In two months since now the new edition of Biennale Democrazia will begin and the program is taking shape. This year a hundred of events will take place and about a quarter of them will come from projects submitted by citizen and associations who answered to our call.
We received 111 different proposals and we were truly pleased by the variety and relevance of the ideas. Among them, we chose a total of 22 projects that in our opinion better fit our theme, Emergency Exits, half proposed by single citizens and half by organisations and associations.
Some of them want to explore some emergencies related to the life of people: it is the case of NEET, young who are Not (engaged) in Education, Employment or Training and face uncertainty and mistrust, while spending their adolescence and early years without a clear role in the society.
Another aspect, proposed by the art collective Biloura, will be the lack of awareness about cultural models that drive gender violence.
It can’t miss the theme of migrations: the Alliance Française Torino proposed to examine it through movies and debates. Moreover, we will focus also on gambling: according to Comitato Beni confiscati Libera Piemonte, Italy is one the European countries more affected by this problem.
Abstentionism is the main topic of another panel as it is evident that people are more and more skeptical about politics and politicians and prefer to stay away from polling stations.
On the other side, public bodies – specifically ANCI Innovazione, which is a branch of the Italian association of municipalities – look for new ways to involve citizens in prevention of disasters or alternatively in cooperation to go beyond a catastrophe.
As told before, we want also to focus on realities that arise as in the case of enterprises which work with a social impact, often contributing to the solution of a public emergency. On the other side, we will also talk about jobs that are facing a serious crisis, such as journalism in the age of post-truth. Another chapter will be dedicated to doctors who work in Emergency Rooms and have to face the possibility to fail while managing health emergencies.
Environment is another big urgency of our age: that’s why we chose a proposal that aims to discuss the phenomenon of asylum-seeker for environmental reasons who leave their own countries because of climate change. Another hot topic is the food production: in the next decades will we be able to produce food enough to feed all growing human population?
Finally, another key factor of our age is computer science. A panel will be dedicated to web activism and the new visions of the political and economic systems that have come through the Net.
But digital technologies have a role in our daily life and they are also tools useful to give a new shape and organization to our cities with apps and websites that help to organize mobility, time organization or even creating community among citizens that once, probably, lived as strangers in the same neighborhood.
