PODGORICA – RYCO organized a working meeting within the first research project on the topics of dealing with the past in the framework of the first youth exchange projects supported by RYCO. The two-day meeting took place in Podgorica where the researchers presented and discussed their observations, and on this basis conclusions and recommendations to be formulated for RYCO for further work on the topics dealing with the past, remembrance and reconciliation.
The project “Constructively Dealing with the Past” is aiming to contribute to reconciliation and constructive remembrance as one of the general aims of RYCO youth exchange. How are youth encounters tackling the topics linked to history and memory was one of the key questions within the project. RYCO wants to explore this question in order to know more about the possibilities and challenges when working on these questions with the aim to build capacities of youth organizations to address them in the framework of future youth exchanges.
The researchers also analyzed and discussed the current situation within RYCO supported projects. Therefore, they aimed to collect data and to provide an analysis on how questions related to the past appear and are approached within the RYCO supported projects, and then on this basis to develop suggestions for the further work of RYCO in the field of constructively dealing with the past.
The research teams used the method of “participatory observation” regarding several RYCO supported youth exchange projects which took place in 2018.
The research project is being implemented by RYCO, crossborder factory and the Franco-German Youth Office in cooperation with an interdisciplinary team of researchers and youth workers from the six RYCO Contracting Parties, and with the support of the German Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
