Experiments can lead to beautiful things
The full Shabka story
May 2013
We are up and running
While being busy dreaming big, building the network and creating structures, our first big project soon became getting our initial website online. When it was finally up and running, it was designed to publish material ranging from sound political analyses to book reviews or commentary pieces from our network of contributors. The recipe: inspirational meetings, hours over hours of troubleshooting, drafting of uncountable articles, tireless trial and error runs and good spirit.
…by the way, our logo was designed in one straight sitting one the margins of – and inspired by – the 2013 World Social Forum in Tunis.
Winter 2013/14
Going abroad
For a short but intense period, we established our first and – so far – only foreign chapter in Cairo. During that time we co-facilitated Adham Hamed’s book project “Revolution as a Process” in Egypt and held our first Exchange, convening our Egyptian and Austrian members. Do to security reasons, we were forced to cease our projects in Cairo only after a few months though.
June 2015
250th article published
On June 25th, 2015 we proudly featured the 250th article on our website. It was a substantial critique of the “peace project EU” by Paul Winter, one of Shabka’s founding members. As of now, the Shabka Journal contributes more than 350 posts from 140+ international authors to a critical debate about political topics.
June 2016
A space for discussion
It was a long and winding road to get from project to programme. In launching our first proper long term programme – the Salon Shabka – in mid-2016, we opened a space for political discussion off the beaten track of hectic and hurried public discourses. Since its premiere it has continued to be intense, controversial, sophisticated and deliberative.
March 2018
Birth of a young strategic community
In establishing the Future Strategists Hub we not only made shaping our own political future a top priority of our work by delivering new impulses and innovative ideas. We also managed to establish a unique community of young strategic thinkers.
With 8 working groups led by junior experts, 70+ participants, support from 7 distinguished individuals and 10 partner organisations, the Future Strategists Hub’s kick-off edition was by far our biggest event so far. It will certainly not be the last though.
In the future...
… we will certainly continue to mobilise our network as a critical voice – be it through public dialogue or by consulting decision makers directly.
Sure, during the last years we have grown, some of our projects have become programmes and the world has changed quite a bit. Solid as a rock, our approach, however, has remained the very same: Shabka will continue to be a forum for discussion and a dynamo that translates qualified knowledge into action.
Fall 2012
Where it all started
Every idea seems to start with a problem:
Ours was that, although knowing about its critical potential, we dearly missed social science in understandably explaining what is happening around us. Wanting to change that, four ambitious students from Vienna – Lukas Wank, Thomas König, Tyma Kraitt and Paul Winter – set out to bridge the gap between conventional journalism, academia and political activism.
In a world full of complexity that cried out for answers, they therefore started networking young journalists and academics and created Shabka (Arabic for network), a critical information platform.
October 2013
Ahead of our time
Our first opportunity to act as a team on an international level was as media partner and workshop facilitator at the Creating Change Conference in Malta.
In reaching out to 36 young activists from Mediterranean countries, our workshop spurred a critical and balanced approach towards migration journalism. In light of the humanitarian crisis that unfolded in Europe exactly 3 years after our workshop, we were clearly ahead of our time.
March 2014
Shabka gets its papers
Tackling bureaucracy head on, we managed to get our paperwork done and successfully registered “Shabka, the network for a global society”, as an association with the Austrian government.
Since its founding, Shabka’s primary aim has been to raise awareness for global political interrelations. This has remained unchanged until today.
Articles
April 2017
An unique experiment
Hungry for more, we soon launched our 2nd programme in close collaboration with the University of Graz and the Austrian Conflict, Peace & Democracy Cluster: the beautifully interdisciplinary, collaborative, multi-level and impact-seeking CPD Policy Blog. It bridges academia and politics, thus enabling a meaningful scientific contribution to politics.
Summer 2018
Setting sails for more
As the last years’ busy schedule and tremendous workload took its toll, Shabka required adjustments on the in- and outside: backed by amazing new team members we re-launched a state-of the art website, reshuffled our structures, consolidated our key topics and treated ourselves with a brand new roadmap for the years’ ahead. In other words: we completed the transformation from a journalistic network to a strategic Think&Do-Tank. Phew!
Fall 2012
Where it all started
Every idea seems to start with a problem:
Ours was that, although knowing about its critical potential, we dearly missed social science in understandably explaining what is happening around us. Wanting to change that, four ambitious students from Vienna – Lukas Wank, Thomas König, Tyma Kraitt and Paul Winter – set out to bridge the gap between conventional journalism, academia and political activism.
In a world full of complexity that cried out for answers, they therefore started networking young journalists and academics and created Shabka (Arabic for network), a critical information platform.
May 2013
We are up and running
While being busy dreaming big, building the network and creating structures, our first big project soon became getting our initial website online. When it was finally up and running, it was designed to publish material ranging from sound political analyses to book reviews or commentary pieces from our network of contributors. The recipe: inspirational meetings, hours over hours of troubleshooting, drafting of uncountable articles, tireless trial and error runs and good spirit.
…by the way, our logo was designed in one straight sitting one the margins of – and inspired by – the 2013 World Social Forum in Tunis.
October 2013
Ahead of our time
Our first opportunity to act as a team on an international level was as media partner and workshop facilitator at the Creating Change Conference in Malta.
In reaching out to 36 young activists from Mediterranean countries, our workshop spurred a critical and balanced approach towards migration journalism. In light of the humanitarian crisis that unfolded in Europe exactly 3 years after our workshop, we were clearly ahead of our time.
Winter 2013/14
Going abroad
For a short but intense period, we established our first and – so far – only foreign chapter in Cairo. During that time we co-facilitated Adham Hamed’s book project “Revolution as a Process” in Egypt and held our first Exchange, convening our Egyptian and Austrian members. Do to security reasons, we were forced to cease our projects in Cairo only after a few months though.
March 2014
Shabka gets its papers
Tackling bureaucracy head on, we managed to get our paperwork done and successfully registered “Shabka, the network for a global society”, as an association with the Austrian government.
Since its founding, Shabka’s primary aim has been to raise awareness for global political interrelations. This has remained unchanged until today.
June 2015
250th article published
On June 25th, 2015 we proudly featured the 250th article on our website. It was a substantial critique of the “peace project EU” by Paul Winter, one of Shabka’s founding members. As of now, the Shabka Journal contributes more than 350 posts from 140+ international authors to a critical debate about political topics.
Articles
June 2016
A space for discussion
It was a long and winding road to get from project to programme. In launching our first proper long term programme – the Salon Shabka – in mid-2016, we opened a space for political discussion off the beaten track of hectic and hurried public discourses. Since its premiere it has continued to be intense, controversial, sophisticated and deliberative.
April 2017
An unique experiment
Hungry for more, we soon launched our 2nd programme in close collaboration with the University of Graz and the Austrian Conflict, Peace & Democracy Cluster: the beautifully interdisciplinary, collaborative, multi-level and impact-seeking CPD Policy Blog. It bridges academia and politics, thus enabling a meaningful scientific contribution to politics.
March 2018
Birth of a young strategic community
In establishing the Future Strategists Hub we not only made shaping our own political future a top priority of our work by delivering new impulses and innovative ideas. We also managed to establish a unique community of young strategic thinkers.
With 8 working groups led by junior experts, 70+ participants, support from 7 distinguished individuals and 10 partner organisations, the Future Strategists Hub’s kick-off edition was by far our biggest event so far. It will certainly not be the last though.
Summer 2018
Setting sails for more
As the last years’ busy schedule and tremendous workload took its toll, Shabka required adjustments on the in- and outside: backed by amazing new team members we re-launched a state-of the art website, reshuffled our structures, consolidated our key topics and treated ourselves with a brand new roadmap for the years’ ahead. In other words: we completed the transformation from a journalistic network to a strategic Think&Do-Tank. Phew!
In the future...
… we will certainly continue to mobilise our network as a critical voice – be it through public dialogue or by consulting decision makers directly.
Sure, during the last years we have grown, some of our projects have become programmes and the world has changed quite a bit. Solid as a rock, our approach, however, has remained the very same: Shabka will continue to be a forum for discussion and a dynamo that translates qualified knowledge into action.
