Urban Civic Education LAB" is a 24-month strategic partnership involving 3 NGOs from Austria, Germany and Italy. The aim of the project is to enhance the critical thinking of young people living in cities and foster the development of their social, civic and intercultural competences so that these skills can be capitalized in the field of Social Entrepreneurship. The assumptions of this project idea are based on the fact that nowadays, the diversity of cities take on a new dimension due to globalization; political, economic and social restructuring. Globalization and the increasing interdependency of cities in a network society have led to the accelerated circulation of people, commodities, capital, identities, and images through global space; as well as to the increasing mobility of ideologies, economic principles, policies, and lifestyles. It is recognized then, the need to implement actions to improve the level at which civic and citizenship education is taught. A study conducted by Eurodyce in 2017 concludes that the two most widespread approaches in Europe are the integration of citizenship education components into other subjects and its mention as a cross-curricular objective. They can each be found in at least thirty education systems in all levels of primary and general secondary education. By contrast, citizenship education is provided as a compulsory separate subject in a much more limited number of education systems: 7 at primary level, 14 at lower and 12 at upper secondary levels. Because city development has long term implications for current and future residents, above all within European urban areas, it is necessary to implement actions aimed at foster the possibility for young people to have a say in the development of their communities, given that they can provide unique and diverse perspectives on the current forms of the built environment and future plans for their city environment. Under this perspective, the Urban Civic Education LAB project will design comprehensive educational approaches aiming to develop social entrepreneurship capacities in youngsters living in the urban areas while enhancing the social clout of youngsters as providers of added social value to their communities. The methodology that will be used will be a combination of non-formal education, civic education, social and entrepreneurship education. These will be utilized instruments to enhance components of a comprehensive and progressive approach to entrepreneurial empowerment, projected on the social issues and civic ethics of urban areas. Specifying, the partnership will provide a comprehensive pattern of social entrepreneurial empowerment for youngsters living in cities, focusing on the mains challenges affect the urban area’s context, though the following activities: - Collection and exchange of good practices; - specific Blended Motilities; - dissemination events.
The UCE LAB was designed by the 3 partner organisations with lots of international and local experience. They all do their best to help young citizens in organizing their skills and develop their own work. The project is designed in a way that nonformal education methods will be best modes of action and are the most promising approaches in work with youth, who are mostly not too keen on formal education or need the different approach to balance their other curricula. From beginning to end the partner organisations excerpt the knowledge, the experience from experts and themselves and the best practices. The partners decided to use a case description as methodology, which will allow an identification and deeper comprehension for beginners of social entrepreneurship. For this the partners identified several cases, from which the youngsters could learn best. The best cases are selected and distributed in three categories, which the partners found relevant. Those categories are: Placemaking, Social Entrepreneurship, Social Campaigning Within the UCE LAB the partners identified the transferable knowledge of specific practice cases in Europe. They developed a comprehensive overview and content about those cases for young people.
Today the diversity of cities takes on a new dimension due to globalization, political, economic and social restructuring. Globalization and the increasing interdependency of settlements, crystallises and emphasizes the collective challenges. People are more and more seen and treated as a nation and group of citizens, which are competing for the same positions (housing-, working- and education-places). Most of run through the same education and same socialisation processes. At the same time migration from countryside to cities and from cities to new adventures and cities is decreasing the sense of belonging. The community aspect, growing organically to a community, taking care of each other, knowing each other’s needs is more and more less accessible for younger generations. Without the social skills and without the bound with the community a whole field of economy is almost not accessible for the younger generation. Our current dynamics, do not allow youngsters to grow in a network, to find their mission and role in the society. This consortium therefore recognizes the urgent need to implement actions to improve the teaching of the civic and citizenship education.