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The conference theme resonates with the Udforsk research initiative Democracy and Citizenship in Education. How can schools and educational institutions foster community, critical thinking, and cultivate democratic participation? Not least, how can we better understand and address hate speech, racism, social exclusion, and anti-democratic attitudes among young people?
A timely example is DEMO-Youth, a research project, led by Lene C. H. Sirevåg. Through ethnographic research, the project examines how hate speech, racism, and antisemitism emerge in everyday lives of young people, and how educational practices can help counter these phenomena while simultaneously strengthen democratic participation, belonging, and resilience against polarization. One dimension studied in the project is potential pitfalls of engaging with gaming in education. While gaming is often introduced with positive educational intentions, this study finds that classroom gaming practices can paradoxically contribute to the reinforcement of hate speech, discriminatory expressions, and exclusionary interactions if not carefully handled.
Democracy is not only developed in parliaments or through elections. It is also shaped in classrooms, kindergartens, schoolyards, and everyday encounters between people. This is why we need research into the environments where young people spend their time. Such research can help us understand more about how hate speech unfolds in young people's lives, how they navigate opposing perspectives, and are supported to engage constructively with disagreement, encounter difference, and gradually take responsibility as active participants in a shared world.
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