SIF 3rd Cohort Fellows - Giustina Selvelli, University of Ljubljana

Minority Ecocultural Heritage Relationalities

My research focuses on the struggles of ethnic minority activists for the preservation of their ecocultural heritage against human-induced environmental destruction in two border regions of Eastern Europe. I hypothesize that damage to the natural, material environment has serious implications for the survival of the intangible heritage of ethnolinguistic minority groups and for their social cohesion.  

The two main case studies are the consequences of lignite mining (by the Swedish multinational Vattenfal) on Sorbian villages in the area around the town of Cottbus in Lower Lusatia, Germany, near the Polish border, and the consequences of copper mining (by the Chinese company Zijing) in Vlach-populated towns and villages around the town of Bor in eastern Serbia, near the Romanian border.

By adopting both a diachronic and a synchronic perspective, I will reflect on the challenges of sociocultural change that arise from the disappearance of landscapes of ecocultural diversity, considered as the core element sustaining the complex relationalities in the collective experiences of these two minority communities. To this end, I will examine practices of resistance that include language activism, environmental justice activism, and minority rights activism, all understood as part of the same struggle for sustainable minority ecocultural landscapes. In addition, I will focus on the potentially traumatic feelings of ‘solastalgia’ experienced by members of these minorities in the face of the disappearance of their familiar native landscapes, and the consequences for their well-being, including the preservation of their endangered languages and the broader implications related to migration and urbanization processes.