Levente Polyak

Eutropian is rooted in the communities where its members live. In Rome, we joined forces with the neighbourhood committee of Casal Bertone, to accelerate the completion of the neighbourhood’s unfinished market hall. We participated at several occasions at the night programmes of Radio Impegno, broadcasting from the social housing complex of Corviale. Together with the circular economy initiative OZ – Officine Zero, we have elaborated plans to collectively purchase, renovate and maintain a large industrial complex OZ uses. Internationally, we participated at the Citizens Lab meeting in Brussels and began to work on Network Navigator with other citizen initiatives across Europe.

Our articles appeared in the journal Trasporti e Cultura, published by the Politecnico di Torino, and in the book Understanding Central Europe, published by Routledge.

We are launching a new online magazine that collects stories, interviews, testimonies and analyses from our partners, highlighting innovative practices from municipalities, citizen initiatives, cooperations across Europe. You can explore our articles and audiovisual features at cooperativecity.org and at our YouTube video channel.

I successfully defended my PhD dissertation at the Central European University, an educational institution currently under attack by the Hungarian government.

Contemporary architecture and design on the screen for 4-days within the framework of the 9th edition of the Budapest Architecture Film Days. The Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre invites you for a 4-day-long cinematic journey between 2-5 March at Toldi Cinema, Budapest. In a similar fashion to previous years, the festival presents a wide selection of films, focusing on storytelling and personal relationships with the city, presenting buildings in an elusive and subjective manner. More information at http://filmnapok.kek.org.hu/en/

On February 21-24, we will participate at the seminar “Investigating Artistic Interventions in (Post-)industrial Environments” in Moss/Fredrikstad (Norway), in the frame of the PICTURE project organised by Placcc and Scenekunst Østfold. PICTURE explores the opportunities of collaboration between cross-sector partners and artists in the (post)industrial scene. Also we will focus on how art interventions can re-define and rehabilitate public spaces on different locations, in different national/social contexts.

“Approaches to Participatory Governance of Cultural Institutions” is a two year project (from March 2016 to March 2018) implemented by the Kultura Nova Foundation with the support of UNESCO International Fund for Cultural Diversity. The project focuses on the existing and emerging models of innovative cultural institutions which are arising from sharing creative spaces based on the principles of participatory governance. In the frame of the project, we’re meeting representatives of NGOs and municipalities in seven Croatian cities and discuss existing and new models of civic spaces.

Sala do Arquivo, Paços do Concelho (Praça do Município, Lisboa)
09.02.2017 at 13.30
The URBACT Network Interactive Cities addresses the opportunities of social media and digital platforms in urban governance and participation. As part of the network‘s Lisbon meeting bringing together 10 municipalities from across Europe, we will organise a public event with the participation of politicians from the participating cities. The session aims at discussing with local politicians the role of communication and its governance in urban processes. How do politicians use digital media? What are their challenges? How could they better cooperate with civil servants? How could they better engage with citizens?

A few months ago, together with Vivero de Initiativas Ciudadanas, we organised a 3-day workshop in Madrid, with the participation of Wikitoki, Bilbao (ES), De Besturing, The Hague (NL), La fabrika detodalavida, Los Santos de Mainona (ES), Gängeviertel, Hamburg (DE) as well as Madrid initiatives Instituto Do It Yourself, Goteo, La traviesa coop57, Ecooo, Koiki, Entreaties coop, Madrid Agrocomposta and Hub Madrid. The workshop looked into new models of the civic economy and their impact on Madrid neighbourhoods and helped protagonists of civic spaces from across Europe to share their visions and exchange their experiences. Now you can watch the workshop’s video summary online here.

In January, we participated at a commons-themed study visit to Genova as part of the URBACT Network 2nd Chance. The network looks into the ways to activate of vacant buildings and building complexes in the frame of sustainable urban development.