Linguistic Landscape: Conference highlights multilingual challenges!

Linguistic Landscape: Conference highlights multilingual challenges!

The conference on the Linguistic Landscape will take place from September 3rd to 5th, 2025 at the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE). This event has established itself as a fixture in research on visible language and visual signs in public spaces. Around 200 national and international participants are expected at this important event. The conference has the theme “Spaces of collapse and transformation” and highlights current challenges caused by war, deindustrialization and climate change.

Linguistic Landscapes refer to the written elements that are visible in public spaces, such as street signs or advertisements. This research is particularly relevant in multilingual societies, where the visibility of diverse languages ​​is crucial for the acceptance and maintenance of these languages. In Germany, this phenomenon has so far only been studied to a limited extent, which underlines the importance of the conference. Interestingly, countries with only one official language, such as Germany, show a lower density of visible multilingualism compared to multilingual countries such as Canada or Belgium, where at least two languages ​​are common in public spaces.

Multidisciplinary exchange

A central goal of the conference is to promote interdisciplinary discourse. Linguists, designers, educational scientists and artists come together to develop new perspectives on existential challenges. The conference will be enriched by lectures, poster exhibitions and discussions presented by scientists from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the USA.

In linguistic landscape research, a distinction is made between a “top-down” perspective, which includes state institutions, and a “bottom-up” perspective, which considers private or commercial contexts. For example, bilingual signage at community establishments is considered a top-down strategy, while bilingual menus at restaurants are bottom-up.

Current state of research

Research in the field of Linguistic Landscapes deals with the perception and visibility of language(s) in multilingual societies. While the visibility of languages ​​is influenced by their status and prestige in public spaces, minority languages ​​often rely on bilingual signage in order to be visible and therefore accepted. The spread and acceptance of languages ​​can be crucial to their preservation.

Since the summer semester of 2022, “Linguistic Landscaping” has been an integral part of the German as a second language course, which illustrates the growing interest in this area. Seminars and excursions take place almost every semester. They are intended to shed light on the tension between majority and minority languages ​​and help promote language awareness.

In addition to the aspects mentioned above, Linguistic Landscaping research covers other dimensions such as Linguistic Soundscapes or Linguistic Smellscapes. Through various approaches, language teaching discovers opportunities to promote multilingualism, which supports intercultural exchange and understanding between different language communities.

The upcoming conference at the UDE therefore offers a valuable platform for the exchange of ideas and practices on the visibility of language in society. It remains to be hoped that the insights gained will also be put into practice to promote the role of linguistic diversity in our cities.