Sprache und Identität

We construct our world with languages. We communicate by speaking and writing, with image and body language — languages are elementary for our being together. Language shapes our societies and relationships. While languages have always been changeable, opinions are divided today: on the one hand there are those who insist on the supposed immutability of language. On the other hand, those who advocate openness and fluidity of language. Because language can suppress, discriminate and exclude. But it can also empower by being appropriated and reinterpreted, creating utopias and new realities. Language does not exist in a vacuum; it develops in the interaction between people: in discussions, conversations and collective processes. This is how negotiation about language changes society.

In this issue, people write who deal with language in different ways, question it critically and shape it creatively — and thus pave the way for utopian ideas.