The Global Policy Institute is partnering with the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, Sciences Po Paris and More in Common to organise the first Othering & Belonging Conference in Europe.
The Othering & Belonging conferences, organised by the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, are dynamic and uniquely curated events which aim to elevate work nationally and globally in "othering and belonging," a critical lens developed by the Institute under the leadership of john a. powell for defining structural exclusion and inclusion, and an analytical and applied framework which we can use to design and advance institutions, narratives, and policies that support a more fully inclusive “we.”
A major aim of Othering & Belonging is to popularize and familiarize our movements and our larger communities and networks with the skills and knowledge to participate in advocacy and ideas using a belonging framework.
The Othering & Belonging conferences elevate empirical and evidence-based approaches while prioritising relationship-building that can spark new and innovative collaborations that cut across discipline, identity, issue-area, national borders, and generations, in order to propel more impactful work for all of us. Find out more about previous Othering & Belonging conferences.
These conferences are very popular events that usually attract hundreds of academics, scientists, students, politicians, communities, and the general public. This is the first time and Othering & Belonging conference will take place in Europe, and the GPI is proud to be partnering with Sciences Po Paris and More in Common to organise this event.
On Jan. 24 2020, more than 35 thought leaders from across Europe and the US gathered at Sciences Po in Paris, as a prelude to the Othering & Belonging Conference. Organized in partnership with the O & B Institute at UC Berkeley, More in Common, and Sciences Po, “Moving Forward Toward Belonging: A Symposium on Othering & Belonging” sought to help shape emergent work in Europe by identifying a cross-sector of actors already working towards belonging in the region. The symposium agenda was also crafted to discuss how the concepts underpinning the O&B framework can be translated in Europe. Questions and ideas from this symposium will be expanded further at the Othering & Belonging Conference Europe.
The daylong workshop sought to understand the shared challenges of heightened othering and “breaking” in both North America and Europe as well as the ways these phenomena manifest differently in each context. Those who took part in the discussion included scholars from UC Berkeley, the Max Planck Society in Germany, the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Sciences Po in France, as well as practitioners and policymakers from cities as diverse as Brussels, Turin, Birmingham, Athens, Manchester, and Barcelona. Participants also came from a highly diverse set of groups, including youth education leaders, culturemakers, those working with institutions such as the EU, government officials, philanthropic organizations, racial justice movements and more.