The central concern in this book is the relationship between language and group identity, a relationship that is thrown into greatest relief in ‘minority’ settings. Since much of the current interest in minority languages revolves around issues of identity politics, language rights and the plight of ‘endangered’ languages, one aim of the book is to summarise and analyse these and other pivotal themes. Furthermore, since the uniqueness of every language-contact situation does not rest upon unique elements or features –
The Idea of Britain and the Origins of Scottish Independence: From the Picts to Alexander III
This book challenges the belief that the Scots were an ancient nation whose British identity only emerged in the early modern era. In fact, the idea of Scotland as an independent kingdom was older than the age of Wallace and Bruce. Dauvit Broun radically reassesses a range of fundamental issues: the fate of Pictish identity and the origins of Alba, the status of Scottish kingship vis-A-vis England, the papacy's recognition of the independence of the Scottish Church, and the idea of Scottish freedom.
Creativity and Critique Social and Critical Theory
Glenda Ballantyne, Ph.d. (2001) in Sociology, La Trobe University is Lecturer in Sociology at Swinburne University of Technology, Lilydale. Her research interests include social theory, social movements, multiple modernities, historical sociology, cultural diversity, agency, identity and subjectivity and hermeneutics.
Julia has given up on love in her middle age but is searching for a vanished brother and a lost identity. In doing so, she collides with Kitty, a woman of a different age, life-style and aspirations. The proof of Julia's identity lies somewhere under Kitty's home. The literal digging up of the past changes life for both of them, though what they eventually find is very different to their expectations.
Social identity is a concept of increasing importance in the social sciences. Here, the concept is applied to the often atheoretical realm of medieval studies. Each contributor focuses on a particular topic of early medieval identity -- ethnicity, national identity, social location, subjectivity/personhood, political organization, kinship, the body, gender, age, proximity/regionality, memory, and ideological systems. The result is a pioneering vision of medieval social identity and a challenge to some of the received general wisdoms about this period.
