Fragmented voices: language, community and rights

The objective of this thesis is to provide the basis for a sociological reflection on language rights as objects of struggle in the relations between ethnolinguistic communities. The articulation between right and language in the context of these relations constitutes the principal axis of investigation. With increasing scientific interest in the pluralism of contemporary societies, a second objective is to explore the possibilities for breaking out of the rigid dichotomy of 'minority' and 'majority' which tends to characterise language rights debates. 'Minority' and 'majority' communities do not exist in isolation. Furthermore, it was suggested that each of these global categorisations could be broken down into smaller groupings of actors characterised by 'multiple subjectivities' (Williams, 1996; Fenet, 1990). The theoretical model developed to explore this hypothesis is inspired by a 'territorial' approach which suggests that all societies are made up of multiple collective actors, each occupying distinct 'social spaces'. In part, these spaces may be structured around language as a constructed value for the community. With respect to the 'right' to language more specifically, the social space of the community may also be structured around the attribution of advantages to its members or the dental of such advantages to outsiders. From this point of view, the meaning of the language right can be stated as the right of participation in the vital domains of social reproduction. The following definition was proposed: 'Language rights are negotiated claims between collective actors occupying distinct social spaces and competing for the control of different 'markets''. This model was applied to a case study of language legislation in Quebec since the adoption of the 'French Language Charter' in 1977. The corpus consisted of 28 briefs presented to Parliamentary Commissions on language legislation in 1977, 1983 and 1993 by collective actors representing Various sectoral and 'ethnic' interests: unions, business organisations, educational organisations and Francophone, Anglophone, Jewish, Italian and Cree interest groups. The French Language Charter represents an attempt to establish a new 'linguistic market', its objective being the construction of a legitimate language (Bourdieu, 1982). (Abstract shortened by UMI.)