Forthcoming research publication on language vitality and multilingualism
The final results from the research project European Language Diversity for All (ELDIA, 2010-2013) shall be launched in March 2016 at the publishing house Multilingual Matters. The book has the title ”Towards Openly Multilingual Policies and Practices” and is written by Johanna Laakso, Anneli Sarhimaa, Sia Spiliopoulou Åkermark and Reetta Toivanen. The publication discusses interdisciplinarily the present day situation for smaller and minority languages in Europe and multilingalism policies and practices. A new scientific tool, a language vitality barometer, is presented together with the final results from the twelve case studies in eight different countries. Earlier results are already available at the project website. The book can be pre-ordered from the publishing house and shall also be available at Amazon.
Åland’s demilitarisation and neutralisation at the end of the Cold War, 1988–1995
Yannick Poullie is a junior researcher in the research project ”Demilitarisation in an increasingly militarized world. International perspectives in a multilevel framework – the case of the Åland Islands”, funded by the KONE foundation. He holds a master’s degree in “Peace, Mediation and Conflict Research” from the University of Tampere, Finland. Prior to that he studied at the University of Düsseldorf and the University of Turku, respectively. Mariehamn, December 2015 Today, Åland’s status as a demilitarised and neutralised territory is well-established in international customary law. One important contributing factor for that is the activity of the people and politicians of Åland beginning in the 1980s. Against de iure provisions, the Åland autonomy managed to establish itself as an internationally relevant de facto actor on the issue of its international legal status. Finnish policy-makers were not vocal – as they would have preferred to avoid both the issue and its discussion – but unmistakable in their support for the maintenance of Åland’s status, as were those of Finland’s neighbours. In light of this fact, preferences by the Finnish military to re-examine this status and possibly remilitarise the Åland region need to be seen as a verbal ‘show of force’ amidst […]