September 2018 AN ALPBACH MEDIA ACADEMY PUBLICATION
Coins go digital OUR PRIVACY AT RISK
ART
Drama boosts your confidence POLITICS
Making voting cool
BERGE VON IDEEN DAMALS, HEUTE, MORGEN
CONTENTS
32 6 Drama in Alpbach Valuable skills for everyday life
10 Julia Ebner
Chatting with the enemy
12 The virtual dead
Artificial intelligence keeps them with us
6 10
16 EU elections
The influence of the influencers
34
22 Coins go digital
Online payments risk personal privacy
26 Gig Economy
Your boss will be an algorithm
28 Gender questions Time to bury binary?
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32 Serbia and Kosovo Put a full stop to the conflict
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34 Get involved
The many ways of mixing it
36 Exhibition
Rats portray war and inner conflict
38 Forum
Overheard at Forum Alpbach
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European Forum Alpbach 14.–30.8.2019 | #efa19 | www.alpbach.org Every summer thousands of sharp minds from around the world gather in a small Tyrolean village. The European Forum Alpbach is a major international conference where pioneering thinkers from politics, academia, business and the arts come together. Here they enter into a dialogue on promoting democracy and facing the challenges of the future.
Apply for scholarships between mid-February and 29 March, 2019!
www.alpbach.org The scholarship programme brings young people under 30 to Alpbach.
SCOPE
EDITORIAL
IMPRESSUM ALPBACH MEDIA ACADEMY Editors: Elina Andrus, Conor Campbell, Petros Gogos, Can Guneri, Johanna Hirzberger, Noel Kriznik, Catalina Langer, Manuel Lavoriero, Liv Østerstrand Rasmussen, Ekaterina Palashina, Olivia Powell, Katharina Ratzmann, Federico Turrisi, Verda Uyar, Dariia Zubrytska Strategic Adviser: Marianne Peters Chief Editor: Stefan Pollach Chief/Sub Editor: Mark Meredith Sub Editor: Diana Brand Art Director: Willem van der Vlugt Video: Maialen Torres Lete Mentor: Anke Plättner Consultants: Lukas David Wagner, Thomas Weber Photo: Bogdan Baraghin, Luiza Puiu, Andrei Pungovschi, Laurent Ziegler Project Management: Kerstin Hosa, Franziska Werkner, Daniel Pleschutznig Managing Director: Philippe Narval Print: Ferdinand Berger & Söhne GmbH, Wienerstraße 80, 3580 Horn Herausgeber und Medieninhaber: Europäisches Forum Alpbach gemeinnütziger Verein, ZVR 173455474, Franz-Josefs-Kai 13/10, 1010 Wien
Joining the dots Each year during the first days of the Forum Alpbach 15 European journalism students sit down in a classroom and launch the Media Academy. In a first burst of ideas they pitch the big topics they are interested in such as artificial intelligence, the future of work or gender imbalance. These terms are written on cards and pinned to the board and in the following days the students explore and develop their topics. They sit in conference sessions, they talk to speakers, they get some first-hand experience. Out of all these bits and pieces the stories of
Scope are created. A topic the students considered particularly important this year is the upcoming European parliamentary election of 2019. They took on explaining the EU and the relevance of the election to a teenage audience that is going to vote for the first time next year. We do it everyday and more and more it becomes a digital routine: payment. Our reporters asked the simple questions: What happens when I pay using my mobile phone? Who knows about my purchase? And how does it all relate to that buzzword ‘blockchain’?
The Forum evokes serious talk in a conservative Alpine village. However, the Forum programme adds some interesting flavours to that. One day you hear legal experts talking about the consequences of a third gender and the next you see a group of women coming out of a workshop dressed in male drag. Read about this and other stories in the September 2018 edition of Scope.
Stefan Pollach Chief Editor
photo bogdan baraghin, coverphoto shutterstock
THE TEAM
The Media Academy is a programme that runs each year throughout European Forum Alpbach. Fifteen journalism students from nine European countries come together and go through three weeks of intensive practice producing magazines, videos and online news.
MAIN PARTNER
SUPPORTING PARTNERS Europe is a project that is all about overcoming boundaries. We foster exchanges and cooperation across the boundaries of language, mindsets and perceptions.
ARTS
Drama comes to Alpbach
Valuable skills for everyday life 6
P
icture 20 people, young and old dancing and leaping about wildly to The Bad Touch by Bloodhound Gang blasting out of the stereo. The music stops to gasps of exhaustion and shouts of empowerment. This is just the beginning. “Each of you, stick one of these cards on your forehead. But don’t look at it,” Liadán, a young actor, instructs. The cards show jacks, queens, kings and so on and the aim is to replace the identities of the participants with those on their cards. Soon they will be acting their assigned roles as part of a newly established artificial society. “Why is it called a Play?” is a seminar at European Forum Alpbach 2018 hosted by Nona Shepphard, playwright and
the introduction of the English Baccalaureate as well as financial cutbacks, arts qualifications have declined in the British school system. Marina Hülssiep teaches children between the ages of 10 and 14 at a new middle school in Vienna. The majority of them often come from underprivileged families and are still struggling to speak German. Ms Hülssiep says drama could benefit integration. “I have many kids from Syria who are still learning German. For them, drama would be a great way to express themselves, to be active, to be creative. Subjects like physics or biology require a basic knowledge of German.”
consistency
Associate Director of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) in London. The workshop teaches skills of communication, self confidence and body language. Participants can reflect on themselves and their communication with each other through theatrical exercises which bring out characters in a story.
under pressure
These skills may be valuable in our everyday and professional lives. But drama in education is under pressure in schools throughout Europe. “It’s terrible that drama is being reduced in schools. Arts and humanities give us such breadth and depth as people and make us understand what it is to work with each other,” says Ms Shepphard. For example, due to
Students of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts during the acting workshop “Why is it called a play?” at European Forum Alpbach. Drama skills can be used in everyday life to help overcome insecurities and social fears. photo bogdan baraghin
She regrets that there is only one hour of music per week taught on Friday as the last class of the week. “I cannot speak for every school but I think there is a lack of good arts teachers. There are a lot of drama workshops where people come to the school to teach but they would only do it once. There is no consistency in doing drama classes, there is not a big culture as in the US, for example,” Ms Hülssiep says. Martin Kušej, director of the Residenz Theatre Munich, shares the concerns about current school curricula. As designated director of the Burgtheater Vienna, Austria’s most important theatre, Mr Kušej states that there is not enough debate on drama, art and music in Austrian schools, adding that “if we abolish art altogether,” we will “eventually die from a mysterious disease.” In his role as lecturer for directing at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna he notices a strong decline in artistic skills among applicants. “It’s a matter of education,” he says, calling for a revision of educational policy in Austria. Nona Shepphard adds: “Theatre and drama ask the questions that we as a society need to ask ourselves and expose issues and important subjects that we need to think about. I think it has a really important part to play, especially at the moment when our societies are so divided.”
Drama skills How to speak in front of people without feeling nervous? How to improve your small talk skills? Here are the top three suggestions from drama students of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts:
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Take your time when talking. Breathe. You can’t escape nerves. Be aware of your body and your body movements. Use your hands when speaking.
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Listen to people. You don’t have to speak constantly. Embrace silence.
VIDEO
See the students express their tips: is.gd/dramaskills
By Noel Kriznik, Manuel Lavoriero and Olivia Powell Read on →
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ARTS
Scope spoke to four RADA students who came to Alpbach. This is what they said about how drama skills help them in everyday life.
Liadán Dunlea (20) SETTLEMENT “I was quite shy when I first started drama school. I wasn’t sure if I had the right knowledge to be able to get involved in debates with my class. I am a lot more settled in my own voice now. Having your own opinion and voice is important.” OPENNESS “It's easier said than done, but you just need to get over what people will think of you. Drama forces you to interact and understand people. No other field will teach you this. Be open in trying new things.”
Jack Morris (22) CONFIDENCE “Joining drama school improved my confidence. Before I got involved in acting, I had trouble speaking to shop assistants and waiters. I didn’t like the way my voice sounded and I didn’t have the confidence to speak up. Getting involved in acting helps you find your voice.” IMAGINATION “Your imagination can take care of you. You don’t need to overthink everything, you can let things flow. It’s about just saying yes to what your imagination gives you. This helps on a conversational level. A more constructive conversation happens when you’re relaxed, you trust yourself and your imagination and don’t focus on yourself and your own anxieties.” SILLINESS “Drama allows you to lose your inhibitions. It gives you a chance to act like a kid again and to discover a unique identity. Even if you don’t see yourself being an actor or going into theatre, participating in drama gives you so many skills which can be applicable to so many different parts of your life.”
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Aron Julius (23) VOICE “I’ve learnt that my voice is just as valid as everyone else’s. An important thing for young people to understand is that they really are important and their voice is necessary for growth and in everyday life in schools and businesses all over the world.” ENSEMBLE “There are not many people in this world in complete isolation, everyone is with someone in some format. Drama teaches us to work in groups, communicate with each other verbally and as an ensemble.” COLLECTIVE “There are people who will also look stupid and together you don’t look stupid. The collective is always more powerful than the individual. Be as brave as you can and take one step at a time.”
Kemi Awoderu (22)
What is RADA? RADA is a drama school based in London, UK. It offers professional training for actors, stage managers, designers and technicians. The entry requirements for the acting course is fluent English, over 18, and, of course, a unique talent for creativity. Out of around 3,000 applications each year, RADA accepts up to 28 students and auditions each eligible applicant.
SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS “The skill I have learned from drama school which is benefiting me now is maintaining eye contact and staying focused on that person. I would tell my younger self to be more confident, trustful, and to have a voice and opinion. You have one so use it and you never know how this will change and affect someone in a positive way.” REJECTION “We should allow ourselves to fail. Learn to dance with rejection, see rejection as an opportunity, take it as a blessing. Without drama I don’t think I would be half as confident as I am now. I used to have major body and confidence issues. Through drama class you get to put your attention on one thing and forget about your life problems and the outside world.”
photos bogdan baraghin
YOU “If you want to do something, just do it. Do not feel like you have to go with friends. When I started going to stuff by myself, I enjoyed it more because I was not relying on other people. It is important to take yourself out of your comfort zone, then you learn.”
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PROFILE
Julia Ebner
Chatting with the enemy
S
he is 27, smart and mixes with extremists. Julia Ebner’s bracelets jangle as her hands embellish the story of a tense moment when spending months undercover with a far-right cell. “It was quite challenging to write anything down so I frequently had to excuse myself and head for the toilet to make notes. Probably it was a bit conspicuous.” Working offline was more difficult than online since it was not possible to chat on screen or record a message. The dark-haired research fellow at the London Institute for Strategic Dialogue who delivered the keynote speech at the opening of the political symposium at the European Forum Alpbach says the gender card helped. “As a young woman you are underestimated and you have a really easy and quicker access to the online channels. “I just tried to write down everything and to remember all the key messages,” she reports.
unconventional work
Julia worked with former jihadists at the counter-extremist Quilliam Foundation in London, as well as spending time among the extreme right-wing groups. Her family had a hard time accepting her unconventional work, but now they trust her gut feelings. From lending a coat to a demonstrator to chatting amiably with extremists, she was surprised how normal the social interaction among the members of radical organisations was. She remembers this kind of human connection as being both an attraction and a danger for pos-
“The aim of these extremists is to discourage and stop us from doing our jobs.” 10
sible radicalisation. “I wanted to be close by, but nevertheless I had to dissociate myself and jump back into the role of the researcher in order to stay neutral,” Julia explains. Her experiences of working undercover, which were published in her first book The Rage, still impact on her life today. A wave of online attacks and an unannounced visit by the right-wing Tommy Robinson in her office, can get to Julia from time to time. But she tries not to be intimidated, “because the aim of these extremists is to discourage and stop us from doing our jobs.”
spotting
She brings a special awareness to current events in Europe, spotting a potential story or a dangerous scenario. Often a campaign by extremists is not obvious and only later emerges as extreme. Julia outlines the danger of step by step radicalisation into the mainstream and the strategies extremists use. She has recently finished researching her second book which will be published soon. But now she has to rush off – fame can be hectic. By Johanna Hirzberger and Catalina Langer
C.V. 27 years old Born in Vienna, Austria Research fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), London Author of bestselling book The Rage: The Vicious Circle of Islamist and Far-Right Extremism
bogdan baraghin
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TECHNOLOGY
The virtual dead
Artificial intelligence keeps them with us
T VIDEO
Follow this link to our video explaining how AI and art go together: is.gd/aiandart
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his is about talking with the dead. Using Artificial Intelligence to amass the deceased’s personal data, videos, social media entries, voice recordings and more, a responsive “chatbot” reconstruction of the individual is created. Spooky? Maybe. But it is happening. Eugenia Kuyda, the Russian founder of the chatbot app Replika, created one when her close friend Roman Mazurenko died in an accident. After re-reading their long correspondence she decided to make a prototype of her dead friend to honour him. Based on his old messages and by means of AI she recreated a virtual image of Roman. It became for her something like a grave where you can come and stay in touch with the person and tell them everything that you didn’t say when they were alive. It’s a conversation. Now the dead answer you. Roman responded in text. Not so long ago, the electro music world was shocked to hear of the death of cult
DJ Avicii. Fans refused to believe it and rumours spread on social networks that he was still alive. People wrote about everything they were grateful to the artist for, and what his music meant to them. So what if fans created a gravestone chatbot of Avicii pooling all available bits of information about him in a form that people could communicate
Staying online Post-death conversation is a hot topic among scientists. Some grapple with the legal regulation of this question while Alexander Bard, a Swedish cyber-philosopher and artist, stresses the positive benefits of human life continuing after physical death. “It is really up to Facebook and other platforms how they want to deal with the pages of dead people,” he says. “For my own part I see no reason why we would need to, so to say, ‘clean away’ people from the virtual world when they die. Unlike in conventional cemeteries, there is unlimited space on the internet and we can, in principle, allow all people to live on online in all eternity.” Bard adds: “Wouldn’t it be fun to be able to follow your great-grandfather or great-grandmother on your mother’s side and their thoughts throughout their life with images and quotes? This will also change our perception of death. We are still burying bodies but not people.”
shutterstock
“A chatbot is just a different level of wanting to keep on having a conversation.”
with? It might make it easier to come to terms with a death but the idea raises psychological questions. According to Dr Maria Angela Ferrario, lecturer in Digital Technology and Environmental Change at Lancaster University: “Graves are simulacra (representations) of our relations and because we want to have a form of conversation we
go to the grave and have a conversation with deceased relatives. And technologies enable the higher, different level of simulacra. So the conversation you have with a chatbot is just a different level of wanting to keep on having a conversation.” Using personal data in such cases also poses ethical problems. As one of many Read on →
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TECHNOLOGY Scene from Black Mirror season 2, episode 1 where Martha interacts with a cyborg replacing her deceased boyfriend. © black mirror/bbc/netflix
possible solutions to the ethical problem of using someone’s personal data, she recommends choosing a curator of your data in case of your death. However, your data is not only information about you, but also about other people. Who then has to decide whether their usage is ethical or not? Peter Kirchschläger, Professor of Theological Ethics at the University of Lucerne, said: “Firstly you should make sure that you respect the rights of that person who can’t decide what is going to happen with their data. If so, then you have an additional question that you should ask: if this data can be used without harming the rights of other people and the family. Then, of course, it should also be taken into account. Probably it could be a limiting factor to the dead person’s rights. In this case you should respect the rights of all humans.” At the same time, the professor thought it should be possible for someone to dictate in their will what would happen to their personal data after their death. By Elina Andrus and Dariia Zubrytska
Your data is not only information about you, but also about other people. 14
Review: Black Mirror peels back a sinister future There is a continuous battle within us between the rational and the illogical. Even if we know exactly how to behave we sometimes still act in a contrary manner. But, however logical we may be, there comes a moment when it is difficult to stay emotionally stable and that is when a loved one dies. Netflix’s popular TV-show Black Mirror, well-known for its dystopian vision of the future, shows how AI can bring people back from the grave and the impact that can have on the survivor. Be Right Back is the first episode of the second season and deals with the relationship between Martha and her boyfriend, Ash, who has died in a car crash. The episode shows how Martha is changed by this loss from a highly principled person to a woman who is ready to make compro-
mises as Ash is ‘reborn’ through a chatbot, phone calls and, finally, as a cyborg. The programme also considers how ethical it is to use AI to bring a person ‘back’. Do we have the right to use someone’s personal data after their death? And what people leave on social media is only a small part of their lives, even if they are actively tweeting every minute. Our pages are much improved versions of ourselves. Ash-AI is based on the very best photos of him chosen from thousands of pictures. The same applies to all our posts, letters and statements. A man may not really be delighted with the Grand Canyon, but he will write about it in glowing terms for others to see. Of course, we can recreate a person according to how they present themselves on social media but it is not possible to predict their actions
based on this. AI is just an algorithm that is clever at using the collected data of a dead person but it can’t do something spontaneous or emotional. During the episode we see the transformation of Martha. At the beginning she doesn’t want to hear anything about the chatbot but later she changes her mind and prefers the machine to the actual human being who wants to take care of her. Be Right Back shows how, in the not too distant future, AI businesses could exploit such a vulnerable state to make money out of suffering. The episode is an unusual fantasy, beautifully shot without the use of special effects. It is strongly ideological, dealing with difficult social problems. But Charlie Brooker, the script writer, lacks subtlety and restraint going over the top to get his message across.
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POLITICS
A university student confronts her younger sister with the touchy subject of political engagement.
What’s wrong with you? Dearest Sis Anna, what´s wrong with you? You know the election for the European Parliament is coming up soon and the last time we talked about it you had a hard time taking your eyes off your Instagram feed. Maybe a written note will get your attention. You dream of travelling Europe on an Interrail pass with your bestie next summer. You also told me that you would love spending a year abroad as a European volunteer after graduating from high school. I totally get you: I had the best time during my Erasmus semester and have lots of friends all over Europe! Visiting the friends you make during your travels, not having to show your passport crossing borders or applying and paying for visas will be great as well. It’s hard to ignore that the EU offers you more than enough benefits. Don't you get how privileged you and all of us in the EU are? But still you are sitting on your bed watching make-up tutorials on YouTube or Instagram stories of young men driving up-market cars and pumping iron at the gym. What will move you? European politicians copy Barack Obama to make politics cool again but grassroots movements don't get you out of the house. Memes and GIFs of politicians are celebrated online but they have a tough time turning into offline buzz. The European Commission treated you with 15,000 free Interrail passes this summer to show your generation what Europe has to offer. It is not only about the different languages, cultures and shared history but about peace. Peace. Yeah, I know history is boring but you just don't know a Europe without peace. And you never know what those idiots in the US, Russia or North Korea are up to. Since June 2017 you are able to use the newest Snapchat filter wherever you are and send it directly to your friends due to the end of roaming charges in the EU. What else has to happen in order to get you out of your comfort zone and get you to take an interest in politics? Will the US sanctions on high-waist Levis jeans wake you up? Imagine spending much more money on high-waist shorts in order to take the perfect picture for your Insta profile like the influencers do. Should politicians present their achievements in the European Parliament in a haul video on YouTube to make politics sexier? Or maybe the president of the EU commission would get more attention talking to you on Snapchat using the puppy filter. Don't let your future be ruined by old white men, Anna! Text your friends on Instagram or Snapchat and get out, engage and vote! There is much more at stake than missing the latest YouTube video from your favourite vlogger.
Your loving big sister 16
Social media in the political sphere
The influence of the influencers
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ccording to the recent Digital Report, Instagram reaches 306 million of 13 to 24-year-olds worldwide. The top European accounts on this platform count more than 10 million followers. Among them there are famous soccer players or singers, but most of the instagrammers have won followers by posting photos of their dinner, of their newest clothes or a nice place they travelled to. “To many teenagers, influencers are more prominent than classic celebrities,” writer Ingrid Brodnig said in an interview with Scope. The question is: would these influencers be ready to use their impact on young people in terms of supporting democracy in Europe? The Austrian blogger Madeleine Daria Alizadeh, known as “dariadaria”, has 163,000 followers on Instagram. She uses the platform to promote a sustainable lifestyle. Also, from time to time, she raises her voice to draw attention to social topics. Recently, she posted a nude picture of herself in order to raise her followers’ awareness of climate change. Ms Brodnig pointed out it is always necessary that the channels are authentic and credible. “I think it would be strange if an influencer who has only posted fashion or pictures of food up to now all of a sudden starts to post political content,” she said. Instagram could work as a platform to
Posing nude gets them clicking. Blogger Dariadaria’s photo got over 13,000 likes, then drawing attention to a linked article about climate change on her channel. foto instagram @jennandthecamera /@dariadaria
promote serious political issues using positive pictures, Ms Brodnig said. “Many people like Instagram for the fact that positive content is communicated on a visual level.” But YouTube, she stated, would be even
“To many teenagers, influencers are more prominent than classic celebrities.”
more obvious for this purpose as it provides more space for text than Instagram. YouTube shouldn’t be underestimated as a successful mass medium, Ms Brodnig added. “In Austria it reaches eight out of ten people aged 18 to 24.” As an effective way to get in touch with this target group for the EU elections she suggested short, easy and understandable advertisements, set into YouTube videos with a high click rate. This way, people who might just want to be entertained, would be confronted for a few seconds with reminders of the coming EU elections in 2019. During the last Read on →
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POLITICS
election in Austria the successful rightwing party FPÖ made use of this social media strategy in their campaign. The European Parliament also used preroll advertisements on YouTube videos in its last campaign. Stephen Clark, head of communication for the parliament, underlined their effective potential, but said: “We also consider Facebook, Google and Instagram, because that is where we get a good deal of reach, especially for our target group.”
target group
But how would the European Parliament use Instagram for reaching young people? They are especially focusing on Instagram and they are aware of the impact influencers have nowadays: “We have actually invited 30 well-known YouTubers to the European Parliament and we informed them about the elections,” Stephen Clark explained. This form of cooperation seemed promising to him: “They really loved it and they
posted afterwards about it.” But the European Parliament does not want to start paying influencers, as the budget of the communication department is limited. “With a total budget of up to 33 million euros for more than 500 million inhabitants, the financial possibilities are “peanuts’ compared to companies like Coca-Cola,” he stated. In order to establish an awareness of the importance of voting, the European Parliament launched the campaign thistimeiamvoting.eu. “This is a marriage between the digital world, data research and good old fashioned people on the ground, on the streets,” Mr Clark ex-
“Voting in a democratic process is important, because democracy itself is at threat.”
plained. With this campaign the European Parliament does not only link online and offline engagement but also tries to point out the connection between the importance of voting and the personal interests that are at stake for youngsters. “Voting and participating in a democratic process is important, because democracy itself is at threat,” concluded Mr Clark.
right to vote
Austrian influencer Madeleine Daria Alizadeh thinks, that it is “of utmost importance to exercise our right to vote.” In order to make EU politics more ‘sexy’, her advice on Instagram is to call attention to the rights young people have due to the European Union. “Drawing a ‘horror scenario’ of what our world would look like without this institution, is another option to trigger emotions in people.” By Johanna Hirzberger, Catalina Langer and Katharina Ratzmann
Politics on Instagram What will influence your vote in the election to the European Parliament in 2019? Scope explains how the 500 million inhabitants in the European Union can take part in the upcoming elections which are held every five years.
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photos bogdan baraghin
Erasmus programme moves into trades Since the late middle ages the ‘Walz’ was a time when young European craftsmen left their workshops to travel around unfamiliar parts of the territory. It was about gaining life experience to qualify as a master. Today the EU’s Erasmus+ programme has expanded from an academic exchange project to emulate this tradition by helping young trainees gain experience by working abroad. “I think it is terrific that Erasmus+ has also been opened up for apprentices and young workers,” says Sonja Puntscher Riekmann, professor at the University of Salzburg. Investing in the mobility and language skills of young crafts people is a great opportunity for them and for society. “We should not neglect blue collar people, especially not in a Europe where the consensus
Josef Bletzacher
Stefan Prosser
has been ‘we don’t leave anybody behind’,” she explains. However, Peter Moser, founder of a Tyrolean woodworking company, says that although businesses like the idea of sending young people abroad it doesn’t actually happen.
Last year only eight out of more than 10,000 apprentices in Tyrol participated in one of the exchange programmes supported by the EU. Even youngsters who seem to be interested are not completely convinced. “I don’t really know the programme. I might have read about it once. Also I don’t know anybody who did it, but it could be interesting,” Josef Bletzacher, a carpenter in Tyrol, explains. His colleague, 20-year-old Stefan Prosser, hasn’t even heard about Erasmus+ yet. “So it is for all skilled trades?” he asks surprised. “I think they should advertise it more. They could send a letter or an email so we would know about it,” he adds. It may be just a question of time before Erasmus+ gets established. “Actually also at the beginning of Erasmus it was difficult to send people
abroad,” Prof Puntscher Riekmann recalls. Now, 31 years after it was launched, more than 4.4 million students have participated in Erasmus so far. Prof Puntscher Riekmann sees local politicians and schools as key to promoting Erasmus+ and employers also need to consider the benefits. There are always going to be obstacles when starting up exchange programmes like this. “To find people who would participate, we could think about headhunting and then rely on word-of-mouth recommendation,” she states, adding, “we have to create a foundation, so youngsters can stand up for themselves. That’s why also language programmes have to be in place at the exchange location.” She concludes: “It’s about opening the hearts and the minds and not closing them.” By Johanna Hirzberger
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WORKSHOP
Wheelchair play Kids explore a set of wheelchairs during a workshop of the Alpbach Learning Programme. The afternoon-long exercise was meant to help children get over the fear of dealing with people in wheelchairs. The workshop was organized by Vera Rosner (in the background), a performer and choreographer from non-profit association MAD. She brings together mixed-ability groups for dance and performance events like the opening of the Medical Symposium at Alpbach. photo andrei pungovschi
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MONEY
Wanna pay? If you are puzzled by payments, our nifty chart answers your questions and gets you ready to buy. Find out what kind of payer you are.
Are you older then 6?
NO MONOPOLY MONEY
YES
Got a bank account?
YES
PREPAID CARDS
NO
YES
Trust your bank?
NO
Ready to take risks?
NO
That wad of notes in your pocket looks dangerous?
YES
Concerned about your personal info being used?
YES
YES
NO
NO
YES MOBILE BANKING
YES CREDIT CARD
Want to use your mobile phone?
Worried about hackers?
NO
NO
Buy on impulse?
Afraid of cyborgs taking over the world?
NO
NO
DEBIT CARD
MICROCHIP IMPLANTS
YES CASH
YES CRYPTO
photo shutterstock/infographic willem van der vlugt
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Yourself revealed
Online payments risk personal privacy
Y
ou’re at the supermarket checkout. The cashier says 10.59 euros please. You reach into your pocket, grab your phone, point it at the machine. Paid. You think it is fast, contactless, a piece of cake really. But it isn’t. You have just told thousands of people and computers about yourself, and not just that you buy corn flakes. By paying by phone, you have to share loads of data, such as location, time, product, amount of money and transaction partners. You don’t know who gets to see it, who is collecting it, and what they are going to do with it. You are worried. After all, it is data about you. It says a lot about your habits, your purchases, your financial situation. You are exposed. The question of who gains access to data and whether we are safe from cyber attacks concerns a lot of customers. According to the European Commission, 72 per cent of internet users in the EU are worried about using online services. They are afraid of revealing too much personal data online. “We will never have 100 per cent protection, but probabilities of a cyber attack should be low,” responds Dr Sofie Waltl, an economist based at the Luxembourg
Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER). She is more concerned with the collective perspective, not the individual one. “If companies have access to entire pools of data, they know how large parts of society behave, how consumers’ tastes change. Your personal data is actually not interesting.”
resource
Dr Justus Haucap, Director of Dusseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE), sees personal data today as an underestimated resource that could greatly increase in value. “Companies will discover that it’s actually quite valuable. It may be very valuable to sell this data to marketing companies and retailers,” he says. According to Dr Haucap, non-cash payment is more open to risks than cash payment. “The loss can be much bigger
“ It may be very valuable to sell personal data to marketing companies.”
Glossary Credit cards enable you to buy things up to a pre-arranged limit and pay for them at a later date. They are not linked to your bank account. Debit cards are used to pay for goods in shops and to withdraw money at cash machines. The money is taken directly from your bank account. Bitcoin is the best-known of several cryptocurrencies. Bitcoins can be sent from one user to another over the internet. Cryptocurrencies are digital assets that use cryptography to make financial transactions. These transactions are recorded in a public database, the blockchain. Blockchain is a database of encrypted datasets called blocks. The database is shared across many computers and keeps track of transactions by the use of cryptography.
Read on →
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MONEY
Piggy bank meets “I’m not going to change my behaviour because of the threat of cyber-attacks.” if somebody hacks into your account. And there may be a loss of privacy,” he states. At the same time, paying without cash makes it more difficult, if not impossible, to evade taxes or be involved in the black economy. Despite the possible dangers, electronic money remains popular. One reason, according to economist Dr Waltl, is that customers get addicted to things digital. “I’m not going to change my behaviour because of the threat of cyber-attacks. I wouldn’t give up online shopping in order to prevent leaving tracks on the internet. It’s a personal decision,” she says.
risks of data
Some players in the digital payments market have a different view regarding the risks of data. Gerald Gruber, general Manager Austria for Mastercard, says that customers are more protected in the digital environment, because it’s more technical. He also adds that “the only one who knows what you’re buying is the merchant. But he doesn’t know who you are.” For now, payment companies such as
Mastercard state that they use large amounts of user data for company purposes only. Gerald Gruber confirms that data is used to provide insights into payment behaviour based on different nationalities. “I can analyse how Russian visitors in Austria behave differently from Chinese or American visitors,” he says. Similarly, the mobile banking company N26, a rising star provider for online payments, uses data to promote itself and its product. “As a company, we grow by happy customers recommending us to other people. How do we make our customers happy? We use the data we have to create a product they can’t get anywhere else,” Georg Hauer, the General Manager of N26, told Scope.
lack of regulation
According to Markus Marterbauer, economist and Austrian parliamentary adviser for economic and social issues, the main problem with the current state of data economy is a lack of regulation. “Every time there are few or no regulations, monopolies start developing. It is what economists call ‘path dependence’. A few strong players enter the market at an early stage and gain a monopoly position. There are analogies to the lack of regulation before the 2008 financial crisis. It is too big a problem for individual countries though. We should discuss the issue of data protection policy on a European level, if not on a global one,” Mr Marterbauer concludes. By Manuel Lavoriero, Ekaterina Palashina and Federico Turrisi
“Every time there are few or no regulations, monopolies start developing.”
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Cryptocurrencies are digital coins that allow values like money, property or shares to be traded. Unlike traditional currencies, they cut out the middlemen between the buyer and seller. So it’s a faster, more transparent payment system with much lower costs. Blockchain is the technical platform where cryptocurrencies operate. “Blockchain is the next generation on the internet; we’re redefining how the internet is engineered in the background,” says Shermin Voshmgir, director of the Research Institute for Crypto Economics at the Vienna University of Economics. “Certain institutions we’ve needed until now, like banks or government services, could become completely peer to peer without the centralised third parties. “Trustworthy economic interactions will become possible even between two people living in different countries because they will be able to trust this technology in the background to make sure that their interaction will go smoothly.”
Blockchain Shermin Voshmgir argues that governments will also benefit from this technology: “In the end it’s a governance machine. It will make governments more efficient on an international level. It will change the way we organise our society. At one time, societies organised in a centralised, hierarchical system around nation states. We have a government that we pay taxes to and in return they provide services. Blockchain will allow us more fluid forms of governance that don’t have geographical boundaries.” Robert Zadrazil, Chief Executive Officer of Unicredit Bank Austria AG and president of the Austrian Bankers’ Association agrees that blockchain technology will change our current banking system, but he doesn’t think it’ll turn it upside down entirely: “The blockchain solution can disrupt the current model of the banks and governments by changing their roles in the future, but they will still exist. “The most important aspect of it is that we can track the
process of documentation in the supply chain from beginning to end. For example, producing a sports shoe in South America or Asia has very low production costs, but there are many intermediaries in between. From one trade organisation to another it becomes 100 euros when it finally reaches the shops. Blockchain’s decentralised system will allow direct transactions without the third party costs and more transparency.”
is blockchain safe?
“Is the internet safe?” asks Dr Voshmgir. “We cannot regulate everything in our lives,” claims Mr Zadrazil. “I don’t agree that there is a big risk about the technology itself. It provides solutions for certain problems, but the risk comes with the application. Whenever we implement this technology in a certain application, it’s important to look at who and why this technology is being used.” By Can Guneri
Payment preferences
Johannes Pelz (68) German, retired “I prefer cash. For smaller things it’s easier. Cash is part of our life, it is tangible. It gives you the sensation of having control over your money and your spending. Most people in Germany still like having some banknotes and coins in their pocket. Of course, when I go shopping online I use my credit card, but for everyday life it’s better to pay with cash. Another reason is about cybersecurity and data processing concerns of course.”
Maria Retter (24) Austrian, student in International Business and Economics “I pay with debit card whenever it’s possible. I think it’s a good thing to eliminate cash. I was in Stockholm last February apa/jaap arriens
where even in public toilets you can pay 50 cents with your card. I loved it and I felt very comfortable. I prefer to pay with my card because it’s quick and convenient. But I think that in countries where you don’t pay with cash at all, it is more difficult to teach children how to use money because it becomes very abstract. This will be a big challenge for the next generation.”
Mark Christopher Ballandies (27) German, PhD student at ETH Zurich’s Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences “I bought bitcoins in 2015, I was curious about them. I am a computer scientist and I was working for a bank. For me it is not only about the cryptocurrency aspect but also about other applications of the blockchain technology. At the moment the market is very small but as we see Goldman Sachs, hedge funds and ordinary people investing in cryptocurrencies I think it is going to grow.”
25
WORK
Scant humanity in the gig economy
Your boss will be an algorithm
T
he driver pulls up, makes his delivery and climbs back into his cab to check the app. In the coming decades, working conditions will be increasingly controlled by a computer algorithm. Algorithms are currently used mainly by “gig economy” businesses like Uber and Foodora who employ freelancers or short term con-
The gig economy? I like it. Stefan Yazzie Herbert has worked extensively in the gig economy, mainly in film as well as in other aspects of the creative industries and he likes it. One of his jobs was run by an app. “I went into it thinking I was not going to like this experience because of how impersonal it was,” he says.
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Ultimately, automation actually made aspects of his work easier. There wasn’t as much waiting for client feedback and the remote nature of online gig work has allowed him to work with people from around the world, he reports. “To me the real pull from these apps is not necessarily the automation but more about globalisation,” Stefan says. These platforms have opened up to him a whole workforce of digital nomads. While he says there were dangers for low-skilled jobs, in the creative industries at least “technology offers us better ways to find the best.”
tractors to give a lift or deliver a pizza. But, given that this technology will almost certainly expand into most other areas of work, what does this mean for your working conditions? Jeremias Prassl, Associate Professor of Law at Oxford University, says that algorithms lack human empathy: “You might be late to work because you had to drop off your child at the hospital and I’d expect the vast majority of employers to say ‘don’t even worry about it for a second’. An algorithm doesn’t know whether you had to drop off your child at the hospital or whether you’re just being lazy and you’ve had a big night out the night before.” There are other issues. Some tech companies use algorithms to shirk their responsibility towards their employees. Two years ago a British Member of Parliament maintained that some Uber drivers ended up earning less than a third of the minimum wage. Meanwhile Lilly Irani, Associate Professor of Communication and Science Studies at the University of California, sees this as a dodge: “Uber comes along and says, ‘Well, we are a tech company, so none of those regulations apply to us’.” Irani states that this type of employment model has the potential to be corrosive for the next generation of employees. “Right now we need to be figuring out as a society how people get transparency,” she says, highlighting how tech companies jealously guard knowledge of how their algorithms work. “Should something that is that important to our public infrastructures, making people money and news move, be black-boxed? No.” It’s not all negative. Prassl says the main
photos bogdan baraghin
What is it? The gig economy is the type of work in which individuals are employed to do one-off tasks, or “gigs”, as opposed to longer-term contracts or self-employment. It frequently uses apps and computer programmes to coordinate the large pools of labour that are required to make this business model sustainable. Most of the tasks are relatively short.
Uber is one of the best known gig economy companies.
“ Flexibility is great, but that doesn’t mean you should not have protection with it.”
potential advantage of gig work is its flexibility. He adds a big qualification: “For flexibility to be genuine, it needs to be two sided. If you have got the flexibility to choose when you want to work but then you log into the app and see there’s nothing there for you – that’s not flexibility, that’s insecurity.” Flexibility is great, “but that doesn’t necessarily mean
you shouldn’t have protection with it.” While the technology is new, Prassl says the labour model is old. “I think it is really important for us to realise that the vast majority of what is going on in the gig economy is not some new form of human activity, but it’s labour, it’s work.” By Conor Campbell and Katharina Ratzmann
27
SOCIETY
Gender questions
Time to bury binary? Timeline 1882 The earliest transsexual genital conversion surgery was performed in 1882 on a trans man named Herman Karl. 1910 During the 1910s, German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld ` created the word "transvestite" which at the time meant many more kinds of transgender and even transsexual people. 2003 In 2003, Australia began to let people mark their gender as "X" on their birth certificates and passports.
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A
gender category for those who do not feel exclusively male or female is not the way forward says endocrinology professor Guy T’sjoen of Ghent University. He believes that society at some point will be ready to eliminate genders in legal papers completely. The Austrian psychotherapist Cornelia Kunert waited 20 years before she would present herself in front of an audience as a transgender woman. “I always feared that it would have an impact on my work as a therapist and could damage something,” she says. But even though she wants to be known as a psychotherapist and a woman, she has now taken the stage as transgender. She does so because she feels that society is changing in its attitude towards the small percentage of the world’s population that does not feel exclusively male or female. For these non-binary people, the male-female system does not reflect real life.
third option
“Societies are getting more open on gender non-conforming people. Society is leading the way for a non-binary categorisation, more diversity,” Ms Kunert says. Several countries are already recognising non-binaries and intersexuals by adding a third option on birth certificates: the so-called X-category. But that is simplifying things and could leave the non-binary people more stigmatised according to Prof T’sjoen. “It would be a
symbolic statement to have the X. X will be just one more category, and it is possible that people would want to be J or C or W, so I think the X-category will not be sufficient,” he says. His fear is that the X-category can become a sort of catch-all space. For some, being non-binary is experiencing
“Society is leading the way for a nonbinary categorisation, more diversity.”
Gender diversity Binary A classification that separates sex and gender into two categories: male and female. The categorisation in binary system is based on people’s genitals, and assumes sex and gender identity match.
Transgender A transgender person is one whose gender identity does not match the one given at birth. For example, does a person who was considered female at birth now identify as a male?
Non-binary A non-binary does not strictly identify as either male or female. Their gender identity can be both male and female or neither of them. Nonbinary people’s gender identity can be flexible.
Intersexual An intersexual is one whose chromosomal, hormonal or genitalia characteristics cannot be described as strictly male or female. Most are assigned a binary sex by doctors and family.
None of the classifications above has to do with sexuality.
shutterstock
gender as both male and female, while for others it is rejecting the whole concept of gender. And for some an X-category is not the best way to recognise non-binary people. “On Facebook, you can choose between a lot of genders, many more than just male and female. So I think creating the X-category is simplifying things too much, because it is still not reflecting the reality of society,” Prof T’sjoen says. If X is available, “it should be open for anyone, and on a voluntary basis.” Both Prof T’sjoen and Ms Kunert agree that there is still a long way to go for societies to socially integrate non-binary people. But instead of the X-option, Prof
T’sjoen believes that society at some point will be ready to tear down the classical male and female categorisation legally.
combating equality
That is not the scenario foreseen by Hertha Richter-Appelt, from the Department for Sex Research and Forensic Psychiatry at the University Medical Centre, Hamburg-Eppendorf. Instead, she perceives the male-female binary function in terms of combating gender equality. “If we did not have the categories male and female we would never come, for example, to the point that we can
increase the number of female professors at universities. There are so many domains where there is no equality regarding male and female persons, therefore, we need these categories,” says Richter-Appelt. By Liv Østerstrand Rasmussen and Verda Uyar
“If X is available, it should be open for anyone, and on a voluntary basis.” Read on →
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SOCIETY
Even though crossdressing isn’t a new phenomenon, the Drag King movement is still relatively new. The transformation from woman to man is not only about clothes, but also voice, body language and behaviour.
photos bogdan baraghin
Here come the Drag Kings: it’s a female thing Gender is not a question of either/or. Your Scope reporter found this out first hand at the Drag King workshop during European Forum Alpbach. A sign “penis station” caught my eye when I entered the room. The Drag King movement was new to me, but from the very beginning of the Forum, questions of gender roles had been captivating. I went to the “Gender Dynamics in Changing Societies” seminar, I listened closely during talks on the medical possibilities and social attitudes towards transsexuals plus I strutted and posed my way through the voguing workshop. Time for me to man up. For a while at least. Spending several hours reflecting over gender roles and stereotypes, sharing experiences and
30
playing games to create a safe environment struck me as a very female thing to do. I guess that if we really had been male, we would instead just have jumped to the fun part: dressing up. But becoming a man was still an estrogen-powered process. Crossdressing is not a new phenomenon. But it felt strange to pick the clothes I would wear as a man, not to mention deciding the size of my cotton-stuffed condompenis. “Pick the size that suits your personality,” the instructors said, so I went for a small-to-medium and decided to be a guy who might joke about it. After a few awkward moments, the transformation was electric. While changing we created our male personalities, and while some dressed formally with tie and waistcoat, I went for red baggy
trousers, black shirt, a striped sweater and army camouflage cap. But first I had to strap in my breasts and place my penis in my man underwear. Weird. Facial hair was next, and I glued on a fetching blond moustache and some sideburns with hair cut from my ponytail. Easy peasy. Then the problem was the male deodorant: there are limits. This was great for a laugh. But I had to rush and time dictated I had to take my male alter ego into the Political Symposium to report on proceedings. I could feel the laptop pressing down my penis and the bandage squashing my breasts. Okay, I faked the testosterone-fuelled power act and it was huge fun but dressing up as a male was as painful and felt as uncomfortable as wearing heels. Before and after the transformation.
By Liv Østerstrand Rasmussen
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POLITICS
Timeline 1974 The Yugoslav constitution states that Kosovo is an autonomous province of the Republic of Serbia. 1989 Serbian president repeals the autonomy of Kosovo and sends troops to put down protests. A year later separatists declare Kosovo a republic. 1996 Separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) troops battle with Serbian forces. 1998 War starts in Kosovo. NATO
intervenes in 1999. 800,000 flee, more than 15,000 die. 2008 Kosovo declares its independence. Serbia refuses recognition. 2011 Kosovo and Serbia start direct talks to end their dispute. 2018 Normalisation talks with Serbia stopped because Kosovo Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic is shot and killed in Mitrovica on 16 January.
Students can teach politicians a thing or two
Put a full stop to the conflict
J
ovana, Ivan, Visar and Labinot, students from Serbia and Kosovo, are sick of the conflict between their countries. “It’s been 10 years since Kosovo declared its independence,” Ivan (32) from Serbia said, adding “and it’s been nearly 20 years since the end of the bombing (...). We need to put a fullstop to that and just get on with our lives.” The two students from Kosovo, Visar (21) and Labinot (26) agree.
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All of them are annoyed by the way the conflict is covered in their national newspapers day by day, casting a shadow over more important issues. In all of the Western Balkan countries, Ivan said, young people face difficult questions such as: “Will they get a job? Will they be able to move out from their parents’ house?” Visar and Labinot from Kosovo experience further limitations. If they want to travel to the EU they wait for months to
From left to right: Ivan Vejvoda (Serbia), Visar Hadri (Kosovo), Jovana Stajic (Serbia) & Labinot Bajgora (Kosovo)
Meeting at EFA
get a visa. Serbia won visa liberalisation in 2009, and is way ahead in this regard. “That was a big thing,” Ivan said. “Now, you can wake up in the morning, and say ‘I want to go to Portugal’ and jump in a car.” If you want to go from Kosovo to Serbia you have to pass a physical border, Labinot said. “Not with armed guys. You just show them your ID and they probably let you pass. But they give you another paper that says, ‘We don’t recognise your country’.” For him and Visar, living in an independent state is important
“You can wake up in the morning, and say I want to go to Portugal and jump in a car.”
because the two countries have “nothing in common,” neither language, nor culture. It’s a question of nationalism but, “it’s not about selfishness,” they said. They believe that being a part of the EU is better than being alone. Ivan said: “It’s also a unity thing. We are Europeans. (...) We’re in the middle of Europe and yet we’re kind of outside of Europe.” In order to enter the EU, the two countries have to settle their political differences. If you see the students chatting to each other you would not believe friction is still active. “We don’t judge people by the country they come from,” Jovana stated. Seeing their two presidents next to each other on one stage, was “encouraging,” Ivan said. Nevertheless, all four of them doubted that they witnessed a “historical moment.” By Catalina Langer and Katharina Ratzmann
Aleksandar Vučić, president of Serbia (left) and Hashim Thaçi, president of Kosovo.
andrei pungovschi
bogdan baraghin
The opposing presidents of Serbia and Kosovo agreed to resume negotiations on a peace settlement at European Forum Alpbach. “It was a historical moment” in the conflict over whether or not Kosovo is an independent state, said Alexander Van der Bellen, the Austrian president. Nevertheless, Hashim Thaçi, the president of Kosovo and Aleksandar Vučić, the president of Serbia, stated that they would need help from the EU. Speaking in Alpbach, Johannes Hahn, EU Commissioner for enlargement negotiations said: “Solving conflicts such as the one between Serbia and Kosovo is a necessary condition to start talks on accession to the Union. It is our task, our responsibility to care about European countries, to include them and not to leave it to other third parties somewhere in the world.”
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POLITICS
Get involved
The many ways of mixing it protests and journalism
P
olitics can be frustrating and rough. From small regional elections to presidential campaigns it impacts on our lives regardless of how old we are. Some people decide to grasp the opportunity to ensure their voices are heard regardless of when the next election is. So when Márton Gulyás records a new video, you know that something is going on in his country. Mr Gulyás is a political activist, YouTube vlogger and theatre director from Hungary. He also founded the “Country for All Movement” which, during Hungary’s April elections, studied opposition candidates and organised debates and public polls in electoral districts. “It was obvious that the government was incredibly popular among the people so the only reasonable goal for any political organisation could have been to prevent them from getting the constitutional majority,” he said. They tried to unify the opposition parties, “but it didn’t work well, unfortunately,” said Mr Gulyás. For the third consecutive time Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán’s party Fidesz secured a majority. “People are not politicised in my country. Their only political activity is to vote every four years. They are not active at the local level. I don’t blame them, I blame the politicians. They didn’t put in any effort into involving, empowering the people,” he stated. Yet the dynamics in Hungary are changing, and Mr Gulyás seems more determined than ever. “The younger people I meet with are much braver, much brighter and more politically engaged
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than I was at 18. When I was 18 I was interested in nothing else but my own wellbeing, about the books I read, about dating with people. Right now it is the young people in Hungary forming new political organisations who take to the streets to criticise the government.” In 2013 Mr Gulyás joined street protests against the budget cuts and financial troubles independent theatres were facing. In 2017, thanks in part to his organisation, thousands were again marching against the Hungarian electoral system, the government’s new education measures, and Mr Orbán’s seemingly anti-democratic policies. Mr Gulyás also fills a gap in Hungarian media with his own YouTube channel. He creates political content in a country where “there is only one nationwide television station which provides political analysis” for the general public, and with “almost no nationwide daily political newspaper to write about a nonbiased agenda.” Mr Gulyás hopes to expand his YouTube channel into English, and potentially develop a live political show, all with the aim to “educate, activate and prepare people in a massive way until the time change will come.”
participation and voting
V
oting isn’t just for adults, and it can be much more interesting than just turning up for national elections. Democracy 2.1 is a Prague-based organisation that encourages better democratic processes around the world. Founded with the lofty ambition of
introducing a new voting system to democratic states, the company now focuses on bringing better democracy to various projects. According to Ekaterina Petrikevich, Democracy 2.1’s International Project Manager: “We are trying to invite people to participate in making decisions, sometimes when it isn’t an option at all.” Ms Petrikevich thinks that protests that “wreck cars is kind of participation and voices frustration, but it’s not constructive.” What Democracy 2.1 is trying to do is enable participation in a “constructive manner”, and one of the ways in which they do this is through “participatory budgeting.” In this scheme, participants (often school kids) are encouraged to pitch ideas for how a portion of a budget could be spent, and ultimately end up voting for it. This encourages children to see democratic engagement as a habit, with the ultimate objective of keeping them engaged in politics in their adult life.
apa/attila kisbenedek
Hungarian students protesting the government’s education policy in January 2018.
citizens’ assembly
C
ountries often have to face difficult decisions, but citizens can be involved in solving them. The Irish Citizens’ Assembly is a panel of ninety nine everyday citizens who are asked to consider difficult questions for an extended period of time. According to Eamon Gilmore, former Deputy Prime Minister of Ireland, this assembly “took on board expert opinion, the advocates of different sides of the argument, the views of the public,” and due to its representative nature is able to return recommendations on controversial issues. “The idea, when it originated, was that it would be modelled a bit like a jury, and people do have confidence in juries,” Mr Gilmore said. The Constitutional Convention (an earlier model) and Assembly considered two of the most controversial social issues in Irish society in the 21st century: gay marriage and abortion.
The concept could also be introduced with some variation outside of Ireland. Mr Gilmore thought that “some of the big questions in Europe, immigration, issues around the euro, issues around integration, could be addressed by a Citizens’ Assembly,” and, given the divisive issues currently facing Europe, perhaps this novel method of engaging citizens might just help solve them.
european alternatives
A
rt and culture, of course, can also be political. European Alternatives, a company that encourages civic engagement, organises artistic projects, cultural programmes and intellectual festivals across the continent. Every couple of years they run the Transeuropa Festival, for which they commission various political works of art. At last year’s festival in Madrid, one of their exhibitions was created by people
from Artists at Risk, a group that helps persecuted artists find a safe haven. According to Daphne Büllesbach, Executive Director of European Alternatives, these cultural outputs are an important part of political engagement. “We want to create a different political culture in Europe,” she said, and the works commissioned by her organisation tackle the question, “What is culture and how does culture contribute or allow people to think about their environment?” Previous projects have included online transnational journalism pages and a cross-European caravan designed to connect diverse groups across Europe. Ms Büllesbach said the diverse methods of engaging people in broader political affairs has allowed European Alternatives to “influence debates, discourses, empowering others and showing that transnational activism is possible and can work.” By Conor Campbell and Verda Uyar
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EXHIBITION bogdan baraghin
A Rats portray war
The Last Days of Mankind
and inner conflict 36
rtist Deborah Sengl brought her exhibition The Last Days of Mankind to Alpbach. Based on the play written by Karl Kraus, it confronts the extremes of World War I. Sengl created a visual adaptation of the play using 200 stuffed white rats in 44 individual scenes. “I chose rats because they are quite similar to humans. Rats move in masses. But as soon as something happens, they stick to themselves. They are egotistic,” said Sengl, a Vienna-based artist. Curated by Italian art historian Günther Oberhollenzer, the exhibition aims to evoke disgust and shock. “My work is always socially and politically critical. I
colour of innocence Deborah Sengl in front of the rats in her exhibition.
cannot change the world, but I want to make people think,” said Sengl. Although there are no more wars in the trenches, every individual experiences inner conflict, Sengl said: “Intolerance and racism are growing. We are always looking for someone to blame.” According to the artist, the stuffed rats should
“I hope young people see the exhibition to get them thinking about the war.”
Sengl explained that the rats were intended to be fed to pets such as snakes and birds of prey. “Usually, the rats are killed when they’re still small and young. Our rats, however, have lived a much longer life. We needed so many of them that we had to collect them gradually over the period of a year. Besides, we needed them to be white.” Sengl said: “I decided to use white rats because we are all the same, we all have the same responsibility and the same role in this world. White is the colour of innocence.” The original play The Last Days of Mankind, written by publicist Karl Kraus, is set during the events of World War I. It shows everyday people in absurd situations. Kraus’s satirical view of society, published from 1915 to 1922, is spread over 200 individual scenes. Sengl chose 44 of the scenes and adapted them to make a grotesque collage. “I had the
courage to do this exhibition,” said Sengl, “Kraus is telling us that the war is happening everywhere, it is not only the soldiers at the front.” The artwork was first exhibited in 2014 in Klosterneuburg to mark the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I. 2018 marks 100 years since the end of WW1 and Sengl sees the exhibition as more relevant than it was four years ago. She said: “The situation hasn’t changed, people haven’t learnt anything from their experience. We are still making the same mistakes.” By Manuel Lavoriero and Olivia Powell
24-hour reading During the Forum, a 24-hour reading of Kraus’s play was held where participants, staff members and scholarship holders were invited to read or simply listen. The event in Hotel Böglerhof began at 9pm on 23 August and finished at 9pm the following day. Readers included Nona Shepphard, Franz Fischler and Lucy English. Approximately 200 scenes were read over the 24 hours. The book is over 600 pages long.
bogdan baraghin
VIDEO
To find out more about the exhibition follow this link to see an interview with the artist: is.gd/ratsexhibit
not provoke, but rather touch people, especially the young. Sengl said: “I hope young people see the exhibition to get them thinking about the war. Young people are probably not so connected to it.” Sengl acknowledged that many people have problems with taxidermy. Taxidermy is the process of maintaining an animal’s body by stuffing it for the purpose of display. Sengl said: “My work is very polarising, some people love it and some people hate it. However, no one is untouched by it. The topic is hard, political and actual, and if you are touched by it then I have done something good.” The creative process involved the artist working together with a taxidermist: “I drew sketches of the scenes and sent them to my preparator who lives in Lower Austria and whom I’ve known for about 10 years. He arranged the rats according to the sketches I made. After that, I equipped the rats with all sorts of accessories.”
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FORUM
OVERHEARD AT FORUM ALPBACH
“The problem with postmodernism is that it has removed the overall narrative that we should be united. Now all we have are sub-categories or identities. If identities become primary, then you become Identitarian.” - Alexander Bard, philosopher and author
QUOTES
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“Some regard immigration as being the biggest challenge there is. Not me.”
“I subscribe to everything: Guardian, Washington Post and, if the New York Times is selling wine, I’ll buy the wine.”
“Some ideas seem innocent in the beginning, but when they grow, they become monsters.”
“Most of them can’t remember where they parked their car.”
- Alexander Van der Bellen, President of Austria
- Anya Schiffrin, journalism professor at Columbia University
- Adnan Ćerimagić, Analyst at the European Stability Initiative
- Trevor D. Traina, US Ambassador, referring to Silicon Valley founders
JOSEPH STIGLITZ
Edited by Elina Andrus and Liv Østerstrand Rasmussen
Trump, the totalitarian of the kind of Erdogan totalitarian that says ‘I know best’, even though there has never been a leader as ignorant as he is.” Prof Stiglitz said fascism was on the rise more broadly in Europe, and he saw similarities in the anti-Semitic rhetoric of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Trump’s campaign attacks against prominent Jewish figures such as George Soros. The increasingly farright tone of many European governments could wreak havoc on the EU. “There is no easy remedy for Europe to deal with a country that is deviating so strongly from European values.”
andrei pungovschi
Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize winning economist, warned in Alpbach that Trump would shut down the free press if he got the chance. Instead he threatens the media through personal attacks, often on social media. “It’s designed to intimidate, and it actually does, because if you are a business leader your responsibility is (to) your company.” Professor Stiglitz said he met many business leaders who feared a tweet saying their company was un-American. This kind of intimidation was “corrosive of our democracy.” The Trump presidency, he said, had echoes internationally. “He is very much
The opening of this year’s economic symposium marked the 55th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech. Maja Göpel, Member of the Club of Rome, asked financial and technology markets to allow for individual decisionmaking. “If we break up the structural chains into decisions of individuals, human agency comes back on the horizon, collective action becomes tangible, the power of changing the rules of the game becomes what we can count on in our strategies.”
andrei pungovschi
MAJA GÖPEL
bogdan baraghin
SINKING AND THINKING I’m holding a black plastic ball in my hands. A short message is stamped on it: “Indulge yourself with a retreat.” Above the Congress Centre is a pool with several thousand balls each embossed with a pearl of wisdom. So every now and then I can enjoy a bath of ideas. The messages are terse and simple. The Stoics believed that true happiness lies in tranquility of mind and putting aside your emotions. They invented coolness. Let’s review the concept of coolness and take a Hellenic dive. On a plastic ball we may find some answers for today’s overheated conflicts. By Noel Kriznik, Alpbach Media Academy
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