Premiering the Gothenburg World Youth Openness and Democracy Summit

For 50 years nearly 2000 football teams from all over the world gather in Gothenburg during a week in mid-July. Around 300,000 players, parents, coaches and spectators from around 70 countries, turn Gothenburg into a sporting festival! This is the world’s biggest kids and youth football tournament called Gothia Cup.

When the IYTT look upon this unique event we see much more than sports. We imagine how the teams all year round offer meaningfulness, physical exercise, and friendship for the players. We vision how coaches, team managers, and parents devote a lot of time and resources to provide football fields and other critical practicalities. We imagine how the teams contribute to local social cohesion and economic development.

This year we premiered the Gothenburg World Youth Openness and Democracy Summit with the vision to recognize and amplify the teams in their social role. Our hope is that our 20 European, African, and American Youth Fellows’ vigor, policy proposals, and participatory methods inspired and strengthened the teams in their role as local social drivers. We did this by engaging 10 teams from around the world and letting two Youth Fellows hang out with each of the teams for two days. The teams came from Germany, Guatemala, India, Italy, Kenya, Norway, South Africa, Great Britain, Tunisia, and the USA.

What happens when Youth Fellows from Africa, Europe and North America probe the conditions of democracy in five city neighborhoods in Gothenburg, Sweden? 20 Youth Fellows observed the surroundings and ran OCDTs-Open Chair Democracy Talks with randomly selected passersby in the neighborhoods Angered Centrum, Masthuggstorget, Nya Hovås, Olskrokstorget and Wieselgrensplatsen. Their overall question was: do the living conditions in these places promote a vibrant democracy with actively participating citizens?

The results were presented in the exhibition Gothenburg DEMO 2025 at Röhsska Museum of Design and Craft . The exhibition opened on July 16 and closed on August 3 and is now available in a filmed version that you find here.

If you want to inspire from or implement the Neighborhooding Democracy method, you find a schematic guide here, and a detailed excursions’ guide here.

A third key activity during the summit was to let the Youth Fellows carry out hundreds of OCDTs-Open Chair Democracy Talks with random passers-by among the Gothia Cup attendees. It was an overwhelming experience for the Youth Fellows to chat with people from all over the world. Feel the vibe and hear out the experiences from the two Youth Fellows, Italian Sara Maria Barbaglia here, and American Gavin Miller here.

We could organize this week-long summit thanks to a generous project grant fromThe Sten A Olsson Foundation. I want to extend my sincerest thanks to the foundation for supporting our endeavor. In way of thanks, the collaboration with Gothia Cup and Röhsska was indispensable and enjoyable, as was the collaboration with the 10 Gothia Cup teams. Warm thanks goes to the hundreds of Gothia Cup attendees who generously shared their ideas in the OCDTs. My warmest thanks go to the 20 Youth Fellows who worked very long hours with challenging activities. Your energy, passion, and humility lend big hope for a brighter democratic future.