Regional Conference “Re-thinking local cultural policy: new identity and new paradigm”
In the period between 17th -19th of September 2010 in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia, Performing Arts Center MULTIMEDIA (Skopje, Macedonia) and ODA Theatre (Prishtina, Kosovo) are organising the first of the series of conferences on special themes in the three-year project “CULTURE FROM/FOR ALL: policy cooperation among Kosovo and Macedonia” (2009-2012).

The overall theme of the conference “Re-thinking local cultural policy: new identity and new paradigm” can be seen as one of the interesting, challenging and provocative topics in the local development area. It should also be counted as one of the fundamental topics for the local development in general and cultural studies in particular.

Culture is not just some kind of an extra option given to the Municipalities in the Balkan region, but it is their essential component for social regeneration, improvement of the life quality of its citizens, as well as to its economic development.

The objective of the Regional Conference is to discuss and challenge the notion of culture as an increasingly important contributor to the revival of cities in the Balkan region. Many other cities, particularly the Balkans, are already polished and restructured into the world’s perception. Many of those images of the Balkan cities are good and some are still bad. And this, the process of re-imagining, re-thinking and re-defining of those cities and how these processes are managed is exactly what the city policy should be about. And this is the topic that we are going to discuses during the conference.

As part of the Regional Conference, the organisers are announcing a Call for papers. Abstracts/Papers will be considered on related themes and topics from a wide range of perspectives. Interdisciplinary approach is especially welcome since all these topics stretch across several disciplines: cultural studies, history, political sciences sociology, anthropology, psychology, ethnology, economy, etc.

Interpretations of the conference theme ranging from the predictable to the surprising are encouraged. Abstracts and summaries of the conference papers will be published in Conference Proceedings (book) and made available at the conference web page.
The conference is free of charge. PAC MULTIMEDIA and ODA will not be able to provide travel support for conference participants. It is therefore strongly recommended to apply for a scholarship or a grant from other sources.

Deadline for abstract submission: 15th of July, 2010. All submissions should be sent to: info@multimedia.org.mk

PAC Multimedia and ODA invite theoreticians, academics and practitioners in the field of cultural policy and city identity from all over the Balkan countries and EU to attend the event. Also graduate and postgraduate students are encouraged to attend and present papers.

Representatives of the Swiss Embassy in Macedonia, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in Skopje, the Embassy of the Federal republic of Germany in Skopje, Institute for Institutional Development and other relevant stakeholders are invited to the event.

Conference Homepage: www.multimedia.org.mk and www.culturefromforall.org/

Contact person for the conference:
Radmila Zivanovic
info@multimedia.org.mk radmilalj@multimedia.org.mk

Conference Programme September 2010 (PDF, 327.8KB)

overview