The beginning of the FOSTERLANG task was held at the Wilamowice Museum of Culture in Wilamowice. The task to make strategies to advance linguistic diversity in Europe is coordinated by the Centre for Cultural Continuity investigation at the Faculty of Artes Liberales in cooperation with Multilingualism investigation Hub.
The FOSTERLANG task "Fostering Linguistic Capital: A Roadmap for Reversing the Diversity Crisis and Activating Societal Benefits in Europe" is funded by the European Commission under Horizon Europe. The task of the task is to support number languages and migrants in Europe. The activities of the task include, inter alia, changing the approach to knowing language capital, developing practices conducive to bottom-up multilingualism and strengthening the function of local languages in building the well-being of their users.
– It was not by accident that the task was initiated in Wilamowice – a community in which the tongue of the imagination is utilized and revitalized. For almost 2 decades, Wilamowice has been a place of linguistic revival and reconstruction of local identity, as well as an crucial centre of cooperation between language activists and researchers from all over the world,’ emphasises Prof. Justyna Olko from the Faculty of “Artes Liberales”, coordinator of the FOSTERLANG project, and adds: “In September, the Sejm and the legislature of the Republic of Poland adopted an amendment to the Act, which considers that the law is simply a regional language.
During the event opened in 2024, the Wilamowska Culture Museum became the European centre of linguistic diversity. The programme included discussion panels, educational workshops, debates and lectures, which were attended by representatives of the Scottish, Irish, Welsh, Catalan, Basque, Kashubian, Lemko and Wymysiöeryś communities. peculiar attention has been paid to the redefining and strengthening of the linguistic capital of minorities and migrants and to the strategies of sustainable socio-cultural and economical improvement of the communities that usage these languages. In this respect, good practices and experiences of organisations operating in number communities specified as Basques and Kaszubi play a key role.
The European Day of Languages, 26 September, was besides an crucial point of the programme, prepared in cooperation with the community of Wilamowice. The event was performed by the Wilamowian band and the presentation of the Ufa Fis Reviteatralization Group.
Further events within the project, including workshops and training, Language Diversity Forum and Multilingual Policy Forum will be held in Catalonia, the Basque Country, Wales, Carinthia and Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.
The programme of the event is available at: https://bit.ly/Fosterlang_START.
