Recognition, inclusion and democracy: learning from action research with young people

Abstract

This paper draws upon learning from three action research projects conducted as part of a Europewide project exploring young people's social and political participation. Challenging dominant discourses about what 'counts' as participation and what does not, the paper explores how, through the action research projects, young people engaged in knowledge democracy in 'new democratic arenas'. Building upon experiential knowing and creating knowledge and learning through practice, the young people explored their own democratic knowledge production, communication and engagement within a context of shifting discourses of participation, democratic engagement and active citizenship. The increasing preference of young people for more informal forms of participation as lived practice reflects a shift to young people constructing their own modes of participation and 'remaking democracy' in their own vision and according to their own needs. By working outside of the confines of normative assumptions of democratic practice and participation, young people exercised their own 'political' agency in response to their own priorities, interests and concerns and, in doing so, illustrated that new forms, understandings and practices of knowledge democracy can emerge that reflect the promise of inclusive democratic societies more meaningfully.

Co-creating public health measures with adolescents in municipalities: Municipal actors’ views on inhibitors and promoters for adolescent involvement

“…The municipal actors in our study said they contributed to the adolescents’ democratic education and thus seemed to play an important role in providing decision-making and community development experiences. This is especially important, as there is a growing concern across Europe about the extent to which young people participate in society [ 25 ]. In line with the positive development approach for children and adolescents [ 26 ], participation in community development processes can be empowering, providing the individual with competencies or coping strategies and new tools to improve their lives.…”

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“…Action research is as a space for various epistemic experiences and reflections. Its participants perform knowledge through action in different ways, different contexts and for different purposes 80 . Through such a multiplicity of epistemic practices they can recognize many kinds of knowledge, examine different ways of knowing and involve in dynamics of knowledge, emerging from many interrelated processes.…”

“…Each of participants created its own mosaic -thus knowledge constituted in action research is personal, particular, normative and experiential 84 . The process of its generation combines conscious and unconscious commitment in epistemic practices 85 . These disproportions raised my new research questions about learning and epistemic practices to deepen students' awareness of multiple ways of knowing.…”

“It is not that I didn’t already know these places, but I never thought of them like this.” Methodological approaches to community research in early childhood education in Denmark

“…During recent decades in Denmark, increasing political attention has been paid to early childhood education as a field of learning and prevention (Heckman, 2006), with the potential to counter inequality and create social mobility. However, studies show that these aims are often interpreted in ways that contribute to inequality, because they result in universalistic, individualistic, and compensatory approaches that render invisible or stigmatize the knowledge, identities, and everyday lives of children and families (Percy-Smith et al, 2019;Prins, 2019;Urban & Swadener, 2016).…”