Goals of the "My Language-Your Language" Project
The project "My Language-Your Language" deals with success factors for good citizen participation. The aim is to engage with best practices in the context of civic participation at an international level, to learn more about them, and to develop competencies on how target group-oriented participation can succeed on the ground. The scientific discourse on citizen participation and its methods is extensive and controversial. Both science and practice state that people close to education participate and that disadvantaged population groups are excluded and socially excluded. In addition, practical experience shows that municipal calls for participation are generic and not tailored to the target groups to be reached, and that existing networking structures are also ignored.
With the project "My Language-Your Language- Success Factors for Good Civic Participation" the applicants want to investigate the described gap of the lack of target group oriented access in accordance with the priorities "Social Inclusion" and "Shared Values, Civic Engagement and Participation" and work on the questions below in transnational partnership. There will be a focus on networking of local organization and authorities and their integrated cooperation.
Betrachtet man die Kategorien und Typologien von Bürgerbeteiligungsverfahren reicht das Spektrum von Zukunftswerkstätten über Aktivierung und Initiierung von Planungsprozessen bis zum Ideendialog. Bürgerbeteiligung kann dialogisch strukturiert sein oder informativen Charakter haben, auch Beteiligungstiefe sowie die Beteiligungsbreite werden berücksichtigt. Völlig unbeachtet in der Diskussion über Bürgerbeteiligung bleiben die zielgruppenspezifische Art der Ansprache (kultursensibler Sprachduktus, Sprachstil, Piktogramme,…) und die Art der Zugangswahl (Analog, Digital, Flyer, Kanal, Werbung, TV,…) und die Frage inwiefern Lebenslage und Lebenswelt der zu beteiligenden Gruppe im Prozess der Information und Beteiligung berücksichtigt werden.
Through the Strategic Partnership, this topic will be elaborated internationally in workshops with local stakeholders on the ground. The following questions, among others, are to be answered and recorded in a handout with best practice recommendations:
- What is the experience of the partners with the participation of people of different ages and nationalities who are interested in participation and those who are not?
- What best practices exist in the area of culturally sensitive outreach and participation in the respective partner countries?
On-site workshops
It was planned that all partners will visit each other via transnational project meetings (workshops on site) for 3 days. The inviting organization will organize, prepare and implement the accommodation of the guests, a workshop and a program on site. During the visit, the organization will document the visit with photos and record the key findings. Finally, each organization is responsible for uploading a short documentation of the transnational project meeting in the host country on the project homepage.
Aufgrund der Pandemiesituation fand die Auftraktveranstaltung mit allen Projektpartnern, in der strategische Entscheidungen getroffen wurden virtuell statt. Auch die transnationalen Projekttreffen müssen coronabedingt angepasst werden: So wurden alle Projekttreffen in die Zeit ab Sommer gelegt. Das erste Projekttreffen in Österreich im Mai wird zudem virtuell stattfinden müssen. Die weiteren Projekttreffen finden im September, Oktober und November statt. Hier wird derzeit noch flexibel geplant.