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Geopolitical concepts of Central Europe and current reality: language perspective

100%

Hnízdo B.

Przegląd Europejski

2021

vol. 1

13-27

The article presents a critical analysis of the theory of geopolitical understanding of Central Europe, basing on the evaluation of region’s contemporary situation and supported by the empirical data. The main research question is the following: is it possible in recent situation to still speak of Central Europe as a geopolitical region? The article is focused on the three traditional geopolitical concepts of Central Europe considered from the perspective of the current role of Germany as a traditional communication factor in this region. First, the idea of Mitteleuropa is analysed. Then, the perspectives of the Visegrad, concept of Austria-Hungary legacy and finaly CENTROPE are closely viewed. Analysis is mostly based on empirical data available in the official documents published by EU institutions as well as official national statistical data of Central European countries. Adopted research method is a combination of historical, political geography and social linguistics approaches to the topic. The concept of Central Europe with its centre in the German-speaking countries may be currently economically and politically significant, especially from a pan-European perspective, however German linguistic hegemony is not present in any of the neighbouring countries. Furthermore, the Visegrad Group today does not include all regions and states and German is not considered there as the main language of communication.

Artykuł przedstawia krytyczną analizę teorii geopolitycznego rozumienia Europy Środkowej weryfikowaną na podstawie współczesnej sytuacji i popartą danymi empirycznymi. Główne pytanie badawcze brzmi: czy w obecnej sytuacji można nadal mówić o Europie Środkowej jako regionie geopolitycznym? W artykule przyjrzymy się trzem tradycyjnym koncepcjom geopolitycznym Europy Środkowej z perspektywy obecnej roli Niemiec jako tradycyjnego czynnika komunikacyjnego tego regionu. Najpierw przeanalizowano koncepcję Mitteleuropy. Następnie dokonano analizy z perspektywy koncepcji Wyszehradu, spuścizny Austro-Węgier i ostatecznie CENTROPE. Analiza opiera się głównie na danych empirycznych pochodzących z oficjalnych dokumentów publikowanych przez instytucje UE lub przez oficjalne krajowe urzędy statystyczne z państw Europy Środkowej. Przyjęta metoda badawcza to połączenie historycznego, polityczno-geograficznego i społeczno-lingwistycznego podejścia do tematu. Koncepcja Europy Środkowej ze swoim centrum w krajach niemieckojęzycznych może być obecnie bardzo istotna gospodarczo i politycznie z perspektywy paneuropejskiej, ale niemiecka dominacja językowa nie występuje na żadnym obszarze sąsiadującym z tymi krajami. Ponadto Grupa Wyszehradzka nie obejmuje dziś wszystkich regionów i państw, a język niemiecki nie jest uważany za główny język komunikacji.

State Language Policies and Language Behaviour of the Czechs in the 20th Century

100%

Hnízdo B.

Central European Papers

2016

vol. 4

issue 1

20-31

The article concentrates on state language policies and language behaviour of the Czech people in the 20th Century, particularly within the period of 1939–1989. In this period, we can speak about a restrictive, non-liberal state language policy, which was distinctively different in comparison to a previous historical period and a period which came later. The article tries to show that these policies are only partly successful, because equally important is a concrete language behaviour of the society. Reactions of Czech people to a restrictive language policy in 1939–1945 and 1948–1989 had some common aspects; mostly from political reasons a rejection of favourite language of state policy, in the first period of German and in the second period of Russian. But in general, the results of these interactions between the state language policy and language behaviour of Czech people were very different in roles and positions of both languages in the Czech society of the 20th Century. On the one side Russian, despite of forty years of a privileged position in an education system, never had been the first language of wider international communication for the Czechs, on the other side German had stayed in this position for the whole 20th Century. Reluctance to learn German lasted for clear political reasons among Czech people relatively a short period of time, from the end of 1930s till the beginning of 1960s. In other periods of the 20th Century, the Czech people were aware of the importance to learn German, even during a communist regime. Practical reasons for learning German were for the Czech people more important than an ideological aspects of the state language policy. The article shows that knowledge of foreign languages in society of a concrete historical period is not strictly only a mirror of a state language policy of the same historical period, but it has been influenced also by language behaviour of the society of that time.

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Geopolitical concepts of Central Europe and current reality: language perspective

State Language Policies and Language Behaviour of the Czechs in the 20th Century