Timeline

OPEN CALL For Workshop Participation

Photo: Krystian Woznicki / berlinergazette.de cc by nc

FRIENDLY FIRE conference 2 - 4 november 2017

Explore citizenship!

Join workshops at the FRIENDLY FIRE conference!

Register until October 15!


Who Needs Biometric Passports?
Are Asylum Seekers Political Actors?
Who Risks Mutant Citizenships?
Who Benefits From Statelessness?
What Does It Mean To Be A Digital Non-/Citizen?


Conflicts have been flaring up with exceptional heat recently. Exploiting this trend, right-wing populisms are promoting escapism and warmongering – thereby priming failed citizens and failed states. In contrast, the FRIENDLY FIRE conference wishes to explore how we could embrace conflicts in order to make societies more democratic. To begin with, the project asks: What is it for any person to become a citizen, today? What is it for citizens and non-citizens alike to become political actors in fields of dissent?

The Berliner Gazette (BG) wishes to invite researchers, activists, coders and journalists to its seventeenth annual conference with the aim of initiating debates and collaborative processes. For the first time the event will be held in collaboration with the ZK/U – Center for Art and Urbanistics, taking place November 2-4, 2017.

Register + join workshops!

The conference workshops will bring together over 100 activists from all over the world. The BG will invite key actors from the international scene to form the core of the five workshop tracks, and will issue an open call for the general public to register. 

The open call targets (upcoming) hackers, journalists, activists and researchers. A limited number of participants was is able to register by contacting the following E-mail: info(at)berlinergazette.de. Deadline is October 15. Registration fee: 50 Euro, incl. catering. Please note: The five workshops will be running in parallel fashion, hence everybody is invited to commit to one single track. On November 2-4, the workshops will take place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The conference hosts will provide catering throughout the entire conference, including warm lunch. A series of guided city walks is planned for lunch breaks!

To tackle the key issues of the conference, five parallel workshop tracks will offer five different approaches for a pragmatic critique of citizenship as a framework for political participation, asking the following questions: "Who Needs Biometric Passports?", "Are Asylum Seekers Political Actors?", "Who Risks Mutant Citizenships?", "Who Benefits From Statelessness?" and "What Does It Mean To Be A Digital Non-/Citizen?".

The workshop groups will communicate before the conference in order to flesh out the workshop design collaboratively. Led by experienced group leaders, participants will be invited to come up with possible answers to the questions outlined in this project paper. The results will be made available as online resources by Berliner Gazette, and may include position papers, multimedia storytelling projects and collections of ideas.

More info: www.berlinergazette.de/friendly-fire

FRIENDLY FIRE is the 17th annual conference of the Berliner Gazette. It is a cooperation between BG and ZK/U – Center for Art and Urbanistics. Funded by the German Federal Agency for Civic Education/bpb and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.

Contact us: info(at)berlinergazette.de

Photo: Krystian Woznicki / berlinergazette.de cc by nc