Another National Forum has ended!

The National Forum is a biannual program that we launched in 2021, and at the end of August we successfully finished organizing the second Forum! We are proud and relieved to say that we have kept our word that the program will be repeated every other year. It is a great success for us! 🙂

It is an education and exchange program for people from various fields of social engagement (activism, academia, civil society, media) that took place this year in Požega, in cooperation with the local Association of Citizens. Forca. About 120 people participated in the program, we had about 50 lecturers, at 25 lectures, which took place in three different spaces. In addition, we organized an evening program in the form of film screenings, lecture performances and concerts.

And this year's program was designed through three main modules on the following topics: urban economy, deliberative democracy and just energy transition. In addition to the main modules, we had afternoon sessions, which we all, we can safely say, enjoyed. They dealt with topics that are currently current in domestic and international media and public opinion.

The idea to start the Forum came when we noticed that there are not many places where we can discuss current narratives in the field of social change together. We considered it important to open and create spaces where we will exchange experiences of practical policies and struggles through lectures, conversations, presentation of initiatives, workshops and film screenings.

We hosted lecturers from the entire region (Dorrina Pumbi, Artan Sadiku, Iva Marchetić, Dorina Pllumbi, Radostina Slavkova, Alexandru Klemen, Hana Ćurak, Sonja Dragović and others) and international lecturers, including Manuel Aalbers, Alexandros Kioupkiolis, Giovanni Allegretti, Eva Bordos, Keir Milburn, which particularly contributed to the sharing of mutual experience and insight depending on the context, economic and socio-political arrangement. You can see the program of the school, as well as an overview of all lecturers (both modules and afternoon sessions) at this link.

We are glad that we had the opportunity to get to know Požega and its hospitable locals, and we are especially glad that the foreign participants and lecturers also had that opportunity. During the Forum, we visited the city of Užice and made an excursion for all those interested in the Yugoslav heritage and partisan struggles, bathed in one of the most beautiful rivers Rzav and helped block the works on Kablar.

We have positive impressions and are preparing for the next one, which will be even better!

During the Forum, we recorded certain lectures that will soon be published on our YouTube channel, so follow us! 🙂