
Tuesday
LECTURE — DVORANA OHRID / 10 – 11:30 H
ŽELJKA TONKOVIĆ
Practices of civic-public partnerships in Southeast Europe
Participatory governance models and civic-public partnership are increasingly changing the cultural landscape of cities across Southeast Europe. Initiated by collective action and based on different models of partnership with local authorities, socio-cultural centres are becoming key actors who encourage changes in established models of cultural policy. This lecture will give an overview of the existing situations, focusing on the selected examples of socio-cultural centres at different levels of development. Drawing on the rich tradition of sociological research, the lecture will also tackle the issue of cultural participation and inequalities in access to culture. In this perspective, a special emphasis will be given to the importance of innovative approaches to programming and governance in culture and their role in fostering community engagement and building inclusive society in a post-pandemic world.
READING GROUP I — DVORANA OHRID / 12 – 13:30 H
TIHANA PUPOVAC
Democracy, Participation, Institutions
Drawing on the work of French philosopher Jacques Ranciere and his famous statement that „democracy cannot be institutionalised“ we will approach the question of participatory governance from the point of view radical democratic transformation of the concept of institutions. Progressive social movements seldom fail in their attempt to maintain open non-hierarchical governance once they establish or take over institutions. At the same time if they do succeed in establishing non-hierarchical procedures of governance they seldom do not stand the test of time. Why is this? And what do the internal aporias of the process of institutionalisation of progressive movements teach us about the nature of governance and democracy? These are some of the questions we will set off with in our investigation through international and local examples of autonomous, horizontal and community led institutions.
READING GROUP II — DVORANA OHRID / 12 – 13:30 H
VALERIA GRAZIANO
Commons
The concept of the commons has become a key category of contemporary political discourse, opposing both the market logic of enclosure, extraction and commodification, and the top-down bureaucratisation of the state. Acts of commoning have been crucial to emerging political imaginaries and formations in the face of the global economic, political, and climatic crises. Taken together, commoning & the commons offer a potent paradigm to communities, cultural workers and broader social networks to develop tools for both a democratic self-governance, reciprocal care and a shared management of resources. In this reading group, we will depart from Massimo De Angelis’ recent text ‘The Strategic Horizon on the Commons’ (2019) to look at some of the most influential theories of the commons that emerged in the last decades and to activate these perspectives for transforming our organising practices.
READING GROUP III — DVORANA OHRID / 12 – 13:30 H
KATARINA PAVIĆ
Decentralised Internationalism and Horizontalism
Mark Fisher (1968 – 2017) theorist and writer was an indispensable influence in contemporary British culture, noted for his threading between cultural and political critique tackling erosion of class solidarity, relentless commodification of culture, privatisation of mental stress and lack of better future for the forthcoming generations. Equally melancholic and witty Fisher’s writings involved literary, film and music essays and commentaries that will remain relevant in years to come. Possibly less familiar were Fisher’s musings on organising in the cultural and political field, where he concentrated on questions of effective alternatives to global dominance of neoliberal orthodoxy.
For this occasion we shall read two short Fisher’s texts: in Peripheral Proposals (2013) co-published with Nina Möntmann authors discuss potential of decentralised internationalism of independent cultural organisations. In Some Misgivings About Horizontalism (2013) Fisher discusses problems of authority in organisation, pitfalls of horizontalist organisational structures and possible advantages of adopting elements of hegemonic institutional struggle.
READING GROUP IV — DVORANA OHRID / 12 – 13:30 H
MATIJA MRAKOVČIĆ
Civil-public partnerships
Public-civic partnerships represent a new hybrid form of institutional arrangements wherein the democratic agency of citizens is coupled with the institutional stability of public administration. Depending on their selection of proposed literature, participants of the Reading group will prepare a brief report on the possibilities and challenges that different practices of public-civic partnerships impose on their stakeholders. Reports will be presented in a wider forum through a moderated discussion.
PANEL DISCUSSION — DVORANA OHRID / 15 – 16:30 H
DAVOR MIŠKOVIĆ ~ moderator
VULLNET SANAJA ~ panelist
JANJA SESAR ~ panelist
JANA KOCEVSKA ~ panelist
Civil-public partnerships
Civil-public partnerships cannot be simply codified, but the basic idea evolves depending on the circumstances. The basic idea is the joint management of civil and public actors over certain resources, usually space. Circumstances that affect the kind of partnership that will develop depend on the managed resources, the legal framework, the capacities and density of civil actors, as well as the capacities of the public administration. That is why in practice we have different forms of civil-public partnership, which we will discuss with the panelists who implement them in practice.