Alternative Culture Now

Organized by the Alternative Culture Center and the University of Alberta, Canada, with support from CEU's Curriculum Resource Center, the CMCS and the Open Society Institute’s Higher Education Support Program.

Scholars from Eastern and Western Europe, post-Soviet countries and North America came together at the conference to discuss the role and shape of the alternative in contemporary culture and politics. Ranging from open source economics to literature, from precariousness to architecture, and from sound art to education, the conference topics traced the location and nature of the alternative in a variety of areas. Alternative media provided fruitful grounds for analyzing the fate of the alternative. CMCS Director Kate Coyer moderated a panel on 'Media Alternatives: What Happens Now?', in which CMCS Research Fellow Arne Hintz discussed the transformation of alternative media towards constituting a recognized social force and an integral part of the media landscape.