The effect of minority group vitality upon its sociopsychological behaviour and strategies

Abstract

Abstract In ethnic group relations, objective conditions, i.e. socio‐structural factors, are determinant to explain the variable capacity of linguistic minorities to maintain their identity. But it can be argued that a minority's subjective assessment of its vitality may be as important as the objective reality. Thus, for a better evaluation and discussion of a minority's capacity to avoid cultural and linguistic assimilation, the direct influence of social variables and processes on its sociopsychological behaviour and strategies needs to be pointed out. The paper evaluates critically the limits of the current sociological approach and its inability to take into account the causal loop between psychological and social processes. Then the significant theoretical advances of the social psychological approach (Giles, Bourhis & Taylor, 1977; Giles & Johnson, 1981) are outlined. (Part I). Data of an investigation of cultural and linguistic change of the Valdotan minority (a French‐speaking community of Northe...