Narratives seem to be everywhere these days. Many thinkers, politicians, activists, artists, etc., call for “new” or “alternative narratives?” - But why, and what for?

Our first questions for this cycle of Narratopia's "Agora" are therefore the following: Why do narratives seem so important? What do they actually do? And what “narratives” are we talking about?

The "initiators" for this sessions are:

• Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, Associate Professor in Global Culture Studies at the University of Oslo, Norway. He leads the international research group CoFUTURES.
• Dr. Ivana Milojević, Director, Metafuture and Metafuture School.

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About Narratopias and the "Agora" cycle

Why, and how, do we need to talk about new narratives?

Narratopias’ “Agora” is the place for discussing, confronting, connecting, and continuing transformative narratives, testing new forms of collective dialog or projection.

The initial “Agora” cycle will take the form of four meetings between May and July, 2021. Its goal is to explore the reasons why new or alternative narratives are felt to be necessary, and the conditions under which they can actually make meaningful change more possible.

Each session will discuss narratives under the multiple and complexe ways to look at one. Two participants are in charge of kickstarting the discussion and a written synthesis will be produced after each meeting, to serve as a foundation for future actions and projects.