Workshops

Joint efforts for climate-resilient cities

Climate change is no longer a potential future phenomenon. It is already visible and noticeable in many aspects of our lives. Adapting our cities to climate change is essential to sustaining the physical and mental wellbeing of the population.

In this workshop we will explore methods, tools and strategies to create climate-resilient public spaces, combining knowledge and approaches from different disciplines and involving scientific and non-scientific stakeholders.

Matthias Ratheiser & Magdalena Holzer(Weatherpark GmbH)
Workshop Space 1 | English

Category: Joint local engagement for the common good, Community spaces where diverse people meet

Fighting polarisation – how inter-group contact can help overcome (emotional) polarisation.

In this workshop we will discuss how we can work against rising (emotional) polarisation. Based on our evaluation of “Deutschland spricht” (a large-scale intervention that brought together over 19,000 individuals for a face-to-face conversation about politics), we will explore how and when interactions between people holding different political positions can reduce the negative views we hold about others.

Lasse Stötzer (Institute on Behavior & Inequality – briq & University of Bonn)
Workshop Space 2 | English

Category: Formats overcoming conflicts & division

Gardens: Where humans find themselves and others.

Gardens bear the marks of human care and cultivation. In exchange, they care for and cultivate their gardeners, and never fail to offer shelter from the frenzy and turmoil surrounding us. They promote social cohesion. They are restorative, nourishing havens where divisions can be overcome in many ways.

Multimedia Artist and “Act.Now” founder André Heller has explored how gardens evoke the human condition and created gardens like the famous “Anima” Garden in Marrakesh. Julia Kospach is author of numerous books on gardens and the natural world.

André Heller (founder, Act.Now) & Julia Kospach (Journalist & Author)
Workshop Space 3 | German

Category: Community spaces where diverse people meet, Formats overcoming conflicts & division

Collective Intelligence – how to give children and young people a voice?

How can a city or municipality give young people a voice in policymaking? The key to success is the combination of digital participation and location-oriented work.

Thanks to a programme the city of Antwerp established in 2012, more than 20,000 children and teenagers have given their opinion about the city’s policies. In this interactive session you will learn about digital participation and have the opportunity to practice using case studies.

Roel Camps (City of Antwerp – Youth Department) & Katharina Zangerl (Act.Now)
Workshop Space 4 | English

Category: Inclusive youth participation, Community spaces where diverse people meet

Using dialogue to strengthen social cohesion – lessons from the “Crisis-Dialogue-Future” project

The workshop will elaborate on how municipalities can improve their capacity to initiate and implement local public dialogues. It will highlight the role of the required participants, of moderation tools, the appropriate formats as well as the administration’s further training needs. The attendees will share their own examples and can thereby identify trans-border, supranational factors leading to success and failure.

Dr. Ulrike Schumacher (TU Dresden), Petra Schweizer-Strobel (Aktion Zivilcourage e.V.)
Workshop Space 5 | English

Category: Formats overcoming conflicts & division, Community spaces where diverse people meet

Understanding the Culture of Consent in different settings

Healthy relationships are crucial to social cohesion. We will start the workshop by watching the short video “Can I kiss you”. The goal of this video is to raise social awareness among adolescents on the topic of consent. The following themes around consent are going to be treated throughout the workshop: initiator, not sure, receiver, circles of friendship, ‘friend zone’, romantic relationships, couples role-playing a dating scene.

Besnik Leka (Freelance Consultant)
Workshop Space 6 | English

Act.Now project

Modules for youth participation in the Middle East

Although the idea of youth participation and personal commitment is not new to the Middle East, many municipalities still lack the understanding of how important it is to involve citizens in decision-making processes in order to strengthen the wellbeing of the community. The workshop will discuss potential forms of youth participation in the Middle Eastern context and what steps need to be taken in order to implement it.

Mohammed Ayoub & Joana Hammour (NAHNOO, Lebanon)
Workshop Space 7 | English & Arabic

Category: Inclusive youth participation, Joint local engagement for the common good

Arki_nopoly: Participatory urban design boardgame

This workshop first uses arki_nopoly, a boardgame, meant to involve citizens in urban design processes by bringing people from different experiences and backgrounds around the same table. In a second step the participants can use the smartphone app ArkiCity to visualize the ideas they’ve developed through arki_nopoly. The workshop uses the example of a popular urban site representing different urban complexities of cities.

Jeanette Frisk & Rasmus Frisk (arki_lab – Designing Cities with People)
Workshop Space 8 | English

Category: Inclusive youth participation, Formats overcoming conflicts & division

Youth participation in municipalities. Shaping inclusive participation formats for young people

How can young people get involved and participate in municipal decision-making processes? The workshop is designed to show approaches and solutions as to how inclusive youth participation can succeed within municipalities. We want to deal with the key questions of how young people can be reached and activated ; what the added value youth participation can be; and what successful youth participation models can look like.

Pavlos Wacker & Udo Wenzl (Municipal Consulting)
Workshop Space 9 | English & German

Category: Inclusive youth participation, Formats overcoming conflicts & division

Who are we? We’ll write our stories!

“We humans are our stories,” said the German philosopher Odo Marquard, “stories must be told; this is why we humans have to be narrated”. In this writing workshop, we will look for and create our own stories and learn how to share them with others. Like this we can shed light on the darkness of our present and see how stories establish connections and foster social cohesion.

Ernst Schmiederer (Blinklicht Media Lab)
Workshop Space 10 | English, German

Category: Connecting activities & community events, Community spaces where diverse people meet

Favoriten Storytelling Tour – let’s explore the area surrounding our conference

Favoriten is a fast-changing district of South Vienna. Historically working-class and associated with Bohemian brick-makers, it is nowadays home to a large population of migrants, plus many artists and is the site of new urban developments. New public transport links provide it with better connections to the rest of the city and the country. We will visit a park, railway station, old industrial buildings, innovative social housing and a street market.

Eugene Quinn (space and place)
Meeting Point: Buffet | outdoor | English

Category: Community spaces where diverse people meet, Connecting activities & community events

Objekt 19 – a community hub (guided tour)

Objekt 19 is a culture centre next to the conference venue with community projects, a restaurant (run as a social business), meeting rooms and a co-working space. Most of its activities are directed at involving the diverse communities in the neighbourhood. How can they be reached? What is the status of volunteering in this centre? How to overcome segregation? Why promote “Arts for all” and how to experience diversity as enrichment?

Tilman Fromelt Objekt 19 (Caritas der Erzdiözese Wien)
Meeting Point: Registration | English

Category: Community spaces where diverse people meet, Connecting activities & community events

Coloured Glasses: stopping discrimination through experience-based learning

Coloured Glasses workshops use the approach and values of non-formal education. They are centred on participants’ learning needs, promote peer-to-peer learning, they are lively and engage participants in activities such as simulations. The simulations are followed by group discussions and relate to theories introduced by the facilitator. Normally the workshops are delivered by volunteers at schools, youth clubs, scout groups etc.

Lukas Achleitner & Filip Lalic (YFU Austria)
Workshop Space 1 | English

Category: Formats overcoming conflicts & division, Joint local engagement for the common good

Do you dare to shift perspectives?

You consider yourself an open-minded person. You are a firm believer that a democracy is based on discourse and dialogue. But then, you find yourself in a heated debate, holding on to your point of view, only widening the gap between you and the other person. In this workshop, we will get to know methods for engaging in fruitful dialogue even where controversial issues are concerned. We will experience first -hand how it feels to switch perspectives and question beliefs.

Petra de Boer (Perspectivity) & Nadine Korn (Act.Now)
Workshop Space: 2 | English

Category: Formats overcoming conflicts & division

Creation of the Mayors’ and Youth Manifesto

Young participants and Mayors are invited to join this workshop. We will use participatory decision-making tools to put together a manifesto with the most important demands and messages drawn from the conference. We aim at a result that will represent what both Mayors and young participants are passionate about and can agree upon. It will be presented to the general assembly at the end of the conference!

Tjark Bartels & Laura Giesen (Act.Now)
Workshop Space 3 | English

Category: Inclusive youth participation

Participation projects – how not to ask bad questions and analyse!

In this interactive session you will find out how important posing the right question is for participation projects. You want to hear the opinion of citizens, but which questions do you ask best and what do you do with the results? After this session you will no longer be a novice in the world of opinions and participation.

Roel Camps (City of Antwerp – Youth Department)
Workshop Space 4 | English

Category: Inclusive youth participation, Formats overcoming conflicts & division

Restoring buildings to restore communities

Based on the experience of the ‘Fostering economic vitality through reuse and re-adapting of abandoned public facilities’ project, the workshop explores concrete ways to restore the vitality of abandoned buildings to serve as meeting spaces for diverse groups. Participants will be guided to think about concrete places and concepts and the necessary steps to approach local municipalities with the aim of stimulating local engagement.

Aminah Ricks (Future Planners) & Sihana Klisurica (Shtatëmbëdhjetë Foundation)
Workshop Space 5 | English

Category: Community spaces where diverse people meet, Joint local engagement for the common good

Supporting vulnerable groups for social cohesion: Surviving trauma

In this session we show how psycho-education can benefit social cohesion at the local level.

Outbursts of anger, problems in concentrating and sleepless nights are known to many young people – especially after recovering from difficult situations. These problems make life difficult for the individuals, their families and communities. We present tools to help young people and show what can be done to ease the symptoms.

Barbara Preitler (Hemayat) & Martina Carija (Society for Psychological Assistance – DPP)
Workshop Space 6 | English

Act.Now project

Methods of youth participation in decision-making

Inspired by a collection of different forms of youth participation, as well as by various contexts in different countries, the workshop seeks to disseminate the experiences and ideas of young people taking action. We will perform a role-play in an imaginary municipality that helps people to understand the participatory processes (from the initial idea to the launch of the project).

Mohammad Ayoub & Joana Hammour (NAHNOO, Lebanon)
Workshop Space 7 | English & Arabic

Category: Inclusive youth participation, Joint local engagement for the common good

Weaving fabrics of solidarity: methods to strengthen public-civic cooperation

How can one build stronger local civil societies for more equal, inclusive and resilient cities? By using a playful format, this workshop will involve participants taking roles as elected representatives, municipal officers, civil society actors and citizens, exploring methods to create: 1) more cooperative local civic and social economy ecosystems; 2) co-managed community spaces; and 3) the necessary institutional support framework.

Levente Polyak & Bahanur Nasya (Eutropian)
Workshop Space 8 | English

Category: Joint local engagement for the common good, Connecting activities & community events

Community gardens as spaces of encounter

Community gardens are spaces where people from diverse backgrounds come together and share a common interest and activity. The number of these gardens has risen rapidly. We will discuss successful examples and requirements and explore how these spaces help create neighbourhoods and how they contribute to understanding and inclusion. What can municipalities do to support those gardens of encounter?

David Stanzel & Cordula Fötsch (Gartenpolylog – gardeners of the world cooperate)
Workshop Space 9 | English

Category: Connecting activities & community events, Community spaces where diverse people meet

How to counter online hate

Digitalisation requires digital courage. Online threats, bullying and discrimination are commonplace. This workshop provides information on the phenomenon as well as methods on how to (re)act facing online hate. We will discuss the following questions: how can I help if someone is attacked? What can I do if I am attacked online?

The session is relevant for all participants who are privately or professionally engaged in digital civil courage.
Bianca Schönberger (ZARA TRAINING)
Workshop Space 10 | English

Category: Formats overcoming conflicts & division

Testing the quality of urban open spaces

Experience ordinary streets through the eyes of a 5-year-old child or an elderly woman in a wheelchair. What’s good, what’s important? What is missing in the design of the street? Vienna’s Thematic Concept on Urban Space defines 16 criteria for the quality of this space. Let’s evaluate them together.

Elisabeth Irschik & Lisa Magdalena Schlager (Vienna City Administration – Architecture and Urban Design)
Meeting Point: Buffet | outdoor | English & German

Category: Community spaces where diverse people meet, Formats overcoming conflicts & division

Objekt 19 – a community hub (guided tour)

Objekt 19 is a cultural centre next to the conference site with community projects, a restaurant (run as a social business), meetings rooms and a co-working space. Most of its activities are aimed at involving the diverse communities in the neighbourhood. How can they be reached? What is the status of volunteering in this centre? How can we overcome segregation? Why promote “Arts for all” and how can we experience diversity as enrichment?

Tilman Fromelt Objekt 19 (Caritas der Erzdiözese Wien)
Meeting Point: Registration | Arabic & German

Category: Community spaces where diverse people meet, Connecting activities & community events