Kick-Off Meeting in Lille, France
In December 2024, the ʟᴇxɪ.ᴇᴄᴏ project launched its journey toward creating a multilingual, digital lexicon of contested political and cultural concepts with a vibrant and insightful kick-off meeting in Lille, France. Gathering researchers, educators, and cultural practitioners from across Europe, the event marked the official beginning of a collaborative effort to map and clarify the shifting meanings of key terms that shape our public discourse and collective memory.
Hosted at Sciences Po Lille and the University of Lille’s Roubaix campus, the two-day meeting was an opportunity for the international consortium to align on the project’s goals, methodology, and timeline. Participants engaged in deep discussions about the intellectual foundations of the project, its administrative framework, and the conceptual and technical ambitions of the future ʟᴇxɪ.ᴇᴄᴏ platform.
The first day set the tone with presentations on the project’s origins and objectives. Grounded in the tradition of Begriffsgeschichte (conceptual history), ʟᴇxɪ.ᴇᴄᴏ aims to track the evolution of concepts such as “self-determination,” “borders,” or “heritage” across languages, regions, and historical periods. The team also discussed project management and Erasmus+ requirements, internal communication strategies, and how best to measure ʟᴇxɪ.ᴇᴄᴏ’s societal impact.
Later sessions turned to the structure and content of the online lexicon. Partners reviewed potential digital features, such as timelines, multimedia content, and hyperlinked concepts, and began mapping the work process for the project’s first entries. This included an early brainstorming on prioritising concepts and strategising multilingual collaboration.
The second day was devoted to conceptual and editorial coordination. Teams reviewed proposed entries and explored synergies among partners, laying the groundwork for the first set of lexicon entries. A collaborative session closed the meeting, outlining how the first 14 entries would be shaped to reflect ʟᴇxɪ.ᴇᴄᴏ’s commitment to clarity, contextual nuance, and cross-cultural accessibility.
The kick-off meeting underscored the urgency and ambition of ʟᴇxɪ.ᴇᴄᴏ: to offer not just translations, but interpretations, tools to navigate the emotional and semantic gaps that exist between speakers of different languages and citizens of different histories. In an era where words are increasingly politicised and polarised, ʟᴇxɪ.ᴇᴄᴏ promises to be a powerful instrument for intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding across Europe and beyond.
As the project team begins shaping entries and building the platform, one thing is clear: ʟᴇxɪ.ᴇᴄᴏ is not just about words, it’s about the worlds they carry.
