Tales from the first WYRED’s youth-led Showcase Workshop in Rome!
The first WYRED youth-led meeting, suitably named “Young researchers in the digital society”, took place last Friday at the Faculty of Political Science and International Relations of the University Roma Tre in Rome, Italy.
Our partner Oxfam Italia , organized and supervisor of the whole initiative, briefly introduced the project and the work carried out by the young participants over the last academic year and then merged into the roundtables that were scheduled for the day. The meeting did not provide for an external moderator, in order not to steal the show from the young researchers and let them expose the methodologies used, make their points, host and foster the debate on their own. The audiences consisted of students, lecturers, representatives from the main local authorities, all praising the innovativeness of the event, the methodologies used and the topics chosen by the young ones. Sometimes, the Oxfam staff had to cut the debate short to make it possible for everyone to have their say…they were so caught up in conversation that they totally forgot about the time limits!
The topics discussed between the young researchers and their audiences are listed below. We truly wish to repeat this wonderful experience next year, so that even more young people will be able to enjoy the opportunities provided by the WYRED Project. Please keep supporting us!
The Showcase Workshop’s roundtables:
- Young people, media and self-depiction – social media foster the narcissistic need of receive approval from peers: as a consequence, relationships developed online often lead to social isolation, emotional distress, performance anxiety, and then to bullying and cyberbullying. However, young people often are not informed about data privacy and Internet security at all. What to do?
- Young people, labour-market and political participation – The research projects all point out that young people today do not feel any sense of belonging to communities and/or generations. They do not feel anything that is not apathy and withdrawal when confronted with civic engagement and rational voting. They do not even recognize themselves as NEETs and prove to be unable to find individual solutions to achieve active citizenship and personal fulfilment. What to do?
- Young people, globalization and social inclusion– The stereotypes on Italy and Italians by foreign people show how, even in our country, people changed their perception of immigration over the last few years. Only the negative side of globalisation are addressed, that is precisely why foreign students are often discriminated in schools. What to do?
