Logika konsekwencji czy stosowności?
The Logic of Consequences or Correctness?

Dilemmas of Local Authorities in the Process of Institutionalising the Linguistic Rights of Ethnic Minorities in Poland

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this article is to present the dilemmas of local authorities in introducing additional names of localities in the languages of ethnic minorities and their determinants. By the end of 2016, 1,240 such names were introduced in Poland (most of them in the Kashubian and German languages). Although they represent a negligible percentage (1.1%) of all officially recognised names of localities in Poland, the analysis of how they were introduced is an interesting sociological and political issue. In this article, I refer to the concept of empowerment of minorities, which means the involvement of their members and organisations in exercising their rights. In this way, minority communities are not only subject to state protection, but they are also the initiators of this protection. Furthermore, I refer to the distinction between the two types of logic of political action – ‘consequences’ and ‘correctness’. Here, this means concerns about possible consequences, such as revealed ethnic divisions in the local community (the logic of consequences), and the need to meet the standards of minority rights protection and expectations of Polish national groups (the logic of correctness).

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