Transsectoral Summer School: Urban Calloboratory. Constructing Learning Infrastructures

CfA open is closed

Viadrinicum is an annual summer school at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), devoted to the countries of the Eastern Partnership and the larger context of Central and Eastern Europe. Building on the discussions around the notion of learning city during the last year’s edition, in 2024 the school focuses on urban space as the space for various (un)learning practices, activating different modes of knowing, sensing and being/becoming together. 

It invites students, young researchers, civil society activists, artists and cultural workers to critically reflect upon the experiences of (un)learning as a vehicle of urban transformation through constant re-imagining of the cityscape contours and trajectories. Attentive to the promises of participatory pedagogics and spatial aspects of knowledge production, the school looks into the ways how learning infrastructures are constructed through institutions of formal and non-formal education, as well as into their potential for creating diverse and transgenerational learning communities. Following the idea of experiential learning, a combination of academic and non-academic formats will allow the participants of the school to actively explore the possibilities for a dialogue between different kinds of knowledge from academia, civil society and the arts. 

In a more practical sense, the school offers opportunities for applied experimentation in the setting of a participatory urban intervention engaging local communities in the heart of the German-Polish twin city Frankfurt (Oder)-Słubice. This happens in the frame of three lab.workshops (Community.Lab, Doc.Lab, Planners.Lab), where the participants will be able to develop their own small (team) projects with the assistance of facilitators from the respective fields. Besides that, the school‘s program features round tables with researchers from the Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS, Berlin), film screenings, public events, and Open Space sessions, where participants will have a chance to discuss their own academic, civic or cultural work.

Successful applicants are able to receive a travel scholarship. Accommodation costs are covered by the organizers.

The detailed programme of Viadrinicum 2024 can be found here.

The summer school Viadrinicum 2024 is organized in cooperation with the Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS, Berlin) and supported by the Eberhard-Schöck-Stiftung, Baden-Baden.

Viadrinicum is an annual summer school at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), devoted to the countries of the Eastern Partnership, and the larger context of Central and Eastern Europe. Its 2023 edition revolved around the multifaceted question, how cities learn, and will look into the entanglments of urban learning and dwelling practices. 

Departing from the UNESCO concept of learning cities, which emphasizes educational opportunities primarily from an institutional perspective, the school invited students, young researchers, civil society activists, artists and cultural workers to equally reflect on the practices and spaces of everyday learning in an urban context. It provided an opportunity to critically ponder the concept of learning (as well as unlearning) as a relational process, inquiring into its democratic and emancipatory potential. In the light of the massive (internal) displacement caused by Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine, the issue of accessibility of cities’ learning infrastructures for the newly arrived was especially relevant for this year’s Viadrinicum.

Following the idea of experiential learning, a combination of academic and non-academic formats was designed for the participants of the school to actively explore the possibilities for a dialogue between different kinds of knowledge from academia, civil society and the arts. In a more practical sense, the school offered opportunities for applied experimentation in the setting of a participatory urban intervention engaging local communities in the heart of the German-Polish twin city Frankfurt (Oder)-Słubice. This happened in the frame of three lab.workshops (Doc.Lab, Community.Lab, Planners.Lab), where the participants were able to develop their own small (team) projects with the assistance of facilitators from the respective fields.

Besides that, the school‘s program featured round tables with researchers from the Center for East European and International Studies (ZOiS, Berlin), film screenings, public events, and Open Space sessions, where participants had a chance to discuss their own scientific, civic or cultural work.

The detailed programme of Viadrinicum 2023 can be found here.

Participation in the summer school is free of charge. Successful applicants are able to receive travel scholarships. Accommodation costs are covered by the organizers.

A collaboration of: 

European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder)
ZOiS – Zentrum für Osteuropa- und internationale Studien
AStA Viadrina

With kind support of the Eberhard-Schöck-Stiftung, Baden-Baden.

Transsectoral Summer School Viadrinicum 2022: University in Ruins. Scaffolding Futures. 

In 2022 Viadrinicum got back to an offline format, inviting representatives of academia, civil society and the arts to the German-Polish twin city Frankfurt (Oder)-Słubice. 

Overshadowed by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 2022 edition was devoted to the role of university as a societal actor, especially in times of war, with an emphasis on its capacity to provide social imaginaries for better futures. The project was designed to give students, civil society activists and cultural workers an opportunity to reflect in practical and theoretical terms on the questions of rebuilding Ukrainian cities and thus to counteract the common feeling of futurelessness created by the war. In this regard, the image of a university in ruins is simultaneously a part of a concrete war reality – our partner university in Kharkiv was partially destroyed by the missile attacks of the Russian army – and a metaphor of an institution that might have lost one of its foundational functions as a crucible for social universality.

In 2022 Viadrinicum was combined with an urban intervention, which started with engaging local communities already in the beginning of August.

The detailed version of the programme can be found here and below.

A collaboration of: 

European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder)
ZOiS – Zentrum für Osteuropa- und internationale Studien
Center for Urban Studies
Goethe Institut Ukraine
Brandenburgisches Landesmuseum für moderne Kunst

With kind support of the Eberhard-Schöck-Stiftung, Baden-Baden.

Opening Talk Viadrinicum 2021
Envisioning Collective Agency Beyond Digital Capitalism
Evgeny Morozov (Rome)

Much of the contemporary digital debate seems to be stuck between the narratives of absolute empowerment through neoliberalism - mostly by means of boutique and ubiquitous digital markets a la Uber and Airbnb - and the narratives of absolute domination through surveillance capitalism - where our every move is not only tracked but actually pre-programmed. The former promise to give us back control but at the cost of ultimate submission to the logic of the market; the latter, while painting a darker picture, suggest that a more humane, less intrusive capitalism might restore our agency. Is that all that the digital modernity offers us?

Evgeny Morozov is the author of The Net Delusion (2011) and To Save Everything, Click Here (2013). He is also the founder and the publisher of The Syllabus, a knowledge curation initiative. He holds a PhD in History of Science from Harvard University. He has been a visiting scholar at Stanford and Georgetown and has published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Financial Times, and many other publications. His upcoming book is Freedom as a Service (2022).

Moderation: Prof. Jürgen Neyer (European New School of Digital Studies, Frankfurt (Oder) / Słubice)

Please register here: https://t1p.de/pizs

On facebook, the event can be found here: https://fb.me/e/1VYuGP8vF 

Transsectoral DigitalLab: (Dis-)Assembling the (Post-)Digital Social

Frankfurt (Oder), 16 – 29 August 2021 (Hybrid Edition)

Viadrinicum is an annual summer school devoted to the countries of the Eastern Partnership, and the larger context of Central and Eastern Europe. This year‘s edition is designed as a transsectoral DigitalLab, aiming to explore social and political dimensions of digitalisation from multiple theoretical and methodological angles.
With the help of academic seminars the school will allow its participants to critically engage with the notions of the digital self and the (post-)digital social, datafication and algorithmisation of life, as well as digital infrastructures and smart technologies.

Students, PhD candidates, young NGO activists and artists (up to 35 years of age) from all fields were invited to apply.

Transsectoral on (Post-)Migration. (Dis-)Integrative Encounters

Frankfurt (Oder), 17 – 30 August 2020 (Digital Edition)

Viadrinicum is an annual summer school devoted to the countries of the Eastern Partnership, and the larger context of Central and Eastern Europe. This year‘s edition is designed as a digital transsectoral lab on (post-)migration, aiming to tackle the notion of (post-)migrant society from multiple theoretical and methodological angles. With the help of online academic seminars the school will allow its participants to deepen theoretical insights into the topics of (post-)migration, convivial diversity and multilocal belonging.
Besides that, the participants will be able to enhance their practical and methodological skills in the framework of several project-oriented workshops, organised in the respective countries of their residence with the help of local partners.

Students, PhD candidates, young NGO activists and artists (up to 35 years of age) from all fields were invited to apply. The CfA is closed now.

These days there is no way to avoid the pandemic and the uncertainties that it brings with it. Nevertheless, for Viadrinicum one thing is now certain – it will take place this year, but in a slightly different format. With the bridge from Frankfurt (Oder) to Słubice still closed (for the first time in 13 years), no one can be sure if our usual two-week Polish-German border-crossing will be possible at the end of August. So instead, we invite everyone to cross the digital borders with us and transfer our exchange of knowledge from academia, civil society, and the arts online.

The CfA will be published in beginning of June. Stay tuned.

Transsectoral UrbanLab. Participatory Urbanism Beyond Metropoleis

Frankfurt (Oder), 19 August – 1 September 2019

Viadrinicum is an annual summer school devoted to the countries of the Eastern Partnership region with a special focus on Ukraine. This year it will take place in the form of Transsectoral UrbanLab, aiming to tackle the complex issues of (glocal) urbanism, urban development and active citizenship in small and medium-sized post-socialist cities from multiple theoretical and methodological perspectives.
With a strong emphasis on participatory formats the school will allow its participants to deepen their knowledge about theories of (post-)socialist urbanism, patterns of urban development and strategies of active citizenship with the help of academic seminars and enhance their practical and methodological skills in the framework of several project-oriented workshops. Students, PhD candidates, young NGO activists and artists (up to 35 years of age) from all fields are invited to apply.

The participation is free of charge, only the costs of the board (except from coffee breaks) and lodging (ca. 85 € for the whole period) have to be covered by the participant.

The call for applications was closed on 2 June 2019.

With kind financial suppport of:

Previous editions:

Transsectoral PeaceLab. Looking for Hybrid Solutions to Hybrid Conflicts: Academia, Civil Society, and the Arts

Frankfurt (Oder), 20 August – 2 September 2018

BorderLab. Borderland Experiences: Conflict, Dialogue, and the Arts

Frankfurt (Oder), 28 August – 10 September 2017

The programme and the results of the last editions you can find on our special blog www.viadrinicum.blog

With kind financial support of: