People and Politics/

A quarterly report from the members- 2008.05

www.pepol.eu

Quarterly report for Peoples and Politics

Christian Student Settlement

Copenhagen, Denmark
Rikke Posborg

April 2008

1. What activity have you done locally as part of this project?

A. I have gathered/established a local network called People&Politics Network. We
had our first meeting autumn 2007 and have had 5 network meetings. This network
is meant as a local basis for the P&P project, and it is here that the activities are
being planned. The participants in the network are core learners in the project and
at the same time also contacts to other groups and networks, whom we would like
to involve in P&P-activities

B. The network has carried our 2 arrangements (21. of Jan and 26. of Feb 2008)
where intercultural methods have been in focus and been used in concrete
meetings between politicians and citizens. The themes of these arrangements have
been:

- How to handle intercultural dialogue about themes as social sustainability and

migration? How can we organize this and which tools will work – what are the barriers-
can we identify these?
- The two themes of the meeting were 1. The situation for migrant women and 2. How
to get a job?

C. As a third activity we have contacted the local councils of Kongens Enghave and
Vesterbro and are in dialogue with the local administration in order to cooperate
about arranging a local “Social Top Meeting” about our youths and their needs and
to examine how to establish a good contact between groups of young people and
the local politicians. There are all ready a lot of event-ideas in order to be able to
engage local youths groups in this arrangement.

2. Who was involved

− The network has a core of 6-7 women; all women with a solid and broad
local network within migrant women and half of the group themselves with
migrant background as from Turkey, Morocco, and Pakistan. All are
engaged en volunteer social work, as volunteers or as professionals, in
the local area.

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− At the 2 bigger meetings about 35 women participated, representing 5

different languages (Urdu, Barbarian, Arab, Turkey, Danish)

3. Reflections over the learning? Who learned what?

When the two politicians were invited they wore told that the meeting, besides to
discuss an actual topic, would have the purpose of trying to identyfi and to try in
practise how to cope with barriers of language and culture.

Meeting1 with Margrethe Vestager

We had mad a pre-meeting with women from each language group and decided how to
organise translation. An experienced Pakistan woman was asked to lead the meeting
and the women were sitting in language groups, so it would be easy form them to lean
over and listen to a translation from one of their group. The participants had been
asked to prepare questions.
The politician (Margrethe Vestager, leader of the Radicals party) was informed and
asked to speak slowly and she was very positive in her way to make her speech in
shorter sentences. Very soon a good flow was established, so the translators had time
to do their work and so Mrs. Vestager could give her speech. The leader of the meeting
had only to give a small sign so the 4 language groups did not established their own
meeting-in-the-meeting, and as the meeting went on Mrs. Vestager herself had good
face-contact with the translators and the flow of the dialogue was good. Several of the
women, declaring not to be good enough in Danish, did ask questions directly in
Danish.
The conclusion on this meeting was
- Different languages is a barrier that we easily can overcome
1) when participants sit in language groups
2) when one from the group can translate
3) when the speaker is told to speak at a slow fare
4) when the atmosphere is good so participants dare participate

- That culture – speaking of different ethnic, religious and national backgrounds did not
showed up to be a barrier for a dialogue.

Meeting 2 with Mayor Jacob Hougaard (Copenhagen)

This meeting was prepared the same way as the meeting above. Also this meeting
went well, though we made a discovery – see below.

4. New Discoveries
We could feel and observe that some kind of barrier arose at the meeting with Mayor
Jacob Hougaard (Mayor of Integration and job area in the city of Copenhagen) - we

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chose to call this “the half glass of water”. When one of the women raised a question
to Mr. Hougaard, he often started his answer by saying: Look at it this way: Look at
what you talk about as a glass half filled with water, instead of as a half empty glass.
Several times he used this metaphor. Many of us do know this metaphor – and so
what?
- The metaphor became in a way “the closed door” because in stead of going into a
dialogue about the raised question, Mr. Hougaard answered by referring to this
metaphor.
- This dimension of the dialogue we could experience – as a lack of trust between the
participants and the politician – which meant fewer spontaneous questions from the
participants than at the first meeting with Mrs Vestager.

Our discovery was, that at this meeting we experienced a barrier between a

management culture (look always to solutions, not problems) and a folk culture (this
is my situation, so I need to hear how…) – which might rightly be called differences of
social classes.

This means that our intercultural methods worked all right, concerning language
and “ethnic” culture – but concerning how to overcome a social class barrier / or
barrier between a management culture and a folk culture other tools and
methods are needed.

2008-03-31
All the best,
Rikke Posborg

Quarterly report for People and Politics

Name of partner organization

FUNDACIO DESENVOLUPAMENT COMUNITARI
Written by contact person/s
ORSINI GIANNI
April 2008

1.What activity have you done locally as part of this project? Who was involved?

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From the beginning of the project, a Local Grup has been constituted
.
It is made of 12 people ( 1 representative of the different FDC areas of work (Mediation,
Participation, Accessibility); 1to 2 representatives from 3partner organizations (IGOP
(University); Department of Participation of the Generalitat of Catalunya (government),
(social movement) and 2 representatives of the civil society who have a long experience
in associative life and the coordination Team (Carme and Gianni),.

The Local Grup have met 4 times (and will meet 12 times along the process) since the
beginning. The members have been informed of the project and have accepted to be part
of it. At each meeting, they have also exchanged information about their own special way
to involve people and politics in their own projects.

An e-mail list has been established which the members use to communicate among them.
Through it, they have sent academic information about relevant issues related to the
theme of the project, such indicators of progress; newspapers articles about participation
processes in conflictive situations; essays; etc...)

Last, not least, a grid has been established to analyze cases in a systematical manner, in
line with the Kirsten's grid, but adapted to Catalunya reality. Through this grid, 8 cases
have been circulated and at the last meeting, they were analyzed. From this analysis, a
new grid has been proposed which takes into account new elements.
From the 8, 3 or 4 cases will be studied to be put forward at the Grundvig meeting. They
wuill be re-analyzed with the new grid.

2. Reflections over the learning? Who learned what? New discoveries?

The learnings which happened have to do on the one hand with the diversity of projects
and target grups the different participants of the local Grup deal with and, on the other
hand with the variety
of the technics used.

Everybody learned, because both the curiosity and the interest from all, as well as the will
to participate, were very high

The interest shown by everybody towards the case of “Artibari” (it will be 1 of the cases
studied which will be brought to the Grundtvig meeting) indicates clearly that the art is a
very powerful tool which is quite unexploited in our projects.

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The importance of the qualitative evaluation of the impact of the project was at the end a
statement that all the participants agreed on. To make this evaluation is the most difficult
step to come to, but at the same time the most important to realize.

Quarterly report for People and Politics

April 2008
Name of partner organization: Unit for sustainability, Oslo, Norway
Written by contact person/s: Susan Guerra, unit director

1. What activity have you done locally as part of this project? Who was involved?

I have had a meeting with the Local Agenda 21 Forum. I have also given information to the
local politicians in the committee who deals with local development.

At both meetings my goal was to give a summary of the project and its intentions. It was also
my opportunity to ask the groups who they might want to send to Malmø and who would be
able to participate in the committee to describe our case study.

The Local Agenda 21 forum has chosen its leader to participate.

The local political committee had a candidate but she is now unable to participate due to
illness. There has been no decision made yet as to who will replace her.

The meeting in Malmø also clashes with the local political monthly meeting for the politicians
here.

I have also informed the department and colleagues within the department about our
progress in the project.

I have been to a preparatory meeting in Malmø in January. As a result my department will be

in an exchange meeting with a local municipal division similar to ours and on a visit to the
Danish partners in Copenhagen. This exchange will have a great impact on our own
departmental cohesion and give us a professional boost.

I have spoken also with a local resident from the public housing building in our
neighbourhood. This housing cooperative has no formal board but a handful of citizens who
are active to improve their conditions in the building and in their neighbourhood. A person
from this building will be able to participate in the case study work and come to Budapest in
September.

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I had hoped to have a group meeting with all before the exchange in May but this is not
possible.

There has also been two meetings between my self and two other Grundtvig projects
( Voices Across Boarders and Minorities to Management ) in Oslo with similar agendas for
learning and creation of information bases. We will create links between out project websites
and I will participate at the exchange which will take place in Oslo in June 08. This will
strengthen the impact of our own work locally an within our won program.

2. Reflections over the learning? Who learned what? New discoveries?

I have learned that I must take much more time with the groups to inform them properly and
to expect a sense of ownership / motivation from them. I myself have learned that it is thru
the way others have worked locally, f.ex. Barcelona, that I have been able to expand my own
approach to how I want to work with the local groups and the case study descriptions.

Who learned what?

Well, the staff within my unit and my self will begin to use this project as our own pathway to
a larger focus on participatory methods for the next two years. This project provides us with
the possibilities to meet and learn other ways of working systematically and to learn to
evaluate just how much success / failure we recognize.

New discoveries?
It is always a challenge to find time to organize working with several groups. Each group has
its own agenda and to integrate a project such as this one can be difficult for all to adopt in
the way that I expected. As in life otherwise, it is best to not have expectations but to allow
the process to take its course and to follow it. My intuition and experience tells me that in the
end, things become cohesive anyway. We shall see.

Quarterly report for People and Politcs

Name of partner organization: Civil College Foundation

Written by contact person/s: Mate Varga

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 People and Politics/
A quarterly report from the members- 2008.05
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April 2008

1.What activity have you done locally as part of this project? Who was involved?

The CCF is a helper and developer of the Network for Supporting Local Initiatives. It
provides learning and training opportunities for the Network members, also creates space
for project involvement on the local/national and international level. The Network includes
one community development professional from each Hungarian counties (21), their role is
to find and support local initiatives all over Hungary, help them to reach important
information, link them with each other, help communication and increase their skills and
knowledge.
At the begining of 2008, the Network had two meetings, both of them was implemented in
the CCF’s training centre, in Kunszentmiklós-Kunbábony (21-22th of February, 18-19th of
March).
On both of the meetings there were a separate space created:
- to present the CCF’s involvement in different international projects;
- to help the dissemination of the projects results;
- to define possible local partners;

2. Reflections over the learning? Who learned what? New discoveries?

The CCF is now involved to three main international projects:

- People and Politics (PEPOL, Grundtvig Programme)
- Training and Learning Community Development (TLCD, Grundtvig Programme)
- European Dialogue (ED, DGEAC Programme)
It was a useful step for both the CCF and the Network members to clarify a structure and
the detailed picture of CD work on the international level. These three projects have
different initiators, approaches and goals, but as the project period started, it is more and
more clear, that all of them have a positive and strengthening influence on each other.
The PEPOL has a well defined task, which highlights an important element of the
community and civil society development work, to develop a better, clearer relationship
between the people and the politics, which approach can be translated to all levels of CD
work.
The TLCD has a wider focus, as it wants to create a better structure and a necessary
framework for democratic adult education and it’s international cooperations, which
naturally and strongly includes the PEPOL’s goals as well.
The European dialogue creates space and a common arena for various organizations,
projects dealing with CD, and especially for two professional Networks (CEBSD –
Combined European Bureau for Social Development, CEECN – Central and Eastern
European Citizens Network):

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- to share European experiences, theories and practices

- to develop a strategy for official future cooperation
- to increase the level and the effectiveness of the dissemination of the different
international activities related to CD and citizen’s participation

These events had strong results to help to understand the international efforts and
networking activities, the contents were motivating for the local professionals, there also
were a lot of interests and concrete signs of willingness to participate.

As one more concrete result of the meetings, we find the most appropriate person and
case study to participate and represent in the PEPOL project. The case study fits
organicly to the PEPOL and there is a strong local interest to participate in the project.

Quarterly report for People and Politcs

Name of partner organization: Romanian Association for Community Development

Written by contact person/s: Cristiana Vlad
12 May 2008

1.What activity have you done locally as part of this project? Who was involved?
RADC is working directly with poor and disadvantages communities and sustain
organizations and institution whom work with them. RACD promotes and sustains
community facilitation (community organizing) as the main way to rich the community, to
transfer the abilities and knowledge need to become an open society, decentralized with
horizontal relations and mutual respect.
Community facilitation is for RACD the way to build social capital by assisting communities
and by increasing the flow of resources to the community.

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RACD main characteristic is the special attention to the grass root approach, participatory
and positive techniques in order to facilitate the raise of sustainable and effective
community based organizations.
From the beginning of 2008, RACD had meetings in several rural communities in the
South-West and south-East parts of the country with local initiative groups (LIG)
representatives, local public administration persons, citizens, as follows:
Date Place Representative of local communities Number of persons
attending
2007, December Craiova Panaghia, Tismana (Gorj county), Salcia 27
2008, January Calimanest Giurgita, Bailesti 20
i
February Ploiesti Valcanesti, Urlati, Valea Calugareasca si 60
Valeni
March Focsani Buzau, Galati, Braila 55
April Constanta Constanta, Tulcea 45
May Herculane LIG from 4 counties in the SE region of 20
Romania (Dolj, Olt, Mehedinti, Gorj)
227
An important issue approached within the community meeting was dedicated to
to present RACD’s projects results and development plans and to identify potential partners.
RACD promotes various complementary approaches (community facilitation, training, seed-
funding, cultural interventions as forum theatre storry telling, photography collage,
multimedia presentations, future workshop, community visioning technique, etc) with the
main aim to transfer the abilities and knowledge needed to become an open society,
decentralized with horizontal relations and mutual respect.
Through all our programs we aim to build active and responsible communities, able to
cooperate and initiate partnerships with local institutions in order to better address the local
needs.
2. Reflections over the learning? Who learned what? New discoveries?
At the present RACD develops several international projects such as:
Roma population and travellers, a capacity building projects for Roma communities in
poor developed areas of the country, in partnership with a French organization, FNASAT,
2007-2010;
Together towards Europe, Sustainable development in Romania and Bulgaria; PHARE -
CBS Crossborder project;
People and Politics (PEPOL, Grundtvig Programme)
Training and Learning Community Development (TLCD, Grundtvig Programme)

Both TLCD project and PEPOL are in the spirit of the principles that RADC works, namely
that a developed community is a community where people feel responsible for community
well being and are able to identify local common needs and to cooperate in order to find and
implement solutions. It is a pro-active and creative community with an intense social life
and high level of effective participation.
Our main characteristic is the special attention to the grass root approach, participatory and
positive techniques in order to facilitate the raise of sustainable and effective community
based organizations.
Expanding community participation, on issues important to them, is a valuable tool to
ensure the economic and social sustainability of projects and to build social capital,
strengthening the organizational and institutional capacities. In our work we are trying to

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support and build on communities' existing capacities to organize them in order to increase
civic engagement and to strengthen civil society.

Quarterly report for People and Politcs

December 2007 to Mai 2008
Name of partner organization: the Ideas Bank Foundation

Written by contact person: Kirsten Paaby

This report is based on the fact that the primary role of the Ideas Bank is dissemination of the
experiences in the project, the case studies and the methods worked with - as expressed in
the application and at our first partner meeting in Barcelona. We are not working directly with
a local group in Oslo but work at a regional and national level with dissemination tasks in
addition to prepare and present a case study(ies). As well we direct our work on
dissemination and information towards networks, organisations and initiatives at the Nordic
and European level in order to make synergies and develop the basis for the long time
perspectives in further developing the project – if possible also after the formal project period
has come to an end.

1. What activity have you done locally as part of this project? Who was involved?

Reporting and documentation as learning?

After the first partner meeting in November 2007 in Barcelona I made the report from the
meeting based on the documentation and writing that was made during the meeting. Some
might think it is too long and too detailed; anyway to choose this form was done with
consciousness in order to maintain the process in all its movements, the atmosphere, the
“creative detours” we took and so on – to be able to learn from our own process of action from
the beginning - as we agreed on during the meeting. We are a learning partnership.

Even though the report has been written “through my hand, heart and eye” I think that it gives
you the possibility to go back to the situation and “look at it again” – re-flect, re-view and
learn. Inspired by some of the other quarterly reports I have got “new discoveries” and
questions, see below.

In this work Susan was involved as well.

Draft guidelines for the case studies

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I prepared a note on the draft guidelines for the presentation of case studies in our project.
Parallel with that work I practised the guidelines by writing up a case study from the Ideas
Bank on how the method Creative Dialogue Workshop had been practiced and facilitated by
the Ideas Bank in a local group in Sagene with participants from local volunteer organisations,
community groups, local and regional policymakers and the administration represented by
Susan. (This case study is available in Norwegian, unfortunately not yet translated into
English which was my intention in the beginning. It will follow.)

In this work I had contributions from and discussions with Susan both as the coordinator of
People and Politic and as well as one of the participants in the case study. I discussed the
presentation with and had contributions from my colleges in the Ideas Bank.

I had exchange with Gianni around the draft guidelines both by mail and face to face in
connection with one of the meetings Gianni had with his local group in February 2008. I
happened to be in Barcelona when DC/Gianni had one of the meetings with their local group
(see below). It was exiting to meet the group, to feel the commitment and share information
about the project and the case studies.

I am looking forward to continue the discussion about the guidelines and the presentations of
the case studies.

Dissemination activities
* October 2007: A one page short version of the project description in Norwegian meant for
distribution
* The 15th of November – information about the project and the first partner meeting in
Barcelona in the Ideas Banks news letter
* The 21st of November information about the project in a local dialogue meeting in Oslo with
the issue “Strengthening participatory democracy”. The meeting was one a several activities
in another EU-project “Strengthening participative democracy through collaborative
learning” (SPD), for more information www.learnship.eu The case studies produced through
People and Politics will be suggested as learning material in the training course that is
supposed to be the end product of the SPD-project. The People and Politics is also
mentioned in the common digital learning platform ILIAS used by the partners in the SPD
project and as well in a partner meeting held in Barcelona February 2008. When the PeoPol
website is running I will make a link from the SPD website to ours. The co-ordinator of SPD,
Steffen Hartje, will participate in the Malmø meeting.
* The 29th of November to the 1st of December 2007 Information about the project was given
to the members of our European organisation CEBSD www.cebsd.org as well as the partners
in the project “Training and learning for community development” under the lead of CEBSD,
for more information http://www.cebsd.org/comment.htm
* Running information to partners in the programme Liveable Communities. (I refer to the
information about the Ideas Bank where this program and our role is mentioned and also in
the report from the Barcelona meeting). I have had speeches and have facilitated some of the

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meetings in the thematically networks of municipalities – the People and Politics project have
been introduced as a part of this activity.

* May 2008 Information about the project at European Dialogue seminar in Hungary This
seminar was a meeting between CEBSD and the Central and Eastern European Citizens
network. In the Cafédialogue - that was arranged as a part of the seminar - methods for
dialogue between people and politics and best practice examples were some of this important
issues highlighted. The participants from this seminar and their colleges will be important task
groups in our dissemination activity. For more information www.ceecn.net
* May 2008 information about the project to the secretary in the Nordic think tank DEMOS,
John Steen Johansen. (John Steen was invited to our partner meeting in Malmø but had
unfortunately not the possibility to participate.) The think tank started in February 2006. The
ambition is to run a Nordic think tank which, by its policy and practice, connects important
Nordic research and development efforts on power and democracy to educational and
practical competences of Nordic non-formal adult education. In this work there is a need of
best practice examples. The case studies produced in the PeoPol project will be of high
interest in the continuity of the DEMOS project. For more information
http://www.nordvux.net/page/220/demos.htm

2. Reflections over the learning? Who learned what? New discoveries?

Through the dissemination activities I realized the strength of our project and the importance
about making synergies between efforts done to strengthening citizen’s participation.
Through the reporting activity – as a mean for our learning process – I was thinking about
how to develop visual tools for reporting and reflecting in order to overcome language barriers
in training and learning processes. With language I am not only thinking of “English”,
“Norwegian”, “Hungarian” aso languages but as well the “jargon” of the professionals. Inspired
by this and especially the Quarterly report from the Settlement I was rediscovering the
importance of one keyprinciple that was developed by the Norwegian group in the EU-project
Good Practice in Community Development (2002-2003): “An inclusive and common language
(get rid of the jargon) Language can exclude whether it is technical terms, bureaucratic
language, political jargon or internal expressions amongst activists and NGOs.
Communication has to be inclusive. The different parties should all play a part in “opening the
language”. It is important to use different cultural expressions and ways of communication
that aims towards a mutual understanding. There is a need for an easily accessible language
and a common understanding of terms.”

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