eutopia / Over eutopia

OVER EUTOPIA

Eutopia, instituut voor politiek, cultuur en kunst
Eutopia bevordert de inbreng van migranten-intellectuelen en kunstenaars in het nationale en Europese debat over migratie, globalisering en culturele diversiteit. Dit gebeurt sinds [2001] door het uitgeven van Eutopia Magazine, door het organiseren van debatten, publieke lezingen en culturele evenementen, en via netwerkvorming tussen migranten-intellectuelen in diaspora. Eutopia richt zich met name – maar niet uitsluitend - op culturele dialoog tussen Europa en de islamitische wereld.

Eutopia concentrates on three core activities:

Eutopia Magazine: themanummers met essays, interviews, reviews en fotografie. Verschijnt drie maal per jaar.
Eutopia academie: lezingen van intellectuelen en kunstenaars. Daarnaast: interculturele uitwisseling en advisering van culturele instellingen.
Eutopia Live: bijeenkomsten over populaire cultuur, film, literatuur en muziek.
Ibn Khaldoun Essays: verdieping, reflecties en/of interventies in het debat over de islamitische wereld en democratisering in het Midden Oosten.
Public chair Essays: een alternatieve leerstoel om bijzondere gasten en hun visie ruimte geven voor het verschaffen van nieuwe inzichten in internationale verhoudingen.

Informatie over doelstelling, activiteiten en abonnement: www.eutopia.nl
Eutopia is een initiatief van Farhad Golyardi en Shervin Nekuee.

ABOUT EUTOPIA


	Eutopia is an international platform for politics, culture and art devoted in particular to stimulating the input of migrant-intellectuals in national debates. The many scholars, artists and writers who have recently migrated to Europe and made it their new home are looking to express and articulate their views and concerns in an atmosphere of liberty and free speech. Their voices are essential when it comes to enriching political and cultural debates with original and provocative views – not just on migration, diversity, globalization and cultural identity, but also on the underlying international political, technological and cultural changes. Eutopia offers a platform for intellectuals and artists in diaspora. There is a need for such platform in the Netherlands because Dutch universities, political organizations, media and cultural institutions are still very much nationally oriented. As a result, the work, ideas and international significance of leading migrant artists and intellectuals are still little known in Western Europe. Eutopia seeks to situate national and European debates in a broader perspective, as a counterbalance for a more narrow national approach to worldwide developments. Since 2002 Eutopia has tried to accomplish these goals through the publication of Eutopia Magazine; through organizing debates, public lectures, conferences and cultural events; and via international networking efforts among migrant-intellectuals and consultancy for cultural institutions. Eutopia is geared in particular – but not exclusively – towards dialog between North and South, as well as between Europe and the Islamic world. In addition, Eutopia aims to foster a concern for identity and intellectual development among young (migrant) individuals and to raise the quality of their input in Dutch debates on social, cultural and political issues. Eutopia concentrates on three core activities: Eutopia Magazine: an international window on politics, culture and art. This glossy Dutch-language paperback appears three times a year as a special issue with essays, interviews, reviews and photography. Eutopia Live: lectures and workshops by and with artists and intellectuals in diaspora; events and discussions about popular culture, film, literature and music. Eutopia Academy: international exchange, conferences, networking and consultancy for cultural institutions. Eutopia’s history and objectives Eutopia, based in Amsterdam, was set up in 2002 by the sociologists Farhad Golyardi and Shervin Nekuee. Both Eutopia Magazine, of which so far twelve issues have appeared, and the Eutopia Live lectures and seminars have meanwhile found a niche of their own in Dutch cultural life. These activities are realized in collaboration with a great variety of local and nationwide institutions, including De Balie, De Unie, University of Amsterdam, Erasmus University Rotterdam, ISIM, Forum, Hivos, and the city of Amsterdam and the city of Rotterdam. In general, Eutopia pursues closer collaboration with universities, governmental agencies and cultural institutions and foundations. Moreover, in the past few years, Eutopia has set up an extensive international network of scholars, authors, thinkers and artists in diaspora, many of whom are refugees. They provide major contributions to global intercultural dialogs and the formulation of new views about the dynamic of culture, identity and politics. Eutopia aspires to develop into a more comprehensive interdisciplinary platform or institute that both nationally and internationally stimulates intercultural dialog in the areas of politics, science, culture and art. As such it fully follows in the prominent Dutch cultural tradition of politics and religious tolerance, which has spawned great thinkers such as Spinoza and Erasmus. Eutopia is committed to promoting the debate on multicultural affairs in the Netherlands from a European and international perspective. What is the position of the Netherlands with respect to other European and immigration countries? Which social or cultural developments elsewhere have particular relevance for the Netherlands as an evolving multicultural society?