Difference and Belonging: Indigenous and Autochthonous National Minorities in Europe’s Transforming Regions

According to the FUEN Charter, over 100 million people in Europe belong to one of more than 300 national minorities. Defined by autochthony or indigeneity—as in the case of the Sámi—these communities often live in peripheral rural areas and borderlands. Their settlement area is not only a historically evolved cultural and linguistic region, but also their socioeconomic livelihood. An international conference organized in November 2025 in cooperation with the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography (IfL) Leipzig and BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg addressed these interactions. The focus was on the intersections between cultural, political, and economic transformation processes in European minority regions and their impact on the future of these communities.

The aim of the project is to publish selected conference contributions in an interdisciplinary special issue of the journal “Lětopis – Journal for Sorbian and Comparative Minority Studies”. It is being realized in close cooperation with Dr. Frank Meyer (IfL) and Prof. Dr. Ludger Gailing (BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg).