Escaping the Global Village: Media, Language, and Protest

In the face of expanding global media, Europe's linguistic minorities have begun to resist the homogenizing forces of television. Escaping the Global Village documents and analyzes various campaigns by indigenous minority language advocates throughout Europe for alternative language television services. Niamh Hourigan uses social movement theory as the framework for her comparison of indigenous minority language protest groups such as the Welsh, Basque, Scots Gaelic, Catalan, and Irish. She offers penetrating accounts of the campaigns' strategies, obstacles, and successes, and insight into the television services achieved. Escaping the Global Village not only reveals an emerging modern form of social protest but also situates it within broader patterns of social change, particularly globalization.