Traditionally, and following Joshua A. Fishman’s (1991, 2001) reversing language shift model, the sociolinguistics of minoritized languages ​​has considered intergenerational language transmission as the key link in language maintenance (Hornsby and McLeod (ed.) 2022; Montoya and Mas 2011; Williams 2005). Recently, the paradigm of linguistic socialization has criticized and enriched this framework by emphasizing, firstly, the need for children and adolescents to also have spaces for using the minoritized language with their peers beyond the home; and, secondly and in connection with this, the need to consider these children and adolescents as agents of their own socialization process, and not merely as passive recipients of parental and teachers’ management practices (Kasares et al. 2022). Also recently, the field of family language policy (FLP) (King et al. 2008; Spolsky 2012) has emerged as a fertile framework for analyzing language practices, ideologies, and interventions in the family setting from a multi-agency perspective. It highlights both points of agreement and possible disagreements and tensions among family members. Moreover, it supports analyses that are sensitive to the influence that language practices and ideologies prevalent in other areas of society exert on the behavior of children, adolescents, and parents within the home.

In situations of severe language minoritization, like those analized in the project High minoritization and linguistic reproduction in southwestern Europe (AMRELSE) (PID2021-125859NB-I00) for Aragonese, Catalan, Basque, Galician and Occitan, the continuity of the use of the minoritized language among children and adolescents outside the home, during peer socialization, may be compromised by the difficulty in finding interlocutors, by the perception of the use of the minoritized language as a “marked” practice (Flors-Mas 2017), and also by “peer pressure” toward the use of hegemonic languages (Rodríguez Carnota 2022). In such environments, the construction of a viable social identity as a speaker of a minoritized language may depend on the existence of “secure spaces” (Puigdevall et al. 2022) or “breathing spaces” (Fishman 1991). These spaces seek to turn minoritized languages into vehicles of unmarked interaction and a means for building social bonds, and they contribute to the creation and maintenance of language (proto)communities, even in conditions of extreme minoritization.

In this context, this Symposium seeks to initiate an academic reflection on the functioning of such safe spaces—both institutional and community-based—as arenas for activating the use of minority languages ​​among children, adolescents and young people; on the promotion and use of these spaces as strategies within the framework of FLP aimed at the socialization of offspring in minority languages (Nandi 2026; Nandi et al. 2023; Smith-Christmas et al. 2019); and also about the agency and leading role of adolescents and young people in creating their own socialization spaces in minoritized languages (Hernández i Altuna 2022). We encourage submissions that explore language ideologies, practices and management within the framework of FLPs; the agency and empowerment of young speakers; and methodological and theoretical issues linked to the study of safe spaces. The aim is to establish an international dialogue that enables progress in understanding the mechanisms of language maintenance in multilingual societies, in order to contribute to the formulation of new theoretical and applied perspectives for the sociolinguistics of minoritized languages, and to advance support for language revitalization processes.

Contributions related to the following lines and topics are welcome:

1. Family language policy (FLP) in contexts of territorial minoritized languages ​​(TML)
2. Empowerment and activation of young TML speakers in educational settings (formal, non-formal and informal), and in informal socialization settings
3. Intergenerational linguistic transmission and revernacularization of TMLs
4. Creation of safe (or breathing) spaces for TML and, in general, linguistic activism in favor of TML
5. Activation of new speakers of TML, especially in adolescence and youth
6. Language practices and ideologies of adolescents and young people in contexts of language minoritization
7. Linguistic surveillance and symbolic violence towards TML-speaking adolescents and young people
8. Research methods on FLP and on youth agency and empowerment in contexts of language minoritization
9. New family models and gender roles as factors influencing FLP in TML contexts
10. FLP for language maintenance in immigrant and diasporic communities

Contributions from different fields of knowledge are welcome, such as sociolinguistics, sociology of language, linguistic anthropology or language policy and planning, among others. We accept academic papers in the form of oral presentations, which will be organized, whenever possible, in thematic sessions. Presentations will last 18 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of discussion. 

The deadline for abstract submission has been extended to March 22, 2026

 

Proposals can be written in Catalan, other Romance languages ​​or English and must not exceed 500 words (excluding references). They should be submitted as a file including the title, authors and their affiliation, abstract and a short biography (maximum 100 words per author) through the following form.

For more information, please contact us congressos@fundacio.urv.cat.

References

• Fishman, Joshua A. (1991). Reversing Language Shift: Theoretical and Empirical Foundations of Assistance to Threatened Languages. Multilingual Matters.
• Fishman, Joshua A. (ed.) (2011). Can threatened languages be saved? Reversing Language Shift, Revisited: A 21st Century Perspective. Multilingual Matters.
• Flors-Mas, Aveŀlí. (2017). Usos lingüístics i identitats socials entre adolescents catalans i valencians. Tesi doctoral, Universitat de Barcelona.
• Hernández, Jone Miren; Altuna, Jaime (2022). Communities of practice and adolescent speakers in the Basque Country. Research and transformation face-to-face. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 43(1): 32-42. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2021.1998078.
• Hornsby, Michael; McLeod, Wilson (ed.) (2022). Transmitting minority languages: Complementary reversing language shift strategies. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Kasares, Paula; Ortega, Ane; Amorrortu, Estibaliz (2022). Basque Intergenerational Transmission from a Language Socialisation Perspective. Dins Hornsby, Michael; McLeod, Wilson (ed.), Transmitting Minority Languages. Complementary Reversing Language Shift Strategies, 217-246. Palgrave Macmillan.
• King, Kendall A.; Fogle, Ly; Logan-Terry, Aubrey (2008). Family Language Policy. Language and Linguistics Compass 2(5): 907-922. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-818X.2008.00076.x.
• Nandi, A. (2026). Individual agency in family’s language management: Galician parents as policy intermediaries. In Joseph Lo Bianco, Bernard Spolsky & Adrian Lundberg (ed.), Language Policy and Planning: State of Research and Future Directions, 302-318. Bloomsbury
• Nandi, Anik; García-Ruiz, Maite; Manterola, Ibon (2023). Reclaiming voice through bottom-up family language policies. Dins Korb, Christina et al. (ed.), The Power of Voice in Transforming Multilingual Societies, 101-120. Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.22679671.11
• Puigdevall, Maite; Pujolar, Joan; Colombo, Alba (2022). Linguistic safe spaces and stepping stones: rethinking mudes to Catalan through the lens of space. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 43(1): 21-31. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2021.1974463
• Rodríguez Carnota, Miguel (2022). Lingua, poder e adolescencia. Edicións Xerais de Galicia.
• Smith-Christmas, Cassie; Bergroth, Mari; Bezcioğlu-Göktolga, Irem (2019). A Kind of Success Story: Family Language Policy in Three Different Sociopolitical Contexts. International Multilingual Research Journal 13(2): 88–101. https://doi.org/10.1080/19313152.2019.1565634
• Montoya, Brauli; Mas, Antoni (2011). La transmissió familiar del valencià. Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Spolsky, Bernard (2012). Family language policy. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 33(1): 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2011.638072
• Williams, Glyn (2005). Sustaining Language Diversity in Europe. Evidence from the Euromosaic Project. Palgrave Macmillan.