On 3 December 2024, a Youth Democracy Lab was held at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ljubljana as part of the ActEU project. The event engaged master students in exploring the concepts of representation, participation, and trust within the context of European democracy. The interactive workshop was ledby the project team from Duisburg. So far, corresponding formats have already taken place in Duisburg, Essen, Saarbrücken (Germany), and Trento (Italy). In the coming months, the consortium partners will implement further Democracy Labs all throughout Europe.
Engaging Discussions on Political Representation & Participation
The lab opened with discussions on the current state of political trust, based on anecdotal and empirical evidence. Students reflected on what the concepts of representation and participation mean to them in their everyday lives, and which challenges they currently perceive as particularly significant. The main points of reference were some first insights from our focus groups and findings from our survey, which are key elements of ActEU. It was explained to the students that their ideas, suggestions, and perspectives are the central source of knowledge and inspiration for all the discussions, following the general concept of the “Democracy Lab” format.
Recommendations
The students’ recommendations emphasized the need for a comprehensive implementation of political education. This includes general education on political processes to improve political culture, specialized courses and workshops with experts to make democracy tangible, and a mandatory integration of these courses into all levels of education from elementary school to university. They also recommended introducing courses on minority rights, gender, LGBTQ, as well as race and culture, to cultivate understanding and equity. The students also called for greater transparency and expertise in political offices, emphasizing community engagement and visibility. The students proposed improvements to political processes, including mandatory consultations with youth organizations, enhanced visibility of EU programs, better oversight of EU funds, and citizen referendums.
Insights regarding the further process
These recommendations made by young people all across Europe, collected in the Youth Democracy Labs, will be used to develop toolkits—both for policymakers and for the educational sector. The toolkits will be created in cooperation with the projects Civil Society Network. We would like to thank the participating students for their commitment and valuable contributions!
You can find more information about the entire project at ActEU.org (open it here).
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