Abstract:

Cultural sustainability is now considered a significant component in ensuring the well-being of present and future generations. People’s cultural literacy and cultural participation ensure successful intercultural dialogue, loyalty, preservation and promotion of cultural and historical values, and active cultural life, which as a result contributes to the sustainability of democratic values and economic development. Studies show that youth’s civic engagement and participation in Latvia are not sufficiently developed due to two essential reasons:
(1) youth’s political education is envisaged by the system of education neither at schools nor at higher education establishments;
(2) contemporary youth’s parents grew up in the Soviet Union under the united policy and one common view when nobody could express their own opinions.

Considering the fact that young people represent 25% of the world’s population, promoting their cultural participation means to develop attitudes and practices based on democratic principles. Cultural participation is considered one of the ways in which young people become socially active citizens, since, in the opinion of the researchers, the ability and desire of young people are rooted in non-political activities that young people perform in their lives. The purpose of the study is to analyse how to promote not only young people’s cultural participation, but also their civic engagement when implementing events for the cultural participation of young people. The experience analysis presented in this paper is part of a broader H2020 collaborative research project called “Cultural Heritage and Identities of Europe’s Future” (CHIEF, Agreement No. 770464) about how young people engage with the meanings and forms of European cultural heritage in various educational contexts, e.g. school, civil society, family, peer groups, and heritage sites, and whether this engagement leads to an increase in their cultural literacy.

Youth’s cultural participation was promoted in all phases of the projects during three years (2018 – 2021). Inclusion of young people in a multi-stakeholder partnership group, encouraging them to take an active part in the policy-making process, and implementation of mini-projects coordinated by young people were the two most important activity vectors. Quantitative and qualitative research carried out as part of the project on young people’s cultural literacy and participation provided the theoretical and practical rationale for cultural participation activities. The study revealed the peculiarities of young people’s cultural interests, their attitudes towards regional, national, and European cultural heritage, cultural self-identification, etc. Young people noted that their participation in the cultural events organised as part of the project was a valuable experience: it developed their soft skills, facilitated cross-sectoral cooperation, and developed their cultural literacy. Young people became aware of being active members of society; they enhanced their civic responsibility, and gained more awareness about the opportunity to take an active part in the policy-making process.

Keywords:

Cultural participation, civic engagement, youth, cultural literacy, democratic values.