The Institute of Civilization and Culture (ICK) is a thinktank, established in 1997 in Ljubljana, Slovenia by the founder Alja Brglez with her first co-workers. It is  an independent organization for research, development and publishing and works in the fields of social sciences, environmental sciences and humanities. It is registered with the Slovenian Research Agency with reg. no. 1636. 

With its work, the institute initially complemented the activities of Studia Humanitatis, a legendary publishing house with an even longer tradition from before Slovenian independence; it was founded by a group of critical intellectuals in 1985. 

The Institute of Civilization and Culture is a lively center of various social science and humanistic considerations based on basic, targeted and applied research; core interests being the history and development of media and democracy, historical and cultural anthropology, sustainability studies and solutions (sustainable mobility, sustainability in tourism and sustainability in sports), and history of selected events/phenomenon/individuals of national and European relevance. 

ICK has a vivid publishing activity within collections Zbiralnik ICK, Delovni zvezki ICK and Vita Activa. It also publishes individual monographs, as well as publications on other media, such as musical CDs, historical photo albums, etc. The Institute organizes (either by itself or in various collaborations and coproductions) numerous exhibitions, conferences, round tables and symposia and trains/mentors young and doctoral researchers.

Decade1

1997-2006

The first years of the Institute were shaped by the ambition to become the first think tank in Slovenia dealing with the most relevant national and European issues. To be and work as an independent and not as a state institution, was an important consideration in the nineties of the 20th century when Slovenia underwent a gradual transition from socialism to capitalism. First topics needed to be researched, analysed and elaborated, were cultural/national identity, changes of/in the society , human rights and civic (co)existence in the time of transition. The Institute focused on the issues of national culture, linguistic interests, promotion and language identity, as well as on cultural, educational and scientific policies, and integration into national and global development. The work was organized into two centres:

Media & Publics Department

Economics Department

2007-2016

Due to economic changes caused by global financial crisis that substantially reduced funds for scientific research, ICK had to adjust its strategy. A more flexible and applicable research work was introduced in order to be able to address the immediate needs of various stakeholders and to reach the clients more directly. Significant part of the funds was gained on the market – and a new organizational scheme led to the establishment of three departments:     

1. Low-carbon society. The most explicit definition of sustainable development (satisfying current needs without jeopardising the fulfilment the needs of future generations) shaped the scope of research work and found the focus when most notable Slovene specialist for traffic safety and ecological solutions in transports Andrej Brglez joined the Institute in 2007. Sustainable mobility became the pillar of activities. Practical research work in the field of ecology and environment protection directed the efforts towards studying and introducing the solutions of sustainable mobility leading to a low-carbon society. A thorough strategic reflection led ICK to establish MRRC – Interregional Development Center in the Goriška Region. This is how some of the most innovative ideas came into life and a cross-border cooperation was introduced; project Egozero being the flaghip of that period with its successful presentations at the most relevant international venues - it earned the invitation to be exhibited at the ITB Berlin and was awarded with a special award at WTM World Travel Market London (2012).

2. Active citizenship. Recognizing the importance of citizens’ participation in decision-making, this department worked to analyze the changes of the electorate preferences, behaviour and interests in the altered circumstances of the national democracy and in comparison with those in democracies with longer democratic tradition. Special concern was devoted to human rights and their developmental changes. Research was conducted partially in cooperation with other similar institutes and thinktanks abroad, performing the research work within institutions such as National Parliament, National Council, City Councils etc.

3. The development of new media. After successful development of an own original tool to monitor media content and applying it within newspapers, radio and TV reporting, ICK has advanced its interest (Andrej Brglez, Gita Zadnikar) into new media, specifically web-media, blogs and vlogs. The interest was not only in performing research and analyses - ICK started producing with its own blogs, vlogs etc. A TV show Avtomobilnost started in 2014.