2022 / 23
Get Visible
Support for urban and media initiatives (in exile) in Georgia and Moldova
The project was originally focused on strengthening horizontal civil society structures in Russia: urban initiatives, NGOs, small media, etc., and on promoting their participation in processes of positive urban change. The aim was to support the expansion of (supra-)regional networks of participants and experts, as well as their exchange about common problems and solution strategies.
In connection with the escalation of the war on February 24, 2022, in Ukraine, initiated by the Russian political regime, the project was restructured. The escalation of the war led, among other things, to the destruction of public life in Russia, the banning of non-state media, and the persecution of opposition figures, journalists, and other opponents of the war. The project activities originally planned in Russia were relocated to Georgia due to the emigration of most Russian-speaking activists to the country. The restructured project aimed to respond to these new challenges and provide support for activists and persecuted professionals and experts in exile.
‘Get visible’ is being implemented at the intersection of new media, urbanism, and sociology, and includes the following project formats:
Project Overview
Continuing Education Program “School of Urban Pioneers”/SUP
The School of Urban Pioneers (SUP) is a nine-month non-formal continuing education program aimed at consolidating, developing, and qualifying urban communities and activists (in exile) in Georgia and Moldova. It includes local educational events, webinars, meetings with experts, peer workshops, and an educational trip for multipliers to Berlin. The program runs from November 2022 to May 2023.
Workshop “Media Activism”
This format is focused on networking and promoting the professional skills and resources of war opponents and media creators in exile. It includes support in building professional networks between major and minor regional media organizations, media activists, journalists, and bloggers; continuing education with webinars and multi-day offline workshops; strategic development of a media agenda to influence the attitudes of people living in Russia, particularly media users who support the war in Ukraine.
Science Labs
In the multi-day “Science Labs on the Road” in Georgia and Moldova, project experts focus on analyzing and discussing the cities and their societies, the current role of professional urban communities, bottom-up initiatives, and urban activists, their new professional context (in exile), and their opportunities for taking action to shape cities “from below.” The goal of the Science Labs is also to develop a transnational network of experts and active urban residents and to facilitate their direct exchange. In this section, project experts will also create reflective and practical contributions related to the project theme.
Public Formats
These include a series of large and small public events, such as the 2022 conference “WARning the City” with 100 experts and participants, “Kitchen Sociology Evenings,” and others that address current issues and challenges facing cities, initiatives, and urban residents in times of war: New war-related migration: Between solidarity and efficiency, Science and education in exile, Manifestations of “authoritarian urbanism” and the position of professional communities, “Relatively European Cities”: Russian emigrants in Yerevan, Tbilisi, Batumi, and Baku, Translocal infrastructures of feminist anti-war resistance, and others.
Project team
Dr. Elena Stein
Dr. Oleg Pachenkov
Lilia Voronkova
The program was implemented by the Center for Independent Social Research in Berlin and its partners, with the support of the German Federal Foreign Office.