Nadia Naffi, PhD candidate in Educational Technology, and SSHRC Storytellers contest winner, will facilitate a workshop on hands-on methods to develop participatory politics during the CIPE International Graduate Summer School - The policy and Politics of Refugee Resettlement in Canada, on Thursday August 3, 2017.
Stemming from Jenkins, Clinton, Purushotma, Robison, and Weigel’s (2009) investigation of the potential of applying participatory culture for civic engagement, Kahne, Hodgin, and Eidman-Aadahl (2016) define participatory politics as “interactive, peer-based acts through which individuals and groups seek to exert both voice and influence on issues of public concern” (p.2).
In the context of the Syrian refugee crisis, participatory political acts could include youth’s efforts to reshape the image of Syrian refugees shared on social media and to disrupt the propaganda tailored towards impeding their resettlement. Through participatory political acts, which are practiced online, youth can reach large audiences, mobilize networks, shape agendas, voice their views to political leaders, circulate political information and disseminate content they creatively produce such as blog entries, images, videos and more (Cohen et al., 2012).