The third theme, Inclusion & Society, focuses on the role of language and communication in the creation of exclusion, but also in remedying it and encouraging practices that promote the inclusion of socially marginalised individuals or groups.
The effectiveness of communication can be undermined and represent a source of exclusion for its author or addressee when it is inappropriate (e.g., overtly specialized discourse aimed at the general public), manipulated (e.g., digital communication used to induce or disseminate an ideology or false information as “fake news”) or violent (e.g., racist or xenophobic comments, discrimination against minorities or social groups, stereotypes and negative social representations of individuals - particularly in social media), violence within families, cf. studies on the link between social inclusion and intercultural communication for minorities (Musgrave & Bradshaw, 2014), and improving digital inclusion on social networks for people with disabilities (Bitman, 2022). These factors of exclusion for communities can also be identified at a societal level, such as suboptimal institutional language policies (e.g., lack of structures for the learning and dissemination of a regional or minority language) or societal trends towards ever greater technicality, de facto excluding populations deprived of or overwhelmed by these tools from access to knowledge, information or even the use of basic services (online banking, tax services, etc.). Methods combining social measures, linguistic policies, information about harmful communication and training/digital resources will be set up for target audience (people with difficulties, minorities etc.).
In the context of LiRiC, researchers from a range of related disciplines can pool their respective theoretical and methodological expertise to better analyse and understand the mechanisms involved in these societal problems and consider certain forms and tools for intervention, remediation and changes in practices and policies. The research carried out as part of LiRiC can therefore contribute to the fundamental research developed within each of the involved scientific disciplines, bringing the added value of interdisciplinarity (e.g., Chowdhury et al., 2023; Pedersen, 2016; Wang et al., 2015).