interSectIonal iNClusion in delibeRation and participatiON with Youth

Project Information

SINCRONY

Grant agreement ID: 101132459

DOI

10.3030/101132459

EC signature date 30 October 2023

Start date 1 January 2024

End date 30 June 2027

Funded under

• Culture, creativity and inclusive society

Total cost

€ 2 450 313,75

EU contribution

€ 2 450 313,75

Coordinated by

ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SINCRONY (interSectIonal iNClusion in delibeRation and participatiON with Youth)

Reporting period: 2025-01-01 to 2026-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

SINCRONY set out to explore and innovate ways of meaningfully including of all youth in deliberative and participatory processes through an intersectional lens. It fully embraces the EU’s call for greater efforts toward innovation of democracy (New push for European Democracy), aiming to make democratic institutions and deliberative and participatory experiences more inclusive, thus strengthening citizens’ agency and active political participation. More specifically, it focuses on young people and aligns with the aims of the European Youth Strategy (2019-2027) and the European Youth Goals, which seek to promote inclusive societies and spaces for participation for youth, particularly for those experiencing marginalisation. Despite considerable efforts made by previous EU-funded projects, a significant number of young people in Europe remain insufficiently engaged in governance, and their needs and concerns are not adequately voiced. This leads to an important democratic deficit, reducing the impact of policies in improving their living conditions, particularly for those who experience social disadvantage and marginalisation.
The project’s general aim is twofold: 1) to provide evidence and advance knowledge of the limits and opportunities of deliberative and participatory practices (DPP) in meaningfully involving young people who experience interlocking systems of social disadvantages, and 2) to develop an intersectional approach for DPP enhancement and innovation to address the reproduction of structural political inequalities. It targets the factors and processes responsible for perpetuating political inequalities in youth engagement in deliberative and participatory processes, based on intergenerational and intragenerational power imbalances and youth intersectional positionalities. The results of the project will contribute to defining priorities, tools, and concrete solutions to enhance and innovate deliberative and participatory processes in public governance and schools. Theoretical and empirical insights will be translated into practical solutions for public governance, citizenship education and training, third sector organisations (TSOs), and activist movements, based on pilot implementations in specific settings of institutional decision-making (public administrations, TSOs, schools).

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The SINCRONY Project brings together the expertise of nine partners across six countries (IT, PT, UK, DK, FI, CH) to develop intersectional and inclusive approaches to youth participation and deliberation. The first phase of the project focused on establishing its conceptual and methodological foundations integrating different academic disciplines and perspectives, and valuing different sources of knowledge, including young people, youth organisations and practitioners who can contribute to the project as members of the network of stakeholders (NS). The NS is composed of three stakeholder boards (the practitioners board, the youth organisations board, and the scholars board). A liaison board composed of consortium partners was also established to ensure strong connections with local contexts. In parallel, a comprehensive literature review on intersectionality and youth participation was conducted with the joint effort of all participating partners (WP2). The findings of this review form the baseline for the SINCRONY Manifesto, which, at this early stage, will define the project’s ethical standards, and caveats for engaging marginalised youth in research. In the next phase (WP3), insights from the comprehensive literature review were applied to identify key criteria for conducting an intersectional analysis of youth participation and deliberation practices. The analysis covered 95 existing practices, spanning local, national, and international experiences across various contexts and issues relevant to young people. These findings highlighted both barriers and opportunities for the intersectional inclusion of diverse youth, which will inform the design of more inclusive participatory and deliberative practices in the next phases of the project (WP5). To further expand this knowledge, an analysis of dominant social narratives around youth participation was conducted (WP4). This included examining how policymakers represent youth, how young people see themselves, and how they navigate power dynamics in participatory and deliberative settings. A large-scale policy and social media analysis was conducted, reviewing 172 European, national, and local policy documents, 1,419 Instagram posts from European, national, and local policymakers, and 3,399 Instagram posts from national and local youth organisations. Additionally, primary data collection was carried out through surveys with 2,615 young people and focus groups with 140 youth, conducted in both school and youth organisation settings. These findings will inform the development of training sessions (WP5) for school staff, public administration officials, and community organisation members. In line with our dissemination and communication plan (WP7), we now have a functioning website at https://sincronyproject.eu/.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

At the end of the first year, the SINCRONY project has integrated the multidisciplinary knowledge of the consortium and outlined the theoretical bases for an intersectional lens for deliberation and participation of youth. The empirical research activities have also been completed, and an overall integration of the results is underway. Steps towards disseminating the first outputs from the literature review and the analysis of the collected data have been taken with proposals for research articles and presentations at international and national conferences. The efforts to integrate the research results will also produce recommendations for the enhancement of existing participative and deliberative practices and provide input for educational materials, activities, and interactive tools to be implemented in schools and communities, with focus on strengthening awareness of power imbalances and improving the quality of deliberation and participation towards greater intersectional inclusion of youth. The results from the first year provide scientific impact by advancing the understanding of intersectional youth inclusion in participation and deliberation practices and generating data and outputs than can be used and re-used to further expand knowledge on the topic. The potential societal impact of the results is also relevant in generating changes on public discourses on young people and youth participation, countering unwelcoming narratives and attitudes toward young people with different positionalities, as well as improving intersectional practices of participation and creating safe experiences in formal and informal educational settings.