Malmö welcomed the civic engagement of the PEACE project
The International congress “Erasmus+ is Participation” was held in Malmö, Sweden, from 1 to 4 October 2023. This TCA-Training Cooperation Activities event is is part of the PEACE iniziative, coordinated by the Italian national Erasmus+ Agency INDIRE. The conference also shared some national and European practices on the topic of civic engagement, one of the four transversal priorities of the Erasmus+ Program 2021-2027. Study visits to schools and organizations in Malmo were also organized during the event days.
This event was organized by The Swedish Council for Higher Education, a government agency whose responsibilities span across the education sector, partner of PEACE.
Participants
More than 100 participants from 16 countries.
Relive the event
Final Report
In the context of International seminar Participation and Civic Engagement in Erasmus+, held in Malmö, Sweden, on October 2023 a Final Report was written by Paul Blokker, professor of Political Sociology at Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Italy.
This report, divided into three sections, contributes to the debate by discussing the importance of and relevance of civic and political competences in the context of the Erasmus+ programme, as well as in relation to wider European citizenship. In the first section, international mobility may in that sense be understood as a form of “testing ground” for European citizenship, in which difficulties such as socio-economic inequality, exclusion, discrimination and the lack of a true transnational European society and public sphere manifest themselves in a myriad of ways. In fact, Erasmus+ attempts to help overcome such difficulties by stimulating inclusion, pluralism and inter-cultural forms of knowledge.
The second part reports on the fruitful and intense discussions and deliberations held at the international conference in Malmö. At the event, various deliberative roundtables were organized with a total of more than 100 participants. Three topical and politically sensitive themes in relation to the EU – gender inequality, Europe and its colonial past, and the distinction between Eastern and Western Europe – were introduced in the plenary, accompanied by a main discussion statement. These were subsequently the basis for deliberation by participants in more than 10 roundtables. The report provides brief recollections of the main points of discussion in the roundtables.
The third part of the Final Report discusses Malmö’s “Train the Trainers” session for a range of different Erasmus+ participants (such as students, Ambassadors, staff from National Agencies, members of the Erasmus Student Network, teachers and educators). This training dealt with three main thematic fields of relevance to Erasmus+: youth political and civic engagement; European citizenship education; and social inclusion, diversity, non-discrimination.
The debates and group discussions in Malmö have raised numerous important insights, which will feed into future debates within the PEACE Action, will inspire some of the outputs of the Action (including E-modules), and will hopefully encourage other actions and events, and stimulate wider debate on civic and political engagement among European mobile citizens.
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