From Secessionist Mobilization to Sub-state Nationalism? Assessing the Impact of Consociationalism and Devolution on Irish Nationalism in Northern Ireland
Survey evidence has demonstrated that support for a united Ireland from Catholics in Northern Ireland is markedly declining. Simultaneously, electoral support for the secessionist Sinn Féin party has substantially risen in the region since 1998. Critics have attributed Sinn Féin's electoral growth to consociational power sharing, which they argue rewards ethnic hardline parties. At the same time, many of these critics predicted that consociationalism would exacerbate secessionist sentiment within nationalism, a prognostication now contradicted by survey data. In analysing this paradox, we argue that there is not a switching of identities—from Irish nationalism to UK unionism—but the repositioning of Irish nationalism from a secessionist movement to a sub-state nationalism mobilizing for more resources within devolution. In explaining this, we illuminate how consociationalism allied to devolution can, if the right endogenous and exogenous supporting factors are mobilized, lead to the repositioning of identities within a regional rather than zero-sum national context.
Sinn Féin and ‘New Republicanism’ in Belfast
Abstract The political transformation of Sinn Féin has been marked by leadership-driven policy changes and increasing participation within the local state. The most important arena for the fusion of these two developments has been Belfast. Here, Sinn Féin's participatory politics has seen the party evolve from cheerleader for an IRA prepared to destroy the city, into a formidable force, now the largest party on Belfast City Council. This article examines why Belfast proved the major site of the contradictions of the Republican dual strategy of armed struggle and electoral politics. It explores why Republicans in the city began to harness the local state rather than attempt its destruction. Since the 1990s, Sinn Féin has attempted to claim Belfast as a shared city as part of its national strategy of creating an ‘Ireland of equals’. Nonetheless, the political and, in some instances, territorial, displacement of Unionists, have contributed to continuing ethno-sectarianism within the city, albeit set in a more peaceful overarching context. As Sinn Féin's policy has evolved, the party has moved from defensive forms of participation, involving the assertion of welfare rights for its constituents, towards positive leadership roles in the reconstruction of Belfast. The article assesses the political and demographic impulses to this changed approach. In particular, it explores the impact of the aggregate growth of the Nationalist population and the rise of a Catholic middle class upon Sinn Féin's electoral strategy.
The Russian language maintenance and language contacts
In our introductory article, we outline the main sociolinguistic features of Russian as a heritage language of post-Soviet immigrants in European settings and beyond. We offer a general overview of the evolution of Russian as a global language, with a particular focus on its geodemographics and economic and social value as a lingua franca . Based on this, we analyse the main principles defining the maintenance of Russian as a language of migration and as a heritage language in different countries, and emphasise the most important questions that still need to be addressed in this field of research. The main objective of this special issue is to combine the most recent research on the vitality of different languages of post-Soviet republics in new political milieu, with a particular focus on European and Asian countries, but there are other objectives as well. We propose to explore the factors that have either favoured or hindered the maintenance and transmission of languages of post-Soviet immigrants and repatriates, and how these sociolinguistic processes become evident in language vitality on both private and public levels. Our special issue primarily addresses the questions of family language policy, new language contacts and their management, and linguistic landscape in heritage speakers, diasporas and their new settings in Europe, Asia and the US.