European Alternatives starts Chinese think tank

Faithful to its transnational vocation, European Alternatives is setting up a Euro-Chinese journal and laboratory starting November

(project website coming in early November – to be updated join EA mailing list)

overview & structure

Going beyond short, one-off exchanges or collaborations, Transnational Dialogues will bring together a diverse group of fellows from Europe and China over the course of at least one year to conduct transnational and transcultural reflection and content production around a key set of topical issues rated to labour precarity, urban space, and alternative economic models. Fellows come from mixed academic, artistic, and professional backgrounds, demonstrating a strong interest in cultural, artistic, and social reflection.

bilingual journal

The bilingual (English & Chinese) online portal will serve as a depository of original proposals on key issues touching European and Chinese societies, serving to conceptually translate some of the most original suggestions arising out of European and Chinese intellectual and social reflection. Articles will be selected and contextualised by fellows, and will allow for a structured discussion space where all readers will have a chance to ask further questions, comment, and start bilingual discussions around the issues treated by the articles. Fellows will play an active role in stimulating interaction and discussion around the texts published, ensuring the online portal becomes a veritable space for open and informed tansnational dialogue.

production laboratory

During the year Transnational Dialogues will additionally conduct the production of specific, original research products (book, pamphlets, archive, documentary…) to be presented in public seminars in London, Paris, and Rome (as part of Transeuropa Festival) and in workshops in Beijing, Chongqing, and Shanghai.

methods

The journal will produce content and stimulate responses from European and Chinese intellectuals around three “open questions” phrased by the project fellows. The resposes will create regular interaction between journal contributors, attemping to outline potential solutions or present critical analyses with perspectives coming both from Europe and from China.

Specific research production will arrise out of this process, with the specific requirement of investigating a specific issue with a clear transnational european/chinese approach and object of study.

A series of study-visits will be organied, with fellows travelling to conduct research trips and to work together with other participants and advisors to the project.

initiators

European Alternatives is a civil society organisation promoting the values of democracy, equality and culture beyond the nation state by means of campaigns, conferences, publications and festivals. It is a membership organisation with individual members from throughout Europe and offices in London, Paris, Rome, and Cluj-Napoca.

You Mi is a writer and new media artist/filmmaker. She contributes to the Chinese version of Abitare, an art and architecture magazine with a strong focus on social and humanity issues. As an artist, she has exhibited in Europe and the States, the experience of which encourages her to further the dialogue between cultures.

Beijing Art Lab is a Beijing-based cultural platoform focussing on video production.

MovingCities is a Shanghai-based think-thank investigating the role that architecture and urbanism play in shaping the contemporary city.

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