INTERCULTURAL AND DIGITAL EXPERIENCE, ESSENTIAL LEVERS FOR YOUTH ENGAGEMENT

Intercultural and digital experience, essential levers for youth engagement?

This study was carried out as part of the Connexion-s project, funded by the European Union. This intercultural project, which began in May 2022, is supported by the French organization Engagé-e-s & Déterminé-e-s, alongside three international partner organizations: Eclosio (Belgium), the Tunisian Forum for Youth Empowerment (Tunisia) and Coalition SEGA (Northern Macedonia). 

Connexion-s is designed to be co-constructed with its young participants through intercultural face-to-face and online seminars. The aim: for these young people to seize on the themes of interculturality, digital and civic engagement to imagine and design responsible and inclusive digital alternatives to face-to-face intercultural experiences when these are not possible or preferred. Above all, the group will be able to learn from these experiences to create relevant and comprehensive tools that provide answers to the problems, limitations and issues raised. At the end of the project, a best practice guide and a toolbox should be created. These two products are intended to enable other young people and local and international organizations to organize and manage intercultural encounters using relevant digital tools.

At the same time, our organizations are seeking to better understand how young people in the four Connexion-s countries perceive intercultural experience and the impact it can have on their lives. As a first output of this project, we carried out a multi-country survey to explore young people's intercultural experiences, and in particular to identify obstacles, their motivations for intercultural experiences, and to analyze the extent to which digital technology could be of use. In this study, the second output of the project, we will present the results of the questionnaire and discuss them in the light of research on these themes. Our approach for this study is to explore definitions by individuals and groups of individuals who think, live and do interculturality: scientists, politicians, civil society, and more specifically young people and youth workers. 

We'll start with a scientific definition of interculturality, compared with related sociological constructs. We will then analyze the ways in which individuals are led and encouraged to interact, notably through European and national policies. Then we'll look at the intercultural experience as lived by young people, highlighting key aspects such as mobility, digital technology and intercultural communication. Our aim is to analyze the extent to which interculturality, particularly when facilitated by digital technology, can inspire greater engagement among young people. Finally, we will share the recommendations co-constructed within the Connexion-s project in terms of interculturality, mobility and digital technology to foster youth engagement. 

INTERCULTURAL AND DIGITAL EXPERIENCE, ESSENTIAL LEVERS FOR YOUTH ENGAGEMENT