This project combines works on conflict regulation/minority accommodation (broadly defined as cultural diversity governance) with the field of security studies in regards to both the so-called “old” and “new” minorities. In the past twenty years security has become a relevant field of governments’ action with repercussions in several policy areas, including accommodation of diversity and migration. The project focuses on how security issues interplay with the governance of cultural diversity, offering new perspectives that advances our understanding of minority issues and policy debates around the accommodation of cultural diversity.

Key concepts from security studies are adapted and used to develop an innovative analytical framework, in particular human security and securitization/desecuritization. The concept of human security regards the need to guarantee the well-being of individuals, responding to their needs in dealing with sources of threats domestically as well as globally, and develops along various dimensions (including economic, environmental, health, cultural, and political). Securitization refers to the subjective process by which an issue is considered as an existential threat requiring emergency measures, whereas desecuritization is the reverse process.

Normative and empirical research questions addressed by the project include: How should conflict regulation/minority accommodation be reframed in terms of human security? And to what extent do institutional, legal and political instruments of cultural diversity governance address security threats and processes of securitization of minorities and ethnic groups?

With this analytical framework, the project compares various case studies of cultural diversity governance in democratic countries, including South Tyrol and Northern Ireland. Combining discourse, historical-institutional, and law-policy analysis, the research investigates cultural diversity governance along two dimensions: the degree of human security provided, and the extent processes of securitization/desecuritization of minorities and ethnic groups are addressed.

For further information: Andrea Carlà – Institute for Minority Rights – andrea.carla@eurac.edu