Social animation, culture and citizenship

Este congreso se celebrará en Zaragoza men noviembre de este año. Esperamos contar con vuestra presencia. Para más información:

Social animation, culture and citizenship
Models of Social Education and Socio-cultural Policies for Changing Contexts

This will be the fifth colloquium of a series initiated in Bordeaux in November 2003 and continued through sessions in San Paolo (2005), Lucerne (2007) and Montreal (2009).

These colloquia have provided periodic meeting points for researchers, educators and administrators to come together and engage in debate and reflection as well as compare achievements and identify trends, making them essential events for those who view socio-cultural animation as a form of educational praxis.

Saragossa, a medium-sized city with a significant history of social movements and a pioneer in social education and socio-cultural initiatives that serves as a national benchmark, will be the first Spanish city to host one of these gatherings. The local organizer for this fifth colloquium is the Instituto de Educación y Políticas Sociales de Aragon, an organization that brings together professionals working in education and social support, researchers and university professors.

The central themes proposed for this edition grow out of concerns expressed in previous sessions:

The important role of culture and social animation in a world immersed in a constant state of transformation How lifelong learning fosters the wellbeing of individuals and the societies they live in. Policy decisions concerning social education and socio-cultural matters and their impact on social change. The role of creativity and innovation in the development of proactive policies. Last, but not least, the contribution of socio-cultural animation to the deepening and strengthening of democratic practices.

The intended goal of the event is to compare and evaluate existing models and find new ways of improving them.

Conference themes will be explored from the diverse but complementary perspectives offered by university researchers, socio-cultural animators, educators, social workers, cultural planners and administrators, political scientists, representatives of public administrations and private sector cultural organizations, among others.

Conscious of the diversity of the points of view and frameworks of thought that the event will bring together (which will include currents of thinking that spring from a wide variety of personal and professional experiences), the colloquium seeks to compare the diverse policy models that have been developed throughout the world.