The main intent behind the LegiLAB project is to search for political involvment (mostly of young people) in Europe, their interests and ways of communicating with decision makers. All four partner organisations – Giolli (Italy), Active Inquiry (Scotland), Dobra Wola (Poland) and Pekarna Magdalenske mreže (Slovenia) are working according to the method of Theatre of the Oppressed with diverse target groups and young people. Legislative Theatre is a very important, but seldomly applied technique, which is strongly connected to communication with decision makers is. It is one of the techniques of Theatre of the Oppressed, also called theatre for social change in which the main roles are reserved for those who are usually not heard and not empowered. Our starting-point is that it was easier to engage the public to achieve social change and change of legislation in the time of Boal's original invention of this technique (the 1960s) as it is today in the so-called democratic Europe of the 21st century. This is why we are undertaking the research and implementation of the applied project LegiLAB 4 Progress in which we will exchange examples of good practice in the field of Legislative Theatre, compare political involvement and communication with decision makers and produce two intellectual outputs: a booklet and a film in which we will give voice to the young, who are usually excluded from the processes of decision making, and enable them to be 'heard'. The common thread of both will be a discussion of the possibilities young people nowadays have to establish political participation as compared to the times when the technique of Legislative Theatre was invented. In a 20-minute film we intend to present Legislative Theatre as a method of youth work for encouraging political participation of young people. It is a new tool for youth and youth workers who are looking for ways and means of working in this area. The booklet will present expert articles on Legislative Theatre and Theatre of the Oppressed, examples of good practice in the field and articles on political participation of youth in Europe. By comparative analysis of the state of political participation of youth in the countries of participating organisations we will gain insight into the ways of social engagement of youth in individual countries and thus allow for transferring good practices elsewhere. The project will last for 15 months, from June 2017 until September 2018. During this period each of the organisations will develop its own form of Legislative Theatre in its country and local environment, while at the same time exchanging their results on four international meetings that will take place in each of the respective countries. Here we will also conceive and process the results gained together. The conclusion of the project will be a multiplicative international event that will take place in September 2018 under the auspices of the applicant organisation in Maribor, Slovenia, where both of the intellectual outputs will be presented. It is important to emphasize that the film and booklet will be freely accessible to the general public and the youth sector, as they will both be published and accessible on the internet by which we intend to assure further dissemination of the results of the projects in the years after its conclusion.
The LegiLab 4 Progress project was carried out in the framework of the Erasmus+ programme (NA MOVIT). The entire project took place during 16 months (from June 2017 till Octobre 2018) and connected 4 organisations from 4 different countries (Giolli from Italije, Active Inquiry from Scotland, Pracownia Inspiracji Społecznych from Poland and Pekarna Magdalenske mreže Maribor from Slovenia). The project was in fact a continuation of the collaboration between these organisations and their exploration of the method of Legislative Theatre that had been initiated in the previous episodes of the LegiLab project. Legislative Theatre is the name of one of the methods of Theatre of the Oppressed developed, as so many others, by Augusto Boal in Brazil between 1993 and 1997. The method was created during Boal's service as „Vereador“, i.e. Member of the City Council in Rio de Janeiro, which presented an opportunity to actually participate in the process of passing the city legislation. When looking for a way to use this opportunity in a way to hand over the legislative power to the citizens themselves as much as possible, i.e.e the people directly affected by the said legislation that shapes their lives, he came up with this approach. The technique is an upgrade of the forum theatre method which in itself calls for active participation by the spectators by changing them into spect-actors who actively intervene into the action on stage that presents to them given real-life problems. The spect-actors then look for ways to resolve or appease the presented dilemmas and improve the situation of the oppressed characters. Legislative Theatre upgrades this by looking not only for practical suggestions but also legislative proposals that could improve the position of the oppressed at a systemic level by changing and adjusting the legislation according to the needs of real people. In the previous editions of the LegiLab project the members of the participating organisations were together exploring and developing the technique of Legislative Theatre. This time we decided that each organisation would implement the knowledge and skills gained in their local environment. Each of the organisations thus developed its own form of Legislative Theatre, thus implementing this method in practice. This brought forth four different projects: River management project in Italy, The (Almost) Silent World in Poland, The Housing Project in Scotland and Status quo on the Labour Market in Slovenia. The short documentary film 'LegiLab: Experiments in Legislative Theatre' presents the method of Legislative Theatre and documents how each of the organisations tackled their own legislative project. The online booklet 'Beyond Performance: Experiences in Legislative Theatre' translated into 4 languages (Slovene, English, Polish and Italian) offers a more in-depth insight and reflection on the Legislative Theatre technique. The compendium presents several articles on Legislative Theatre and Theatre of the Oppressed, examples of good practice and reflections on political participation of youth in Europe. Using a comparative analysis of the current state of political participation of youth in the countries of participating organisations we gained better insight into what forms of social engagement of youth can be found in individual countries and thus encouraged the transfer of good practices. The main motivation for undertaking the LegiLab 4 Progress project was the state of political engagement (mostly among youth) in Europe and their interests and ways of communication with decision makers. A common thread of the project was a debate on what are the options that young people actually have to engage in political participation as compared to the time of the formation of the Legislative Theatre technique. In sight of the ever more apparent weaknesses of representative democracy in Europe and the world and alarming warnings about the democratic deficit and the growing gap between politics and the people, the initiatives to search for alternative ways of participation and democratic decision making also multiply. One of the ways is also the method of Legislative Theatre which offers participants in-depth insight into the concrete problems affecting themselves in the local environment (be it at the state or local level of legislation) and later to actively participate in the search for alternative solutions and legislative changes by which they can improve the situation. Thu the power of decision-making is being given back in the hands of the wider population rather than just a handful of political actors and decision makers. More about the project: https://legilab4progress.wixsite.com/legilab4progress