Minority Issues: Justification Narratives and Normative Orders

(Heike List/Ayelet Banai)

Classical minority conflicts emerged from the tension between a political order based on the nation-state and the struggles of minorities within the nation-state for self-determination and autonomy.  The ambivalence of this relationship between nationalism and democracy was brought forcefully to consciousness again after the end of the Cold War era by the violent (re-)formation of new states.  The question of legitimate political rule within the framework of an international political system of nation-states also arises in ethnically, culturally, and religiously diverse societies with regard to new minorities or immigrants.  Countries with large numbers of immigrants also increasingly face the challenge of accommodating the claims of ethnic minorities and their members to an autonomous way of life and a fair distribution of goods, education, and political participation.

Theories of nationalism, historical studies of state- and nation-building processes, and political or philosophical debates about multiculturalism all suggest different normative conceptions and justifications for the behavior towards minorities.  These are highly contested.  What models and institutional approaches can accommodate minority conflicts peacefully?  Should they be based on the minority as a whole or on its individual members?  Should they aim at assimilation or pluralization of a society?  How can the claims of minorities be justified and their relationship to fundamental normative concepts like equality, liberty, democracy, and justice be analyzed?  With regard to the more general topic of the conference “justifications and sanctions,” the panel should also ask: On what level, by what actor, and with what means can these norms be enforced, as there is a significant difference between the non-juridical social dimension of multicultural norms and their institutionalization in the political system and its laws.

Sonntag, 25.10.
IG Farben-Gebäude 1.314

09:00-09:15 Uhr   
Introduction

I Regional Orders and Minority Rights

09:15-09:45 Uhr   
Jörg Kemmerzell (Darmstadt): Regional Parties between Minorities Protection and Territorial Self-government

09:45-10:15 Uhr   
Maria Dicosola (Sienna): States and Minorities in the Countries of Former Yugoslavia: Accommodating Diversity between Nation Building and European Integration

10:30-10:45 Uhr   
Kaffeepause

II Minority Rights in Historical Perspective

10:45-11:15 Uhr   
Fulya Memisoglu (Nottingham): Formation of Normative Orders and the Legacy of Past Policies: Minority Rights Protection in Greece and Turkey

11:15-11:45 Uhr   
Frederic Spagnoli (Trento): The Case of Ladins, Mòcheni and Cimbri or How Some Forgotten Peoples Suddenly Became of Crucial Importance

11:45-12:15 Uhr   
Stephan Stach (Leipzig): Die Rolle staatlicher und nichtstaatlicher Institutionen bei der Entwicklung und Aushandlung von Konzepten zur Minderheitenpolitik in der Zweiten Polnischen Republik (1918-1939)

12.15-13.00 Uhr   
Mittagspause

III Minority Rights for Migrants

13:00-13.10 Uhr
Intermediate Results and Discussion

13:10-13:50 Uhr   
Patricia Stošić (Frankfurt): „Kinder mit Migrationshintergrund“: Rechtfertigungsstrategien der Bildungsbenachteiligung im Zusammenspiel von Wissenschaft, Politik und Medien

13:50-14:30 Uhr   
Radostin Kaloianov (Wien): Diskriminierung und Verspätung – zwei prototypische Problemlagen von MigrantInnen

14:30-14:45 Uhr   
Kaffeepause

IV Boundaries and Migration

14:45-15:15 Uhr   
Anuscheh Farahat (Heidelberg): Wer hat Angst vor Inklusion? Die unmittelbare Berechtigung von Migranten als Voraussetzung ihrer gesellschaftlichen Inklusion

15:15-15:45 Uhr   
Tobias Schwarz (Berlin): Die Logik der Integrationspflicht. Zur Normenkonstruktion im deutschen Ausweisungsrecht

15:45-16:15 Uhr   
Concluding Remarks