Thematic area: Community Development

EU Programme: 5th Framework programme (1997)

Title of the project: Community development training course in Sorbia

Consortium of partners: Research Centre on Multilingualism, Belgium. The Sorbian Institute, Germany

Introduction

In the context of European language politics even more strongly the thought becomes generally accepted that a spreading language planning for those structure-weak peripheral areas must be developed, in those minority languages to be spoken. A principle, in order to come to language politics for periphery minorities, is “the joint development“, which is embedded into economic regional development plans. Under periphery minorities the minorities are seized, which live in economic, social and geographical peripheral areas (border areas).

Selection of possible EU; finding, collecting and analysing calls for proposals
There was cooperation between the two institutes established during another EU-project (http://www.uoc.edu/euromosaic/). The Research Centre in Brussels had a good overview about funding in the 5th frame work programme.

Other sources of funding

The Research Centre and the Sorbian Institute self-fund whatever the EU cannot co-fund. The EU co-funds up to 50%, though it doesn’t usually reach this figure. There was also sub-funding form private companies.

Aims/purposes of the project

The main idea of the project is to strengthen minorities by bringing together regional key players and to train them how to develop minority language based economical structure. Therefore the grant was first for developing and the first realisation of the programme and then to spread the programme to other minorities. No partners are needed, though, for this stage of the process.

The need was detected for developing the theoretical bases of common economic strategies relevant to minorities, and to put them into practice fruitfully. The project aimed to work out intersections between the language situation and the economic situation of European minorities.

Common economic strategies should be developed to the receipt by minorities, in order to develop further and make for practice the theoretical construct of the joint development fruitful. The project had the goal to work intersections out between the language situation and the economic situation of European minorities.

Analysis of stakeholders
There were problems to find persons open enough to new training methods in a fairly traditional field. These problems were mostly overcome by “mixing” people of different ages and from a variety of economic backgrounds.

Analysis of the situation
The main problem at the outset in 1997 was to analyse the links between Sorbia's regional economy and the special needs concerning the minority language, Sorbian. Minorities generally live in the periphery of nation-states. Few of them had at this time forward-looking industries. There was (and still is) a need for training programmes to open the mind of key players in minorities, as regards economic development.

Selection of the topic
The Research Centre was careful to ensure that the general and specific aims of the project fitted into the priorities laid down in the EU call for proposals. Through the research it was to be ensured that, before designing the training course, the Centre could identify the general needs of regional economies allocated in the periphery, and thus be equipped to develop appropriate strategies.

Setting up a team to devise and design the proposal
The core drafting team consisted of researchers of the Research Centre in Brussels. For all special information about the Sorbian situation a second team was established in Germany to provide information for the proposal.

Self-evaluation systems (ante, ex, post)
No special attention is given to taking into account potential risks on the success of the project, nor are such issues discussed in the application.

Working language(s)
The working languages for the proposal were German and English. Later on Sorbian came into the project as one training language.

Literature review/relevant documentation selection
For the project a thorough overview was required of the economic situation and power relations in the region. This information was incorporated into the proposal by the second partner, the Sorbian Institute.

Determining the work plan and time
The work plan etc. was planned with the help of typical management tools like gantt charts, milestones etc.

Budget issues
There were no specific budget issues. The budget was distributed by the workload defined by the coordinator.

Recommendations
Two general recommendations can be made.

It seems to be advisable to make sure that in the project team at least one management specialist is included. A modern management system was essential for a project to obtain funding under the 6th Framework programme.

Secondly, it is also advisable for people who will have to get involved in the implementation phase of the project to have already worked together in an established network or at least to be consulted during the proposal drafting process.

More information :

Prof. Dr. Peter J. Weber
Katholieke Universiteit Brussel
Forschungszentrum für Mehrsprachigkeit
Vrijheidslaan 17, av. de la liberté
B-1081 Brussel/Bruxelles
Tel.: +32 2 412 42 31, Fax: +49 32 2 412 42 00 -
GSM: +49 172 622 46 26
e-mail: peter.weber@kubrussel.ac.be