Democracy meets arts: critical change labs for building democratic cultures through creative and narrative practices

The Critical ChangeLab project aims to reinvigorate the relationship between youth and democracy and consequently the future of 21st Century European democracy. This is achieved by spearheading the reach and impact of Critical ChangeLab Model of Democratic Pedagogy, fostering youth's active democratic citizenship at a time where polarisation, deep political divisions and declining trust in democracy are spreading across Europe. The Critical ChangeLab Model for Democratic Pedagogy fosters learners' transformative agency and strengthens democratic processes in education through collaborations across formal and non-formal education and local actors around global/local challenges relevant for youth. The Model promotes creative and narrative practices to explore the historical roots of local and EU-wide challenges, understanding the value-systems and worldviews underlying distinct types of relations (human-human, human-nature, human-technology). At the Critical ChangeLabs, young people are introduced to approaches such as theatre of the oppressed, transmedia storytelling, as well as speculative and critical design to rethink European democracy and envision justice oriented democracy futures. Throughout the lifespan of the project, Critical ChangeLab aims to examine the current state of democracy within education institutions identifying youth’s perspectives on everyday democracy; design a scalable and tailorable model of democratic pedagogy in formal and non-formal learning environments; co-create and implement the model with youth and stakeholders, evaluate the model generating recommendations for policy and practice, and develop strategies to sustain the model and its outcomes overtime. Through various research actions combining quantitative and qualitative approaches, Critical ChangeLab will generate a robust evidence base to support democratic curriculum development using participatory, and creative and critical approaches.