YOUNG PEOPLE, SOCIAL INCLUSION and DIGITALISATION Emerging Knowledge for Practice and Policy
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Digital methods, tools and platforms, and their unexplored potential in YOUNG PEOPLE, the youth sector, have created much enthusiasm within the youth field. This Youth Knowledge publication explores the intersection between digitalisation and social inclusion of young people, reflecting especially on SOCIAL INCLUSION how digitalisation affects young people’s lives, and what the role of youth PEOPLE, YOUNG policy, youth work and youth research can be in this respect. AND DIGITALISATION Can the digital revolution help us to tackle existing inequalities, or does it leave some young people even further behind? Is the digital world equally accessible to all young people? What are some of the inherent inequalities Emerging knowledge within the digital sphere? Do digital tools enable youth organisations, youth AND DIGITALISATION SOCIAL INCLUSION workers or state bodies to “reach out” to marginalised young people? for practice and policy In these 16 chapters, the authors critically examine if and how digitalisation can support the quest for social inclusion, ranging from the exploration of policies, tools and platforms available to young people and youth workers in Europe, supporting young people’s access to education and employment opportunities, opening up avenues for digital youth work, providing opportunities for participation for young people with disabilities, channels of integration for migrant communities and young refugees across Europe and support networks for young LGBTI persons. While there is an acknowledgement of the potential for the youth sector to use the possibilities of digitalisation to address social inequality, the authors also emphasise that this does not happen automatically, and more reflection is needed regarding the accessibility of technology and how our digital approaches can be made inclusive for young people from all backgrounds. 05821 0 PREMS http://youth-partnership-eu.coe.int [email protected] ENG The Council of Europe is the continent’s leading The member states of the European Union have decided human rights organisation. It comprises 47 member to link together their know-how, resources and destinies. Youth Knowledge #27 states, including all members of the European Union. All Together, they have built a zone of stability, democracy Council of Europe member states have signed up to the and sustainable development whilst maintaining cultural European Convention on Human Rights, a treaty designed diversity, tolerance and individual freedoms. The European to protect human rights, democracy and the rule of law. Union is committed to sharing its achievements and its The European Court of Human Rights oversees the values with countries and peoples beyond its borders. implementation of the Convention in the member states.. www.coe.int http://europa.eu http://book.coe.int ISBN 978-92-871-8650-8 €37/US$74 YOUNG PEOPLE, SOCIAL INCLUSION AND DIGITALISATION Emerging knowledge for practice and policy Editorial team Dan Moxon (Chief editor) Adina Marina Șerban Dunja Potočnik Nuala Connolly Lana Pasic Veronica Ștefan Youth Knowledge #27 Council of Europe and European Commission The opinions expressed in this work, commissioned by the partnership between the European Commission and the Council of Europe in the field of youth, are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of either of the partner institutions, their member states or the organisations co- operating with them. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be translated, reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic (CD-Rom, internet, etc.) or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the Directorate of Communications (F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex or [email protected]). Cover design: Documents and Publications Production Department, Council of Europe Layout: Jouve, Paris Cover photo: Shutterstock Council of Europe Publishing F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex http://book.coe.int ISBN 978-92-871-8650-8 © Council of Europe and European Commission, January 2021 Printed at the Council of Europe Contents INTRODUCTION 5 Dan Moxon, Adina Marina Șerban, Dunja Potočnik, Lana Pasic and Veronica Ștefan CHAPTER 1 – AN OVERVIEW OF SOCIAL INCLUSION, DIGITALISATION AND YOUNG PEOPLE 9 Adina Marina Șerban, Dan Moxon, Dunja Potočnik, Lana Pasic and Veronica Ștefan CHAPTER 2 – A NEW ERA OF DIGITAL LEARNING IN DIGITALENTS HELSINKI: YOUTH PARTICIPATION IN THE LABOUR MARKET THROUGH HIGH-TECH PROJECTS 25 Karoliina Leisti and Vesa Jaakola CHAPTER 3 – DIGITALISATION AND ICT AS A GUARANTEE FOR THE SOCIAL INCLUSION OF YOUNG PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES 35 Roman Banari CHAPTER 4 – DIGITALISATION FOR THE EMPOWERMENT OF INDIVIDUALS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENT OR BLINDNESS 49 Judit Gombás, Mária Magdolna Flamich and Mária Rita Hoffmann CHAPTER 5 – LGBTILISATION: LEARNING FROM THE EXPERIENCES OF YOUNG LGBTQIA+ PEOPLE ONLINE 61 Dan Moxon, John Delap, Eli, Seán, Kajetan Koperski, Millica, Hélėne Mariaud, Lukas Reußner and Roberta CHAPTER 6 – CAN OPENNESS AND OPEN STANDARDS HELP REVITALISE MARGINALISED LANGUAGES? 73 Subhashish Panigrahi CHAPTER 7 – PRECARIOUS YOUTH AND THE SPECTRE OF ALGORITHMIC STEREOTYPING 87 Dan McQuillan and Ron Salaj CHAPTER 8 – YOUNG PEOPLE’S DIGITAL WELL-BEING: OPTIMISING THE POTENTIAL AND MINIMISING THE RISKS 105 Cathy Street, Aiman El Asam and Adrienne Katz CHAPTER 9 – WHATSAPP REFUGEES? A REFLEXIVE ACCOUNT OF THE METHODOLOGICAL USE OF WHATSAPP WITH NEWLY ARRIVED REFUGEES IN EUROPE 123 Daniel Briggs CHAPTER 10 – “I’M THERE FOR YOU.” PEER AND WORKER SUPPORT THROUGH ONLINE MESSAGING 141 Ursula Curwen CHAPTER 11 – VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES IN INTRA-EUROPEAN MOBILITIES AS MECHANISMS OF INTEGRATION AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION: THE NEW SPANISH MIGRATION IN EUROPE 149 Antía Pérez-Caramés, Belén Fernández-Suárez and Alberto Capote Lama CHAPTER 12 – POWER, PARTICIPATION AND GEOGRAPHICAL ISOLATION 163 John Taylor, Anja Johnston and Rachael Hatfield Page 3 CHAPTER 13 – CODING PROMOTES THE SOCIAL PARTICIPATION OF YOUNG PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES 177 Thomas Schmidt, Jutta Schneider and Katrin Schuberth CHAPTER 14 – FROM DIGITAL SKILLS TO DIGITAL ETHICS: UNCOVERING THE POLITICS OF EXCLUSION AND EMPOWERING STRATEGIES OF SELF- INCLUSION IN DIGITAL ECOSYSTEMS 191 Björn Bohnenkamp and Lukas Findeisen CHAPTER 15 – YOUNG PEOPLE, SOCIAL INCLUSION AND THE DIGITAL AGE: A HUMAN RIGHTS PERSPECTIVE 203 Nuala Connolly and James Kenny CHAPTER 16 – MANAGING DIGITAL YOUTH WORK AND ITS RISKS 219 Lasse Siurala AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES 241 Page 4 Young people, social inclusion and digitalisation Introduction Dan Moxon, Adina Marina Șerban, Dunja Potočnik, Lana Pasic and Veronica Ștefan his publication is part of the Youth Knowledge series produced by the partnership between the European Commission and the Council of Europe in the field of T youth; it follows on from the symposium Connecting the Dots: Young People, Social Inclusion and Digitalisation, held in Tallinn in 2018. The symposium explored the intersection between social inclusion of young people and digitalisation, reflec- ting especially on how digitalisation affects young people’s lives, and what the role of youth policy, youth work and youth research can be in this respect. Alongside the knowledge book, a study entitled Social inclusion, digitalisation and young people (Șerban et al. 2020) has also been published. These various activities together can be seen as part of an emerging realisation that there is a need to focus on social inclusion as part of the digitalisation and youth agenda. Social inclusion and young people It is important to stress what we mean, and what we don’t mean, by social inclusion in this book. We might start with the general idea that inclusion is somehow the reverse of exclusion. We might say that inclusion is about ensuring that people are not excluded from accessing education, healthcare, employment, affordable housing, a political voice, leisure activities, culture or many other things. We might then go on to say that inclusion is also linked to human rights, because human rights provide the basic minimum list of entitlements that any one person or group should have access to. We might also say that inclusion is linked to equality, because if some people have substantially less access to the world’s resources than others, they are still somehow excluded. If we consider how this might apply to young people, we must make a distinction between the social inclusion and the general inclusion of young people. These two concepts are sometimes mixed up in our multilingual European youth sector community. In this book we have tried to distinguish between them. Discussing the general inclusion of young people asks questions about the differences between generations. Exploring this leads us to consider why young people in general are more excluded from life opportunities than older generations – for instance, why they may have more precarious employment or less political influence. This type of exploration is a conversation about intergenerational inequality. Discussing social inclusion and young people is about patterns of exclusion, inequality or denial of rights, and the way they vary between different social groups of young people. Focusing on social inclusion asks us to consider why young people with disabilities often have fewer employment and education opportunities than young people who are not disabled. It asks why young people who grow up in social