Designing co-creative processes at the intersection of local governance and education to widen and deepen youth participation

This paper explores the question of how to design and use co-creation with and for youth at municipal level with the aim of helping to broaden and widen youth participation and empower them as democratic citizens. An assumption is made, based on previous experience and research, about the benefits of co-creation as a method in local governance contexts, such as creation of more legitimacy, increase in social capital and contributing to developing novel solutions that are more relevant for local residents and meet actual needs (e.g. Bentzen et al, 2020; Kangro & Lepik, 2021). At the same time relatively low youth participation is a point of concern - the analysis of data from the 2016 and 2022 International Civic and Citizenship Studies (ICCS) revealed that the theoretical civic knowledge of the Estonian youth is rather good but it does not seem to lead into civic activism and practical, or political, engagement with societal topics (Toots, 2017; Ümarik, et al. 2023). According to Oja (2018) in many schools subject knowledge from civics lessons remains too abstract and ‘empty’ for students. Similar challenges are noted also in Europe more widely, and even globally. The key to developing more participatory attitudes and skills, according to evidence, is to provide actual opportunities for participation already in the formal education context, starting in the classroom (e.g. Hahn, 2010). Yet, it can be challenging to create such authentic participatory democratic experiences where young people can develop their agency as active and responsible citizens when the experience at the classroom, school, local community and state level can differ markedly and be seemingly disconnected. In this case co-creation with youth at municipal level could offer a novel solution when designed at the intersection of governance, formal and non-formal education, ultimately combining both democratic and educational innovation. However, there is a recognition that co-creation as a method is still relatively new to many municipalities in Estonia (and Europe) and there is lack of knowledge on whether and how the method (or its principles) could be used for widening and deepening youth participation in local democracy, and how effective it would be. The paper presents the learnings from the first phase (April 2024 - April 2025) of three pilot projects carried out in three Estonian municipalities: Viljandi vald, Võru town and Kuusalu parish. The projects are being carried out using community-based participatory design (PD) and design-based research (DBR) methodologies, making it relevant for the teachers, youth, policymakers and others involved (DiSalvo & DiSalvo, 2014). PD aims to foster democratic empowerment of participants via collaboration and co-creation, while DBR seeks to create new and potentially generalizable knowledge, ‘design principles’, and theory (Hall, 2020). The paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of a) how to co-design such ‘co-creative’ processes that fulfill both the educational goals of developing youth’s democratic competencies (knowledge, skills and attitudes) while widening and deepening the participation of young people in local democracy, and b) which models, tools (including digital) and methods work for such purposes.