There seems to be a broad consensus nowadays among scholars, politicians, journalists and citizens at large that in the course of the last few decades, and particularly since the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, linguistic and cultural diversity has moved to the forefront of public concerns. The prominence of linguistic and cultural diversity as a major social issue of our times is an interesting fact in its own right. Some fifty years ago, technical progress and economic growth were often assumed, particularly among cosmopolitan elites, to usher in a new era in human history, in which matters of language and culture would become little more than peripheral embellishments, or impediments, in the life and progress of modern societies. Despite social change (epitomized, in Europe, by the May 1968 movement) and emerging geopolitical shifts (illustrated by the evolution of the Vietnam war), belief in the unidirectionality of progress remained dominant. In many quarters, languages were essentially seen as problems, and those problems were meant to be solved – for example in the context of decolonization. However, things have turned out quite differently. Several momentous changes in recent history can help explain why questions of language and culture have regained such visibility. Without attempting an in-depth analysis of these changes and their respective impacts, we can identify three of them. The first is the geopolitical shift marked by the demise of the erstwhile Soviet Union. A rivalry between major powers that had, for most of the 20th century, operated as a structuring feature of the international geopolitical order has, though not exactly vanished, fundamentally changed. The dissolution of the Soviet Union at the turn of the 1990s has allowed the re-emergence and re-assertion of components of ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity that had often been discounted as passé or irrelevant. This re-emergence bears witness to the remarkable resilience of the linguistic and cultural facets of human societies. The second of these changes is embodied in accelerated technical progress, particularly in ICT, including automatic translation, together with the possible practical uses of these technical advances. The effects on diversity of technical

中文翻译：

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LPLP 在不断变化的环境中的作用

如今，学者、政治家、记者和广大公民似乎达成了广泛共识，即在过去的几十年中，特别是自 1989 年柏林墙倒塌以来，语言和文化多样性已成为社会发展的前沿。公众的担忧。语言和文化多样性作为我们这个时代的一个主要社会问题的突出地位本身就是一个有趣的事实。大约 50 年前，技术进步和经济增长通常被认为，特别是在国际化精英中，会迎来人类历史的一个新时代，在这个时代，语言和文化问题将成为生活中的外围装饰或障碍和现代社会的进步。尽管社会发生了变化（概括地说，在欧洲，1968 年 5 月运动）和新兴的地缘政治转变（以越南战争的演变为例），对进步单向性的信念仍然占主导地位。在许多方面，语言本质上被视为问题，而这些问题是要解决的——例如在非殖民化的背景下。然而，情况却大不相同。近代历史上的几个重大变化可以帮助解释为什么语言和文化问题重新变得如此引人注目。无需对这些变化及其各自的影响进行深入分析，我们就可以确定其中的三个。第一个是地缘政治转变，其标志是前苏联的解体。大国之间的竞争，在 20 世纪的大部分时间里，作为国际地缘政治秩序的一个结构特征，虽然并未完全消失，但已经发生了根本性的变化。1990 年代之交苏联解体，使得经常被视为过时或无关紧要的种族、语言和文化多样性的组成部分重新出现和重新确立。这种重新出现证明了人类社会的语言和文化方面具有非凡的复原力。这些变化中的第二个体现在加速的技术进步，特别是 ICT，包括自动翻译，以及这些技术进步的可能实际用途。对技术多样性的影响 1990 年代之交苏联解体，使得经常被视为过时或无关紧要的种族、语言和文化多样性的组成部分重新出现和重新确立。这种重新出现证明了人类社会的语言和文化方面具有非凡的复原力。这些变化中的第二个体现在加速的技术进步，特别是在 ICT 方面，包括自动翻译，以及这些技术进步的可能实际用途。对技术多样性的影响 1990 年代之交苏联解体，使得经常被视为过时或无关紧要的种族、语言和文化多样性的组成部分重新出现和重新确立。这种重新出现证明了人类社会的语言和文化方面具有非凡的复原力。这些变化中的第二个体现在加速的技术进步，特别是 ICT，包括自动翻译，以及这些技术进步的可能实际用途。对技术多样性的影响 这些变化中的第二个体现在加速的技术进步，特别是 ICT，包括自动翻译，以及这些技术进步的可能实际用途。对技术多样性的影响 这些变化中的第二个体现在加速的技术进步，特别是 ICT，包括自动翻译，以及这些技术进步的可能实际用途。对技术多样性的影响