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Ethnolinguistic cartography (18th – 21st centuries) in comparative perspective: genre, political conflicts, memory

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Praha, Czechia
Ethnolinguistic maps are an important genre of modern political cartography. Originating in Europe at the end of the eighteenth century, the genre subsequently underwent a tumultuous development, mainly due to the organisation of statistical censuses, the development of printing technologies, the efforts of states to territorialise (centralise), and the growth of modern nationalism. With the development of mass literacy and mass politics, ethnolinguistic maps became an important medium of public debate. Different map-making techniques emerged to serve the political goals of national movements and the territorial aspirations of nation-states. Ethnolinguistic maps became part of school curricula, political agitation and national conflicts. European attempts to apply this concept of clear ethnic lines to the colonial world in order to map the languages and ethnicity/race of the population proved difficult and led to the simplification and misunderstanding of complex social structures and cultural identities of the inhabitants.
Ethnolinguistic maps became a key argument in the post-war negotiations on new borders, as well as an important propaganda tool for movements seeking the territorial revision of 'unjust' borders. However, there were also efforts at inter-ethnic cooperation in cartography and innovations aimed at 'scientific' and neutral cartography. After 1945, the genre lost much of its political potential due to the discrediting of the idea of territorial expansion, but it experienced a rebirth during post-communist ethnic conflicts (post-Soviet, post-Yugoslav countries), ethno-religious conflicts in the Near East, and decolonisation processes. The workshop will focus on the development of ethnolinguistic maps in Europe and other regions of the world from different perspectives from the 18th to the 21st century.
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