Theoretical framework:
Participation of young adults, social inquiry pedagogy, and empowerment
The Open Houses project actively brought together young people from three European countries: France, Romania, and Germany. These participants are going through a period of transition to adulthood, which manifests differently depending on their social, material, and geographical conditions. Our project focused on recognizing the engagement of young people by developing an investigative approach focused on collective dynamics within three theaters: TNB in Rennes, Radu Stanca in Sibiu, and Kampnagel in Hamburg. To do this, we developed a methodology based on a theoretical framework that we will present below.
Young adults: a specific audience?
During the 1990s, social sciences highlighted a widespread phenomenon in Europe: the prolongation of youth. This is manifested by an increase in uncertainty and dependence of young people on the adult community (Galland, 2007). Situations of “in-between” are observed where young people extend their economic and social dependence on the adult community. This development can be explained by three major trends: the deterioration of mechanisms for professional integration (mass unemployment, job precarity), the dilution of stages leading to adulthood, and the prolongation of schooling. It is also related to the transformation of modes of socialization, shifting from identification-based socialization to personal experimentation-based socialization.
This has given rise to the concept of “young adults,” which characterizes this phase of transition to adulthood. Individuals are then confronted with a triple challenge: reconciling their social integration path with personal development while constructing their citizenship. In this context, most young adults, especially those from working-class backgrounds, adopt an attitude that separates these three temporalities, developing parallel paths (Van de Velde, 2008). Many prioritize their professional future, often at the expense of their personal and civic aspirations.
In a context of changing pathways to adulthood, characterized by the prolongation of youth and desynchronization of traditional stages, explicit and implicit expectations encourage young people to find their voice while engaging in different facets of their lives. This can affect young people who do not have the same social, cultural, or economic resources to meet these expectations. For many participants, the Open Houses project provided a “parenthesis” in a journey marked by questions and demands to participate in society despite sometimes burdensome economic and social difficulties.
Recognizing youth participation: a shared challenge for project leaders
Active youth participation is a major concern at the European level, both for public actors (government, departments, municipalities, etc.) and private actors (associations, foundations, businesses). Media discourse encourages young people to get involved in the community, and initiatives are put in place to involve them in actions and policies that affect them. This trend is also observed in cultural institutions, including theaters, in several European countries, particularly in France, Romania, and Germany, where objectives and methods are deployed to encourage youth participation.
However, the notion of participation can vary significantly depending on the level of granted power, pursued objectives, and preferred forms of action. In some cases, youth participation is claimed, but the proposed forms of involvement do not capture the attention of young people, or the proposals made by young people are not adequately taken into account to evolve the organization (Loncle, 2010). This lack of consideration can lead to disengagement among young people and fuel negative and blaming media discourse towards them.
However, numerous studies have shown that young people are increasingly engaged in non-conventional forms, often unrecognized and even less valued. The socio-political context in which they operate pushes them to get involved in new causes such as climate change and discrimination. Furthermore, although young people still have strong expectations regarding work, it no longer holds the central importance it once did.
In this context, youth participation in cultural dynamics requires a change in perspective regarding their expectations, forms of participation, and the consideration of their expectations and projects by cultural institutions. The embedded research conducted within the Open Houses project sought to identify the explicit and implicit expectations of young people, as well as the barriers to their participation in cultural institutions.
Social inquiry: a method to enhance the power to act.
“Un citoyen émancipé est un citoyen qui « mène l’enquête», qui s’informe de manière indépendante et qui se forge une opinion après être allé « voir », après avoir éprouvé concrètement la question et fait l’effort d’observer, de découvrir et de comprendre.”[1]
“An emancipated citizen is a citizen who ‘conducts the inquiry,’ who seeks information independently and forms an opinion after ‘seeing,’ after concretely experiencing the issue and making the effort to observe, discover, and understand.”
This quote allows us to introduce the final point of this theoretical framework. We wanted to animate this approach based on the social inquiry pedagogy developed by John Dewey to enhance the participants’ power to act.
According to Dewey, social inquiry is an educational method that aims to educate citizens in the exercise of their democratic role. This method aims to initiate citizens into a scientific investigative approach and encourage them to think critically about social, cultural, economic, or political issues that directly concern them. The objective is to empower them to participate actively and informedly in civic life and, within the framework of the Open Houses project, in cultural life through a theatrical institution.
Social inquiry should be conducted collaboratively, with the participation of the public, researchers, professionals, and community members. In doing so, it allows for the dialogue between different types of knowledge: experiential, theoretical, and technical. It should revolve around four stages: problem formulation, data collection, data analysis, and implementation of solutions. Facilitators are there to guide the young people throughout the process, helping them formulate hypotheses, choose data collection methods appropriate to the contexts, analyze results, and propose concrete solutions. This pedagogical method enables participants to develop essential skills for their civic life, such as critical thinking, ability to work in groups, data gathering and analysis skills, creativity, and initiative. It also promotes their civic engagement by encouraging them to get involved in concrete actions to improve their environment. In this regard, the inquiry method appears particularly suitable for developing the power to act.
The power to act (empowerment) is a concept derived from popular education and social psychology. It refers to the capacity of individuals or groups to free themselves from social, economic, or cultural constraints that limit their ability to act on their lives and environment. It concretely manifests as an awareness of inequalities, injustices, and possible margins of maneuver to overcome or bypass them. It is, therefore, a process of conscientization that aims to strengthen self-esteem and confidence in one’s abilities, develop skills and knowledge, and foster active participation in decisions concerning one’s life. The power to act is thus a means to combat processes of exclusion, discrimination, and domination that affect socially disadvantaged groups. It helps restore meaning to civic engagement by promoting active and critical participation in democratic life. It is also a lever to combat gender stereotypes, racial discrimination, and the marginalization of people with disabilities.
However, it is important to emphasize that the power to act cannot simply be decreed. It requires conducive conditions for its development, such as the recognition of the skills and knowledge of the individuals involved, the establishment of participatory and inclusive mechanisms, as well as support from actors and public policies in favor of local initiatives. The inquiry conducted within the framework of the OPEN HOUSES project was appropriated differently by the participants, eliciting critiques, discussions, and exchanges that were accompanied by concrete proposals in the theaters.
Objectives and hypotheses
OPEN HOUSES was part of an Erasmus+ youth cooperation partnership with a tri-national consortium structured, in each country, by a pair made up of a youth organisation and a theatre.
- Sibiu, Romania: RESET ngo, National Theater “Radu Stanca” Sibiu (TNRS)
- Rennes, France: Jeunes à Travers le Monde, National Theatre of Britanny (TNB), Coop’Eskemm
- Hamburg, Germany: Beyond-Borders, Kampnagel
Coop Eskemm, a youth work and research cooperative specialising in public youth policy, was responsible for coordinating and supporting the social survey part of the project.
The aim of this partnership was to create experimental approaches to cultural action through cooperation between groups of young people and theatre professionals in Europe, with the following objectives:
- supporting young people’s cultural citizenship
- to innovate in terms of the opening up and appropriation of theatres,
- to develop cooperation between groups of young people and professionals from these cultural institutions.
Right from the start of the partnership, a great deal of work was done to develop intellectual productions in collaboration between the organisations in the consortium and the participants in the project . This involved, on the one hand, producing a programme of cultural actions by the pair of partners, youth collective and theatre, in each town (O1), and on the other hand, carrying out a study and producing artistic performances linked to the three youth collectives on the experiences of cooperation between young people and theatre professionals (O2). The transnational survey (O2) was a way for young people to reflect on their experience of the project. This enabled the main players in the project to also take on the role of interviewer. The Open Houses participants therefore played the role of actor-researcher.
The proposed method consisted of building the survey approach and its stages through cooperation between the youth collectives, the youth organisations and Coop’Eskemm. This involved thinking together to define and implement the research question, the analysis framework, the data collection system, the analysis of the materials and the production of the results.
The social survey carried out as part of OPEN HOUSES met a democratic challenge by giving young participants a voice and encouraging their active participation in the project. The aim of the survey was to enable the key players in the project – the young people themselves – to also take on the role of interviewers, thereby strengthening their autonomy and commitment to the research process. By giving young people the opportunity to reflect on their experience, formulate research questions and participate in the analysis of the results, the survey aimed to encourage their democratic participation by recognising their expertise and valuing their perspectives.
This methodology was enhanced by an artistic dimension, as the young people worked with artists commissioned by the theatres to produce material relating to the experiment. This material was considered both as data to be analysed for the survey and as forms of feedback on the survey process.
[1] Nicolas-Le Strat, Pascal. « Une démocratie éprouvée », Multitudes, vol. 90, no. 1, 2023, pp. 136-142.