See the full program for the 2026 Bergen Exchanges here.
Watch the stream here: https://uib.zoom.us/j/69890815258?pwd=HTUeEUCgHXrr0zm4IXEbrl0yQ3a3yJ.1
Bergen Exchanges 2026 – Daily Highlights
📅 Monday, 17 August
Democracy, decolonization, protest, and land rights take center stage on the opening day of Bergen Exchanges 2026. Discussions will explore feminist perspectives on democracy, decolonizing scholarship and education, protest and policing, and the possibilities and limits of using law in struggles over land. A highlight of the day is the screening of La Fjella Leve – Let Our Mountains Live, a documentary on Sámi resistance, Indigenous rights, and the green transition, followed by a conversation with director Håvard Bustnes.
📅 Tuesday, 18 August
Tuesday focuses on how law can both support and complicate struggles for rights and democracy. Sessions will examine Indigenous sovereignty and contested frontiers, critical perspectives on legal mobilization, legal allyship for activists, and global patterns of democratic decline. The afternoon turns to what happens after autocratization — and whether national and international actors can help restore democratic institutions.
📅 Wednesday, 19 August
Wednesday explores care, rights, institutions, and democratic resistance. Discussions will address the right to care, gender and sexual rights, how rights are shaped through everyday institutional practice, and whether cities can act as democratic counterweights to national autocratization. The main highlight is the 2026 Annual Lecture by András Sajó on contemporary challenges to constitutional democracy. Afterwards, participants can join a fjord swim or a guided visit to Anawana Haloba’s exhibition at Bergen Kunsthall.
📅 Thursday, 20 August
Thursday brings together questions of citizenship, health, war, climate, and AI. Sessions will explore exclusion and belonging, reproductive justice, global health governance, mental health and resilience in times of war, toxic inequalities linked to air pollution, and democratic accountability in the age of artificial intelligence. The evening moves from politics to art with exhibitions and conversations on repression, resistance, memory and reconciliation.
📅 Friday, 21 August
The final day turns to activism, climate justice, and the changing politics of rights. The programme begins with how activists in repressive contexts adapt their strategies and alliances, before turning to the challenge of governing a just green transition. Climate Lawfare examines how law is being used on different sides of the climate struggle, with cases involving the Dakota Access Pipeline and TotalEnergies. The afternoon highlights youth responses to anti-rights movements and concludes with discussions on how conservative and right-wing actors are increasingly using law itself to reshape rights and political institutions.