Theme 4: Different collaborations for different needs

The EAFT celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2006: 10 years of promoting collaboration within terminology and of creating active liaisons with other organisations, associations and institutions in the terminology sector at all levels. One of the goals of the associations is “to provide a platform at the European level for the promotion and co-ordination of terminological activities and the heightened awareness, improved recognition and continued professionalisation of the terminology sector”.

Out of the first Terminology Summit in 2002 grew the Brussels Declaration, subtitled "for international cooperation on terminology". One of its recommendations is that States and governments, intergovernmental bodies and international organizations, and bodies involved in language policies should "promote the introduction of methods of cooperation that take into account the lessons of what has already been achieved and of existing initiatives and projects".

This can be done in differing ways. As linguistic conditions vary, so do terminological needs. In identifying familiar patterns in not so familiar contexts we are drawn to compare mutual experiences which may lead to new forms of collaboration.

Our three other Summit themes also treat collaboration from different perspectives:

• between the professional life and the academic life concerning the terminologist’s profile,
• between terminology work done in and for major and "minor" languages, and
• between international and national/regional organizations through policies and planning.

In this fourth theme we will try to round up with some basic questions on terminology cooperation which need answering no matter what the context of collaboration.

Questions:

• What are the core elements necessary for collaboration in terminology?
• What are the optimum conditions for such collaboration?
• What can be learned from non-working collaboration?
• What can we expect to gain from terminological collaboration?
• Is there a paradigm for collaboration?