Reimagining Citizenship Education by Cultivating More-Than-Human Care

Imagine if democratic systems acknowledged that all creatures capable of feelings and experiences, not just people, had rights. It would mean treating all living beings with consideration and respect, understanding that they have the capacity to feel joy, pain, and other emotions, and ensuring their well-being is considered in decision-making. How can this be reflected in civic education?

This online workshop combines futures methods and more-than-human approaches to address these questions. At the session, participants will dive into an extreme future scenario putting themselves in the shoes of very different actors to identify various needs when tackling societal challenges. Through this session participants will get a first-hand experience of methods to innovate in citizenship education, as well as contribute to envision how to cultivate relations of care through citizenship education. The workshop design and supporting materials will be shared with participants after the session.

Facilitators: Eva Durrall, University of Oulu, Niccolò Milanese, European Alternatives, Caitlin White, Trinity College, Andrew Newman, European Platform for Digital Humanism, Yusra Niaz, University of Oulu, Tuija Cornér, University of Helsinki, Heidi Hartikainen, University of Oulu, Marianne Kinnula, University of Oulu

Eva Durall Gazulla is Academy postdoctoral researcher at the INTERACT research unit at University of Oulu, Finland. Her expertise areas include media and technology, design and learning using critical approaches as well as participatory design and futures techniques to engage participants in research. Currently, she is involved as research leader in various projects exploring democratic values in technology design and use with young people (co-PI in Critical ChangeLab and PI in Critical DataLit projects).

Niccolò Milanese is director of European Alternatives, a transnational civil society organisation promoting democracy, equality and culutre beyond the nation state since 2007.

Caitlin White is a postdoctoral research fellow in the School of Education at Trinity College, Dublin, where she works on the EU-funded Critical ChangeLab project. She holds a PhD in Public History from Trinity College and is interested in using the past to envision the future. Other research interests include modern Irish history, critical literacies, commemoration, memory, global citizenship education, and workshop design.

Andrew Newman is a producer for the European Platform for Digital Humanism at Ars Electronica in Linz and is focused on fostering cultures of transdisciplinary collaboration. He is responsible for projects aimed at bringing artists and scientists together (STUDIOTOPIA), creating STEAM learning experiences (Critical ChangeLab, Open Science Hub, Creative School and STEAM INC) and promoting citizen science (IMPETUS).

Yusra Niaz is a Doctoral Researcher at the INTERACT Research Unit at University of Oulu, Finland. She is a member of the research team working on the EU funded Critical ChangeLab project. Her doctoral research focuses on the relations young people make when they participate as design protagonists to design future technologies within this more than human centered design world. Other research interests include participatory design, critical approaches to learning and futures techniques.

Tuija Cornér is a PhD researcher at the University of Helsinki. In the EU-funded Critical ChangeLab project, she is part of a research team at the University of Oulu. Her doctoral research focuses on continuous learning and collaborative learning processes. Her research draws from applications of cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT), such as the Change Laboratory method, expansive learning and transformative agency.

Heidi Hartikainen is a postdoctoral researcher in Child-Computer Interaction at INTERACT research group in University of Oulu in Finland. She is interested in the themes of activism and empowerment through technology, especially concerning youth safety and security online. In her work she draws from critical and participatory methods when engaging youth to critically examine emerging technologies and envision our technological futures.

Marianne Kinnula is an Associate Professor in Human-centred design and digitalisation, and the research unit vice-leader of INTERACT research unit in University of Oulu, Finland. Her research is in the fields of information systems and human-computer interaction with inter- and transdisciplinary approaches. Social sustainability of technology in terms of social inclusion, empowerment, and ethical stance in technology development and use at different levels, individual, organizational and society level, are in the heart of her research.

The event’s timing is in Central European Time (CET)