Aiming for meaningful participation sustainably

In the process of preparing our policy brief on the cultural participation of marginalised groups and youth, advocacy and policy officer Julia Kasten held a number of in-depth conversations with European and local cultural networks within and outside of the ENCC members community, which allowed us to identify a list of concrete challenges they face in their daily work.

This article targets a number of specific issues socio-cultural centres (SCC) across Europe are confronted with. With a focus on active community engagement and participative decision-making processes, the article focuses on trust-building, intergenerational approaches, hierarchism, risk assessment, and the creation of “brave” spaces. These five focus areas are looked into from a societal perspective, with an attention to the participation of different marginalised groups as the main common denominator. We also examine a set of concrete, bottom-up approaches to resolving the aforementioned challenges.

Read the full article here