CAE @ Civil Society Days 2018
Civil Society Days 2018 “Citizenship, Democracy & Culture in Digitised Europe” will take place right after the plenary session at which the European Economic and Social Committee celebrates its 60th anniversary.
The focus of this Civil Society Days will be on fostering the current debate about the future of Europe and on highlighting the role across Europe of the civil society organisations which come together in the EESC to represent “Europe at work”. In line with this twofold emphasis, the CivSocDays 2018 will address Europe at work in relation to a dimension which has permeated our everyday working and living environment and will affect and shape our future, as well as the future of Europe: the digital world.
Culture Action Europe together with Lifelong Learning Platform and EESC section SOC invites you to a workshop “Education and Culture: A Synergy for the European Identity”.
Concept
Debates on issues relating to European identity in all its diversity have gained ground in recent discussions. Education and culture are the driving forces that foster a feeling of belonging to European society, and yet they are not acknowledged as such. The digital revolution has made it clear that new ways are available for breaking down barriers between Europeans, both in space and time: new ways of promoting learning, new ways of sharing our culture and new ways of developing a deep sense of cultural awareness. Still, the digital shift raises questions about universal rights of access to education and culture in an online world, as well as about the space that the internet opens up for communication and cooperation among people, and this has an impact on civic engagement and intercultural encounters.
Aware that it is necessary to address these needs, the organisers would like to tackle the ways in which not only education, but also culture, heritage and intercultural understanding contribute to the definition of European societies in digital times. Both the Lifelong Learning Platform and Culture Action Europe believe that civil society organisations have the potential to show how the multiple connections between these spheres can meet the needs of European society and help us thrive in an interlinked and digitalised world.
Aims and main questions
Through this workshop we hope to answer some of the questions that permeate the current debate:
- How can education and culture contribute to fostering European citizenship and help build true lifelong learning societies?
- What are the conditions to be met and the barriers to overcome, and what principles and frameworks are needed to foster a sense of European community through education and culture?
- What measures can be taken to ensure that digital means serve the wider scope of cultural awareness?
Format
The workshop will take place in the form of a “reverse café”. This particular set-up requires audience and speakers to split up into three groups, each one with different break-out sessions being held in separate areas; for every area, an expert will guide the audience towards an answer to each of the initial questions, offering a specific perspective and using a variety of tools to gather input from the participants.
In a second phase, experts will bring the discussion to a panel in a plenary session, where contributions will build up to produce the final take-away. The three break-out sessions will each come up with a set of three or more recommendations for policy-makers, and the audience will get to prioritise them in an interactive way through a system of online voting. The digital world will also be represented via a “Twitter wall”, which will show live interactions from the audience.
