Minority Glottopolitics in the European Context of Governance
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Minority Glottopolitics in the European Context of Governance A Case Study of French-Corsican Glottopolitical Relations Jean-Bemard Adrey The thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Portsmouth May 2005 Acknowledgeinents/Reniercieiiients Writing a PhD is known to be a traumatic experience: what research student would deny that? I was no exception. It is traumatic because the road to completion is paved with uncertainties, discouragement and sometimes (often!) exasperation. At the same time, however, it is an enormous source of joy and pride (especially when it is finished of course, but also sometimes during the process). These mixed feelings and experience, the ‘PhD-er’ shares them with all the people around him/her: his/her family, friends, colleagues, his informants, and of course, primarily, his supervisors. For this they should all be thanked because, although it often feels like a lonely enterprise, everyone contributes to it in a way or another, at an academic and/or personal level. It is customary to pay tribute to the supervisors first for their patience, support and expertise. In my case, 1 could rely on their patience and help every time that 1 needed it, and I often needed it. This page cannot do justice to their contribution. However, I want to express here my gratitude to Pr Tony Chafer, for his help and guidance as my Director of Studies and also, as a colleague, for offering me my first contract at Portsmouth University in 1997. His trust made me feel like working my way into academia and this was an essential element in the decision to undertake my PhD. My gratitude also, and above all, goes to Jane Freeland, whom I met when 1 was doing my M.A. degree, and who henceforth inspired and nourished my interest for sociolinguistics and the study of language in its social context in general. 1 would not have started, and let alone completed this study, had I not benefited from her total dedication, immense patience and unlimited availability, intellectual rigour and encyclopaedic knowledge. More than anyone else, Jane has been and remains my intellectual mentor and 1 hope that 1 will be lucky enough to work with her for a long time. I also hope that this study makes her pride and to some extent rewards her investment in me. I will never be able to say how much 1 owe her. We spent many hours discussing Language together and 1 enjoyed immensely every minute of these. I also thank the Centre for European and International Research at the University of Portsmouth for granting me a bursary for the first three years of my research, and my internal and external examiners - Dr Martin Evans and Pr Marilyn Martin-Jones - for reading and assessing my work. I cannot leave unmentioned my friends in Portsmouth who never failed to endure my changing moods, my ‘PhD ups and downs’. Among these friends, special thanks go to Emmanuel Godin, for the ‘beer and social science sessions’ in the pub in the early days, the ‘kitchen public policy discussions’ subsequently and, in general, for his interest in my subject and for his intellectual skills which he put at my disposal as often as I summoned them. He shares the responsibility with Jane and Tony for making me want to become an academie and his cross-discipline knowledge was a pillar of my intellectual training. Merci Manu! Ludzü ari, MA PP Anita Kalnina, for being there. Tu esi ar mani un es esmu ar tevi... Other special thanks go to my other Portsmouth friends and colleagues at the university. Some of them belong to both categories and as I am about to leave Portsmouth, I will miss them all sorely. I cannot mention them all here, but I am confident that they will recognize themselves if they read this. Quand même, je veux faire des bises affectueuses à Maulwurf, pour son amitié pendant toutes mes années à Portsmouth (et aussi pour ses merveilleuses confitures qui m’ont régalé lors du terrible hiver 2004-2005, sprint final de la rédaction.). Sans oublier Nath et Fred de Creuse, d’Alsace, d’Abingdon et de Paris pour leur soutien moral et liquide avant, pendant et, j ’en suis sûr, après la thèse. I can’t wait... Je dois également toute ma reconnaissance à tous ceux qui, de près ou de loin, ont accepté de me consacrer leur temps et leur savoir pour m’aider dans mes recherches. Parmi eux, les officiels de la Commission Européenne et les Membres du Parlement Europe Monsieur Poignant et Mrs Morgan, les membres du BELMR (EBLUL) et en particulier Bertrand Menciassi et Jelle Bakker, ont été d’un secours précieux. Les universitaires de l’Université de Corse, à travers leurs écrits et les entretiens qu’ils ont bien voulu m’accorder - Madame Dalberra-Stefanaggi, Monsieur Thiers, Monsieur Comiti, et tout particulièrement Monsieur DiMeglio - ont été une source d’information aussi inestimable que nécessaire. Ma gratitude va également à Messieurs Géromini et Bassani, de la Collectivité Territoriale de Corse, et surtout à Madame Graziani, Chargée de Mission LCC à la CTC, qui m’a reçu et aidé les nombreuses fois que je l’ai sollicitée lors de mon séjour en Corse et qui, jusqu’à aujourd’hui, m’a tenu au courant des derniers développements de la situation sociolinguistique insulaire. Sans leur aide et leurs lumières, je n’aurais pas pu commencer à comprendre la situation sociolinguistique de la Corse. Merci également à tous mes informateurs corses, enseignants de LCC et militants - Vi ringraziù - et à Sylvie et à Gilles. Pour finir, je souhaite dédier ce travail à ma famille, à ma mère - j ’espère l’avoir rendue fière - à mes frères Laurent et Jean-Michel, et à Bertrand, parti trop tôt... Avec affection. Portsmouth, 17 mai 2005. List of Acronyms ADECEC Association pour le Développement des Etudes Archéologiques, Historiques, Linguistiques et Naturalistes du Centre-Est de la Corse AER Association of European Regions ARC Action Régionaliste Corse BELMR Bureau Européen pour les Langues les Moins Répandues (see also EBLUL) CAPES Certificat d’Aptitude Professionnelle à l’Enseignement Secondaire (see PGCE) CCECV Conseil de la Culture, de l’Education et du Cadre de Vie (de l’Assemblée de Corse) CCU Centre Culturel Universitaire (de l’Université de Corse) CDDP Centre Départemental de Documentation Pédagogique CIEMEN Centre Internacional Escarré per a les Minories Etniques i les Nacions CoE Council of Europe CoR Committee of the Regions (of the EU) CPMRE Conference for Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe CRC Centre de Recherches Corses CRDP Centre Régional de Documentation Pédagogique CTC Collectivité Territoriale de Corse DEUG Diplôme d’Etudes Universitaires Générales DGLF Délégation Générale de la Langue Française DLF Défense de la Langue Française EBLUL European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages (see also BELMR) EEC European Economic Community EP European parliament EU European Union EYL2001 European Year of Languages (2001) FLNC Fronte di Liberazione Naziunale FR3 France Région 3 (French public TV channel) FRC Front Régionaliste Corse IMEDOC Iles de la Méditterannée Occidentale INED Institut National d’Etudes Démographiques INSEE Institut National de Statistiques et d’Etudes Economiques INTERREG (EU) Interregional Cooperation Programme IUFM Instituts Universitaires de Formation des Maîtres IUT Institut Universitaire de Technologie JDC Journal de la Corse (weekly Corsican newspaper) JO Journal Officiel (de la République Française) LCC Langue et Culture Corses MEP Member of the European Parliament OJ(EC) Official Journal (of the European Community) PGCE Post Graduate Certificate of Education (see CAPES) PULA Publications Universitaires de Linguistique et d’Anthropologie (Centre de Recherches Corses de l’Université de Corse) QMV Qualified Majority Voting RCFM Radio Corsica Frequenza Mora RML Regional and/or Minority Language TEU Treaty of the European Union UN United Nations A b stract Various scholarly traditions have contributed to document the multifaceted relations between language planning and the distribution of political power in conflict-laden nation-building processes. With the construction of the European Union (EU), these relations are re-contextualised because the EU project aims to create a supra-national polity by integrating nation-states. This involves deciding on an approach to the constitutive linguistic diversity resulting from gathering many polities and languages. This dissertation looks at sociolinguistic issues of Regional and/or Minority Language (RML) status and planning in this European context. It explores the links between competing political and linguistic ideologies and RML policy making in the EU at supranational, national, and regional levels, concentrating on how political and/or linguistic ideologies are enshrined and operationalized in various legal/institutional and policy frameworks. Its ultimate objective is to examine whether the EU glottopolitical construction has affected one particular case of RML planning: the conflict-laden glottopolitical relationship between France and Corsica, and, if so, whether this happened in ways that may contribute to reversing French-Corsican diglossic hierarchies and language shift. Language policy formation is examined at three different levels and the analysis takes account of the fact that, at all levels, actual policy outcomes result from the complex negotiations between actors possessing varying discursive and/or legal and/or institutional powers. Since each level has been historically constructed sui generis and involves a specific pattern of distribution of policy powers amongst varying numbers of actors, each level interacts with other levels in specific ways. Consequently, different theoretical and methodological frameworks are used to identify what players - with what respective powers - interact at each and/or across levels, and how. At supranational level, the theoretical/methodological tools used to analyse language policies are governance theory and power dependency theory, the concept of policy networks and the critical discourse analysis method.