Language Rights and Political Theory

by Will Kymlicka

This volume provides the reader with an up-to-date overview of the emerging debates over the role of language rights and linguistic diversity within political theory. It brings together many of the leading political theorists who work in the field, together with some of the most importantsocial scientists, with the aim of exploring how political theorists can conceptualize issues of language rights and contribute to public debates on language policy. The thirteen essays in this volume highlight both the empirical constraints and normative complexities of language policy, andidentify the important challenges and opportunities that linguistic diversity raises for contemporary political theory.

Paperback Bunko

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Will Kymlicka received his B.A. in philosophy and politics from Queen's University in 1984, and his D.Phil. in philosophy from Oxford University in 1987. He is the author of seven books published by Oxford University Press: Liberalism, Community, and Culture (1989), Contemporary Political Philosophy (1990; second edition 2002),Multicultural Citizenship (1995), which was awarded the Macpherson Prize by the Canadian Political Science Assocation, and the Bunche Award by the American Political Science Association, Finding Our Way: Rethinking Ethnocultural Relations in Canada (1998), Politics in the Vernacular: Nationalism, Multiculturalism and Citizenship (2001), Multicultural Odysseys: Navigating the New International Politics of Diversity (2007), which was awarded the North American Society for Social Philosophy’s 2007 Book Award, and Zoopolis: A Political Theory of Animal Rights (2011), co-authored with Sue Donaldson, which was awarded the 2013 Biennial Book Prize from the Canadian Philosophical Association

He is also the editor of Justice in Political Philosophy (Elgar, 1992), and The Rights of Minority Cultures (OUP, 1995), co-editor with Ian Shapiro of Ethnicity and Group Rights (NYU, 1997), co-editor with Wayne Norman of Citizenship in Diverse Societies (OUP, 2000), co-editor with Simone Chambers of Alternative Conceptions of Civil Society (PUP, 2001), co-editor with Magda Opalski of Can Liberal Pluralism Be Exported? (OUP, 2001), co-editor with Alan Patten of Language Rights and Political Theory (OUP, 2003), co-editor with Baogang He of Multiculturalism in Asia (OUP, 2005), co-editor with Keith Banting of Multiculturalism and the Welfare State: Recognition and Redistribution in Contemporary Democracies (OUP, 2006), co-edior with William M. Sullivan of The Globalization of Ethics: Religious and Secular Perspectives (Cambridge UP, 2007), and co-editor (with Bashir Bashir) of The Politics of Reconciliation in Multicultural Societies (OUP, 2008), co-editor with Avigail Eisenberg of Identity Politics in the Public Realm: Bringing Institutions Back In (UBC Press, 2011), co-editor with Kathryn Walker of Rooted Cosmopolitanism: Canada and the World (UBC Press, 2012), and co-editor with Eva Pfostl of Multiculturalism and Minority Rights in the Arab World (OUP, 2014).

He is currently the Canada Research Chair in Political Philosophy at Queen's University, and a visiting professor in the Nationalism Studies program at the Central European University in Budapest. His works have been translated into 32 languages. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, of the Canadian Institute For Advanced Research, and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. From 2004-6, he was the President of the American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy.

Reviews

[Soha Bayoumi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good overview of the current debates in political theory on language rights and normative discussions of accommodating linguistic plurality