Author: Georg Pirker

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DemoDice – App for Dice-based Storytelling

Storytelling and Democracy learning combined in a dice game – how does that work? After 2 years of intense brainwork testing we can assure: storytelling and dice games work pretty well for learning Democracy. Together with Amanda Warner and the game developers team from our Erasmus + project DemoGames – the Democracy Learning Box we are proud to present DemoDice.

Dice-based storytelling

From 1 to 10 players reflect and exchange their experience with democracy, as well as their desires and ideas for a more democratic future. The standard set includes 9 dice with six symbols each.

  • Three dices on democracy as a political system (participation, rule of law, basic/human rights),
  • Three dices on individuals and interactions (actors, emotions, power relations),
  • Three dice on contextual factors (social policy areas, places, challenges and threats to democracy).
  • Special dice are available on sustainability and the pandemic.

The game can be played with or without more detailed information about the symbols and its various meanings.

Test it:

Install Apple Store | Google Play Store

The free and non-commercial app DemoDice is based on the analogue DemoDice game, which has been developed by DARE member demokrative.

How to play Read the rulebook

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DEMOGAMES – Training of Trainers in Timisoara

From 31st of March to 3rd of April 2022, the DEMOGAMES project – Democracy and Games: Analog and Digital Game-Based Learning Tools for Youth Work (2019-2-DE04-KA205-018330) – has organized its Training of Trainers in Romania hosted by the Intercultural Institute of Timisoara.

Involving a group of participants, educational practitioners and youth workers, from Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Romania and the DARE Network, during this meeting we had the opportunity to play and reflect on the learning process of the DEMOGAMES games.

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DEMOGAMES – Youth Training in Almuñécar

From 28th of November to 4th of December 2021, the DEMOGAMES project – Democracy and Games: Analog and Digital Game-Based Learning Tools for Youth Work (2019-2-DE04-KA205-018330) – has organized its youth training in Almuñécar hosted by DA2 Trucados. This is the second youth event after the digital experience hosted online by CGE Erfurt.

Involving a group of participants, organization volunteers and youth leaders from Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Romania and from Greece and Poland representing the DARE Network, during this meeting we had the opportunity to play for the first time some of the DEMOGAMES prototypes and and connect the learning processes of each game with the Competences for Democratic Culture.

In this youth event we had the privilege to try for the first time on the table Utopia Island, a long and complex game that shows players how to start a democracy after a dictatorship in an interesting island. At the same time, we continued developing the Competences for Democratic Culture Cards, recently designed, for which we are finding play modes that support the reflection on interactive and group ways.

Emotions and values came to the gaming tables and to the beach and countryside reflections after each day of gaming. It was a beautiful process that supported confirming the games rules and connecting the educational and gaming process to the young players needs.

The youth group shared interest in contributing to the design and feedback processes of DEMOGAMES. They received extra training on games facilitation and the added value of game based learning. We look forward to receiving their comments from the games they will play with their peers!

After the training ended, we celebrated a project management meeting where we could have a detailed review of the manual for youth workers and set deadlines for the next months of online collaboration towards the Training of Trainers, Manual and MOOC final stages.

(by Ramon Martinez)

Project DEMOGAMES
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Competences for Democratic Culture and non-formal Education

DARE and Zentrum Polis have been coordinating an experiential two years test of the Council of Europes Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture in various settings of cooperation between formal and non-formal education.

DARE BLUE LINES: Competences for Democratic Culture
in the Non-Formal Educational Sector

Patricia Hladschik, Claudia Lenz, Georg Pirker (Ed.)
With articles of Ole Jantschek, Laura Meijer, Simon Oesterle, Hanna Lorenzen, Thimo Nieselt and contributions from Paola Carega, Nils-Eyk Zimmermann, Ramón Martínez.
91 pages, DARE Blue Lines 2020

How can the RFCDC interplay with other competence frameworks? How can a competence based approach contribute to build a bridge between the inherent field logics of formal and non-formal education? Where are practical benefits and limitations? An extensive field study and practice test allowed to draw findings for the field of cooperation between different sectors of learning, for using the RFCDC as a tool to support peer-learning, and as a reflection instrument for the design and conduction of non-formal learning processes, of educational practice and to support educators in EDC/HRE reflecting about their role and position in learning and educating, for, through and and about democracy.

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Project SemiFit: Seminar for intercultural trainers in Citizenship Education – May 2019

On invitation of DARE network and training center Kurt Löwenstein 25 trainers gathered for an intensive exchange on the question of quality in citizenship education. They shared approaches, tools and methods and reflected thoroughly about their experiences in different learning context.

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Democracy and Human Rights under pressure: the effects of right-wing populism, post-truth and radicalisation on Education for Democracy with young people

Recommendations based on the cooperation and analysis in the STEPS project.

In more and more countries in Europe basic democratic participation rights are rejected and questioned, large groups in societies, political parties and government promote authoritarian rule, right-wing populist parties and their leaders deny human rights to certain societal groups  and are dismantling democracy, ordinary people and elected politicians spread hate on NGO´s and undermine democratic decision-making, mistrust is rising on the capacity of the political levels to solve societal challenges. As a consequence, there is a definite need to consider the role of Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights (EDC/HRE) with young people. With the European project STEPS (E+ KA 1 mobility project), DARE members aim to identify the relationship between populism, post-truth, radicalisation and EDC/HRE as work with young people on the political dimension and on the pedagogical dimension of EDC in youth work.

We face a growing and interdependent variety of challenges of complex natures: economic growth with less jobs to offer, migration and flight, security issues and liberal freedom, global competition, climate change,  distribution of wealth and solidarity,  access to social rights, to name but a few. These challenges largely affect the basics of solidarity and democratic living together, they are contributing to a resurgence of nationalism in its current form of right-wing populism, which are increasing those challenges even more.

As educators working with young people in both non-formal and formal education, we face a cumulation of challenges which make the populist threat uneasy to react on:

  • almost on all those levels where right-wing populists enter, a massive campaign against basic human rights for all, and against civil society organisations and youth work as provisions for democracy, begins
  • the manifold challenging of basic commitments of HR policies and standards in Europe and beyond, manifesting itself in pressure on perceived ‘others’ in our societies, namely all people of different origins – on refugees and migrants
  • a reflection among EDC practitioners to reach groups affected by extreme ideologies; which is as such reflecting the commitment of EDC in its inherent logic, but also questions the open and voluntary commitment of youth work provisions under a prevention perspective
  • an ongoing discrediting and suspecting of EDC work from right-populist parties/actors as manipulating youth with liberal ideas
  • an increase of European and national policies and programs to tackle hate-speech, radicalization , while long term oriented programs that support an infrastructural commitment to train and develop democratic capacities in our societies are lacking
  • the fatal consequences of the neo-liberal paradigm that affects all aspects of life in our societies, resulting in a disillusionment with the promise of equality, with societal and political participation, an unhealthy focus on competition, even within the educational sectors, while being confronted with the fact that in more and more European countries traditional forms of work/industries get lost or face dramatic changes over the next decades
  • an overstressing of competence acquisition and STEM focus in Formal Education, with EDC/HRE, youth work and especially the field of non-formal learning remaining in a secondary position. Resource oriented approaches and a strategic development of children and youth oriented learning spaces are lacking on a large scale in most countries as has been confirmed by the analysis of the STEPS project.
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Publication: STEPS -Survival Toolkit for EDC in Post-factual Societies

In October 2018 DARE published a new textbook/toolkit on Populism, Post-factualism and Radicalisation and its relation to EDC work with young people.

Editors: Ramon Martinez, Georg Pirker

Contributors: Danilo Vicca, Dr. Rebecca Welge/Dr. Saskia Ruth-Lovell/Robert Lovell, Amanda Warner, Calin Rus, Despina Karakatsani, Ilze Tralmaka, Nils-Eyk Zimmermann, Dimitris N. Chryssochoou, Daniela Kolarova, Alex Klobouk, Margot Kapfer/ Susanne Reitmair-Juárez, Zuzana Schreiberová, Tõnis Saarts, Sulev Valdmaa, Tim Scholz/Georg Pirker/Ina Bielenberg, Despina Karakatsani/Dora Katsamori, Martina Camatta/Elisa Rapetti, Danilo Vicca/ Anna Paola Tantucci/Viviana da Paola, Iveta Verse, Marit Langmyr/Evgenia Khoroltseva/Lillian Hjorth, Lavinia Visan/Oana Bajka, Edurne Grau/Ramon Martinez, Tanveer Parnez

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Is Youth Work in Europe challenged by populist movements, by post-truth and by radicalisation?

STEPS – Survival Toolkit for EDC in Postfactual Societies – first project workshop

The first meeting of the STEPS project took place from 08.-11.June 2017 at the youth educational centre wannseeForum, Berlin.
26 youth workers who are actively working on EDC/HRE with young people in 16 countries met in order to develop a common frame and understanding of what we name as populist challenge to EDC/HRE.
All over Europe we face the rise of so- called populist/national movements who promote a view on the world which can be characterized as white- supremacy, racist- ideology driven and is heavily contesting any views on society which build on a positive vision of inclusive, diverse, peaceful and HR embracing societies in Europe.
In some countries these ideas are already governmental reality: the comrades Orban, Kaczyński and their adepts actively undermining any ideas and work that develop pluralist based view on society with a EU that is rather helpless in counteracting, in a lot of countries with parties and movements already in power positions on the regional and local levels.

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