Kokkalis Foundation supported the 5th conference on «The western and popular cultures. The roots and wings of the popular culture and the urban environment», which was organized by Organization Earth, on Wednesday October 18, 2017, on the occasion of the United Nations World Urban Campaign and in the context of the Urban Thinkers Campus and the “The City We Need” & “The Athens We Need”.
The conference took place at the Technopolis City of Athens, with the participation of academics, artists, architects, visual artists, anthropologists, musicologists, folklor artists, art historians and covered issues related to Popular Culture, and its dialectical conflict with Western Culture, as well as the consequences of the decline of the Western civilization mutation in our country.
The conference was opened by the the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Educational Affairs, Mr. Dimitris Sevastakis, followed by Mr. Constantinos Machairas, Executive Director at Organization Earth, who referred to the “The Athens We Want” and Mr. Petros Kokkalis, Vice President at the Kokkalis Foundation, who talked about Culture and Biodiversity and the Case of the Cities. An honorary plaque was awarded to Professor Emeritus of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens & Chairman of the Hellenic Society of Folklore Mr. Michalis Meraklis, while speeches followed by Manos Stefanidis, Ilias Voliotis, Panagiotis Kounadis, Mirsini Zorba etc.
The World Urban Campaign (WUC) is an advocacy and partnership platform to raise awareness about positive urban change. Organization Earth is the official representative of the World Urban Campaign in Greece, while "Athens We Need" is a pilot project, a UN initiative to achieve green, productive, safe, healthy, inclusive and well-planned cities.
Scientific Coordinator of the Conference: Mr. Alexis Kapopoulos, NTUA architect, professor, researcher of cultural anthropology EHESS.
