Our common city conference – how will the municipality be everybody’s and for everyone?
FEBRUARY 22-23.
Bálint Ház, VI. ker Révay u. 16., Budapest, Hungary, 1065
https://www.facebook.com/events/2035725899844408/

We can witness a new wave of making politics around Europe. We can see conscious and active citizens who are taking political roles for their cities, for the development and improvement of their broader communities. These organizations focus on ensuring the right to the city, the just redistribution of public goods and a sustainable, viable, healthy living environment. Certain organizations grew out of one-off citizen protests, others have decided to raise their activity to the level of political representation after many years of (hard) work.

Those who follow the news about these organizations and movements have seen numerous success stories in recent years. The best known example is probably that of Barcelona en Comú in 2015 with the election of Ada Colau, a former housing rights activist as mayor. And one of the most recent successes is the victory of Matúš Vallo and his team in Bratislava. Meanwhile the situation in Hungary is yet unchanged.

The aim of this conference is to learn first-hand from these organizations’ and movements’ successes and experiences. What is the road like until the election and what happens once they are in the municipal body? How do we build a campaign? How to create a broader vision from one single issue? How can we reconcile being a civil activist and doing politics? How strong and viable are grassroots initiatives in the Central and East European region? How can we change our cities through their municipalities? We are looking for the answers to these and other questions with the help of roundtable discussions and workshops over two days.

Our guests will be coming from several European cities including Barcelona, Lisbon, Warsaw, Bratislava and Zagreb.

ATTENTION! PRE-REGISTRATION is only necessary for the workshops on Saturday, February 23. Please register with this form until February 15, 2019: https://goo.gl/forms/N3p7B5z8bARjux962

** PROGRAM **

— FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22 —

16-17h Arrival and registration

17h Opening speech: Mónika Bálint, national community organizer at the Civil College Foundation and Samu Balogh, urban planner, activist

17-18.30h From movement to City Hall: progressive urban politics in Europe ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION

The demand for better access to housing, community spaces and public services has been a key drive of citizen movements and their entrance into local politics and decision-making across Europe. Barcelona, Berlin and Lisbon have been at the forefront of citizen movement-led politics and progressive urban policies – the opening session will focus on their experiences and trajectories from the streets to City Hall.

Participants:
* Florian Schmidt – District councilor for building, planning and facility management in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Berlin
* Rui Franco – Deputy City Councilor, Lisbon
* Laura Colini – Researcher and EU Urban Agenda expert
* David Bravo – Barcelona en Comú

Moderator: Levente Polyák, urbanist, Eutropian

19-20.30h This is all impossible in Eastern Europe… ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION

Are those progressive citizen led and municipalist initiatives which are getting stronger in Western Europe possible in the Eastern half of the continent? Is it possible to have participatory, sustainable and socially sensitive municipalities in our region? This discussion is a continuation on the ideas and topics raised in the previous roundtable discussion with people who have practical experience in these.

Participants:

* Iva Ivsic and Hana Jusic – local representatives of the Zagreb Je Nas movement in the city of Zagreb
* Joanna Erbel – Former mayoral candidate, member of the Polish Congress of Urban Movements (KRM) and director of the Housing Innovation Office
* Lenka Burgerova – Councillor for Development of Urban Planning, Architecture and Public Space of Prague 7

Moderator: Tessza Udvarhelyi, School of Public Life

— SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23 —

9-11h How to organize a successful campaign?
What are the challenges for a local initiative to enter the field of political communication and campaigning? How can we both focus on our core issues and reach out to new supporters and voters?

Guest:
* Hana Jusic is a local representatives of the Zagreb Je Nas movement in the city of Zagreb.
Moderator: Mónika Bálint, national community organizer at the Civil College Foundation

9-11h Community-oriented urban development WORKSHOP
A city’s real estate policy has a huge influence on its dwellers’ opportunities, not only in the area of housing but also in the area of communal life. While in the last few decades many cities have pursued a large-scale real estate privatization policy, there are numerous alternatives to this policy from Lisbon through Barcelona to Berlin. The workshop explores the tools, methods and results of community-based real estate policy, analyzing their adabtability to the Hungarian context.

Guest:
* Florian Schmidt – district councilor for building, planning and facility management in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Berlin
Moderator: Levente Polyák, urbanist, Eutropian

11.30-13h Networked participation in an urban democracy WORKSHOP
The emergence of digital technologies has opened new opportunities for participatory democracy. Participation platforms – such as Decide Madrid or Decidim Barcelona – have created more active and informed forms of participating in urban development decisions. In this workshop with Bernardo Gutierrez, Head of Participa Lab in Madrid, we focus on the opportunities and limitations of digital participation.

Guest:
* Bernardo Gutierrez – responsible for the Innovation Laboratories of MediaLab Prado de Madrid
Moderator: Levente Polyák, urbanist, Eutropian

11.30-13h Green spaces – the common ground? WORKSHOP
Movements to save urban green spaces can unite many different, politically diverse groups of people. This can be seen in Budapest, and in other cities as well. Is it really a common ground, and can it be used to build a broader platform concerning other urban issues as well?

Guests:
* Iva Ivsic and Hana Jusic – local representatives of the Zagreb Je Nas movement in the city of Zagreb
* Željko Milovanović – local representative of the List of Cyclists and Pedestrians in the city of Maribor
Moderator: Samu Balogh, urban planner, activist

14-15.30h Housing and right to the city WORKSHOP
A conversation with Joanna Erbel on the possibilities of city-level housing policies, on the anti-eviction struggle in Warsaw, and on the challenges of becoming a civil servant with an activist backround.

Guest:
* Joanna Erbel – former mayoral candidate, member of the Polish Congress of Urban Movements (KRM) and director of the Housing Innovation Office.
Moderator: Bálint Misetics, social policy expert

14-15.30h Civic activism and politics WORKSHOP
In this workshop we will concentrate on the personal level: what are the changes that one faces when they enter the field of local politics after years of civic activism?

Guest:
* David Bravo – Barcelona en Comú
Moderator: Mónika Bálint, national community organizer at the Civil College Foundation

16-17.30h Community-based economic development WORKSHOP
Numerous European cities work on creating inclusive, cooperative economic forms which generate communal profits and which help to plough these back into the development of local services for the benefit of every member of the local community. The workshop analyzes this economic development model through a few European examples.

Guest:
* Rui Franco – Deputy City Councilor, Lisbon
Moderator: Levente Polyák, urbanist, Eutropian

16-17.30h How to create a greater vision from a single issue? WORKSHOP
In the workshop we will discuss with activist Dobrica Veselnovic how his group started out from the criticism of a luxury development on the bank of the Sava river and got to the municipal elections. And of course, we will also talk about what we can learn from this in Budapest and all over Hungary – where there is no lack of such oversized prestige developments either.

Guest:
* Dobrica Veselinovic – co-founder of the civic movement Ne Da(vi)mo Beograd Don’t Let Belgrade D(r)own
Moderator: Tessza Udvarhelyi, School of Public Life

18-20h Reinventing local politics in Hungary ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
The aim of the discussion is to introduce citizens who are doing politics on a local level and are trying to make changes, whether outside, inside or on their into municipalities – to make those cities more just, more sustainable and more inclusive.

Guests:
* Krisztina Baranyi – municipal representative in the 9th district of Budapest
* Judit Gidai – MOST Association (Veszprém)
* András Pikó – C8 – Civilians for Józsefváros
* Andrea Varga – civil activist, co-founder of the Padtársak civil community, union leader (Miskolc)

** PRACTICAL INFORMATION **

Attending the conference is free of charge. If you would like to support our organization, please consider donating here: https://adjukossze.hu/kampany/a-demokracia-nem-fonev-hanem-ige-1103

PRE-REGISTRATION is only necessary for the workshops on Saturday, February 23. Please register with this form until February 15, 2019: https://goo.gl/forms/N3p7B5z8bARjux962

The international roundtable discussions and the workshops will be conducted in English with simultaneous interpretation in Hungarian.

The Hungarian roundtable discussion will have simultaneous interpretation in English.

Further information: Tessza Udvarhelyi (+36 20 381 8996), kozeletiskolaja@gmail.com

We are organizing this programs thanks to the support of the #guerillafoundation and the donations of anonymous individuals.