cultural diversity as well as natural beauties are very well reflected in texts for tourists going to Croatia, Cyprus and Poland. These texts are published in several languages and there seems to be a trend to add new languages to the existing offer.
>>> read article - Language and culture are two different things, as research in Pula (Croatia), Szeged (Hungary) and Jersey (UK) confirms.
>>> read article
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Research Area Report A | Second phase: Key findings of "Language, Identity and Culture" |
Research Area Report A | First phase: Key findings of "Language, Identity and Culture" |
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Results of "Language, Identity and Culture", onging research and more |
What is Thematic Area A?
The Thematic Area A focuses on three different contexts (supra-national or European, national and subnational or regional/local) as these contribute to cultural and linguistic identity formation. It is based on the broadly accepted hypothesis that identity is a dynamic process that aims at individual uniqueness within a group having a shared sense of people hood and that involves multiple social dimensions. The concepts of language, identity and culture imply each other, but in a way that is dynamic and not static, heterogeneous and not homogeneous, involving not just intercultural, but also intracultural relationships.
As articulations of identities encompass both macro-level demographic categories, temporary and interactionally specific stances, and local, ethnographically emergent cultural positions which are grounded on similar interactions and processes at both micro and macro levels, the three areas of analysis are necessarily closely intertwined, each reinforcing the others. The aim of this thematic area is to gain a broad understanding and a non-reductive account of inherent dynamic complexity of identities produced communicatively in social interaction within the complex multi-layered EU sphere.