Not only in the Arab world, but also in the West, in Europe and in Hamburg, a question emerges with new urgency: what constitutes democracy in social experience and in social action? This question does not primarily concern the official political stages but new forms of assembly and participation: what issues can actually be raised socially and in what forums can they be negotiated? The figurations of the public and of democratic participation also change with the character of social debate.

The artistic-academic postgraduate programme Assemblies and Participation: Urban Publics and Performance is asking what role performance and media-based arts can play in the context of new urban movements of democratisation.

By initiating transdisciplinary research processes between art, academia and society the postgraduate programme discusses and rehearses new forms of assemblies and participation in an experimental conjunction of theoretical and artistic approaches.  How can artistic and academic practices be combined in a way that the research process itself opens up for more social participation?

The postgraduate programme is based on a collaboration between university and art institutions.

Funded by Forschungs- und Wissenschaftstiftung Hamburg.