CITISPYCE: Combating inequalities through innovative social practices of and for young people in cities across Europe
Social practices for combating inequalities against young people.
Grant Agreement Number: 320359
Funded by: EC Duration: 01/2013 – 12/2015
Challenge
In spite of many European governments having devoted intensive efforts to combat inequalities among their populations over the past 25 years, the climate of austerity has considerably exacerbated the challenges facing both young people and governments at all levels.
Young people, in particular, face serious barriers regarding their access to the labour market and to welfare and education services. There is also evidence that some young people have chosen or been forced to reconsider their entry to the labour market through their own innovations in economic and social entrepreneurship. These varied forms of entrepreneurship among young people involve imaginative engagement with the possibilities of youth culture, including alternative understanding of politics, culture and public space, and adaptation of approaches to business and innovation.
The project has explored how such practices could be co-opted as social innovations by policy makers, enabling a broader understanding of the way inequalities manifest on the ground and how they are navigated by young people.
Innovation
CITISPYCE aims to uncover the various strategies for navigating, surviving and overcoming inequalities that have emerged, and are emerging, among young people aged 16-24, particularly in deprived parts of large cities, analysing their potential for providing more effective and efficient social support in post-crisis Europe.
Action
CITISPYCE partners worked collaboratively on this three-year multidisciplinary, multi-sectoral programme to:
• Examine the current state of the art concerning social innovation against inequalities faced by young people, particularly those disadvantaged by ethnic origin, cultural background, area of living, family and educational and economic situation.
• Explore socially innovative practices being developed by and for young people in urban areas to improve their ability to participate in economic activity and to engage in civil society.
• Test the transferability of local models of innovative practice in order to develop new policy approaches for the fostering of innovative social practices to enable young people overcome multiple and changing inequalities in this new age of austerity across Europe.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration
Project Partners
Krakow City (PL)
Stichting+Confidence (NL)
International center for Minority Studies and Intercultural Relations (BG)
