Participatory-observation-research about “Constructively Dealing with the Past” within RYCO youth exchange projects
During the second half of 2018 took place a participatory-observation-research called “Constructively dealing with the past”, organized by RYCO, crossborder factory and the Franco- German Youth Office, with a team of six researchers from the six Western Balkans-countries which visited several RYCO-supported projects which are dealing with questions linked to history and memory.
The aim of this research-project was to collect data and to analyze, through observation and interviews, how these youth encounters are tackling the topics linked to history and memory, in order to get a precise idea about the current situation regarding approaches and challenges in relation with the topic “remembrance and reconciliation” within RYCO-projects.
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The participation observation research constitutes a first step of a larger RYCO- project in order to promote, in and through RYCO-youth exchange, constructive dealing with the past and reconciliation, as it is foreseen in the RYCO-statute.
In April 2019, a next working meeting is planned in cooperation with members of the German Bundestag, the French Assemblée Nationale and members of the Polish Sejm in order to discuss the challenges and opportunities of closer regional cooperation in the Western Balkans on youth-specific issues and to gather information on existing European experiences of cross-border cooperation.
The general aim of this project is to contribute to the development of the work of RYCO on the topic “reconciliation and remembrance” and in this perspective to provide , through this initial research, food for thought and material for future training curricula, pedagogical tools and training sessions of RYCO in order to motivate and empower youth organizations to address topics linked to history ans memory in their youth exchange projects in an adequate way.