The Peace Institute co-organizes together with the Research Center for Social Development, the University of the Faroe Islands the conference "Four or more languages for all: Language policy challenges of the future", which will be held on 22-24 August 2011 in the Nordic House in Tórshavn, the Faroe Islands. This conference is based on a broad understanding of multilingualism and language policy.
The conference, supported by the Nordic Council of Ministers, has as a main aims to provide an interdisciplinary forum by bringing together scholars and practitioners from diverse disciplines such as sociolinguistics, sociology, history, linguistics, literature studies, political science and law; to compare Nordic experiences in the field; to draw attention to and focus on language policy experiences and particular challenges in the self-governing areas; and finally to draw attention to and focus on immigrants diverse situations and language rights.
For many indigenous peoples and minorities it is necessary to know at least three or four languages: their own language, the official state language and one or more international languages. A high level of multilingualism is an important resource entailing many advantages for both the individual and society at large, but educational systems are not often organized in such a way that it is possible for individuals to achieve high proficiency levels. Therefore, this conference aims at investigating what type of language policy (regarding education, law-making, social issues, politics, etc.) fulfills this goal in diverse circumstances.
The conference focuses on the following sub-themes:
Theme I – Language legislation.
Theme II – The autonomous areas.
Theme III – From problem, victim and threat perceptions towards a resource, agent and forward-pointing societal model based on individual and societal multilingualism.
Theme IV – Panel debate.
The papers will have duration of 20 minutes, plus 10 minutes for discussion. And the languages of the conferences will be Danish, Norwegian and Swedish as well as English. Thereby the presentations may be given in any of these four languages, plus in Faroese and the abstracts have to be written in both a Scandinavian language and in English. There won’t be interpretation service at the conference.
Conference deadlines:
15 January 2011. Deadline for submission of abstracts (200-300 words). To be sent to: malpolitikk@socdev.fo
28 February 2011Information on approval of abstracts
15 March 2011. Final deadline for preliminary registration on malpolitikk@setur.fo. Please write an e-mail stating that you are interested in participating in the conference.
30 April 2011. Deadline for binding registration, which requires payment of conference fee.
Conference dates:
22 August 2011, get-together in the evening • 23 and 24 August 2011, conference dates • 24 August 2011, conference dinner.
The Conference organizers are Sia Spiliopoulou Åkermark, Dr., Associate Professor in international law, director of Åland Islands Peace Institute; Karin Jóhanna L. Knudsen, cand. scient.soc., Research Center for Social Development, the University of the Faroe Islands; Elisabeth Holm, cand.phil, MA, The International Office, the University of the Faroe Islands; Leena Huss, Professor in Finnish; research fields: multilingualism, language policy, language loss and revitalization, the Hugo Valentin-Centre, Uppsala University; and Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, dr.phil, retired, Åbo Akademi University, Vasa, Associate Professor in minority education and linguistic human rights.
Conference fee:
Until 15 April 2011 (date included), DKK 1400 / EUR 187 (students, unemployed and senior citizens DKK 1200 / EUR 160 ).
After 15 April 2011, DKK 1600 / EUR 215 (students, unemployed and senior citizens DKK 1400 / EUR 187). Fee includes participation, refreshments and lunch during the conference as well as an end-of-conference dinner.
For more information visit http://www.socdev.fo/pages/english.php or contact to malpolitikk@setur.fo
