Event

The Thessaloniki Social Atlas, a new digital project with the signature of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, was launched with a major public event. This platform, which resembles an open online “encyclopedia” for the urban space and anthropogeography of Thessaloniki, offers - perhaps for the first time - an organized, interdisciplinary and fully documented material, with emphasis on the visual representation of data, addressed to the scientific community, the general public, but also to decision makers and policy makers at the same time.

Do the municipalities belong to the citizens? Is this first tier of government really close to the citizens? Are there relationships of trust and cooperation between municipalities and citizens? These questions were addressed in the workshop organized in Ioannina on 1 April 2024 by the project “Ioannina is planning”, in cooperation with the participatory process platform Localwatch and with the support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

Yannis Charchantis conveys his experience from participating in the event “The Contribution of the Social Solidarity Economy to the creative economy,” which took place on Monday, April 22, 2024, at the Municipal Library of Komotini, as part of the National Youth Capital 2024 initiative. The event was organized by the Municipality of Komotini’s Youth and Volunteering Center “exagono”, the Department of Social Policy of Democritus University of Thrace, and the Municipality of Komotini, with the support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation – Thessaloniki Office.

How does technology shape people’s everyday lives? Does it contribute (if at all) to social development? Does it promote democracy? Does it break down social and cultural stereotypes, or does it conform to them? These and many more questions are brought to light in the publication “In front of the technological mirror – Analyzing the social reflections of technology”. The book, a project by the Sociality team in collaboration with Open Lab Athens and published by the Heinrich Böll Foundation – Thessaloniki Office, was presented on November 5, 2024, at the packed “Komprai” bookstore in Athens.

The Social Solidarity Economy (SSE) initiatives, which came as a response to the persistent crisis by people with a cooperative spirit, are not going through an easy path. On 13 December 2024, more than 25 people from all over the country who are active in SSE initiatives made an appointment for a participatory workshop to reflect on their past, present and future.

“Why are our cities unbearable?” This was the question that the Heinrich Böll Foundation – Thessaloniki Office sought to answer during the event it organized on December 14, 2024, in Athens, with keynote speaker David J. Madden, Associate Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and an expert on contemporary urban issues. The event also aimed to explore the conditions for a different, sustainable urban daily life, especially in Greece, through a panel discussion featuring Eva Grigoriadou, Alexandros Kioupkiolis, Petros Kokkalis, Loukas Triantis, and Sofia Tsadari.

What are urban voids, how did they become vacant, and how can local communities transform them from voids into commons, that is, into spaces full of life and memory? These were some of the key questions but also the motivation behind an event addressing the issue of abandoned spaces and buildings, organized by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Thessaloniki Office, on June 15, 2024, combining academic knowledge and journalistic research with a tour of iconic such spaces in the Municipality of Pavlos Melas.

Addressing the challenges of the climate crisis and in particular forest fires was the main focus of the two-day forum "Dialogue & Action: Climate Crisis, Forest Fires & Resilient Places", held at Messini Town Hall, on 2 and 3 October 2024. The forum was organized by the Municipality of Messini, in cooperation with the Dock - Cooperative Space for Social Solidarity Economy and local stakeholders, with the support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation - Thessaloniki Office, among others.