Linguapax
World Congress on Language Policies, 2002
The preservation of linguistic diversity has become a major concern to many researchers, politicians and leaders of linguistic communities. Some forecasts indicate that more than half of the six thousand languages currently spoken could disappear during the twenty-first century. Language policies have a deep impact on the life of languages and both their theoretical and practical aspects should be examined. There also is a need to assess the new cultural, social, political, economic and technological factors affecting linguistic diversity at a global scale. More than 230 researchers, social actors, policy makers and people involved in the promotion of languages took part in the debates offered by the World Congress on Language Policies which was organised by the Linguapax Institute, in co-operation with the Governments of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, the Cultura de Paz Foundation and Forum 2004. The congress was held in Barcelona, from April 16 to 20 2002, and consisted of six keynote addresses and five concurrent workshops the conclusions of which were presented in the closing session.
All paper can be downloaded from the following link.