Spotlight on social inclusion and exclusion in rural youth culture
The R YouCult project has just completed its sixth seminar. The days included knowledge exchange and inspirational trips to cultural facilities in Denmark.
What do we know about social inclusion and exclusion when it comes to rural youth culture?
This was the topic when R YouCult gathered project participants from Denmark, Finland and Portugal for the sixth seminar last week.
The R YouCult project aims to train cultural workers to facilitate Danish and European rural youth culture, and at the seminar, participants exchanged experiences about social inclusion in, and exclusion from, rural youth culture in the three countries.
The seminar also included inspirational trips around Denmark, where participants visited UrbanStreetZone in Brande and the youth centre Mejeriet in Sønderborg.
About the project
The R YouCult project aims to develop and design a universal training programme for cultural workers in rural municipalities and rural cultural institutions in the EU. The training programme will provide cultural workers with core competences to facilitate processes that can lead to building and anchoring a dynamic youth culture in rural areas.
The project is funded by the EU's Erasmus+ education programme
At UrbanStreetZone, the participants experienced the young people's use of the skate facilities, heard about the organisational and financial structure of the place and saw how the experienced skaters taught new skaters on skateboards, scooters and roller skates.
The Youth Centre Mejeriet offered presentations from Sønderborg Municipality, the centre's general manager, the young users and representatives from the house council, while in the evening the participants attended a jam session with the young people and learnt more about how the young people approached the event and what social mechanisms are at play at such an event.
- It was exciting to hear the experiences of social inclusion across the three countries and visit two exciting places that include young people and focus on young people in cultural life. Now we look forward to putting our knowledge into play in the next parts of the project, says project manager Pia Heike Johansen.
Thanks to the project partners from the University of Jyväskyla and Universidade de Lisboa for three great days of experience exchange.
Contact
Pia Heike Johansen is project manager at R YouCult. Her research interests include business and cultural life in rural areas and rural-urban relations with a focus on landscape.