This study is developed within the project “Democracy Meets Arts: Critical Change Labs for Building Democratic Cultures through Creative and Narrative Practices” (CCLAB). CCLAB is part of the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program and seeks to understand and address current trends in democratic erosion in Europe. The project consists of a consortium of ten partners who conduct this research in 19 European countries. One of its main objectives is to develop a methodological framework to strengthen critical democratic education among young people. To this end, the project is inspired by the Change Laboratory method (Engeström et al., 2015) and employs Participatory Action Research (PAR) and arts-based methods to iteratively design a pedagogical model that fosters everyday democracy among young people. 

The decision to employ arts-based methods is grounded in a robust body of literature demonstrating the transformative potential of the arts. Dewey (1934) and Boal (1985) highlight how artistic practices can create spaces for critical reflection, fostering deeper awareness of societal structures and individual agency. Additionally, Leavy (2015) underscores the role of art in facilitating youth engagement and participation, making complex concepts like democracy more accessible and relatable. Greene (1995) further emphasizes that art serves as a powerful tool for envisioning and imagining change by offering participants creative avenues to explore alternative futures.

The development of this pedagogical model takes place through three iterative and participatory cycles across 19 European countries between 2024 and 2025. Each implementation cycle involves evaluation and reflection, which inform the model's redesign and improvement. To date, the first and second cycles of implementation and evaluation have been completed in 19 countries, including 9 consortium members and 10 external partners.

Central to the project is the idea, rooted in Dewey’s (1916) philosophy, that democracy is more than a system of governance; it is "primarily a form of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience" (p. 91) which is manifested in values, attitudes and agency (Council of Europe, 2017). Following this, CCLAB is built on the assumption that participatory democracy entails active participation (Biesta, 2007) and is inherently felt and embodied in specific current practices and contexts. This perspective calls for a fundamental shift from traditional approaches that focus on teaching democracy as a static subject or set of institutional principles. Instead, it emphasizes the importance of exploring how young people actively engage with, practice, interpret, reflect and make sense of democracy in their everyday lives. This standpoint implies paying attention to the diverse, informal, and sometimes unexpected ways in which people make sense of democracy and enact democratic practices and values. It, therefore, looks for methods, techniques and approaches to think with youth about what democracy and active citizenship mean for them. To this end, in this paper, we will focus on reflecting on how arts and design-based methods allowed thinking with youth about what ‘doing’ democracy means and what it entails. 

To address this goal, we will describe three illustrative cases from the first cycle of the CCLAB project, conducted between April and June 2024. These cases were selected based on their diversity in context, participant demographics, and the specific methods and techniques employed. Each case reflects a unique approach to integrating arts and design-based practices to scaffold critical dialogue and participatory engagement with democratic themes. 

A total of 224 students, 16 researchers, and 13 educators participated in these cases. This diverse pool of participants and settings provided a fertile ground to examine the possibilities, challenges, and complexities inherent in using design and arts-based practices for thinking with youth about what ‘doing’ democracy entails in their everyday lives and broader societal contexts.

This communication presents the evaluation outcomes from the first Participatory Action Research (PAR) cycle conducted across nine partner countries. Each PAR cycle was organized into six sessions, structured around the four phases of the CCLab model: (1) Onboard; (2) Question and Analyze; (3) Envision and Act; and (4) Reflect. To ensure consistency in the evaluation process, all partners collected data using a shared protocol comprising three primary instruments: (1) researcher diaries: detailed records of events, observations, and reflections from each session of the PAR cycle; (2) focus groups with youth and; (3) in-depth educator interviews. From this analysis, we selected three cases that exemplify distinct ways in which arts and design-based methods facilitated collaborative exploration with youth on how lived democracy can unfold in practice. Specifically, the following cases were selected: (1) Netherlands (led by Waag FutureLab): the lab took place at a language school, which specifically caters for children who are refugees. The 15 participants in the lab (aged 11-14) were in groups 7 and 8 of primary education and came from 11 different countries. They all lived with their families in an asylum seeker center in Hilversum. This lab focused on the design and production of a costume to reflect on social inequalities. (2) Spain (led by the University of Barcelona): the lab took place in a secondary school in Barcelona, classified as a high-complexity school. This classification indicates that the school addresses students in vulnerable situations. Specifically, we collaborated with a group of 7 students aged 13-14 years old who were being trained to become the school's mediation team through a Service-Learning program. The participants were encouraged to choose an ecosocial issue they were worried about, which was adultcentrism. (3) Finland (led by the University of Oulu): the lab was connected to an elective course on sociology in a high school. The 4 participants in the lab were 15-17 years old. The lab focused on the exploration of social issues that young people feel worried about in their everyday lives. The participants used digital fabrication and making to create thought provoking messages and designs and printed them on tote bags. The bags were used to foster critical reflections and discussion with peers and other members of the society by wearing them in their everyday lives.

The three case studies facilitated group thinking and discussion with youth about what everyday democracy means and how it unfolds. In the Waag FutureLab case first case, art and design-based methods served as a scaffolding structure to support the shared creation of a costume. This collective endeavour enabled participants to embody, experience, and critically reflect on the complexities and controversies inherent in democratic practices. Through the elaboration of a collective design, they were encouraged to negotiate, collaborate and make collective decisions. This reflecting-while-making process helped to transcend linguistic borders and fabulate on transcultural fashion. In the UB case, by creatively mapping their lived experiences, participants identified instances of inequity and oppression within their immediate environments. Arts practices became a lens through which participants could investigate and reflect on everyday injustices. Using speculative design techniques, the group explored how adultcentrism is affecting their everyday environments, especially in the school, and ideated a site-specific intervention to create a calm room for students in their school. Finally, in the Oulu case, a design-based approach created spaces for participants to explore alternative ways to amplify their voices. These methods encouraged them to reimagine traditional channels of communication and participation. Moreover, they were able to experiment with alternative ways of expressing their social worries, developing a sense of agency as they are able to kickstart conversations about issues that matter to them in their daily environments and transform society. By analyzing and discussing these three cases, we aim to contribute to the growing body of literature on the potential of arts and design-based methods in participatory research with youth, particularly in addressing complex concepts such as lived democracy. Moreover, we seek to reflect on the opportunities that these approaches offer for collaboratively constructing, alongside youth, a bottom-up understanding of lived democracy and active citizenship.

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