Underground

Courses

You will have to choose between one of the following courses, which you will have to attend at least 85% of the time, and which will be your course for the entire duration of the Summer University. However, due to organisational reasons, you should prioritize all four courses, as some re-allocation to other courses might be necessary.


Course: “Revolutionary youth movements”

The course will focus on the liberal revolutionary youth movements in Eastern Europe 2000-2005 and beyond. The revolutions in Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan all happened partly because of youth movements. The course will focus on the histories, goals, methodologies, legitimacies, economies, organizations and discourses of Otpor (Serbia), Kmara (Georgia) Pora (Ukraine) and KelKel (Kyrgyzstan). Which impacts have these movements created on their societies and what does a revolutionary movement do after the revolution? The lecturers on the course will be youth from the respective movements. Parallels will be drawn to revolutions earlier in history and in other parts of the world, and we will read works and watch videos from selected founders of revolutionary discourse.


Course ”Nationalism and the role of Intellectuals”

This course will focus on what nationalism is, who creates it, how it is spread and last but not least its impact on people and society.
Focusing on these four areas of nationalism, the course will through both theoretically and more empirically oriented lectures look at:

- The different categories of nationalism and the changes in nationalism during the last century.
- The role of the media in relation to nationalism
- The role of the intellectuals and their positioning to nationalism.
- The cultural territories and the mental and more invisible “borders” in art
- Refugees/diasporas and their sense of national identity and their perception of “the homeland”.

Through these lectures and discussions, the course ends with a workshop where participants will write essays about nationalism, make interviews about nationalism with each other or the local people of Vukovar, make a video, a poster, a painting etc. about nationalism.


Course “Eco-activism”

The course will focus on the contemporary ecological situation in SEE and ways of improving ecological awareness and activism among youth. For countries in transition the importance of environment has been neglected since long time – and that kind of attitude needs to change urgently. Many ecological issues have come up lately in SEE. They still need to be analyzed – from their sources on. It is up to eco-activists to offer solutions and take action locally and regionally. What are the ways for them to get activated, connected and to influence positive changes? The lecturers on the course will be young (and experienced) eco-activists, and possibly foreigners from Western Europe or USA who work in SEE on related issues. The focus of the course will be on practical solutions of environmental problems in the region and it would be very welcome to discuss the role of governments and economical changes in SEE in scope of environmental issues.


Course: ”youth unemployment”

This course will, at first, give a general overview about unemeployment and, secondly, it will give more attention to different European cases and solutions adopted by various countries in order to face youth unemployment.
The course will through both theoretically and more empirically oriented lectures about the Italian. Danish and Serbian case.
After the study of the different economic policies and new ways to face nowadays problems, the participants will have the opportunity to have a presentation of the alternative jobs created in different realities in order to pose a challenge to the youth unemployment.
Thanks to the new categories that participants will get during the sessions, at the end they will be asked to speak about the sitiation in their countries and top try to think about possible solutions to solve those situations.
Video, posters and painting will be made during the activity sessions and they will be showed at the final exhibition.


Programme and Info




INFO:

For questions, comments, inputs
Email: underground05@gmail.com

If you come from South East Europe:
Coordinator Magalena Schrefel, YPGD
Email: youth.peace.group.danube@vk.t-com.hr
Phone: +385 32 414633

If you come from Europe or outside of Europe:
Coordinator Morten Sigsgaard, Next Stop
Email: morten.sigsgaard@nextstop.org
Phone: +45 61 660379