L’Orlando Women's Association and the partners of the project
School of Politics "Hannah Arendt"

inform that the third international seminar

To Be Acknowledged:
Feminine Sphere Inside and Outside of Institutions

will be held on 12^th -14th of June 1998
Bologna - Sala dei Notai - Via de' Pignattari 1

This meeting is a session of the three-year series of seminars, which constitutes the core of the "School of Politics Hannah Arendt". It is important to note that the project intends to identify, make visible, and give value to those women's practices that initiate new forms of presence in the public sphere. To achieve this end, it promotes theoretical reflection starting from the practices that the women have been carrying out over the years, in Italy and world-wide.

The common theme, both conceptual and of action, of the first year series of seminars is a reflection on how the "we" is built, creates connections, what makes society, communitas. Since its foundation, the Orlando Association has constituted a piece of public sphere in Bologna, from the perspective of mutual recognition/gratitude (reconnaissance) among women who are active in different roles and places. Nowadays, after several years, this perspective and practice has proved to be effective: it helps to place those forms of action establishing relations of reciprocity in the foreground, as well as mutual legitimisation and empowerment among women who are active in the institutions and women active in the society in a broader sense.

The seminar in June will discuss experiences of women engaged in the autonomous constitution of public sphere as well as those of women operating in the institutions. Data about different electoral systems and the quantitative presence of the women in the electoral institutions are taken as a given: relevant information will be made available to the participants. Rather than in policies aimed to foster the quantitative presence of women, our interest will be on the difference made by women. We will ask whether the experience, the innovative ways of relation, the past and present practice of individuals and groups intend and can be brought into politics; whether the relations and networks inside and outside the institutions could contribute. Attention will be concentrated on spaces, forms, contents and actors of politics, according to a comparative approach which relates different levels: social, geo-political and institutional (national and local).

Both speakers and attendants of the seminar will be women who have had institutional experiences and/or have initiated innovative forms of political relations between women inside and outside institutions; experiences and initiatives may have been good or bad, successful or unsuccessful.. Difference in perspectives seems to be essential: the School of politics does not intend to group similars, rather it seeks affinity across differences.

We invite you to come and bring your experience and reflection

We count on your participation

Saturday, 13

Sunday, 14

For further information please contact:
Fernanda Minuz, project leader
Associazione di donne Orlando - Bologna
via Galliera 8 - tel. 051-233863 fax 051-263460

Project by Marzia Vaccari
Graphics design and Html by Piera Morselli