Overview
- Compares and contrasts two multilingual and multiethnic areas in Austria and Czechia in an attempt to understand the role and power of place names in these contexts
- Explores the interface between concepts of 'identity' and 'home', and the symbolic power of place names
- Places the case studies within their academic and political contexts, positioning the book in relation to current debates in the social sciences and the political climates of the respective countries
- Draws on anthropological, geographic and socio-onomastic approaches to toponymy to take a truly interdisciplinary and multimethodological approach
Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Minority Languages and Communities (PSMLC)
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About this book
This book explores the role of place names in the formation and maintenance of individual and group identities in multilingual and multi-ethnic situations. Using examples from Austria and Czechia as case studies, the authors examine the power of place names through an interdisciplinary and multi-methods approach that draws from the fields of anthropology, geography, sociolinguistics and toponomastics. The book contextualises both places within their social and political histories, and probes recent debates in the social sciences relating to place names, identity and power. It will be of interest to scholars and students focusing on place names and naming practices, minority communities and languages, and linguistic landscapes.
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Keywords
Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Reviews
“This book covers an exciting and dramatic theatre staged on two poles of Central Europe – the Carinthian and Těšín/Czieszyn multicultural regions, with place names in the main role. Authored by an interdisciplinary team of Austrian and Czech experts, the text focuses on the actors of naming processes, people’s identity, linguistic landscape, naming policy, and place names perception as well. The book brilliantly compares the situation in the regions with complicated minority structures.” (Jaroslav David, University of Ostrava, Czech Republic)
“This remarkable work makes a valuable contribution to the discipline, investigating new areas through interdisciplinary comparison of similarities and differences between two ethnically and historically (and especially socioeconomically and politically) different bilingual areas. It compares the German and Slovenian ethnic groups in Austrian Carinthia, and the Czech and Polish (both Slavonic) ethnic groups in Silesia, highlighting the important role of local dialects and their regional identities.” (Drago Kladnik, Retired Scientific Advisor, Anton Melik Geographical Institute ZRC SAZU, Slovenia)
Authors and Affiliations
About the authors
Peter Jordan is Honorary and Associate Professor in the Institute of Urban and Regional Research at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria, and Research Fellow of the University of the Free State, Faculty of the Humanities, South Africa.
Přemysl Mácha is a Researcher at the Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Czechia.
Marika Balode is currently pursuing an MA in the Institute of Geography and Regional Research at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria.
Luděk Krtička is Assistant Professor at the Department of Human Geography and Regional Development, University of Ostrava, Czechia.
Uršula Obrusník is currently pursuing a PhD in Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen, UK.
Pavel Pilch is Assistant Professor of Slavic Philology in the Philosophical Faculty of Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, where he is also pursuing his PhD.
Alexis Sancho Reinoso is a Researcher in the Centre for Global Change and Sustainability at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Austria.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Place-Name Politics in Multilingual Areas
Book Subtitle: A Comparative Study of Southern Carinthia (Austria) and the Těšín/Cieszyn Region (Czechia)
Authors: Peter Jordan, Přemysl Mácha, Marika Balode, Luděk Krtička, Uršula Obrusník, Pavel Pilch, Alexis Sancho Reinoso
Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Minority Languages and Communities
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69488-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2021
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-69487-6Published: 01 August 2021
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-69490-6Published: 02 August 2022
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-69488-3Published: 31 July 2021
Series ISSN: 2947-5880
Series E-ISSN: 2947-5899
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXV, 616
Number of Illustrations: 121 b/w illustrations, 58 illustrations in colour
Topics: Linguistics, general, Geography, general, Political Science, Multilingualism, Linguistic Anthropology