BÖLL ANALYTICS: EUROPA!

„grenzlinien“ @ BÖLL ANALYTICS: EUROPA!
Pecha Kucha • Diskussion • Barabend!
Freitag, 23. Mai 2014 | basis e.V., Gutleutstr. 8 – 12 | 20 Uhr

Wie weiter mit Europa? Denken die einen bei Europa an Frieden und  Freiheit, an das Recht zu leben und zu arbeiten, wo man möchte, an kulturelle Offenheit und Toleranz, denken andere an Lobbyismus und  marode Staatshaushalte, an gestrandete Flüchtlinge, Demokratiedefizite und an die Ausbreitung rechtsextremer Parteien. Nicht nur geografisch  und kulturell ist Europa schwer zu fassen.

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Ambiguities & Asymmetries

“Ambiguities & Asymmetries”, Review of the SSN Conference, Barcelona, 2014

The bi-annual conference of the Surveillance Studies Network 2014 takes place in the centre of Barcelona, on the campus of the University of Barcelona and the adjoining cultural institution CCCB. This year’s conference’s topic opens the floor to discussions of “Asymmetries and Ambiguities” in Surveillance Studies. The attention for the conference is unusual, not only in academia, as it becomes obvious in the comparably large number of 170 participants, but also in exceptional public and media attention. This surely has to do with the revelations of Edward Snowden and the so-called NSA scandal, which have proved true or surpassed the often dismissed observations of the surveillance studies community. Here especially “asymmetries” come to the fore: between an all-encompassing state-run surveillance assemblage, drawing on private sources, on the one side and disempowered individuals on the other.

In the evening panel discussion (videos available online) with Caspar Bowden (a privacy advocate and former Microsoft executive), Katarzyna Szymielewicz (human rights lawyer, Panoptykon Foundation), and Ben Wizner (Snowden’s lawyer) who is participating via video connection, these asymmetries become apparent. Weiterlesen

Die Letzten Überlebenden

Die Letzten Überlebenden / The Last Survivors

Report about the quickly developing district „Ostend“, in the neighborhood of the new building of the European Central Bank (EZB) in Frankfurt / Main, Germany. Processes of gentrification and rising rents influence the lives of the established inhabitants and new tenants move in who have very different ideas and expectations about the neighborhood. How does this quarter change?  Who will be able to afford to live here in the future? And how do the current inhabitants cope with the situation?

The video was produced in spring 2014 by Markus, Müdja, Petra, Thilo, Veit, students of the University of Applied Sciences Frankfurt / Main, „Culture and Media”, department of Social Work, under the supervision of Raul Gschrey.

///Reportage im sich schnell verändernden Stadtteil “Ostend”, in der Nachbarschaft des neuen Gebäudes der Europäischen Zentralbank (EZB) in Frankfurt am Main. Gentrifizierungsprozesse und steigende Mieten beeinflussen das Leben der oft langjährigen Bewohner und neue Mieter ziehen ein, die sehr unterschiedliche Ideen und Erwartungen an das Viertel stellen. Wie verändert sich das Viertel Wer wird es sich leisten können in Zukunft hier zu leben? Und wie gehen die heutigen Bewohner mit der Situation um?

Das Video wurde im Frühjahr 2014 von Markus, Müdja, Petra, Thilo, Veit, Studierenden der FH Frankfurt am Main, Bereich „Kultur und Medien“ des Studiengangs „Soziale Arbeit“ unter der medienpädagogischen Betreuung von Raul Gschrey produziert.

States of Exceptionalism

International Conference „States of Exceptionalism: Globalization, Difference, Power“

08.-09. 05.2014

Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Alexander-von-Humboldt-Haus, Rathenaustraße 24A, 35394 Giessen

While the contemporary world is increasingly characterized by conflict and crisis, challenging imagined geographies and geopolitical patterns formerly regarded as stable, exceptional identity positions seem to gain ground. As the world globalizes, a growing need to construct the Self as special, superior, unique and exceptional seems to emerge. Nations, countries, regions and cities as well as social groups claiming to be exceptional, obviously follow a mission. They use their alleged superiority, be it of an economic, a power-related or an imagined ethical and moral kind, to supply the other parts of the world with strategies of good governance and exemplary models.

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With this conference we take a closer look at the emerging term in order to compare and discuss how it is conceptualized and utilized in different places and contexts. Weiterlesen