The International Language and Territory Colloquium, held in Sudbury (Canada, 2010) Tbilisi (Georgia, 2015), Kenitra (Morocco, 2017) and Trento (Italy, 2019), brought together a large number of researchers from all over the world to discuss various themes and contexts in which language and territory are interrelated.

Language and territory both conceptually refer to social structuring, space and a sense of belonging. A historical approach to these notions reveals innovation and new practices in the societies that shape them. They are also highly polysemic terms with differing semantic contours according to usage, context, aims. The representations they embody are sustained by underlying links and structures. Together, they evoke exchanges, movements, blending, but also withdrawal and conflict. They are an invitation to travel, to creativity, to self-expression or to encounters with the Other.

This colloquium will discuss the different ways that languages and territories are linked, and will show the political, social and economic stakes that arise from the relationships between them. Above all, these terms refer to men and women with their social practices and representations, at the core of the logic of territoriality. New territories give rise to new language practices, which, in turn, create new spaces, discourse and meaning.

The "boundaries" we draw between languages and territories are permeable in time and space, depending on factors such as population displacement, language policies, linguistic and social representations, education, mass media and socio-cultural values.

The 5th Edition of the International Language and Territory Colloquium will be held on Occitan territory. Thus, an important question arises: the territory of the Occitan language appears on linguistic maps that are more or less exact, and whose boundaries have varied since the early 19th century. It is not currently identified as an administrative territory, even if one third of the area has appropriated the name Occitania, nor has it ever existed historically as a territory. Instead, there were various provinces, whose boundaries were not tied to any linguistic referent. It is a linguistically diverse territory, and as such it can give rise to debate. In short, one could not imagine a better illustration of the issues addressed by the colloquium, which will take place within a multi- and interdisciplinary framework allowing an exchange of systematic and analytical approaches on the complexity of the links and interfaces between languages and territories. Proposals for papers may address the following themes or others.

• Language and Virtual Territory
• Language, Territory and Planning
• Language, Territory and Contacts
• Language, Territories and Conflict
• Language, Territory and Law
• Language, Territory and Economy
• Language, Territory and Education
• Language, Territory and History
• Language, Territory and Identity
• Language, Territory and Imagination
• Language, Territory and Literature
• Language, Territory and Minorities
• Language, Territory and Mobility
• Language, Territory and Globalization
• Language, Territory and Digital Technology
• Language, Territory and Politics
• Language, Territory and Philosophy
• Language, Territory and Nation
• Language, Territory and First Nations
• Language, Territory and Religion
• Language, Territory and Networks
• Language, Territory and Companies
• New language(s), new Territory(ies)
• Languages, Territory and Writing
• Language "without territory", territory "without language".
• Language, Territory and Heritage

Organizers:

Partners:

Supported by :