Time | Main Hall | Seminar Room |
|---|---|---|
10:00-10:30 | Welcoming words Elena Stein, CISR e.V. Angelina Davydova, Dialogue for Understanding e.V. | |
10:30-12:00 | Ecological and Urban Costs of War Opening Discussion An opening panel of the conference will outline the main themes of the conference. What are direct and indirect environmental, urban, climate and further societal consequences of the ongoing and recent wars? Who is tracking and analysing these consequences. What can be done now? We will speak about it with researchers, experts, activists and journalists from Ukraine, Armenia, Russia ... (some of them currently in exile). Participants: Victoria Hubareva, Ukraine, environmental journalist, member of the Ukraine War Environmental Consequences Work Group Gevorg Avetikyan, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) Vitaly Servetnik, Environmental Crisis Group Moderators: Elena Stein, Angelina Davydova | |
12:00-12:30 | Coffee Break | |
12:30-14:00 | Environmental Agenda in Russia During the War in Ukraine Apart from the direct environmental damage in Ukraine a full-scale invasion by Russia also brings indirect environmental and climate consequences for Russia's domestic green agenda. In this session we will speak about changes in Russia's environmental, climate and energy policies following the beginning of the full-scale war and subsequent economic sanctions and trade barriers, as well as further political repressions and shrinking space for civil society. Participants: Name Hidden, environmental expert Name Hidden, expert in renewable energy Tatyana Lanshina, energy expert Moderator: Nelya Rakhimova, sustainable development advocate, educator, and policy analyst | Direct and Indirect Effects of Wars for the Material and Symbolic Fabric of the Cities We observe various forms of urban destruction as a result of military conflicts: the direct destruction of the physical fabric of cities through urbicide, the erasure of layers of memory, history; and culture; the covert destruction of architectural heritage by developers and construction businesses operating in war-torn societies. Even cities not directly affected by conflict continue to face challenges such as mass migration and the influx of internally displaced persons. We invite you to explore these and other consequences of war with architects and researchers, using examples from cities in Ukraine, Georgia, and the former Yugoslavia. Participants: Semen Shyrochyn, Ukrainian researcher of Soviet-era architecture Nutsa Lomsadze (Tbilisi), architect, researcher of IDPs in Georgia Gruia Badescu, researcher, University of Konstanz, Germany, Zukunftskolleg; Paris IAS |
14:00-15:30 | Lunch Break | |
15:30-17:00 | «We Remember and Honour the Monuments of the Fallen»: Conflicts and Nationalisation of Memorial Landscapes in Post-Soviet cities We will discuss challenging questions: What has been preserved from the Soviet memorial heritage and integrated into post-Soviet commemorative practices? How profoundly have urban memorial landscapes changed? • Is the complete desovietisation of urban memorial landscapes possible? Is there a need for that? If so, what might be the methods and practices of its realisation? • How different are Soviet and contemporary nationalist memorials, discourses, aesthetics, and rituals? • What are the specifics of commemorating enduring conflicts? What place does the memory of contemporary conflicts occupy in the city (hierarchy of memory spaces)? • Do ‘We’ still struggle with empire/imperial legacy? The pre-Soviet/soviet memorial landscape and contemporary nationalism. During the discussion will be presented a book: Presidential Election in the South Caucasus: Political Transformations, Imagined Unity, and Memory discourses (Edited by R. Baramidze and S. Rumyantsev, 2024). Participants: Oksana Mikheeva, sociologist, Ukraine, tbc
| Military Conflicts, Climate Change, Polycrisis: the Role of Extractivist Economies This session is co-organised together with the Institute for Global Reconstituion (IGREC). The world is undergoing a number of crises at the same time: military conflicts and wars, climate change, biodiversity loss, plastic pollution, inequalities, economic problems, supply chain failures, all together representing a polycrisis. What is the role of the extractivist economic model, in Russia and other fossil fuel-extracting countries, but also other economies all over the globe -- in contributing to polycrisis and making the global situation worse for billions of people, wildlife and ecosystems? What can be done? Which stakeholders can change the situation and how can this change be enhanced and supported? Participants: Felix Jättner, author, researcher Nelya Rakhimova Moderator: Angelina Davydova |
17:00-17:30 | Coffee Break | |
17:30-18:30 | Environmental activism in totalitarian states What kind of environmental and climate activism still strives in Russia? Which environmental causes help build local movements, where do such movements get support, how do authorities react to such campaigns? What are the challenges and limitations for environmental activism during times of war and increasing political repressions? Can environmental and further grass-root activism exist in authoritarian and totalitarian political systems? This session aims to continue a discussion about whether local grass-root movements and activism can actually contribute to the growth of real civil society structures and potential political change Participants: Alexander Esipenok, environmental expert Name Hidden, environmental expert Vitaly Servetnik, environmental-crisis group Moderator: Oliver Lammers | Non-formal Education in Cities as a Solidarity Practice: experiences from the WARning the City/zens project War inevitably fragments societies, destroying communities and identities. This affects both those forced to flee their country—whether as refugees or political exiles—and those who remain but feel like strangers in their own land. These experiences compel people to re-evaluate their personal, civic, and professional identities, fostering the need to build new solidarities. Urban experience and knowledge could play a crucial role in addressing this fragmentation. When national identity and even family ties are challenged, the city becomes a vital space for forming new social connections. As the traditional education system is also compromised, non-formal, grassroots education focused on urban life provides a means to understand new realities, navigate a changing world, and encourage collective civic action. Participants in the "WARning the City/zens" project have initiated educational and research efforts in the cities where they now live—whether they have left their countries or stayed—to explore new ways of being and acting. We invite you to discuss the role of non-formal urban projects in the formation of civic connections. Participants: Polina Shurupova, Matvey Garapach, Alexandra Perevalova Volha Kavalskaya, Ilia Arzhnikov Sasha Semkina, Natalia Borenko Moderators: Oleg Pachenkov, Lilia Voronkova |
18:40-19:40 | A Conversation with Writers About Life During and After the War | |
19:40-22:00 | Reception DJ Set by Dima Vachedin |