Education project: Welcome to the Parliament of Things

On 24 November, the French philosopher and sociologist Bruno Latour (1949) will receive the Spinozalens 2020 in Amsterdam. To mark the award ceremony, we are organising the educational programme Welcome to the Parliament of Things for students of year 4 in higher general secondary education (havo) and year 5 in pre-university education (vwo). This unique work programme is based on the ideas of Bruno Latour. The programme centres around his call for political representation for non-people and focuses on all residents of the North Sea. Students are invited to empathise with the humans – and, more particularly, non-humans – in and around the sea.
The programme has been developed for students of havo year 4 and vwo year 5. The programme ties in with the compulsory material for The Good Life and the Free Market. In this book, Latour’s thinking is discussed in the section about nature.
The project begins at the end of September 2020. 13 schools throughout the country have already signed up for the project. The Welcome to the Parliament of Things educational project is a collaboration between the International Spinoza Award Foundation, the Embassy of the North Sea and Building Conversation.