Empowering rural communities to digitize, share and exploit Sense of Place across Europe through inter-generational exchange
#ASenseOfEU aims at empowering young adults (18-35 years old) and adult people (55+ years old) living in rural/remote communities at risk of social exclusion providing them with digitization and safeguarding skills focusing on Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) and Sense of Place through a trans-generational exchange. This initiative not only aims to bridge the digital divide and enhance social inclusion but also to sustain and revitalize local cultures and histories through active participation and knowledge transfer between generations.
Objectives
- Promoting quality adult education: By focusing on lifelong learning and the acquisition of digital skills, the project aligns with the EU’s agenda for enhancing access to and participation in adult education, particularly in underserved rural areas.
- Enhancing digital skills and competences: Recognizing the pivotal role of digital literacy in contemporary society, the project directly contributes to increasing digital competencies, ensuring that both young and older adults are not left behind in the digital transformation.
- Fostering social inclusion and cohesion: Through its emphasis on intergenerational learning and the preservation of cultural heritage, the project supports social inclusion and cohesion, bridging gaps between different age groups and strengthening community bonds.
- Preserving cultural heritage: By equipping participants with skills to safeguard Intangible Cultural Heritage, the project contributes to the conservation and appreciation of Europe’s rich and diverse cultural traditions, promoting a sense of belonging and European identity.
Expected project results and other outcomes
- Training in Sense of Place and Community Engagement, to be used during the mobility;
- Building, Digitising and Exploiting Sense of Place Training Toolkit which provides target groups with knowledge about the sense of place, collaborative heritagization practices and effective digitalization of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH);
- Sense of EU Digital Collection, a multichannel digital structure that enables the target groups to develop by themselves a dynamic open digital repository of ICH.
Methodology
It proposes a novel cooperative approach among Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and local communities, leveraging a mix of academic action-research, Non-Formal Education (NFE) methods, and informal trans-generational exchange of skills and knowledge. This methodology is especially innovative due to its focus on Heritage Labs, which are designed to foster intergenerational learning and exchange, thereby meeting the diverse needs of the target group in a manner that avoids top-down interventions, which are deemed less effective in the context of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH).
Coordinator
Samfelagsmiðstöðin á Thingeyri from Thingeyri, Iceland
Partners
- Asociación para el desarrollo socioemocional de la persona, la sociedad y para la cooperación internacional Uno from Valencia, Spain
- Incipit Consulting Societa Cooperativa from Perugia, Italy
- Open Impact SRL from Roma, Italy
- Asociatia Stiinta si patrimoniul Cultural in Conexiune (Association Science and Cultural Heritage in Connection) from Bucharest, Romania
- NCK – Nordic Centre of Heritage learning and Creativity from Östersund, Sweden
For more information, contact at NCK: Helena Kuhlefelt