All across Europe, current democratic institutions and their design are challenged by various phenomena, e.g. radical right-wing populists in power, rising distrust of citizens, fake news, general decline in involvement in electoral politics, but also digitalisation or ad hoc social movements. Young people are especially concerned as many of them grow up in a fully digitalised world, get politically engaged beyond institutions or are the target of manipulation and disinformation. Against this background, the future of democracies in Europe and the role young people play in it, is the overarching topic in DIYW (Democratic Innovations in Youth Work) project. More specifically it is about how democracies could function in the future and which capacities do young people need to participate in shaping this future. Developing new extra-electoral mechanisms and high standards for democratic participatory processes seem to be the best way to respond credibly to the demand of citizens, especially youth, to be more regularly involved in public decision-making. More inclusive and deliberative ways of decision-making are particularly needed to avoid the bubbles of social networks and populist instrumentalization of social divides. Whereas various innovations to democratize contemporary democracies have been imagined, designed, tested and even institutionalised on different levels of decision-making (e.g. citizens assemblies, participatory budgeting, deliberative polls etc.), these Democratic Innovations (DIs) still do not play a role in youth work and non-formal education today. The DIYW project aims at tackling the issue of democratic disenchantment and erosion, at reviving youth engagement and participation in democratic life by developing, testing and disseminating didactic materials that support youth workers, facilitators and trainers in democratic education as well as school teachers to introduce to young people the subject of Democratic Innovations with the use of interactive non-formal education methods. The project also aims at supporting young people in becoming more active, critical and directly involved citizens by developing their democratic skills and encouraging critical thinking of youth towards their involvement in decision-making processes, digital and direct democracy as well as the risks of populist instrumentalization. Our Strategic Partnership is initiated by 4 civil society organizations and social businesses – Citizens For Europe (DE), DeGeDE (German Society for Democratic Education - DE), Catalan Association of Youth Policies Professionals (SP) and Center for Citizenship Education (PL). DIYW brings together youth workers, teachers, civil society actors, young people as well as experts in democratic innovations and in video-making. Together, they will co-produce: - “Videos for Democracy”, a series of 9 educational short-documentaries showcasing DIs (e.g citizens assemblies, e-petitions, participatory budgeting, deliberative polls, citizens juries, etc) and inspiring stories of people who participated in their design and implementation; - A Didactic Guide explainining how to introduce the topic of DIs in youth work with the use of the didactic videos and non-formal education methods; - A "Train the Democracy trainer" - methodological training course to provide youth workers and school teachers with the necessary skills and knowledge to introduce the topic of DIs in their work, with the use of non-formal education methods. All the collaboratively developed outputs will be based on thorough desk and field research and consequently tested in a real work environment by young people, youth workers and teachers. For effective dissemination they will be available in 5 different languages (English, German, Polish, Spanish and Catalan) on and freely accessed through a multimedia interactive online platform. During the research and production phases, the project will directly reach about 80 young people and 60 youth workers. During the final conferences (1 per partner country) the project results will be presented to 240 youth workers, teachers, public and private youth institutions and youth organisations. At the European level, partners will also disseminate the project results among youth workers federations and networks of youth organisations. This way, the introduction of the topic of DIs in youth work and non-formal education will contribute to increasing the awareness of young people of already existing opportunities that DIs bring not only for their own extra-electoral engagement in the democratic life but in general for a more participative and inclusive society.
The project DIYW aimed at developing, testing and disseminating didactic materials and methods to empower youth workers and teachers to introduce the subject of DIs in their work with youth, and thereby increase young people’s capacity to participate in democratic life and make them become more active, aware and critical democratic agents, especially in their own social environment, towards their involvement in decision-making processes, the use of digital tools, mechanisms of direct democracy and the risks of instrumentalization and manipulation by populist radical movements. Since the challenges and needs are transnational the answer needed a transnational partnership that allowed to learn about DIs in a profound way, taking into consideration the importance of various local contexts, and to design and develop tools and methods which can be replicated Europewide. With the project, we wanted to achieve the following objectives: - To reinvigorate young people’s engagement in democratic life on the local and European level by promoting the topic of Democratic Innovations (DIs) with the use of non-formal education methods in youth work and in schools. - To respond to young people’s needs to be involved more often in decision-making processes and their interest in extra-representative forms of participation. - To encourage the development of political attitudes and civic skills among youngsters and to support them to become more engaged and critical citizens towards the existent decision-making processes, the use of digital tools, direct democracy and the risks of instrumentalization by populist radical movements. - To support the European Commission’s efforts in responding to “ripe for a New Push for European Democracy“ and tackle the issue of democratic disenchantment and democratic erosion. - To produce innovative methodology using audiovisual materials that support youth workers and teachers in the non-formal and formal education sectors to introduce the subject of DI to young people. The developed methods empower young people to become more active and aware democratic agents - young adults with democratic skills and active citizens thinking more critically about their role in the democratic system, the use of (participatory) digital tools and digitalisation in general (e.g. privacy and security issues). - To support youth workers and teachers in acquiring knowledge about DIs, developing new skills in democratic/civic education and enriching their portfolios in youth work. - To include young people (especially from disadvantaged background and with fewer opportunities) in the creative process and make them co-producers of the educational materials through their participation in prototyping and testing the developed outputs, ensuring their engagement on eye-level together with youth workers and experts on DIs and the needsoriented and taylored production the outputs.
Why did we apply? „While youth participation in formal (electoral) politics has been in decline for several years now, young people are also increasingly skeptical of politicians, of conventional forms of participation such as elections and see themselves badly represented in representative democracy“ (ECPR, 2019). At the same time, numerous engaged academics, activists, representatives of CSOs together with public administration in different parts of Europe work collaboratively on implementing participatory and deliberative processes and innovative tools, which make public governance more democratic, legitimate, inclusive and responsive to people’s demands. Democratic innovations (DIs) such as Citizens Assemblies, Consensus Conferences and Participatory Budgeting facilitate collective decision-making and public deliberation of citizens, being an enrichment of representative democracy. These DIs “have been specifically designed to increase and deepen citizen participation in the political decision-making process” (Graham Smith’s, 2009). Thanks to DIs the link between citizens and their representatives can be reinforced and they can be also used to overcome the fading of young people‘s interest and trust in current democratic institutions and decision-making processes. They „could reinvigorate young people’s engagement with politics in the long term. By socializing young people in the give-and-take of democratic politics, these DIs are expected to encourage the development of political attitudes and civic skills among youngsters and to support them to become more engaged democratic citizens.“ (ECPR, 2019). Needs adressed: The role of youth workers and teachers in shaping young people’s attitudes and developing their democratic skills is invaluable. However, most of the methods and available materials for civic and democratic education are focused on the functioning of representative institutions (e.g. simulations how parliaments work) and the role played by citizens in representative democracies, mainly limited to participation in electoral mechanisms. While the knowledge about DIs is mostly in the academic field, there are almost no didactic materials addressed to young people on this subject available (tailored for and attractive to youth and their way of acquiring information and skills). If we want to respond to the decline of trust and participation among young people in a proper way, new didactic methods and materials need to be coherent with their interests and show the whole spectrum of possible ways of being engaged in politics also outside of electoral mechanisms and the model of representative democracy. That is why we saw a big need to elaborate such didactic help for youth workers and teachers. Moreover, „Inclusion of youth in political life via the usual channels is only promising for those young people who are already politically socialised and come from socio-economically prosperous backgrounds. It is more difficult to involve youngsters from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, those who are often seen as young rebels against traditional systems and norms.“ (ECPR, 09.2019). For this reason, the project targeted youth workers and teachers working with the use of non-formal education methods and including also young people with fewer opportunities e.g. from rural areas, young migrants, etc. Target groups and their needs: - In their everyday work youth workers and teachers are facing the decline of young people's interest in established democratic institutions and radicalisation within social and “fake” news bubbles. In face of these challenges they experience the limits of their capacities to counter these developments. The introduction of DIs in their work will contribute to satisfy their need for ideas and practices to re-engage and -integrate young people. - Youth: to see that their demand to be more heard and readiness to participate beyond conventional electoral mechanisms and traditional representative bodies is respected, encouraged and supported.