ZED – Zone of Expression to Defend

Social sciences festival, popular education, territories in struggle

ZED is a project for a Zone of Expression to Defend, developed in Montceau-les-Mines, Saône-et-Loire. It takes the form of a social sciences and grassroots initiatives festival, collectively imagined as a space for counter-narratives, shared reflection, and joyful emancipation.

Led by the association ODiL and the local residents, this project aims to bridge worlds too often kept apart: research and action, resistance and knowledge, critical thinking and local grounding.

ZED brings together:

• A popular university and action-research workshops involving researchers, artists, and local residents
• Round tables, screenings, sound creations, and committed performances
• A grassroots program focused on social, environmental, and territorial justice (and more)
• Ongoing mediation and creative restitution throughout the year

ZED is an invitation to inhabit territory differently, to experiment with thought as a tool for transformation, and to reclaim power through invisible stories.

The project is carried out in partnership with La Volière – a cultural third place, and CAF 71, as part of an engaged action-research initiative and a program supporting innovation in social and cultural life animation.