In conjunction with the Autonomy day of Åland, 9th of June 2011, the ÅIPI is presenting the third report in the Reports Series from the Åland Islands Peace Institute: Successful Examples of Minority Governance – The Cases of the Åland Islands and South Tyrol. In the report Maria Ackrén, Doctor in Political Science, has compared the autonomous arrangements in the Åland Islands and in South Tyrol. While this has been done previously, Ackrén choses to make her comparison within the theoretical framework of three institutional directions namely partition, institutional design and consociationalism.
In her thinking Ackrén places her work in a new strand of writing which emphasises not simply the preconditions for achieving some sort of short term peaceful resolution in territorial disputes with an ethnic touch. The effort is rather to explain the longevity and strength of arrangements that have lasted for several decades, or even, as in the case of Åland, closer to a century. The work of Ackrén contributes thereby in current research and theory concerning minority governance, self-government as well as consociationalism. The work of Maria Ackrén is in line with the long experience of the Åland Islands Peace Institute in matters of comparative autonomy studies and conflict resolution.
The report can be downloaded in pdf here or be ordered from the ÅIPI ([email protected]) for 10 euros + postage.