Kortrijk | 5 & 6 September 2024

Over the last four years, the Living Summer School (LSS) has experimented with informal education as a means to inspire meaningful shifts in territorial innovation. During the conference, held alongside the fourth edition of LSS with the theme “Living (in) Repairs,” we invite a diverse audience—including educators, researchers, students, youth and social workers, and artists—to engage with our ongoing research and practice. This event was an opportunity for participants to share experiences, discuss challenges and opportunities, foster new collaborations, and envision the future of informal education in Europe.

We believe that academia is slowly drifting away from practice and crossovers between the two are increasingly challenging. Concurrently, technology is changing the way we meet, communicate, and share knowledge. More alarmingly, these developments are occurring against a backdrop of troubling global trends, including the rise of extremist political movements in Europe and the destruction of educational infrastructure in conflict zones such as Ukraine, Palestine, Syria, and Sudan. These factors raise significant concerns about the future of education.

As a response, institutions, educators, students and activists are engaging with new educational formats ranging from seasonal schools to residencies, hackathons, laboratories, floating universities, construction camps and many more. Not only do these practices fill existing gaps in the education sector, they create more room for rich human interactions and redefine the traditional roles of teacher and student. This is achieved by blending elements from different sectors and practices within new practices: creativity, pluridisciplinary, science, art, activism, etc.

A key element in these processes is informality, which we see as a way to break through the formal boundaries of learning. We have brought together researchers and practitioners from across Europe, representing a wide array of disciplines, to share their insights through panel discussions, keynote addresses, and workshops.

The conference itself was designed to reflect the spirit of informality, with sessions dispersed throughout the city at various sites where LSS students are currently building including an adventure construction playground, a social farm, and a cultural hub, with pools, cabins and cows setting the stage of our conversations. The public forum was an inclusive event, opening up the conversation to both the general public and LSS participants. The insights and outcomes from the conference will be documented in a conference book to be published in the coming months.

Invited Guests

Dr John Birgham-Hall
Theatrum Mundi (Paris, London) - theatrum-mundi.org
Centre for research and experimental learning seeking to reimagine our cities and who has agency in making them.

Irhana Šehović
LIFT Spatial Initiatives (Sarajevo) - daniarhitekture.ba
Grassroot organisation, questioning education as well as the existing economy largely dependent on public funding.

Lydia Gresakova & Viktoria Mravčáková
Spolka (Slovakia) - nevernever.spolka.cc
Space for dialogic education and research about cities, prototype and concept of education for the 21st century.

Sasha Baraitser Smith
Soundcamp (London) - soundtent.org
Transmission ecologies from DIY broadcasting devices to public sound and radio projects.

Jan Striker
ConstructLab - ConstructLab (France, Germany, Brussels) - constructlab.net
Transdisciplinary design-build network that brings together architectural concepts and construction.

Jesse Torenbosch
KU Leuven (Leuven) -kuleuven.be - Doctoral research on informal education and its link with academia.

Felix Wierschbitzki & Jade Dreyfuss
Floating University - floating-berlin.orgUrban practice on and in the rainwater retention pool of former Berlin Tempelhof airport since 2018.

Paul Auboin
BONJOUR (Paris, ENSAPLV) - Place of conviviality for and by the residents of Îlot 27, a neighbourhood near the Paris suburbs.

Toestand
toestand.be - Temporary use of vacant urban spaces by developing inclusive social and cultural dynamics, based on meeting, action and creation.

Bart Rogé
Refu Interim - refuinterim.be
Refu Interim helps build an inclusive and supportive society where everyone feels respected and welcome, and where newcomers have sufficient opportunities to realise their personal ambitions.

Dina SuhanovaArt Academy of Latvia (LDMA, Latvia) - lmda.lma.lv - “FestivaL'and” is a summer school format developed in collaboration with the Valmiera Summer Theatre Festival since 2018.

Emma Pauwels
BAF! - Creative playground for everyone with a taste for co-creation and experimentation.

Rabea Kaczor & Sophie CharlesonForecast Platform (Berlin) - forecast-platform.com
Facilitating, mentoring, and promoting trailblazing creative practices and audacious artistic practitioners.

Jonas Merckx
Haven Cooperatie (Antwerp) - havenvoorjongeondernemers.be
Cooperative that provides a safe testing ground for every young person and every idea.