Who we are


OPRO, institute for applicative studies was founded in January 2017. Its’ goal is to bring un- and underdiscussed social issues of the marginalized, abandoned and ousted social groups to the fore. We strive to expose and deconstruct social forces that lead to the diminiution of social cohesion, perserve steriotypes and various forms of discrimination, and stimulate social stratification. Panel discussions that are held several times a year represent the first step toward empowering the least powerful groups in our society by identifying and calling the attention to the issues that affect them the most. We strive to intercede on behalf of all marginalized groups in a dignified and unpatronizing manner using different sets of methods and skills to alter negative imaginaries that are applied to them and serve as tools for economic stratification and personal degradation, expedite the phantomed intergenerational conflict, and decrease power inequalities between big capital owners and the state on the one side and the supressed and so far silent majority on the other.


OPRO, institute for applicative studies

Povšetova 62, 1000 Ljubljana

Company code: 7219555000VAT

Number: 45694214

Current Account: SI56 0201 0026 2193 294 (NLB d.d.)

Founder: Otto Gerdina

Director: Otto Gerdina


STRATEGY

  • Finding a minimum social consensus among marginalized groups (old, disabled, migrants, unemployed, interdiction, people at the poverty line, discriminated against by sex, age, race, religion, culture, sexual orientation).
  • Equal treatment of marginalized social groups.
  • Encourage public debates and activism in order to enable marginal social groups to identify the key problems they are facing themselves and to participate in the emergence of the strategies that they would like to use in solving these problems.
  • International and national integration with institutions and individuals with similar orientations.

MEANS

  • Panel discussions on the macro and micro-premises of existing system solutions.
  • Publication of literary and scientific works and their promotion.
  • Creation of creative groups for relevant social issues.
  • Intensification of the presence of these contents in classical media and social networks.
  • Creating initiatives to intensify the social inclusion of marginalized groups in upgrading and changing the functioning of social subsystems.
  • Creative workshops for the inclusion of marginalized groups in entrepreneurship, cultural design, recreation, individual empowerment and hence resistance to the pressures of consumer productivity.

OBJECTIVES

  • Establishing an equal discussion of systemic factors that cause and deepen the marginalization of social groups on both systemic and individual level.
  • Change of negative imaginary of marginalized, which is the cause and tool of economic stratification and personality degradation.
  • Reflection on key ethical issues triggered by information technology and, in particular, regarding big data and control over them.
  • Redistribution of wealth.
  • Elimination of the phantomed intergenerational conflict.
  • Decreased power inequalities between big capital owners and the state on the one side and the supressed and so far silent majority on the other.

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