At a time when we need dialogue and solidarity across borders, the following events/conferences hold out hope.

One year on – ‘witness seminar’
Friday 10th March 1-5pm, London Welsh Centre,
157-163 Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1X 8UE

NCIA has closed! But long live the spirit of NCIA present! As promised we are having a ‘one year on’ witness seminar to see where the issues we have been fighting so hard for have now got to. It’s on Friday 10th March 2017, 1.00 – 5pm at the London Welsh Centre in London. The event is free at the point of delivery! As usual we will have a bit of social time afterwards.

If you, colleagues or collaborators would like to come to the event, put the date in your diary now and drop an email here ausgesucht@yahoo.co.uk – saying ‘yes I am coming’ with your name, organisation/group’. We’ll send you a full programme in the middle of February.

Also if you would like to contribute (a) short slot (5 minutes) on your perspective on independent voluntary action’ in March 2017 – also drop a line to the above email address. If you want a longer slot and you haven’t already been in contact, let me know a title and three sentences. We’ll have an opportunity to swap ideas like this on the day.

 

‘DEFENDING WELFARE, WELCOMING REFUGEES: ANOTHER SOCIAL WORK IS POSSIBLE’

The SWAN conference is the largest annual radical and critical Social Work conference in Europe with over a decade of bringing together educators, service users, practitioners and all those concerned with social work and social justice. The conference will be held at the School of Health and Social Care at Teesside University, Middlesborough, April 8/9, 2017.

We welcome presentations (20 mins) or more interactive workshops (60 mins) from ALL, including practitioners, service user and social justice organisations, students, educators and trade unionists. Please send proposals of no more than 300 words to swanconference2017@gmail.com. All proposals will be responded to by 12 March 2017 or sooner. See you in Teeside!

Full details at SWAN 2017 Conference

 

Interdisciplinary Conference
Building Bridges in a Complex World

CHANIA, CRETE, GREECE | 6-8 July 2017

A Radically Different Kind of Conference

We are a network of academics and practitioners motivated by our work experiences inside and outside of Europe. With this being the first conference, we are hoping to turn this into an annual gathering to build bridges on three different levels: between theorists and practitioners, between people from different disciplines and between people from different parts of the world.

Our personal experiences in education and the general job market are that job insecurity, isolation and competitiveness –through constant evaluations, satisfaction surveys, pressure to secure funding and ultimately generate income– create a culture that encourages cut-throat encounters. On a political and professional level, it leads to a lack of collaboration and solidarity between groups and professions. On a personal level, it makes us feel alienated, which obviously affects our life satisfaction and mental health.

This is an interdisciplinary, inquiry-driven gathering with the main focus on bringing people together to share ideas in a convivial environment. We hope to explore what kind of alternative questions, concepts, methods and practices are necessary to address these complex challenges of our time.

It is in this spirit that we invite contributions from practitioners and researchers to share your insights, practices and experiences relating to programmes, policies and studies that address issues of social (in)justice and (in)equality locally and internationally.

For more information, see Building Bridges