On September 6, the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy (AHCD) and the University of Bologna co-organized a workshop in the context of the project “Protest and Engagement, From The Global to the Local: Mapping the Forms of Youth Participation in Europe.” 

This collaborative workshop in Bologna aimed at discussing some project findings with researchers and practitioners while putting them in conversation with ongoing debates and initiatives in Bologna and beyond. Another workshop that similarly delved into a specific case study from the project had been organized in Barcelona in December 2022.

The morning session was devoted to topic-based discussions. Maurilio Pirone (UNIBO) presented on the context of participation in Bologna. Niccolò Cuppini (SUPSI) presented innovations in Bologna’s city space, while Mattia Frapporti (UNIBO) contributed with a historical perspective. On findings relating to the project, Ilaria Cauzzi (UNIBO), Isabella Gigliotti (UNIBO) and Christine Lutringer, Executive Director and Senior Researcher AHCD, presented findings from Bologna, while Yanina Welp, Research fellow at AHCD, offered a talk on “Innovations in local democracy: perspectives from Barcelona and Madrid.” Lastly, Laura Bullon-Cassis, Postdoctoral Fellow at AHCD, spoke about spaces of climate action in Paris, focusing on the case of the Académie du Climat.

In the afternoon, the group visited spaces used for citizen participation that exemplify Bologna's remarkable history of resistance movements and grassroots engagement. These included sites in the University of Bologna as well as a volunteer-run social movements archive.