Program Green Horizons Academy: The Good Story/Dobra priča

The Green Horizons Academy is an educational programme that aims to expand the imaginary of the broad green movement towards the alternative livable future across Europe. This year’s Green Horizons Academy’s main topic is building a successful narrative around green values that resonates with the broad public, therefore its title – THE GOOD STORY.

Addressing the climate crisis and environmental issues is a home ground for the greens, still, we need to be better equipped for the forthcoming battles of narratives, where everyone is “playing the green card”. The Academy is a space for theory and practice that can serve both political actors, to step into closer communication with the people, and citizens, to politicize the growing environmental struggles. The time has come for the green-left forces to create a cultural uprising, painting our views as possible, tangible, and popular! From the academic field of political theory to the environmental activists and new movements, the Green Horizons Academy will present, discuss, and articulate democratic, feminist, sustainable and just alternative story!

The programme will be held in a hybrid model, where selected participants are in physical space, and evening sessions are live-streamed for the public on Facebook page of Polekol. Language of the event is BCS and English, and translation will be provided for following on Zoom.

The Green Horizons Academy is organized by the Green European Foundation with the support of Polekol, and with the financial support of the European Parliament to the Green European Foundation.

Friday, October 15

18:00 – 19:15 PUBLIC SESSION Moving of the Movements – panel discussion
                      JAVNA SESIJA Pokreti u pokretu – panel diskusija

An analysis of the development cycle of the environmental movements, where are they today, what messages are they sending, and what are the road-maps to success.

Speakers:
Pablo Dominguez (Senior Eco-Anthropologist at the National Council for Scientific Research – CNRS, France) 
Safet Kubat (Eco Movement Rivers of Bosnia and Herzegovina – Be The Change, PhD candidate in political ecology)
Aleksandar Dragićević (Coalition for Sustainable Development, Montenegro)
Žaklina Živković (Right to Water, Serbia)
Moderator: Bojana Selaković (Civic Initiatives)

Zoom link (translation provided)

19:30 – 20:45 PUBLIC SESSION European Environmentalism Gone Right and Wrong
                       JAVNA SESIJA Evropski enviromentalizam udesno i ukrivo

Lecture on far right, populist and conservative influences in environmental struggles across Europe and our green-left alternative.

Speaker: Balša Lubarda
Balša Lubarda is an environmental sociologist specializing in environmental communication, radicalism, right-wing politics and political ideologies. He is a Doctoral candidate at the Central European University, and Head of Ideology Research Unit at the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right, United Kingdom.

Commentators:
Olga Nikolić (Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory)
Vladan Đukanović (activist, co-author of an investigative article on far-right ecologism

Zoom link (translation provided)

Saturday, October 16

18:00 – 19:30 PUBLIC SESSION Story by the People to the People – panel discussion on choosing narratives and designing messages
                          JAVNA SESIJA Priča od naroda za narod – panel diskusija o odabiru narativa i kreiranju poruka

Speakers:

Marija Ratković (activist, founder of the Center for Biopolitical Education Biopolis, Serbia)
Filip Balunović (Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, Serbia)
Sonja Dragović (KANA – Who If Not Architect group, Montenegro; PhD researcher at the ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon)
Teodor Celakoski (Možemo!, Croatia)
Moderator: Srđan Đurović (Program Manager, Open Society Foundation, Serbia)
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Zoom link (translation provided)

Sunday, October 17

18:00 – 19:30 PUBLIC SESSION closing panel – The Good Story: Green/Left Narratives Put To Political Practice
JAVNA SESIJA završni panel – Dobra priča: Zeleni/levi narativi u političkoj praksi

In the political arena, leverage of the greens and the left is not the force, capital or fear, rather it is the story of a happy ending, a hope for utopia where people can live a good life, in peace, equality and harmony with the planet. How to fight the power with a positive story, especially under the threats of arrests, voting manipulation, powerful far right and the burden of historical stigma? We’ll discuss how to successfully communicate affirmative narratives in election campaigns, what works and what doesn’t

Speakers:
Teresa Griesebner (Communist Party of Austria – Graz)
Dobrica Veselinović (Don’t Let Belgrade D(r)own, Serbia)
Nebojša Zelenović (Together for Serbia/Action, Serbia)
Michal Berg (Co-chair of Czech Greens, Member of the Committee of European Greens)
Rudi Sayat Pulatyan (Central Executive Committee Member, Green Party, Turkey)
Moderator: Iva Marković (Polekol, Serbia) 

Zoom link (translation provided)