The aim of this paper will be to shed light on the evolution of the discourse of the Francophone minority communities (FMCs) of Canada in terms of non-territorial autonomy. More precisely, we will measure how their claims for non-territorial autonomy have evolved in the part 40 years.
Worldwide, the 1960s and 1970s has been witness to what has since been called the rise of the “New Social Movements” (Touraine; Habermas). The civil society of most Western democracies gradually organized itself into a plethora of organizations representative of different groups (women, youth, etc.), and various minorities have also followed this trend. In Canada, the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne (FCFA) was created in 1975 and became the national spokesperson Francophone minority communities (FMCs).
As much ink has been shed regarding the French-speaking Québécois as a national minority in Canada, literature has been mute regarding the FMCs. Their claims for autonomy have taken the form of the right to self-manage their own institutions in areas such as education, economy, health care, justice and social services. In this optics, the body of literature in the area of non-territorial autonomy (“NTA”) appears to enable the introduction of FMCs as an interesting comparative case.
This paper builds on this literature in order to look at the evolution of the discourse of the FCFA. We will use discursive institutionalism in order to demonstrate that these claims have taken the form of non-territorial autonomy, however called by different names, and have targeted a relatively stable body of “institutional spaces” throughout FCFA’s existence.
