Language, culture and identity

Are people´s identities an effect of their membership of linguistic, national regional and ethnic groups, and does such group membership create problems for "intercultural competence"? In spite of the diversity in scope and outlook, the nine papers in this volume, agree on one fundamental issue: the language-culture-identity complex is seen as dynamic and overlapping. Languages and cultures are thus regarded as potential resources rather than as homogenizing strait-jackets, and this leads many of the contributors to touch upon th political implications of a relational an dynamic view on language and culture: for human rights in the world at large, as well as for the role of local and regional identities in a Europe with crumbling national boundaries.