Citizenship Reloaded: digital citizenship (and tools) for a new European citizenship – ON LINE VERSION

While we see an increasing presence of people (not only youngsters) in digital contexts, and more and more studies describe on-line virtual spaces as something which is part of the everyday life experience and not something separated from It, many people still lack the basic skills for being a proper citizen of this new space.

This also applies to youngsters, which are often attracted by online relationships / interactions through digital media, and are very much involved in using them extensively, adopting often risky behaviours because they are not aware in general of the complexity of this new part of human life experience. Moreover, spending time in online environments can expose youngsters to contents and behaviors which could impact their knowledge (ie fake news…) and attitudes (polarisation, hate speeches) towards other people.

In this perspective the pandemic has notably increased the time spent on line by all of us and young people in particular, expanding the time the entire society uses virtual spaces, which imply its rules and behaviours changing notably the sense of belonging as citizens and consequently the notion of “citizenship”. This requires to analyse these new on line dynamics and spaces of discussion with the lens of democracy.

For the above reasons this training course aims at:

• Raising awareness on how violent ideologies and extremisms could find a good amplified ground through web spaces, communities on line and social media.
• Exploring phenomenon such as violent radicalization, extremism and polarization and reflecting on how these words are developing their meaning into the contemporary scenarios of our societies.
• Proposing experiencing working sessions in order to know and learn to use, critically and consciously, the tools available on line with a pedagogical approach thanks to what we have started to call “digital youth work”.

Furthermore, participants will get the following expected outcomes:

• knowledge, skills and attitudes related to the digital environments, such as critical media literacy, knowledge of online communities and cultures
• awareness on the impact that online toxic cultures (i.e. hate speech, bullying, conspiracy theories…) have on social and political dynamics, practices and tools to build effective alternative narratives
• concrete examples and testing of tools and environments that play a major role in youth socialization such as video games, streaming platforms and social media - and their potential benefits in an educational and youth work context.

Target Groups:

• youth workers
• educators and teachers
• members of parents’ associations or organizations
• local policy makers involved in youth or educational contexts
• representatives of law enforcement agencies actively involved in the course topics, such as police
• psychologists, psychiatrists and mental health care provider.

The activity will be realised with the following time schedule:

14 december: from 10 to 12:30

16 december: from 10 to 12:30 and from 14:30 to 16:30

17 december: from 10 to 12:30 and from 14:30 to 16:30

18 december: from 10 to 12:30 and from 14:30 to 16:30

19 december: from 10 to 12:30