WHAT'S ON
Full List
Social | Sat 30th May | 11am - 13pm
Curious about Full Circle? Join us for a drink & discover what we're all about.
Whether you're already part of our community or simply intrigued, you’ll have the opportunity to meet the team, explore the house & hear more about our future plans – including what the different types of Full Circle memberships have to offer. It’s a relaxed & informal setting, ideal for asking questions & seeing if this is a place where you feel at home.
We warmly welcome current members & their guests too – so feel free to bring a friend or two along. It's a lovely way to connect with others who share a curiosity for ideas, culture & community. No pressure, just good company & a great conversation.
We're looking forward to welcoming you!
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ADDITIONAL INFO
ACCESS
Bar & snacks
Essentials in the age of AI — A Deeper Dive: Social Architectures and Democratic Resilience Organised and led by: tech & democracy analyst Maria Koomenneuroscientists and policy analysts Nicoleta Prutean and Virginia Mahieu
Essentials in the age of AI — A Deeper Dive:
Social Architectures and Democratic Resilience
Organised and led by: tech & democracy analyst Maria Koomenneuroscientists and policy analysts Nicoleta Prutean and Virginia Mahieu
Ideas / Action | Sat 30th May | 2-4:30 pm
*Act On sessions offer quarterly action-oriented get-togethers on a specific issue, between experts and an audience willing to DO something about it.*
This workshop turns our attention to how algorithmic systems shape who we connect with, how we relate, and how we cope. Recommender systems and AI-mediated platforms promise connection while quietly replacing serendipity and solidarity with curated, frictionless matching. We explore what this means for our capacity to act collectively, tolerate uncertainty, and sustain the civic bonds democratic systems depend on, and what alternative social architectures, business models, and regulatory levers could strengthen them.
With this session we take a deeper dive into 'the essentials' - the five core human capacities underpinning our democracies (comprehend, connect, create, communicate, and cope) and explore how AI-driven technologies are reshaping each one. We thoughtfully examine the specific design features behind that reshaping, what they mean for our democratic citizenship, and how we might build something better. Join us.
Maria Koomen is a Democracy, governance & tech analyst and advocacy specialist. She is the former governance director at the Centre for Future Generations, working on the challenges at the intersection of emerging technologies, democracy, and governance. Her work focused on ensuring that governance systems evolve to keep pace with technological and societal change. Maria led the Open Governance Network for Europe, a joint initiative of Open Government Partnership and Democratic Society to drive connection, dialogue, and learning around public participation, transparency, and accountability with an eye to improving democracy and governance in and across the European Union. Prior to that Maria was senior programme manager on the Democracy Conflict & Governance program at the Carnegie Europe.
Nicoleta Prutean is a neuroscientist and policy analyst, currently leading research on tech & the brain at the Centre for Future Generations. Drawing on her expertise in brain science, her mission is to ensure that evidence on how emerging technologies affect mental health translates into policies that both protect and empower future generations.
Virginia Mahieu is a neuroscientist and policy analyst, neurotechnology Director at the Centre for Future Generations. She explores how neurotechnologies impact society, combining neuroscience and foresight to ensure that governance frameworks are up to scratch so these emerging technologies contribute to a brain-healthy future. She previously worked at the Policy Foresight Unit and the Scientific Foresight Unit of the European Parliamentary Research Service, where she specialised in futures literacy, behavioural insights, and scenario planning at the science-policy interface.
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with Andreea Petre-Goncalves
Ideas / Conversations | Sat 30th May | 5-7pm
The invasion of Venezuela is not for you. The war on Iran is not for you. The erasure of Gaza and occupation of Southern Lebanon are not for you. Putin’s crimes in Ukraine are not for you. You will not benefit from any of these savageries. They are committed in the interests of a sneering cabal, determined to fill its pockets, whatever the means.
The oil wars will fuel data centres and colonising trips to Mars, for a bunch of amoral men drunk on delusion and self-aggrandisement. If this means the mothers of Molenbeek are forced to put things back on the shelf at Lidl, so be it. There isn’t room on the space ship for everyone.
What sleight of hand to make it seem the real danger were desperate people risking their lives at sea, hidden in lorry trailers, queuing for the indignity of unemployment benefit, children alone in forests at Europe’s borders. Fooled in this way, we have let pass corporate exploitation and destruction, the tax evasion of the ultra-rich, oligarchs and magnates the world over, a financial system fuelled by theft and make-believe, the sheer corruption of our administrations slashing safeguards and burning the earth for the profit of those who already have the most.
Post-structuralist discourse theory says successful politics needs an “other” against which it can define itself, an enemy it promises to defeat. How appalling that we have let that “other” be the most vulnerable among us, for so long.
Has the time come to start punching up? Join us for an unflinching conversation.
Open to everyone
Andreea Petre-Goncalves 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.
SINGLES APERO
Social | Sat 30th May | 7-9pm
The Singles Apero is our popular series of monthly encounters where you can meet other social singles in a safe space without matching pressure. Feel free to bring any single friends along or just come by yourself.
Open to all singles | Booking required
Bar open
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ROOTS
Big Band of Canarias
Music / Sun 31st May / 6pm
*Doors & bar open 5.00pm. Concert starts at 6 pm.
Experience the vibrant sounds of “Roots”, blending jazz, flamenco, folk, and world music by the Big Band of Canarias. Led by true virtuoso saxophonist & composer Kike Perdomo, this extraordinary ensemble brings the Canary Islands’ musical heritage to life with soaring solos, bold arrangements, and irresistible rhythms.
Featuring 17 top musicians and special guests Luís Morera, Luisa Machado, Chiqui Pérez, Kino Ait Idrissen, and Beselch Rodríguez, “Roots” delivers a concert full of energy, artistry, and unforgettable musical moments for every listener.
ABOUT BIG BAND OF CANARIAS
Founded in 2008, the Big Band of Canarias brings together leading jazz musicians from the different Canary Islands and connects artists across generations. Throughout its history it has collaborated with internationally recognized artists including Sole Giménez, Gerardo Núñez, Dorantes, Dick Oatts, Soren Moller, Tutu Puoane, Viktorija Pilatovic, Daymé Arocena, Sandra Carrasco, Olga Cerpa, José Manuel Ramos, Fabiola Socas and many others. The ensemble has performed in important venues and festivals including the Madrid International Jazz Festival, Costa Brava International Jazz Festival, Berlin Big Band Festival, Bonn Bundes Big Band Festival, Seville Flamenco Biennial, Tenerife Auditorium, Canarias Jazz & Más Festival, Fimucité Film Music Festival and numerous cultural events across Spain and Europe.
WHEELCHAIR
Bar & snacks & light food
WAF CAFF
Ideas I Tues 2nd June I 12.15-1.15 pm **OPEN TO ALL**
We meet for one hour on the first Tuesday of every month at Rond-Point Schuman, outside the European Commission, to stand up for democracy.
Each gathering focuses on a different issue, highlighting where rights and freedoms are at risk.
This is about freedom and about us as engaged citizens. Coffee and conversation are part of the gathering.
Democracy & coffee ☕
Join us and exercise your democratic rights.
No need to book, just drop by.
How to breakup Microsoft?
Aline Blankertz & Brianna Rock
Doors open at 6.30pm. Speakers will start at 7pm.
Aline Blankertz and Brianna Rock, two researchers and antimonopoly advocates, travel from Berlin to Brussels to break the ice around Big Tech breakups. In the launch of the series “How to Break up…”, they will focus on Microsoft.
The US company has been systematically violating competition rules, which indicates its vast political and market power. Addressing principles such as digital sovereignty, the integrity of markets, and the preservation of democracy, Blankertz and Rock find that Microsoft is too big to regulate. They will explore how to break up Microsoft, and what a smaller Microsoft could look like.
ABOUT THE HOSTS
Aline Blankertz is an applied economist and works as Tech Economy Lead at Rebalance Now, a German anti-monopoly organisation. Her work is focused on competition policy and the digital economy, with extensive experience encompassing think tanks, academic research and implementation projects.
Brianna Rock is an independent researcher supporting the European antimonopoly movement through evidence based research.
Google's Hidden Empire by Aline Blankertz, Brianna Rock, Nicholas Shaxson
Women Against Fascism (WAF)
Is Populism a Possible Strategy for the Left?
Emmy Eklundh
Conversations | Wed 10th June | 7pm Doors open 6.30pm
Open to everyone | Booking required Bar open
Can populism and nationalism be useful for the Left as a political strategy? Is there a form of good populism? What would really be feasible for the Left to do?
An original thinker in the field of populism, Emmy Eklundh joins us to question and rethink existing, comfortable paradigms. In this WAF conversation, Emmy draws upon both her extensive experience on the frontiers of populism studies and her engagement on the Left to consider possible ways forward to pursue effective progressive politics today. For all of us concerned about contemporary politics, she connects liberalism, populism and a critical decolonial perspective in a highly original way.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Dr. Emmy Eklundh is Senior Lecturer in Politics at Cardiff University, UK. The focus of her research is in the interface between European Politics and political and social theory. I'm particularly interested in social movements and political parties on the left, and especially cases of left-wing populism in Southern Europe. She uses radical democratic frameworks to further our understanding of democracy in Europe, the challenges to our current liberal order, but also the possibilities for democratic reform.
Current research projects include left-wing populist responses to nationalism, and resistance to European integration from the left. She also closely looks at the role of social media for political action, and at how emotions influence the way we think about political identities.
She is a regular contributor to media outlets on discussions on Spanish politics and populism (including the BBC, CNN, Sky News, CNBC, Swedish national radio, Newsweek). She was previously Lecturer in Spanish and International Politics at King's College London.
with Maria Koomen Ideas / Action | Sat 13th Jun | 2-4:30 pm
with Maria Koomen
Ideas / Action | Sat 13th Jun | 2-4:30 pm
Save the date to act on democracy. More info coming soon.
Theme announced soon Sandra Melone
Theme announced soon
Sandra Melone
Conversations | Sat 13th Jun | 5-7pm
Save the date. More info coming soon!
Open to everyone | Booking required
Hosting the Series is Sandra Djuvara Melone, CEO of Zancora Consulting, which she founded in 2021, with a strong expertise in peacebuilding, conflict resolution, crisis management, human rights and, not last, gender. With a vast experience on the ground, she has worked across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. She knows first hand what living through civil war is like. Sandra is the Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Search for Common Ground, Europe, one of the world’s leading international non-governmental organisations working in peacebuilding and conflict transformation, where she's been involved in various roles since 1995. Sandra is a founding member of the European Platform for Conflict Prevention and Transformation (EPCPT), of the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office (EPLO), and of the Child Soldiers Initiative (CSI). Before dedicating her career to conflict transformation, Sandra worked in human rights advocacy with Amnesty International, and in international education.
Book Launch / Fri 19th June / 6.30-8.30pm
*Hosted event
They were meant to be dead, buried under the sand. But they survived. Two young Kurds manage to miraculously escape Saddam Hussein’s killing grounds to eventually find their way to America. A story of luck, nerve and perseverance, with many setbacks along the way.
Partially based on true events, this is the story of a genocide as remembered by some who lived through it – as victims, perpetrators, and witnesses. By weaving together their testimonies – some true, some false, others imagined – Joost Hiltermann paints an enthralling portrait of survival and destiny under the worst of circumstances, the 1988 Anfal campaign in Iraq, and what happened afterwards. In America the survivors build protected but split-soul lives, typical of first-generation immigrants – until one day the past comes calling.
The Resurrected is Joost Hiltermann's debut novel. He was one of the main researchers of the genocide against the Kurds for Human Rights Watch in the 1990s, culminating in his fictionized retelling of the case. He has remained in close contact with the two (real) survivors and their families to this day.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joost Hiltermann is a Dutch researcher and writer. He was the Programme Director for the Middle East & North Africa at the International Crisis Group and was previously at Human Rights Watch. Joost holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He has written for The New York Review of Books, The London Review of Books, Foreign Affairs and other publications.
He is also the author of A Poisonous Affair: America, Iraq, and the Gassing of Halabja (Cambridge, 2007) and Behind the Intifada: Labor and Women's Movements in the Occupied Territories (Princeton, 1991).
A news commentary with
James Kanter
Ideas / Conversations / Wed 24th Jun / 7-8.30 pm
Live & On the Record: A Podcast Launch with James Kanter
Join us for the live debut of This Week's News, bringing Europe's most consequential stories to life and hosted by veteran Brussels journalist James Kanter.
With a live audience, a rotating cast of sharp journalistic voices and analysis driven by what is defining the news cycle, This Week's News is built to move with the moment - and this first recording is where it all begins.
Every episode, James Kanter weaves together guests, stories and debate into one compelling conversation. For this one, he'll be joined by a panel of fellow journalists, each bringing their own perspective, skilled analysis and comment for much needed sense-making - the first of many line-ups that will shift and evolve as the news demands.
No fixed agenda or guests. Just the stories that matter right now. From the corridors of EU power to the fault lines reshaping the continent, the panel will dig into the headlines, share the dispatches that didn't make the front page, and debate the forces defining our world - live, unscripted, in front of you.
Whether you're a policy wonk, a news junkie, or simply trying to make sense of it's happening around you and the wider world, we invite you to be part of something from day one. Join us for the news. Stay for the conversation.
James Kanter is an American and British award-winning journalist and Brussels-based commentator on EU affairs. Previously at Herald Tribune and The New York Times. He's co-founder and editor of the Podcast EU Scream.
All My Precious Madness by Mark Bowles
Culture | Thurs 25th Jun | 7:00-8:30 pm
Monthly meet up to discuss a great read, along with drinks & good company.
*Doors open at 6.30pm. The book club begins at 7pm.
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Great news! The author, Mark Bowles, joins us virtually to discuss his award-winning novel together.
This is the last book club before the summer break! Join us.
‘Unapologetically erudite and frequently brutal' - The Telegraph
Henry Nash has hauled his way from a working class childhood in Bradford, through an undergraduate degree at Oxford, and into adulthood and an academic elite. But still, he can’t escape his anger. As the world – and men in particular – continues to disappoint him, so does his rage grow in momentum until it becomes almost rapturous. And lethal. This is the story of a man at odds with the world. A man who wants to escape his violent past but instead – most emphatically – repeats it.
A savagely funny novel that disdains literary and moral conventions, All My Precious Madness is also a work of deep empathy – even when that also means understanding the darkest parts of humanity. One of the most electric debuts of the last decade.
Mark Bowles is a published author and a committed teacher. Born and raised in Bradford, he went on to study at Liverpool and Oxford Universities. His first novel, All My Precious Madness, was published by Galley Beggar in 2024, and has been nominated for the Goldsmiths Prize and the Authors’ Club First Novel Prize. His second novel, How Do People Stay the Same, will be out in Spring 2025.
Bar open with snacks
Social | Sat 27th June | 7-9pm
This is our last get together before the summer break. Come join us or see you back in September!
We only have 120 tickets and we always sell out!!
It's time to dust off your dancing shoes and join a traditional Scottish ceilidh.
No previous experience or dancing skills required - the band will be calling out the steps as we go along. If you're a ceilidh regular then you know how much fun it is!
Bring your friends or come along but please, no spikey heels on our rather beautiful wooden floor.
* 7.30pm doors open - bar snacks available
* 8.00pm start dancing!
* 10.30pm Band finishes
*TICKET INCLUDES 1 DRINK (BEER, WINE OR SOFT)
BAR SNACKS AVAILABLE ALL EVENING
Bar & light food
The Hoggies are the original Brussels-based Scottish ceilidh band.
You already know us, you know what we do, and that by coming YOU make this a great event!
Get your EARLYBIRD pass for the entire weekend today!
FULL CIRCLE HOUSE
89 Ch. de Vleurgat, Brussels 1050, Belgium +32 (0)2 644 3777 I info [ AT ] fullcircle.eu
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OPENING MON-WED & FRI 9AM-5.30PM THURS 9AM-9PMSAT 2PM-7PM (or 9PM) SUNDAY & PUBLIC HOLIDAYS - CLOSED
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