On November 28, 2014, the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences, with the support of the district of Görlitz, hosted the eighth November conference in Görlitz to address specific questions of civil society action in local change processes.
Civil society actors are seen as key initiators and supporters of local transformation processes.
More than 70 guests from Dresden, Berlin, Vienna and the region accepted the invitation to discuss how civil society can be an initiator of local change processes in rural regions and small/medium-sized towns; which motives are decisive for the actors; which opportunities for action and effects they achieve; which structures are required for civic engagement and what this means for the relationship to market and state actors.
In topic-specific table discussions, stakeholders presented their practical examples and discussed the framework conditions and limits of action of regional citizens' initiatives, networks or associations in the areas of regional development, car-sharing in the border triangle, cross-border volunteer services, energy cooperatives in Saxony, political citizen participation processes in municipalities or forms of new "sharing economy".
Institute for European Ethnology, University of Vienna
"Marketing a city . On the economization of city governments in medium-sized cities."
Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences
"Zivilgesellschaft in Wandlungsprozessen" (video recording)
(+ presentation)
Brandenburg-Berliner Institut für Sozialwissenschaftliche Studien BISS e.V.
"Zivilgesellschaft macht Region - macht sie? On the should, want and can of social actors" (video recording)
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Video recording
Summary: Actor constellations and engagement structures using the example of a cross-border voluntary service in the district of Görlitz and the voivodeships of Dolny Śląsk and Lubuskie as well as civil society networks in Lusatia.
Moderation: Susanne Schwarzbach, Regional Management of the Bautzener Oberland region
Impulse statements:
Summary: Potentials for cooperation and conflicts between civil society, political society and administration using the example of Rifkin's thesis on "social communities" and the car-sharing cooperative in the border triangle of Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic.
Moderation: Julia Gabler, freelance social scientist and currently a fellow at the Post-Growth Societies Research Training Group (FSU Jena)
Impulse statements: Video recording
Summary: Mutual activation, enablement and empowerment of civil society actors using the example of regional development processes and energy cooperatives.
Moderation: Markus Will, Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences
Impulse statements:
Summary: Civil engagement culture as capital for a town/village community using the example of participation processes "from below" and political participation at municipal level.
Moderation: Katrin Treffkorn, Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences
Impulse statements:
Prof. Dr. Eckehard Binas, President of the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences
Moderation: Prof. Dr. Raj Kollmorgen