scholarly journals Multilingualism and Social Inclusion

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
László Marácz ◽  
Silvia Adamo
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Language Education ◽  
State Level ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Thematic Issue ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Global Language

This is a thematic issue on the relation between multilingualism and social inclusion. Due to globalization, Europeanization, supranational and transnational regulations linguistic diversity and multilingualism are on the rise. Migration and old and new forms of mobility play an important role in these processes. As a consequence, English as the only global language is spreading around the world, including Europe and the European Union. Social and linguistic inclusion was accounted for in the pre-globalization age by the nation-state ideology implementing the ‘one nation-one people-one language’ doctrine into practice. This lead to forced linguistic assimilation and the elimination of cultural and linguistic heritage. Now, in the present age of globalization, linguistic diversity at the national state level has been recognized and multilingual states have been developing where all types of languages can be used in governance and daily life protected by a legal framework. This does not mean that there is full equality of languages. This carries over to the fair and just social inclusion of the speakers of these weaker, dominated languages as well. There is always a power question related to multilingualism. The ten case studies in this thematic issue elaborate on the relation between multilingualism and social inclusion. The articles in this issue refer to this topic in connection with different spaces, including the city, the island, and the globe; in connection with different groups, like Roma in the former Soviet-Union and ethnic Albanians in Macedonia; in connection with migration and mobility of Nordic pensioners to the south of Europe, and language education in Scotland; and finally in connection with bilingual education in Austria and Estonia as examples of successful practices including multilingualism under one and the same school roof.

Does the Current State of Environmental Impact Assessment in Armenia Pose a Challenge for the Future?

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (02) ◽  
pp. 1950004
Author(s):  
Sophya Geghamyan ◽  
Katarina Pavlickova
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Environmental Impact Assessment ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Public Involvement ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Assessment System ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Current State

Many post-Soviet countries are still improving their Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) systems, and Armenia is no exception. In recent years, approximation to and harmonisation with the laws of the European Union has seen Armenia increasingly adopt and apply EU regulations and directives, and this process was supported by adoption of the new law on EIA and Expertise in 2014. The main objectives of this study are to review and analyse the current state of the Armenian EIA system and to assess its legal framework. We applied a method divided into two parts: review and analysis of the legislative aspects of the EIA system in Armenia and the circulation of a survey-questionnaire to EIA experts to establish current practices. The findings of this research provided positive and negative factors which can both be used to improve the assessment system in Armenia. While the most significant EIA strength combines the existence of a systematic law and public involvement in this process, the law has weaknesses in its monitoring, informative and quality control provisions. Moreover, public participation has many weaknesses in practice, including the definition of stakeholders and the lack of guidelines and manuals which challenges expert action. Finally, this paper has explored the major positives and negatives of the Armenian EIA system in practice, and we consider that this should help other Former Soviet Union (FSU) countries define and combat the challenges of their EIA systems.

scholarly journals Systematization of private international law in Ukraine and foreign countries: present state and tendencies

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 122-128
Author(s):  
Mykola Lazarenko
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
International Law ◽  
Present State ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Private International Law ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Foreign Countries

Systematization of private international law in Ukraine and foreign countries: present state and tendencies.The article deals with the comparative legal analysis of the systematization of the statutory provisions of private international law in the countries of the European Union and some countries of the former Soviet Union. The main arguments regarding different approaches to the systematization of private international law in Ukraine are outlined, as well as the main directions and tendencies of the codification processes of legislation in this area.

scholarly journals China’s “One Belt, One Road Initiative”: challenges and requirements for its successful implementation in Central Asia

2017 ◽  
pp. 127-138
Author(s):  
Francisco Gómez Martos
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Regional Cooperation ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Trade Integration ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Intergovernmental Cooperation

Twenty five years after the dissolution of the former Soviet Union and the reemergence of the Central Asian Republics as independent States, this region continues to be the scene of rivalries amongst the big powers (Russia, China, the European Union, USA, India, Japan, Turkey and Iran) competing in a sort of a “new Grand Game” to increase their geopolitical and economic influence in the region. Its geography, diverse and rich natural resources, like oil and gas, explain the ongoing hidden rivalries. Despite its common historical and cultural past, Central Asia constitutes a heterogeneous region with a multiethnic and multi-linguistic composition and a low degree of physical, economic and trade integration. The lack of mutual trust, the persisting tension over borders and the use and sharing of natural resources, as well as different levels of economic performance have so far jeopardized the development of genuine regional cooperation. Against this background, the idea behind the Chinese OBOR Initiative to develop rapid transportation, if well implemented, could theoretically, by improving interregional connectivity, develop the Central Asia regional market and foster intergovernmental cooperation and people-to-people contacts within the region. In this context, could we expect that the ambitious Chinese OBOR Initiative will boost geopolitical stability and promote shared economic and trade benefits in Central Asia? What are the conditions for that need to be fulfilled?The author analyzes in depth certain crucial political, economic and institutional requirements for the successful implementation of the OBOR Strategy and concludes, however, that three years after the launching of this crucial instrument of the Chinese “globalization without democracy” model, its implementation faces major problems and thus raises more doubts than certainties.

Local-level Nudging for Renewables in Slovenia: Organisational Aspects and Legal Limitations

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 523-556
Author(s):  
Luka Martin Tomazic
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Local Level ◽  
State Level ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Local Energy ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
National Legal System ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Positive Effect

Proliferation of renewable energy is high on the agenda of the European Union. In it, local government plays an important role. Besides traditional regulatory approaches such as legislation, nudging could have a positive effect on achieving the desired policy goals. This article analyses the legal framework within which the local-level practice of nudging is embedded in the Republic of Slovenia. Since EU-level legislation and ECHR aspects are analysed as well, the application of findings is broader than merely the national legal system. Nudging could be performed either by using the existing infrastructure or through the creation of local energy organisations. Three main groups of legal limitations are identified, namely state-level limitations, GDPR-related concerns and constitutional or human rights considerations. Defaults and individualised informing are emphasized as two of the most promising nudge-types in the field of renewable energy.

In support of plurilingual people living in multilingual societies: Policies and frameworks of European language education

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Waldemar Martyniuk
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Education Policy ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Language Education ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Language Education Policy ◽  
European Language ◽  
Council Of Europe ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Multilingual Societies

This article focuses on current European language education policy. It reviews relevant policy documents of the European Union and the Council of Europe. It also refers to the range of tools offered by the two intergovernmental organisations in support of linguistic diversity in contemporary European societies and the development of plurilingual abilities of their citizens

scholarly journals Implementation of plurilingual approach into the foreign language teaching

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Zuzana Straková
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
English Language ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
School Context ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Foreign Language Teaching ◽  
Target Language ◽  
The European Union

Abstract Teaching foreign languages has adopted various approaches over the history. The last decades of dominance of the Communicative language teaching brought the tendency to insist on the target language use in the classroom in order to allow the immersion into the language. The European Union, however, started to support linguistic diversity more than two decades ago and it has left an imprint on the way foreign language teaching is approached today. Inclusion of plurilingualism in traditional school context requires the readiness of language teachers to use other languages as well as encourage learners to use their prior language experience. The present study presents the results of a questionnaire survey among student teachers measuring their attitudes and readiness to implement more than one additional language in their practice. The participants of the study (n = 118) are all future teachers of English language at both undergraduate and graduate level. The results of the survey indicate a generally positive attitude towards plurilingualism and at the same time ability of the students to rely on more than one language while teaching. The results, however, raise quite a few questions and imperatives for the content of teacher training programmes as well as for the organisation of language education in general.

scholarly journals Linguistica Educativa e contesti migratori

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonella Benucci ◽  
Giulia I. Grosso ◽  
Viola Monaci
Keyword(s):  
Social Inclusion ◽  
School Context ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Migration Route ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Scientific Fields

The volume, produced within the framework of the COMMIT project “Fostering the Integration of Resettled Refugees in Croatia, Italy, Portugal and Spain”, concerns the current European situation, and in particular the teaching of L2 in its relations and interdisciplinary exchanges with other scientific fields dealing with migratory phenomena; therefore, starting from the COMMIT experience, it offers a wide perspective, going beyond the borders of the countries involved in the project and identifying good practices that can be replicated in different territorial and social contexts to ensure successful social inclusion of newly arrived citizens. COMMIT is a project funded by the European Commission (DG HOME), co-financed by the Ministry of Interior and the Project Partners and managed by the Mediterranean Coordination Office of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in Italy. The project was implemented in collaboration with the IOM Missions in Croatia, Portugal and Spain, together with the Communitas Consortium, the Adecco Foundation for Equal Opportunities and the University for Foreigners of Siena (UNISTRASI). The project activities were implemented from 1 January 2019 to 30 April 2021. The project, based on the idea that successful integration of resettled refugees occurs both by putting in place certain structural conditions and by promoting mutual exchange between resettled refugees and their host communities, aimed to support their integration into their new communities, with a special focus on women and young refugees as particularly vulnerable groups. A secure humanitarian migration route to the European Union launched in 2013 is targeted at refugees who are beneficiaries of resettlement. Several Member States, including Croatia, Italy, Portugal and Spain, have therefore established or strengthened their national resettlement and humanitarian admission programmes for resettled refugees of Syrian, Eritrean, Ethiopian or Sudanese origin. In preparation for resettlement, beneficiaries participate in a series of pre-departure cultural orientation activities. Among them, training in L2 language and culture plays a crucial role. The book hence tries to offer answers to the many challenges that characterise the field of language education in contexts marked by the presence of migrants from an interdisciplinary perspective. It provides for effective solutions for an inclusive language education, attentive to ‘vulnerable’ subjects, paying attention to the interweaving of complex individual, social, cultural and economic contexts, such as school and university training courses and reception and resettlement programmes in host societies. In particular, the current situation in Italy, regarding both teaching L2 in a school context and teaching modern languages to adult foreigners, is still lacking in interdisciplinary relations and exchanges between language teaching and other scientific fields dealing with migratory phenomena. However, in recent years a particular sensitivity and empathy towards linguistic and cultural contact have developed.

scholarly journals Viability and Economies of Scale in EU Farms

2005 ◽  
pp. 332-338
Author(s):  
István Fürjész
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Business Management ◽  
State Level ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Gross Margin ◽  
Farm Accountancy Data Network ◽  
Farm Business ◽  
Economic Size

With this study, the author intends to draw up the main characteristics of the institutional background of the Farm Accountancy Data Network, operated by the European Union. Among the factors that contribute to the formation of the institutional background of the FADN database, special emphasis is laid on the Commission and member state level legal framework, in order to provide potential Hungarian users of the database with authentic and substantial information. Also, much attention is paid to definitional misunderstandings which cause, or might cause the farm business management type utilization of the database to be imperfect. As for this goal, some of the elements of the FADN information structure are investigated in a conventional Hungarian cost structure. In order to facilitate an easier understanding of the database, the different relations of economic size classes are also reviewed in this study. The author of this study is – in the first place – trying to analyze the meaning of Standard Gross Margin, the index used in the FADN structure to categorize farms, by localizing the position of the different cost constituents of SGM in a conventional Hungarian cost matrix. Last, but not least, the author is trying to draw all researcher’s attention on the possibilities, hidden in the FADN database by introducing some analyses from his own field of interest based on FADN information.

Russian and Eastern European LGBT Movements and Interest Groups

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Conor O'Dwyer
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Transition To Democracy ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Lgbt Rights ◽  
Lgbt Activism ◽  
The Eu

The development of LGBT movements and interest groups in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union reflects the region’s unique political development with respect to the experience of communism, the transition to democracy in the 1990s, the expanding influence of international institutions like the European Union (EU), and, most recently, trends of democratic backsliding and even reversion to outright authoritarian rule in some countries. Each of these aspects of the region’s political development has engendered debate among scholars and activists. There is consensus that the experience of communism strongly circumscribed not only the possibilities for activism but also, in some instances, even the possibilities for articulating LGBT identities. Nevertheless, a survey of the scholarship on postcommunist LGBT politics indicates divergent trajectories between countries of the former Soviet Union, where LGBT identities are less established and activism is less organized, and the former satellite states of Eastern Europe, whose experience under communism was shorter and, arguably, less intense. Without ignoring the evident deficits of Eastern Europe’s LGBT activism in the 1990s, its LGBT people benefited relative to counterparts in the former Soviet Union from a generally more successful transition to democracy and a greater degree of exposure to West European institutions, in particular the EU. The process of applying for EU membership, many scholars argue, advantaged these countries’ LGBT movements vis-à-vis their counterparts in the former Soviet Union by pressuring national governments to be more accommodating and by socializing elites and publics to Western Europe’s comparatively tolerant values and LGBT rights norms. Adjusting to these norms was sometimes contentious, but several scholars argue that, where conservative backlash against LGBT rights occurred during the EU’s first round of expansion in 2004 to 2007, it generally helped domestic activism by increasing its visibility and level of organization. Not all are so optimistic about the EU’s impact on LGBT activism, however, particularly those studying Yugoslavia’s successor states, for whom the EU accession process occurred later or is still ongoing. These scholars emphasize the difficulties of squaring EU norms about LGBT rights with national identity, particularly given the EU’s sometimes colonial-like relations with postcommunist societies. Others note that transnational rights advocacy supported by the EU has been matched by the rise of transnational antigay activism, and that the clash of transnational activism stalemates domestic progress on LGBT-friendly policies. Such critiques appear increasingly relevant as trends of democratic backsliding have emerged since the 2010 world financial crisis in former “success cases” of postcommunist transition and EU integration, notably Hungary and Poland. The latter’s democratic backsliding occurs within the larger context of Russia’s reversion to authoritarianism after the brief political opening of the 1990s. Across these three countries, governing elites have shown a readiness to make use of LGBT issues to define their illiberal ideologies and to mobilize voters. Whether these developments portend a narrowing of differences among LGBT movements in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe is a key question for future scholars.

FORMATION OF THE MOLDOVAN LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT SYSTEM IN THE CONTEXT OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION (1990S)

2021 ◽  
pp. 53-85
Author(s):  
Elena A. Kosovan ◽  
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Formal Structure ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Republic Of Moldova ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Decentralization Reform

The article considers the process of formation of the institutional and legal framework for the local self-government system in the Republic of Moldova. Chronologically, the study covers the first decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The author places the formation of the national local self-government system in the context of the European vector of Moldovan foreign policy, analysing the process (especially the implementation of the so- called “decentralization reform”) from the perspective of Moldova’s interaction with the European Union and the Council of Europe. The theories of formal structure and social imitation provide the conceptual framework for the study. The author briefly describes the Soviet self-government system, the gradual abandonment of which was the essence of the reforms of the 1990s, and touches upon the organization of self-governance according to the Anglo-Sax- on and Continental models and the modern systems of self-governance existing in the European Union, to which the Republic of Moldova aspires to become a member. The article consecutively analyses the stages of work of Moldovan legislators aimed at the formation of local authorities, evaluating its results both in terms of compliance with European norms and principles of local self-government organization and in the context of the national ethno-political, institutional and legal, civil and political specificity. According to the author’s hypothesis, the Republic of Moldova builds a system of local self-government by introducing elements of its institutional environment (European principles of regionalization and deconcentration) into its formal structures, but proceeds not so much from their compliance with specific goals and objectives of the Moldovan state, its political, economic and sociocultural specificities, as from their symbolic weight and ability to legitimize Moldova on the international scene as a state successfully undergoing a democratic transition.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document