[Lgpolicy-list] [lg policy] Language Policy and the Promotion of Peace

Thu Nov 20 15:40:44 UTC 2014

New by Arnulf von Scheliha and the Late Neville Alexander: *Language Policy
and the Promotion of Peace*
by Linette on Nov 19th, 2014

[image: Language policy and the promotion of peace]
<http://bookslive.co.za/bookfinder/ean/9781868887491>*Unisa Press presents
Language policy and the promotion of peace: African and European case
studies <http://bookslive.co.za/bookfinder/ean/9781868887491>, edited by
Arnulf von Scheliha and the late Neville Alexander:*

This book brings together the contributions of 12 scholars engaged in
language activism, in research and in promoting peace. The writers are
keenly attuned to the potentially genocidal consequences of language
differences. In the articles they have written, they make compelling cases
for indigenous non-hegemonic languages to be used and promoted, not only as
a means of communication but to preserve the multilingual communities
inhabiting the world. The book is a product of a collegial effort resulting
from a symposium on Language Policy and the Promotion of Peace or the
Prevention of Conflict, which was held at the University of Osnabrück
<http://www.uni-osnabrueck.de/en/home.html>, Germany, in 2011.

While many different “angles of vision”, positions, approaches and emphases
are argued in the contributors’ commentaries and in their case studies, the
12 scholars and activists are united in their call for a multilingual
global habitus. Alexander, the principal editor of this compilation, spent
about 30 years studying and making policy proposals about the language
question in South Africa. 11 languages are officially recognised by the
post-apartheid government, and yet only two, English and Afrikaans, enjoy
high-status functions in official communications. Alexander persistently
called for mother-tongue instruction for children in their formative years
of schooling. Sadly, this radical scholar and acknowledged sociologist of
language died of lung cancer while he was working on this volume in 2012
<http://bookslive.co.za/blog/2012/08/27/neville-alexander-rip/>.

Co-editor Von Scheliha is professor of Systematic Theology at the
University of Osnabrück. His main research topics are political ethics,
interreligious hermeneutics, history of theology, and transformation of
religion in pluralistic societies. He was the main organiser of the
symposium that brought international scholars together to reflect on
language policy and the promotion of peace, and that provided the
wide-ranging “raw material” for this book.

*About the editors*

*Neville Edward Alexander* (22 October 1936 – 27 August 2012) was a major
proponent of linguistic diversity and multilingualism. After his release in
1974 from political imprisonment on Robben Island
<http://www.robben-island.org.za/>, he carried out pioneering work in the
field of language policy and planning in South Africa, contributing to the
National Language Project, and becoming founder and director of the Project
for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa
<http://www.praesa.org.za/> (PRAESA). In 1981, he was appointed Director of
the South African Committee for Higher Education (SACHED) in Cape Town. He
also made an influential contribution to the Language Plan Task Group
(LANGTAG) process instituted in 1996. His prolific research output on
language and education issues in South Africa is reflected in various
academic journals and books. He has also written on socialism, and in 2003
published *An ordinary country: Issues in the transition from apartheid to
democracy in South Africa*. In 2003, he was co-chair of the steering
committee set up under the auspices of the African Union
<http://www.au.int/en/> to found the African Academy of Languages
<http://www.acalan.org/> (ACALAN) as the official language policy and
planning agency of the African Union; he afterwards served as a member on
the board of ACALAN. In 2004, he cochaired another steering committee for
the Implementation of the Language Plan of Action for Africa (ILPAA) in
Yaoundé, Cameroon, with the goal of establishing a frame of reference for
the assessment of government interventions in language infrastructure. In
South Africa, he was awarded the Order of the Disa
<http://www.westerncape.gov.za/provincial-honours/order-of-the-disa> in
2004 in recognition of his long-term commitment to socio-political issues
and education. In Barcelona in 2008, he won the Linguapax Prize for his
contribution to linguistic diversity and multilingual education over more
than 20 years.

*Arnulf von Scheliha* was born in 1961. Since 2003, he has been a full
professor for Systematic Theology (Philosophy of Religion, Dogmatics,
Ethics) at the Institute for Protestant Theology, University of Osnabrück,
Germany. He is the scientific coordinator for the programme Visiting Chair
for Peace and Global Justice and is a member of the board of the
interdisciplinary Zentrum für Demokratie- und Friedenforschung (ZeDF)
(Centre for Democracy and Peace Research) at the University of Osnabrück.
His main research topics are political ethics (especially normative
fundaments, European religious culture and ethics of peace), moral problems
of modern lifestyle, interreligious hermeneutics (especially the relations
between Christianity, Judaism and Islam), History of Theology in the 19th
and 20th century in consideration of social history and the history of
ideas and the transformation of religion in pluralistic societies.

*Book details*

   - *Language policy and the promotion of peace: African and European case
   studies* edited by Neville Alexander and Arnulf von Scheliha
   Book homepage
   <http://www.unisa.ac.za/default.asp?Cmd=ViewContent&ContentID=97192>
   EAN: 9781868887491
   *Find this book with BOOK Finder!
   <http://bookslive.co.za/bookfinder/ean/9781868887491>*

http://unisapress.bookslive.co.za/blog/2014/11/19/new-by-arnulf-von-scheliha-and-the-late-neville-alexander-language-policy-and-the-promotion-of-peace/

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