VIDEO DIARY:
Interdisciplinary International Traveling University:
NEW AND TRADITIONAL COMMUNITIES IN EUROPE: BETWEEN PAST AND FUTURE.
2015, July 6-11, in Chiprovtsi, Bulgaria:
Visit to a byodynamic agriculture farm run by
Trinoga Association for Sustainable Development
in the village of Zhelen.
Lecture by Filip Kirilov.
Travelling University 2015 in Chiprovtsi Introducing the participants
Opening at the Chiprovtsi Historical Museum on the Historical Hill
Introducing the participants to the local community. The students split into work groups.
Official Opening on Video – HERE:
Opening ceremony of the Travelling University at the Chiprovtsi Historical Museum on the Historical Hill
NEW AND TRADITIONAL COMMUNITIES IN EUROPE: BETWEEN PAST AND FUTURE
Dr. Franck Debois,
University of Burgundy, France
Mutation of Rural Societies
Travelling University 2015 in Chiprovtsi
*
Thematic discussions:
Marie Jegu
FIAP
“Intercultural and intergenerational communities to promote innovation”
David Hawig
FIAP
Communities of Innovation
Travelling University 2015 in Chiprovtsi
*
Filip Kirilov
from Trinoga:
Dragon Dreaming
lecture at Travelling University in Chiprovtsi 2015
Valeri Lichev
New and Traditional Communitues in Bulgaria
Ivan Hadjiyski works
*
Mr Nikola Nikolov
Shows to the Traveliling University
the Plants
in Chiprovtsi School Garden
*
Chiprovtsi 2015
Discussions with the local community
lead by
Mrs Yordanka Zamfirova
*
Jeremy Faure
‘”ERASMUS is also acommunity, right ?”
*
*
*
Vladimira Ivanova
“’How to be more than students?
Or the unsuspectedutilities of learning while traveling”’
*
Travelling University 2015
in Chiprovtsi
- Work in Group 3
- part 2
*
Travelling University
in Chiprovtsi 2015
Students Round Table Work Group 4
and Discussion
*
Where is the Musium in Chiprovtsi
Test
Work in Group 3
Students Round Table
*
2015
Elza
from Chiprovtsi
thanks the Travelling University
*
Architect Georgi Georgiev’s
Independent Passive House
Near Belogradchik Bulgaria
- Lecture
*
Petar Kanev
The Story of Nord Western Bulgaria
Lecture
at Belogradchik Rocks
*
Eco Communities
in Zhelen,
Bulgaria
For eight years now, Shtastlivetsa Association has organized interdisciplinary summer schools, lectures, seminars, student practices and internships, debates, and artistic happenings—all dedicated to the new paradigm of Sustainable Development.
Some of our topics have brought together ecohumanism, new science, alternative culture and education, innovative forms of democracy and civic participation, ecology and environment quality. We have been weaving, like a Chiprovtsi carpet, the Place for Future education network, a community drawing its inspiration from a young tradition: the International Travelling University in the Municipality of Chiprovtsi and the region of Western Stara Planina in Bulgaria.
Our aim and passion is promoting cooperative culture and sustainable living. This means providing information and inspiration but also knowledge and reflection for those seeking a community, forming communities, struggling with the challenges of the new communal shapes, or wishing to develop a greater sense of community in their workplace or the various environments in which they live and communicate.
The topic of our next Traveling University is:
NEW AND TRADITIONAL COMMUNITIES IN EUROPE: BETWEEN PAST AND FUTURE
Traditional communities and behaviour models have been disintegrating; some have already become anachronistic. World-scale changes in our societies are so dynamic and unpredictable that they pose serious challenges to the capacity of inpiduals or groups to adapt. It has become increasingly difficult for groups to identify themselves on the basis of enduring, traditional interconnections. Identities seem to be ever more focused on personal choices, unfettered by long-lasting relationships and commitments. The structures, institutions and interactions fundamental to any society—family, matrimony, class oppositions and pisions, intergenerational, intersexual and interspecies relations—have undergone drastic transformations. At the same time, the necessity for new sustainable models of social behaviour, interaction and coexistence has become increasingly acute on all levels of social interrelations.
The need for communal belonging and sharing, however, often conflicts with the isolation and alienation stemming from the hyper inpidualization of our communities. The increasing geographical, economic and cultural mobility brought along by globalization processes has created further challenges to preserving established communities. Moreover, these processes prevent inpiduals from maintaining organized forms of shared life. The new inpiduals, who reject (and become ever more incompatible with) traditional norms, institutions, values and models of communal life, turn into institutions in themselves, and it is their calling to construct the new communities and norms of their world. There emerge communities developing new kinds of ‘common life.’ Some of them categorically break with tradition, others categorically return to it, still others rediscover it, attempt to modernize it and hand it down to future generations.
The ‘New Communities in Europe: Between Past and Future’ Traveling University invites us to reflect on the present and evolution of living in communities. Participants will get introduced to specific local examples of new and traditional communities in Northwestern Bulgaria. These communities have the advantage of being examined in their natural environment.
In parallel, participants will learn about other such communities in Europe and around the world, based on the principle of intentional communities: ecovillages, cohousing,residential land trusts, income-sharing communes student co-ops, spiritual communities, and other projects where people live together on the basis of explicit common values.
Still more examples will be drawn from some of the newest types of communal life in Bulgaria: from social networks such as the Food Co-op and Bg-Mamma movements, to civic groups and environmental protection networks such as the For the Nature Coalition and the Save Irakli civic group, to the new forms of ‘informal formal’ association such as our own Place for Future education network.
Last but not least, our Traveling University will stir us to debate and reflect.
Why do new communities emerge? How do they attract young or educated people? Can we discern, past their obvious persity, some common principles and values? Do they offer more—or different—opportunities for personal expression? How are they related to democracy? How do communities make decisions? Do they foster a more responsible attitude to communal wealth and public responsibilities? What are their drawbacks? Can they offer solutions to the crisis of community and identity? Do they overcome the disadvantages of ‘living in communes’ characteristic of the ‘old’ new communities from the 19th and 20th centuries? How?
We will talk about new and traditional communities but we’ll also try to live in a community, even if for a short period. Each day of the Traveling University will include:
- in the mornings, presentations and discussions of various types of communities;
- in the afternoons, workshops aimed at group (‘community’) interaction among the participants;
- introduction to local traditional and innovative types of communal life.
We will focus on several topics related to coexistence and decision-making in a community:
- Leadership decisions and majority rule
- Innovative forms of decision-making (deliberation, democracy of consensus, etc.)
- Dealing with power imbalances
- Finding your role in a community
- Integrating new members
Schedule
JULY 6, MONDAY
| 8.00 | Departure of all participants by organized transport (a bus with 50 seats) from Alexander Nevsky Square in Sofia |
| 10.00– 14.00 | Visit to a byodynamic agriculture farm run by Trinoga Association for Sustainable Development in the village of Zhelen. Lecture by Filip Kirilov.
|
| 14.00 – 15.30 | Bus travel with lectures and film screenings |
| 15.30 | Visit to the Monastery of Chiprovtsi. Departure for Chiprovtsi |
| 17.00 | Arrival in Chiprovtsi. Check-in and free time |
| 19.00 | Dinner |
JULY 7, TUESDAY
| 8.00 – 9.00 | Breakfast |
| 9.30 –
11.00 |
|
|
11.30 – 13.30 |
Opening ceremony of the Travelling University at the Chiprovtsi Historical Museum on the Historical Hill
Mr. Anatoli Parvanov Chiprovtsi Mayor Mr. Petar Petrov, Deputy District Governor of Montana District Prof. Antoni Slavinski, Chairman of Trustees of New Bulgarian University; Dr. Anyuta Kamenova-Borin, director of the Historical Museum in Chiprovtsi Mrs Svetlana Trencheva, Headmistress of the Petar Parchevich School Assoc. Prof. Valeri Lichev , Institute for the Study of Societies and Knowledge , Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Dr. Radosveta Krastanova, New Bulgarian University, chairperson of Shtastlivetsa Sofia Civic Association and ‘Place for Future’ Interdisciplinary Education Network Dr. Franck Debois, University of Burgundy, France Mr. David Hawig, Research Institute for for Innovative and Preventive Job Design, Wissenschaftspark, Gelsenkirchen, Germany |
| 13.30 | Lunch at ‘Kipro’ Restaurant |
| 15.00 – 17.00 | Work in groups
|
| 17.30 – 19.00 | Workshops. Visit to the community centre.
Demonstration of weaving (option 1) and Folk songs and dances (option 2). |
| 19.00 | Dinner |
JULY 8, WEDNESDAY
| 8.00 | |
| 9.30 – 11.00 | |
| 11.30-13.00 | Thematic discussions:
Marie Jegu “Intercultural and intergenerational communities to promote innovation” ; Vladimira Ivanova“’How to be more than students? Or the unsuspectedutilities of learning while traveling”’ ; Jeremy Faure‘”ERASMUS is also acommunity, right ?” |
| 13.00 | Lunch at ‘Kipro’ |
| 15.00 – 17.00 | Work in groups
|
| 17.30 – 19.00 | Workshops. Visit to Katerinina Kashta Ethnographic Museum and the houses of master carpet-makers.
Demonstration of weaving (option 1) and Folk songs and dances (option 2). |
JULY 9, THURSDAY
| 8.00 | Breakfast |
| 9.30 – 11.00 | Petar Parchevich Primary School: |
| 11.30-13.00 | Thematic discussions: Introducing of the local community by Mrs. Yordanka Angelova-Zamfirova, cairman of the Local Action Group, expert on European regional development projects
|
| 13.00 | Lunch at ‘Kipro’ |
| 15.00 – 17.00 | Work in groups
|
| 17.30 – 19.00 | Workshops. Visit to Petar Parchevich Primary School.
Demonstration of Chiprovtsi carpet colorong with students (option 1) and dancing lesson with a dance group (option 2). |
JULY 10, FRIDAY
| 8.00 | Breakfast |
| 9.30 – 13.00 | Student round table in the Ceremonial Hall in the Municipality Hall of Chiprovtsi. Closing ceremony of the Travelling University.
|
| 13.15- 14.30 | Lunch at ‘Kipro’ |
| 15.00 | Hiking to the Kopren Peak, led by Mr. Nikola Nikolov, an ethnographer and teacher at Petar Parchevich School. Please take clothing and footwear suitable for tourism. |
| 17.30 | Dinner and farewell party for all participants in a hut in the forest near Kopilovtsi Village |
JULY 11, SATURDAY
| 8.00 | Breakfast |
| 9.00 | Departure from Kopilovtsi Village |
| 10.00-12.00 | Visit to Architect Georgi Georgiev’s house near the town of Belogradchik. Demonstration of combining traditional construction and architectural methods with contemporary environmental, social and architectural standards. Lecture by Arch. Georgiev
|
| 12.30 | Lunch at ‘Mislen Kamak’ Restaurant in Belogradchik |
| 14.30 – 17.00 | Visit of the Belogradchik Rocks and the Red Cave with a lecture). Please take clothing and footwear suitable for tourism
|
| 17.30 | Departure for Sofia |
| 20.30 | Arrival in Sofia |
Accomodation
raysko katche’’ guesthouse
Adress: Vitosha 32 Str tel: 09554 2233
|
|
ignatova kashta
Adress: Dimitar Blagoev Str 10 tel: 09554 2135и 0888127478
|
|
Bidim guesthouse
Adress: Balkanska Str tel.0988881088
Kipro restaurant
Balkanska Str 46 tel. +359 9554 / 2974
моб.тел 0888 299994 088 736 6959
torlatsite restaurant
Pavleto” 31 Str tel: 0887892790 0885358592
CONTACTS OF ‘PLACE FOR FUTURE’ TEAM
Dr Petar Kanev Mobile . tel . +359988884303
Dr. Radosveta Krastanova Mobile . tel . +359 877 57 52 29
Simeon Gorov Mobile . tel . +359877553380
Ivan Popov Ivo Mobile . tel +359885549029
Gergana Kosturkova Mobile . tel +359889385423
Yordanka Zamfirova (link with the local community ) mob + 359 893 348 756
Sevdelina Petkova (link with the local community ) mob 0899884556
Lena Georgieva (link with the local community ) mob 0878910614
Elena Krasteva (link with the municipality) mob 0878101208
The main institutional partners of our education network are:
- New Bulgarian University, Sofia
- Institute for the Study of Societies and Knowledge at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
- Institute of Archaeology with Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
- La Maison des sciences de l’Homme, Dijon
- Georges Chevrier Centre at the University of Burgundy
- Institute of Sociological Studies at Pierre Mendes-France University, Grenoble
- University Montesquieu – Bordeaux IV
- Institute of European Studies at Jagiellon University, Kracov
- Institute of European Studies at Matej Bel University, Banska Bystrica, Slovakia
- European Association for the Protection of Human Rights
- For the Nature Coalition
- WWF – Bulgaria
- Chiprovtsi Municipality
- Chiprovtsi, Alternative and Development (CHAR) Association
- Chiprovtsi History Museum
For more information about our previous Traveling Universities,
please see the following links:
All about our next International Traveling University in
Chiprovtsi 2015: New and Traditional Communities in Europe: Between Past and Future: Program
7 years Traveling Universities ‘Place for Future’ in Chiprovtsi 
including:
More about the region West Stara Planina
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The PLACE FOR FUTURE network is a broad alliance for informal and alternative education. Our priority over the recent years has been the introduction of sustainable development education and good practices into Bulgarian curricula; and bringing together Bulgarian academic circles with genuine civic initiatives and good practices of civil participation.Shtastlivetsa’s ‘trademark’ are travelling universities. Traditionally, we have organized them in Western Stara Planina since 2009, on the principle of interdisciplinary education through field demonstrations and practice.
‘The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were!’
John F. Kennedy