Private sentiment and public issues Irish medium education and complex linguistic and political Identification

Abstract

Is it possible to construct a non-essentialist politics of place? This is a central question explored in this chapter. The empirical focus of the chapter is the cultural politics of language surrounding the Irish-medium education policy of a secondary school in an Irish-speaking region of Ireland. The primary objective of the chapter is the development of a theoretical framework for thinking through the possibility of a non-essentialist politics of place. The chapter is organised around three related theoretical discussions of space/place, social/political and public/private. Identity (of place and politics) is seen as formed at the intersection of history, economics, culture and politics producing contingent but temporarily stable identities. Drawing on the contributions of Doreen Massey, Ash Amin and Chantal Mouffe the chapter argues that local identity is formed from the throwntogetherness of place or the collision of micro-worlds . The diversity of perspectives and values concerning the common good that arise from such throwntogetherness , rather than fixed, essential identity, is seen as forming the basis for a politics of place. Therefore, it is argued that it is possible to construct a non-essentialist politics of place that holds open the possibility of overcoming oppositions between the particular and the cosmopolitan, the local and the global.