The elite construction and manipulation of cultural identities: The Norwegian language conflict in a comparative perspective

This dissertation explains what factors led to the politicization of language in Norway, why the language question remained salient throughout much of the twentieth century, and why elite desire to focus on the language question declined in the 1960s. The specific thesis formulated is that the impetus for linguistic policymaking in Norway has generally come from the top-down, from political leaders who advocate linguistic policies in an effort to advance non-linguistic political objectives, rather than from the bottom-up, through pressure from political activists and organized interests.;In reviewing the Norwegian case, attention is first focused on the decades surrounding the establishment of parliamentary sovereignty, in which political elites employed language as a symbol in the construction of a national identity. However, the chief contribution this dissertation makes is in examining the formation of Norwegian language policy during the twentieth century, when Labor Party elites sought to merge the spoken dialects of rural inhabitants with that of the working class into an official standard of Norwegian. The available evidence shows that Labor Party elites did so in order to gather mass support for a cross-class alliance that would secure a larger electoral base. When this same language policy began to threaten electoral fortunes for the Labor Party in the 1960s, it is argued that elites chose to distance themselves from involvement in the language question.;Two additional cases of elites and language policy are considered: the Norwegian Sami, and the Belgian language conflict. The ability of Norwegian elites to impose language policies of their own choosing on the Sami is shown to reflect the marginal position of the Sami in Norwegian society. In the case of Belgium, political elites were ultimately forced to put the language question on the political agenda as competing ethno-linguistic groups successfully employed language as a symbol in their fight for increased economic and political power.