The conference will present the first outcomes of a methodology for listening to groups of young people within the scope of cultural citizenship themes. The consultations will take place in Portugal (PT), Poland (POL), Slovenia (SLO), and Germany (GER) and will be part of a process of collaboration between several institutional actors. Among these actors, we highlight government representatives from several European countries and European organisations and networks linked to the cultural and educational sectors.
The process had several previous steps, including the conference “From democratisation to cultural democracy: rethinking institutions and practices”, held in Porto Santo, Madeira, on 27 and 28 April 2021, organised in the context of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union. This conference presented the “Porto Santo Charter – Culture and the promotion of democracy: towards a European cultural citizenship”, promoted by the National Arts Plan and elaborated through a participatory and collaborative methodology.
The current moment is that of listening to young people to enrich this Charter and other subsequent activities. The results of the youth consultation will feed into the discussions of the Conference and, expressing the perspective of young people, be included in an addendum to the Porto Santo Charter.
A3S was invited to design, develop, and implement the methodology of this consultation in Portugal. It will then be shared with counterparts in the three other countries mentioned, who will replicate it by adapting it to their specific contexts.
The results of these consultations will be analysed by the working groups that animate this broader process of elaborating European policies on cultural citizenship, namely by representatives of ENO – European Network of Observatories in the arts and cultural education field.
The elaboration and implementation of this methodology are experimental processes that, once evaluated, can be the basis for designing future methods for consultations on the reflection, debate, and elaboration of cultural and educational policies.