The event will occur at the Educational Research Institute in Ljubljana on April 4, 2025, in a hybrid format.
In the first part of the workshop, which will be held face-to-face at the Educational Research Institute in Ljubljana, NGOs from Poland, Belgium, Slovakia, and Slovenia will share their expertise on good practices and challenges of depolarization initiatives and explore the inner barriers to dialogue together.
That will followed in the afternoon by an online session, which will be opened by the representative of the EU Knowledge Hub on Prevention of Radicalization, Harry Moylan. He will share his insights into current EU challenges concerning polarization and radicalization of society. The session will then continue as a moderated panel discussion that will bring together perspectives of civil society actors who use different instruments to tackle societal polarization.
Romana Zajec from APIS (SI) will talk about her experience with artistic advocacy, Michal Horský from DEMDIS (SK) will discuss the power of democratic dialogue, and Marcin Woźniak from the Optimum Pareto Foundation (PL) will share his experience with computer-assisted argumentation. Together, the three panelists will reflect upon the affordances and limits of these instruments and the role of civil society actors in fostering societal depolarization.
The complete program of the event:
| 9:00 – 9:10 | Introduction of the COST action and the host institution |
| 9:10 – 9:30 | Introduction of workshop organizers and participants |
| 9:30 – 10:00 | Developing the working definition of depolarization |
| 10:00 – 11:00 | Sharing of expertise: good practices and challenges of depolarization initiatives |
| 11:00 – 11:15 | Coffee break |
| 11:15 – 12:15 | Exercise from the training on depolarizing communication: Exploring the inner barriers to a dialogue |
| 12:15 – 13:30 | Lunch break |
| 13:30 – 15:00 | Moderated panel discussion: How can civil society actors foster depolarisation around social issues and human rights? (Hybrid format: Zoom) |
