(Bulgaria-Canada) “Transeuropa Festival: a Stepping Stone to an Alternative Democracy?”

borislava.miteva(at)gmail.com

ABSTRACT: In an era of advanced technologies, which allow for accelerated mobility and efficient long-distance communication people have the opportunity to participate in a borderless dialogue regarding increasingly complex EU issues, such as the economic instability, migration experiences , and new forms of democratic participation. Based on a recent survey, these three broad topics have been voted as the most important concerns of people across Europe, which is precisely why the public debates and activities under the umbrella of the Transeuropa Festival 2012 will revolve around them. Inspired by the idea of a bottom-up governance, the Transeuropa Network organizes various local events throughout the year, allowing for dialogue among European citizens. The presentation goes into the objectives and principles of the network, the organization and opportunities for involvement through local groups, along with an outline of the past and upcoming festival activities. As such, the presentation is not intended to be simply informative, but would require feedback on ways for facilitating the Europe-wide political participation, and specifically the upcoming festival, and would thus serve as a medium for discussing the encompassing theme of Communication and Democracy.

BIO: Borislava Miteva has a Bachelor’s double degree in Social studies and Italian studies from the University of British Columbia and the University of Bologna. In March 2011 she obtained her honors MA Euroculture from the University of Groningen and Jagiellonian University.  Nominated at the European studies Intensive Programme 2010, her article “Europeanization of the ‘European’ values and the emerging EU image” was recently published in an online journal. Nevertheless, during the Master’s programme most of her research and projects focused on issues related to different marginalized communities. Accordingly, she sees her professional development within the fields of human rights and/or social development.