The Threat to Ethnical Diversity in the Valcanale (Italy)

Nowhere else in Western Europe is there a greater ethno-cultural diversity than in the Alps - especially in the region of the Eastern Alps, with its small ethnic cultural patterns. Situated in the extremely northeast part of Italy the Valcanale, i.e. the region Italy claimed from Carinthia in 1919, represents the core area. In this "Little Europe" no fewer than four distinct ethnic groups have settled next to each other and mixed in an overlapping pattern: the Friulians, Italians, Slovenes, and Germans. Remarkably, the elder of the autochthonous Slovenes in the Valcanale are using all four of these languages in their day-to-day conversations - a phenomenon which is quite unique in Western Europe. We find a lack of scientific analysis of the Valcanale which explicitly focuses on the current changes of the four groups - a deficit which is to be reduced by this proposal. The main goal of the present project proposal is to elucidate assimilation, demographic weakening and territorial regression of the minorities in the Valcanale, to point to likely consequences as well as to develop survival strategies. Although this study focuses on the Valcanale, for purposes of comparison, however, it seems appropriate to highlight minority processes in neighboring regions, too (Southern Carinthia, Resia Valley, German language pockets). Apart from South Tyrol in Italy there is no official minority statistic. Therefore, all minority related data have to be collected by special methods. After a presentation of underlying concepts and the ethno-geographical problems of the Valcanale and neighboring regions three Valcanale oriented theses on the assimilation process the interactions between minorities, economy and changes of the cultural landscape as well as on the new legislative minority protection will be submitted for discussion. The evaluation and interpretation of the current status of research, the scientific interpretation of source material, specifically of official statistics, field studies with a variety of data acquisition methods, and judicial assembling of the various investigation results will be key tools to achieve the project goals.