Dear Langscape friends and colleagues,

The year 2016 has been a year full of activities in many fields within our network. Besides having our regular annual meeting, we could define new and interesting research projects, develop teaching collaborations and ideas for doctoral support and, last but not least, take a big step forward towards an increased visibility of our network in terms of publishing and publications, especially by pushing forward the creation of our own e-journal.

We would like to thank every one in the network very warmly who contributed to make all this possible. As a network Lanscape is built on shared interests in language research and language education. This is, however, only one part of the story as Langscape would not be what it is without the mutual trust, sympathy, and the commitment we have to collaborate across borders of national and academic cultures. This is why your contributions to Langscape are so valuable and worthwhile of every minute of your time and each grain of your energy.

Looking also at the bigger picture, we have seen many human and political tragedies recently that have directly or indirectly affected our lives and our work. Cities where we work and travel have experienced acts of violence through which people lost their lives or were severely injured. In many societies exclusionist ideologies are on the rise and protectionist policies find a growing audience supporting them. As a consequence, civil rights, which are the essence of open and liberal societies, have come under severe pressure almost everywhere. Under these conditions, languages are not a panacea but languages matter as an important foundation of people’s capability of encountering and understanding each other and as a means to generate and foster social cohesion. Here, Langscape has a contribution to make. May the coming year, despite the times being what they are, be a year of encouragement, optimism, and hope.

Best wishes from Berlin

Lutz & Stephan