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What’s new
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From Circuits to Mycelium: Discovering Democratic Ideas in a Makerspace
How can we collectively make decisions, freely share knowledge and amplify our voices without formal structures or systems to support us? How can we use technology democratically and prevent it from taking over our lives? And perhaps most challenging of all, how can these issues be addressed in a makerspace with 12-year-old children who have…
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Making policy for everyday democracy in education
How can we motivate youth to be more engaged in democratic processes? Based on qualitative and quantitative research in 10 European countries, the Critical ChangeLab project published a Policy Brief with recommendations for how educational institutions can boost everyday democracy for young people.
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Exploring Everyday Democracy: Experiences from Oulu, Finland
In a unique blend of sociology, creative exploration, and digital fabrication, the University of Oulu’s recent Critical ChangeLabs, organized in collaboration with a local school, and with a local youth facing organization, explored “Democracy in the Everyday” with the participants, bringing fresh perspectives on civic engagement and societal issues. The aim was to deepen the…
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Everyday Democracy in Action: Towards Change in the Workplace
Where and how does everyday democracy take place? How do we reproduce (or not) democratic processes in contexts external to governmental institutions, such as at school, in the workplace, at home or amongst friends? How can we make our voices heard even without institutional and social infrastructure to accompany them? To find out, the Critical ChangeLab…
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Taking action: Inspiring youth to improve cultural participation
The objective of ISRZ’s CCLab was to explore and enhance the cultural participation of youth in the rural area of Zabok, Croatia. Young people from secondary art school in Zabok chose this topic since they recognized that there are different barriers to their cultural participation. By focusing on this issue, they aimed to identify and…
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Democratisation of Education
LATRA’s Critical ChangeLab on ‘Democratisation of Education’ explored the impacts of university privatisation on students, communities and contemporary democracy. Engaging diverse participants through dynamic governance and creative tools like zines, the lab fostered civic participation, empowering students to advocate for educational equity and informing inclusive policy frameworks.
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A room of one’s own
The Critical ChangeLab in Barcelona engaged young people in critical reflection and collaborative problem-solving to address everyday democracy and intervene in their environment. Using reflective and maker methods, a group of young trainee mediators made significant decisions that became the FEM PAUSA project, a relaxation room for their school.
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Learning by doing: designing democratic costumes
How can we let young people understand how democracy works within the context of maker education? And how can we strengthen young people’s sense of agency and ownership in spite of a (literal) lack of a common language? Waag Futurelab challenged a group of Dutch refugee children to collaboratively design a ‘democratic costume’ that reflected…
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Engaging young people in questions around technology, society, discrimination, and inclusion
Trinity College Dublin’s Science and Society Research Group engages young people in envisioning alternative futures through the Critical ChangeLab. Using creative methods like design thinking and zine making, participants explore technology, society, and inclusion, fostering critical thinking and democratic culture.
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Tactical Tech’s Critical ChangeLab Behind the Scenes: Implementation and Insights
Tactical Tech, in partnership with organisations working with youth across Europe, coordinated nine Critical ChangeLabs focusing on the topic of „Digital Influence and Democracy.“ More than 100 teenagers discussed the role of technology in their everyday democratic practices, exploring its challenges and opportunities. This article gives insights into how Tactical Tech and its partners implemented…
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Working with youth to imagine a different kind of world: Ars Electronica’s Critical ChangeLab
At the intersection of art, science, and technology, Ars Electronica has been exploring for decades what the society of the future will look like. Building on this foundation, Ars Electronica’s Critical ChangeLab set out to understand how young people envision the future and what changes they would like to see in their everyday lives to…
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A playful methodology that boosts teen’s participation in democracy
How Tactical Tech works with partner institutions to implement Critical ChangeLabs
How to foster teenager’s participation in everyday democracy? Tactical Tech coordinated nine Critical ChangeLabs in partnership with nine European organisations working with youth. Through these labs, more than 100 teenagers were invited to explore how digital influence can shape their participation in everyday democracy and to imagine alternative futures that better suit them and society…
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How to enable youth to envision futures: the Critical ChangeLab Framework and Toolkit
How can democratic education inspire young people to tackle local and global challenges? The Critical ChangeLab project developed an adaptable framework and toolkit to activate citizenship and strengthen democratic processes through collaboration and critical thinking, enabling young people to envision a future for themselves.
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Can I make a difference? 10 case studies about youth participation in Europe
To understand the challenges and opportunities that young people face when participating in everyday democracy, the Critical ChangeLab project conducted ten case studies with young people in ten European countries. Diverse cases of young people living in challenging contexts offer insights into young people’s perspectives on democracy and participation.
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Collaboration, open dialogue and learner-led initiatives: How to improve democratic health in education institutions
What is the state of democracy in education in Europe and how can it be improved? What are deemed to be the most important democratic values and practices? 1233 schools and other institutions offering non-formal education programs from 9 European countries completed the Democracy Health Questionnaire (DHQ) in order to answer these and other questions…
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Meeting the Critical ChangeLab Youth Assembly
In its first meeting, the Critical ChangeLab Youth Assembly members got to know each other, discussed the future of democracy in Europe and gave recommendations on the methods that will be used with the youth during the first year of the project.
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Knowledge can only be alive if it is shared
Jurij Krpan from Kersnikova Institute talks about the hierarchies in our interactions with humans and non-humans in technology, society, and education, and how they can be dissolved into more horizontal, less anthropocentric approaches.
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Giving a voice to young people from very different contexts
Boris Jokić, director of the Institute for Social Research in Zagreb, talks with Johanna Lenhart from Ars Electronica about the importance of bringing the voices of marginalized youth to the forefront and ISRZ’s work on education reform and policy in Croatia.
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Understanding the challenges that technology brings to young people’s lives
Christy Lange from Tactical Tech speaks with Johanna Lenhart from Ars Electronica about the importance of giving young people the space and opportunity to express their voices.
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You can try things, you can experiment. You can also fail.
Hans Christian Merten of create your world talks to Johanna Lenhart from Ars Electronica about the need for opening up learning spaces and the importance of self-preservation for young people.
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More agency is the mission
Eva Vesseur, who leads the Maker Education Lab at Waag Futurelab, talks about how critical making can create agency and contribute to social innovation
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Finding a sense of freedom through art-based learning
Laura Malinverni from the Esbrina research group and the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Barcelona speaks about how arts-based research can bring different perspectives to education.
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Responding to challenges with creativity and imagination
Caitlin White from Trinity College Dublin discusses envisioning futures within Critical ChangeLabs and the importance of taking interdisciplinary and critical approaches when working with young people.
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Reimagining civic education at NECE Campus
The Critical ChangeLab team delivered a workshop on ‘Reimagining Civic Education by Cultivating More-Than-Human Care’ as part of the Campus program of NECE (Networking European Civic Education).
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Incomplete circles
Niccolò Milanese the director of European Alternatives talks to Ana-Maria Carabelea from Ars Electronica about the engagement of youth and other missing voices in the discussions on political and societal transformation.
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Becoming the director of one’s future
Cultural entrepreneur and activist, Aris Papadopoulos from LATRA talks about the importance of bringing marginalised perspectives to the forefront of the current discourse about democracy.
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Understanding humans in change
Marianne Kinnula from the University of Oulu talks about how Critical ChangeLabs can create environments in which young people are encouraged to practice agency and create change themselves instead of expecting change to come from others.
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Critical ChangeLab // Beta Festival
The Critical ChangeLab at Trinity College Dublin is launching an after-school prtogramme in collaboration with Beta Festival. In the programme young people will use creative tools (including augmented and virtual reality) to imagine what the future could look like.
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Critical ChangeLab meets in Amsterdam
The Critical ChangeLab Consortium met for the first time in-person at Waag FutureLab in Amsterdam to lay the groundwork for everything to come. Some key areas of discussion included the evolution of the Critical Literacies Framework and the development of the Democracy Health Questionnaire.
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Critical ChangeLab kicks-off
The Critical ChangeLab project embarks on an exciting three year journey to build a resilient European democracy by reinvigorating the relationship between youth and democracy. Partners met together online to kick-off a project centered around direct action democracy, transformative agency, grassroots participation, and meaningful citizen engagement.
