Ruralities project’s main objective is to empower citizens of rural and remote areas to become real actors for the improvement of the social and physical living conditions in their localities. Our specific goal is to create a game based learning tool for being used in local trainings on participatory processes, in the frame of non-formal education. The target groups of Ruralities are: Trainers, educators and experts working with disadvantaged learners in rural areas. Citizens living in rural and remote areas Activists and facilitators working in local NGOs, supporting local citizens Representatives of local authorities and stakeholders willing to strengthen their collaboration with citizens (development agent, local representatives, decision makers, etc.) Students and school kids in the frame of formal civic education, university students specialised in urban planning or other relevant topics Ruralities will be implemented by a newly established Consortium constituted by 6 organisations all of them being experienced in participatory processes and adult education. Most of them had already worked together in other educational projects. Ruralities will be coordinated by the Lead partner, Ipso Facto, a task that will be shared with one of the German partners CRN. CRN will bring its experiences from the recently finalized Eurbanities project, inspiring Ruralities. The main results of the project: 1.The Ruralities teaching method on citizen participation to be constituted by a board game and a curriculum embedding the game. 2. A strong and sustainable community of organizations who are engaged to continue to use the learning method in their everyday activities and improve it even beyond the project cycle. 3. The Ruralities online platform to be created on the basis of the project website, serving as an online support for the Ruralities method. 4. A set of Policy recommendations co-created by the project partners for local and European policy makers for a better implementation of participatory processes in remote and rural areas. 5. A Sustainability Plan including and Action Plan for the long term use of the method. The project implementation will be based on the critical design thinking method, an approach aiming at the critical and unbiased analysis of a given situation following the stages of design: observation/interaction, empathy, problem formulation, solution deduction, testing, alteration, and reiteration. The main activities of the project will be organised into work packages and will cut the project into different phases, as follows: 1.Collection of knowledge through the testing of two participatory methods, Eurbanities and Spirale, as well as through good practice analysis and needs assessment. 2. Co-creation of the main needs for the game based learning tool in the frame of local Hackathons and during a co-creation event in the frame of the 3rd transnational meeting. 3. Based on the results of these processes, the game and the curriculum will be developed following the method of prototyping. Prototyping will be realised in three phases, but two Transnational Training Labs dedicated at the testing and reiteration of the prototypes of the game and the curriculum. The final version of the products will be prepared by Spring 2022, and will be presented at the local Multiplier Events in June 2022. The activities will be centered around 8 transnational meetings including the kick-off and a Final meeting and three Transnational Trainings destined to learning and co-creation activities. The project management will be implemented by the Lead partner Ipso Facto supported by CRN, in close interaction with the entire partnership: each partner will be assigned to the co-coordination of diverse work packages. The overall decisions and conflict management will be realised by the project Steering Committee with the contribution of the Board of External Experts. Project dissemination will be a global task of all partners, to be managed in the frame of a district work package. Ruralities method is foreseen to be used and improved far beyond the project cycle, based on the Project Sustainability Plan. Its sustainability will be based on the use of the Ruralities platform, the dissemaination of the tools even beyond the project cycle, and the relative flexibility of the tools to be used in different types of training activities.
We wanted to achieve the creation of a training methodology integrating a game-based learning tool that could be used by local NGOs, activists and public authorities to develop their capacities to engage all stakeholders, including local populations, for the coherent and balanced development of rural territories. Thus, to meet the main objective of the Ruralities project: to empower citizens in rural and remote areas to become real actors in the improvement of social and physical living conditions in their localities. We also aimed at the transferability and flexibility of our tools so as to allow their adaptation to different rural contexts. The project also aims to train the project's stakeholders in the issues and conditions necessary for citizen participation, to develop their capacities to lead and support participatory dynamics and to understand each other's contexts for exercising their different roles. Our productions are appropriable by everyone and can be used for the benefit of all European communities, at local or transnational level.
Our motivations -The recognition of the active participation of citizens, as active co-creators of their environment alongside other stakeholders, no longer limiting them to the role of "mere interlocutors" of public authorities and planning bodies. -The need to mobilise local human, cultural and economic resources in areas suffering from social and economic decline, particularly in rural areas. -The inability of traditional tools based on the concept of economic growth to halt the spiral of social and spatial decline. -The need for certain localities to adapt to the conditions of "degrowth" and to improve the quality of life in these new settings. -The relevance of these new ways of local development capable of absorbing and generating new innovations of active citizenship. -Strong support expressed by European policies for social innovation in declining rural areas -The innovative participation of citizens in declining areas has been the subject of several European policy documents and projects in recent years, in the framework of the EUKN, URBACT, ESPON, ...