Autumn School on Civic Participation
An Autumn School on Civic Participation took place from 30 September to 3 October 2009 in Modra-Harmonia. The event was organised by the Citizen and Democracy as part of a four-year project of the Slovak Academy of Sciences Centre of Excellence for Research on Citizenship and Participation (COPART), in cooperation with its partner organisations - namely the PDCS, the Institute for Public Affairs (IVO) and the Department of Social and Biological Communication of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. The Autumn School event was targeted at university students (including in post-gradual and PhD programmes) of law, journalism, public administration, political sciences, sociology, psychology, pedagogy (civic studies) and social work.
The programme focused on political rights in the context of human rights – freedom of expression, right to information, right to participate in public affairs, freedom of association and freedom of assembly, and petition right. An emphasis was placed on instruments of civic participation in public processes and the possibility to influence decision-making by local governments and the state administration at all levels.
The programme was complemented with IVO research findings, methods of structuring and facilitating deliberative discussions (especially in large groups) presented by the PDCS, and lectures delivered by experts from the academic community and partner organisations.
Students also discussed problems in tertiary education in Slovakia and tried to solve them using deliberation and other participative practices, model situations, as well as more complex simulations concerning the exercise of political rights and civic participation in practice. On evenings, movies on human rights were screened and relevant topics discussed.
More information:
(Slovak)
- Autumn School - programme
- Autumn School - application
- COPART - Centre of Excellence for Research on Citizenship and Participation
Partner organizations of the project:
- Department of Social and Biological Communication of the Slovak Academy of Sciences
- the Citizen and Democracy
- the PDCS - Partners for Democratic Change Slovakia
- the Institute for Public Affairs
Listen to:
JANA PLICHTOVA, OLGA GYARFASOVA and SARLOTA PUFFLEROVA on civic participation and development of democracy in Slovakia (discussion - Slovak)
Slovak Radio, Slovensko 1 – Kontakty (Programme Contacts), 6. 10. 2009
