Ideas, Structural Ambiguity, and the Struggle for Bilingual Signage by Carinthian Slovenes in Austria

Egor Fedotov

European Review, 2020, vol. 28, issue 2, 185-201

Abstract: The studies of human behaviour that foreground the explanatory role of exogenously given incentives and constraints give short shrift to the role of agency, or the behaviour(s) of actors, in attempting to shed light on both policy and behaviour. This article reverses the emphasis – with the example of ethnic politics in the southern Austrian province of Carinthia with respect to the preservation and/or erection of German-language and Slovenian-language inscriptions – by arguing that the behavioural strategies of vulnerable or disadvantaged groups, such as national minorities, can carry significant political consequences – and thus are worthy of study. Specifically, the article looks into a politics of consensus and a politics of (political) realism, as the latter are advocated by Carinthian Slovenes in Austria. The findings serve as a wake-up call for West European states in particular, which, arguably, have grown complacent about their own minority rights records.

Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cup:eurrev:v:28:y:2020:i:2:p:185-201_2

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