STORYline: When Generations Come Together to Reflect on Citizenship

The STORYline project, coordinated by Ana Filipa Oliveira, lecturer at Lusófona University – Porto University Centre and researcher at CICANT, brings together citizenship, intergenerationality and digital media in community contexts.

Based on the assumption that relationships between generations can profoundly influence how young people understand and experience citizenship, the project’s main focus is to collect testimonies from young people, while also valuing the contribution of older generations. The aim is to identify points of contact between different generations and to understand how citizenship is built from within communities.

The project also seeks to understand how these different generations produce and preserve memories of citizenship and what the “real impact that social networks” have on the creation and preservation of these memories and experiences.

As such, the study intends to combine interviews with specialists, including youth workers and professionals who work with young and senior populations, with practical field activities such as workshops and round tables, where topics related to citizenship, media literacy and the creation of digital narratives will be addressed.

Among the main objectives is the creation of a digital archive of memories of citizenship. This archive will be available on the project’s Instagram account, on the website and in a podcast, which will serve as spaces for preserving and sharing the experiences collected from the communities.

The project brings together a multidisciplinary team of researchers dedicated to the study of citizenship in community and intergenerational contexts. Inês Amaral, from the University of Coimbra, Manuel Pita, Maria José Brites and Sofia Caldeira, from Lusófona University.

The team also benefits from the contribution of international consultants Julian McDougall, from Bournemouth University, and Mireia Fernández-Ardèvol, from the Open University of Catalonia, who bring a comparative and interdisciplinary dimension to the project.

In addition to the team’s contribution, Ana F. Oliveira considers the partnerships established with the Youth Forum of Vila Nova de Gaia and Escolhe Vilar, one of the hubs of the Escolhas Programme, also in Vila Nova de Gaia, to be very important for the success of the research. These partnerships made it possible to access a set of communities with the characteristics sought in the project’s participants. Alongside the partnerships established in the North of the country, the team is currently strengthening its network of partnerships in the South, namely with the Islamic Community of Tapada das Mercês and with a community centre located in central Lisbon.

With an initial duration of 18 months, STORYline presents itself as an exploratory project, but with potential for continuity and expansion, including at European level. More than producing academic knowledge, the project seeks to leave a community legacy, promoting dialogue, empathy and the collaborative construction of collective memory.

Credits

Production
Susana A. Oliveira

Image
Lara Sousa
Paulo Renato

Editing
Lara Sousa
Paulo Renato

Text
Bruna Pereira