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Depolarisation: Road to Deeper Trust.

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  • polarization
  • workshop
Young,Businesswomen,In,Black,Suit,And,Umbrella,Using,Smartphone,,Biking

call for workshops

5th International Conference “Civic Actors in Conflicts”

SEPTEMBER 29TH – OCTOBER 2, 2020
BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA

We invite you to submit an ONLINE workshop proposal that responds to the three main conference sections (find out more about the conference at the end of this document):

  1. Trust and depolarisation
  2. Trust in times of Corona
  3. Trust ONLINE
Following examples (but not limited to) can be accepted:

Trust and depolarisation

  • Depolarisation: Best practices
  • When you meet the one who hated you online

Trust in the times of Corona

  • Ethical use of online technologies, tracking devices or harvesting metada for public safety?
  • What can civil society do in the times of Corona? Examples of good and bad practices.

Trust ONLINE

  • Big data and machine learning
  • Online campaigns and positive narratives
  • Radicalisation through video games and other online activities
  • Death threats – how to deal with hate mail directed towards me?
  • Online wars (citizen´s activism vs state propaganda)

Other topics related to the theme and aim of the conference.

We invite individuals or teams interested in organizing interactive workshops related to these topics to submit their proposals by filling this formbefore June 13th, 2020.


The proposed workshop should fit following parameters:
  • Workshop should be interactive and requires active participation from workshop´s participants as the target group are experienced practitioners;
  • Will last either from 5 hours to 3 hours (including break);
  • Number of participants from 10 to 30;
  • Language is English;
  • The Compensation for preparation and realization of one workshop is 250€ and free entry for the whole conference programme. In case your physical presence will be possible (due to Covid 19 restrictions) we will also cover your travel costs and accommodation for 1-2 of October conference program in Bratislava;
  • Online workshops will be conducted on 30.9.2020;
  • Offline workshop will be conducted on 1.10.2020 in Bratislava;
  • PDCS will provide online hosting platform (ZOOM) and will manage the participant’s promotion, invitation and registration;
  • PDCS offers free interest based consultations/training on how to conduct interactive online workshops to successful bidders prior to the conference.

Please fill in the workshop application form and submit the Workshop proposal before June 13th, 2020.

We will notify successful applicants latest by June 23th, 2020. Applicants may submit more than one proposal. In case of any questions please contact Lukas Zorad Lukas@pdcs.sk.


Brief information about the conference

Depolarisation: Road to deeper trust

September 29 – October 2, 2020 in Bratislava, Slovakia

Not to divide is one of the most crucial challenges of the present day. The Slovak president, Zuzana Čaputová, has recently warned against the divisions in our society. She also advised against irresponsible rhetoric, that “divide our society and slowly relativizes, questions or directly attacks its values and rules”. Europe’s strength lies in our joint determination to protect freedom, democracy and mutual respect. The mission of political leaders is not to divide. They have a responsibility to unite, not to divide societies into “us” and “them”, “east” and “west”, “north” and “south”, “city” and “countryside”, or “elites” and the “people”.” The president stated this in her speech at the Munich Security Conference 2020 in front of 50 heads of states.

Well, that should be the role of politicians, but it is often not.

In our conference we aim to explore what tools and methods we as civic actors can use that can help us build deeper trust among people hence depolarise divided societies in challenging political situations.

We will also look into trust in the times of Corona. How can the civil society respond to the new situation and how can it mitigate polarisation?

There are multiple roads that one can take on this journey. How to decide which ones to take?

Partners for Democratic Change Slovakia (PDCS)  is organizing the international conference of “Civic Actors in Conflict” for the fifth time and this time it is organised by consortium of partners (Movisie, Dare to be Grey, Textgain, Verwey-Jonker Institute) within an European funded project Project Grey.