Recently, Cooperative City Budapest joined over 50 cultural practitioners, journalists, urbanists, and civic actors in Skopje, North Macedonia, for the annual General Assembly and Forum of the Reset! Network. Represented by Lukács Hayes, Co-Founder of Cooperative City Budapest, we participated in this inspiring gathering at Laboratorium, an impressive venue dedicated to independent culture and civic engagement in the heart of the city.
The Reset! Network is a European platform that unites grassroots cultural, media, and civic initiatives to amplify independent voices and build cross-sectoral collaboration. As members, we are proud to be part of this vital ecosystem that stands for resilient alliances, freedom of expression, and democratic culture, especially in the lead-up to shaping the next European cultural agenda.
Cooperative City’s contribution to this year’s forum was a workshop led by Lukács Hayes on Action Competence – a pedagogical and strategic approach aimed at empowering individuals and organizations to transition from passive observers to active shapers of their societies and local contexts.
The session explored how civic, cultural, and media actors can cultivate critical thinking, participatory skills, and agency within their communities and work. Drawing on good practices from within the Reset! Network participants discussed how to more deeply embed action competence in their everyday work – whether in cultural production, local activism, or community-led media.
As political, technological, and social landscapes continue to shift across Europe, gatherings like this serve as crucial anchor points. They remind us that independent voices matter – and that together, we can co-create stronger, more democratic, and more inclusive futures.
A warm thank you to all Reset! members for their energy and insights, the Arty Farty team for the impressive and smooth organisation and to the Laboratorium team for their generous hospitality in Skopje. We return to Budapest inspired and more connected than ever.
