A friendly conversation on stuff that matters with Andreea Petre-Goncalves
Conversations / SAT 25th May / 5-7 pm
Reimagining dynamics of domination
A few weeks ago, I heard someone at a conference say that expecting peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians was akin to demanding peaceful coexistence between the rider and the horse. Since hearing it, I can’t unhear it. It seems to fit like a glove around so many aspects of reality. A useful filter through which much pain and overboiling rage across society seem easier to understand.
All social orders (from the individual to the collective) are based on underlying ideas of justice. Capitalism on the idea that all can be rewarded according to merit, which we establish through competition. Multilateralism on the trust that decisions are made together by sovereign states, for the benefit of all. Marriage, among many things, on the understanding that what we sacrifice in freedom, we regain in comfort. When the balance of justice is altered, the social order becomes a breachable dam, at risk from torrents of anger and discontent, wholesale change inevitable. The justice fiction (for it is always constructed) is the glue.
In a world where our justice myths are fading, where few own wealth and many pay rent, who is the rider and who is the horse? Whose compliance is expected, and what justice are they getting in return? Who gets to define the rules of engagement? Which among us actively signed up for dynamics of domination? Are better things possible?
Join us and replenish your hope reserves.
Open to everyone | Booking required Bar open
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Andreea was 8 years old when totalitarian Communism collapsed overnight in her native Romania. She saw then how quickly yesterday’s absolute truth can become tomorrow reviled atrocity. She knows that societal narratives can shift fast, and when they do, they make deep system re-set possible.
For two decades she worked for international development, human rights, health and sustainability in the EU institutions and international NGOs. In 2019 she set up Flare, a Brussels-based think-and-do tank that experiments with practical ways of shifting the collective ideas we hold of what is normal and desirable. This work builds on 15 years of her researching and writing about societal narrative shifts. She is a BMW Foundation Responsible Leader and a member of Global Diplomacy Lab.
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