The IYTT Blog: Thinkers' Corner

Last week I had the pleasure of travelling to the beautiful city of Malmö to facilitate a “neighborhooding democracy” workshop with a group of eager 18-year-olds who are finishing school and moving on to the next stage of their lives. Along with two other youth fellows we helped facilitate the creation of posters by these local youth to illustrate democratic spaces in areas of the city for the up-and-coming Malmö Mots democracy week.

The “neighbourhooding democracy” workshop is a new method developed by the IYTT with the vision of exploring the connection between public space, community and democracy. The method consists of IYTT youth fellows, visiting cities to work with a group (normally 20-30) of young people (aged 14-18). The workshop can last from two to three days and starts with the fellows pitching the IYTT mission and explaining this method of participation to the local youth. The youth fellows then accompany the group to different neighbourhoods where the method then works two-fold, first the young people conduct the Open Chair Democracy Talks (OCDTs) in their designated area, then the young people conduct their own observations of the urban space. Once complete the young people return to their school to discuss, synergise, analyse and present their group findings through the medium of art.

This method was piloted in Gothenburg last July by several youth fellows. Although the activity proved insightful, there were several points for improvement. First there was a language barrier between youth fellows and the Swedish public, it was accepted that being able to speak English reflected a specific socio-economic background, potentially limiting the diverse perspectives represented. Second, there was a disconnect between the posters designed for the final exhibition, individually, the posters did not clearly convey their connection to one another or demonstrate how they collectively represented different aspects of the same city. We aimed to remediate both elements during the second running of the method in Malmö.

For this iteration of the workshop, we were situated at S:t Petri skola secondary school, a prestigious local public school in the heart of Malmö. The experience of being inside and involved in the everyday of this school lived up to its reputation. The grand building was matched by the atmosphere inside which was professional, positive and enjoyable to be part of. We were greeted by one of the teachers who was proud to have been working at the school for 10 years, and sad to be seeing one of her favourite classes graduating. I felt this reflected the atmosphere within the school, where the young people appeared engaged, respectful, and positive about their futures.

We introduced ourselves to the class and pitched the “neighbourhooding democracy” project, we started by encouraging the young participants to discuss the open chair democracy questions amongst themselves. As always with IYTT projects, we held back on defining democracy to enable the young people to interpret the project in their own way. Each of the youth fellows was allocated to two groups of four young people. The discussion of the questions showed that the young people were literate in an understanding of democracy and its core values.

We allocated the neighbourhoods to the young people; some knew the neighbourhoods they were visiting and some admitted having assumptions about the locations that they didn’t know well. We then asked the young people to come up with a 5^th question to ask during the open chair democracy talks. Their suggestions consisted of: “Do you think Sweden has become less or more democratic?”, “What symbolises democracy in your neighborhood?”, “Do you think that that people in Malmö generally feely they have the power to change the society?” and “Would you be surprised if someone form this area became prime minister?”. After a group vote the first question: “Do you think Sweden has become less or more democratic?” was chosen.

Significantly, I reflected on the question “Would you be surprised if someone form this area became prime minister?” suggested by my group as I felt it illustrated a deep, yet unspoken understanding of the social mobility issue linked to particular neighbourhoods. This was significant because during the two days within group it was clear that the youth felt uncomfortable commenting on social economic elements and characteristics of each area. Although it was a clear unspoken element of their analysis.

I had an insightful conversation with my group, I explained how I enjoyed working with young people because they often had more radical ideas then that of older people. This comment was not met with such positivity, instead I was asked if I felt that radical was a good thing, to which I explained yes that ideas that were considered radical often were needed to challenge the status quo. The young people however explained how they saw radical, as a concept as a negative thing. Describing how they associated it with radical extremism or the far right. In reflection we discussed that it may have been a nuance in the Swedish language and that the kind of ideas I was celebrating may have been better described as progressiv.

In a similar discussion my group taught me about a Nordic conceptJantelagen, the young participants described it to me as not being the loudest or biggest personality in the room, similar to humble. They raised this from the offset of our discussion, in a way it felt that they wanted to use it to describe to me that it was not part of their culture to be outspoken, especially about topics such as “politics”. I investigated this concept and found an explanation along the lines of “modesty, collective equality, and social conformity”. I was concerned about how this would impact the student’s confidence when stepping out and discussing democracy with strangers on the streets. However I was pleasantly surprised with their confidence in this endeavor, the two groups I accompanied did not allows Jantalagen to hold them back.

While the young people went to carry out the OCDTs and observation of their neighbourhoods. I was approached by an older man who asked me what I was doing in the area. I explained that we were here to talk to local people about democracy, he reacted with laughter and clear frustration even just at the mention of the word. I offered the opportunity for him to do open chair democracy talks with me so that he could have his voice herd. He felt passionately that men in Sweden were discriminated against and women were treated better, he made points about equal pay and employment rights stating that immigrant men weren’t fairly treated. He explained how he was in his 60’s and a second-generation immigrant himself. He described how it was awful living in a country which claimed to be a democracy but treated citizens badly. I listened and observed how by the end of the OCDT discussion he was less angry and frustrated.  This was valuable experience for me as it illustrated that by being a sounding board for people’s opinions was sometimes enough to make the feel listened to and considered.

We returned to the classroom, and the young people started to plan out their posters. I had the opportunity to observe the different groups and their findings and materials. The pictures taken of the different neighbourhoods showed the students interpretation of the link between democracy and urban spaces. Images of people hugging, signage in a variety of languages, spaces for people to sit and converse, accessible spaces, different art and significant sculptures, stand out architecture, green spaces. The variety of material helped the viewer understand the differences between each urban space, yet the similarity in some of the keywords and text included showed the connected feeling as a result of some of the OCDT discussions.

On the second day the students went to watch a Hustings hosted by the university. This felt particularly pertinent as the youth fellows were unaware that it was an election year in Sweden. While we had been at the school the Swedish Democratic party had been in the halls sharing information about the party. We asked the students their thoughts on the election, the parties and watching the hustings debate. Some of them explained how interesting they found the debates and clearly took a keen interest in political discussions. When probed they remained reserved in sharing their views on particular issues however this made the workshop feel even more valuable as they could voice other people’s views through their art pieces.

While the students were participating in the hustings, we created continuity across the posters by assigning each neighbourhood its own colour for the title. We also added a map of Malmö in the corner of each poster, where students highlighted their respective area in the corresponding colour. This helped to emphasise the connection between the posters, making it clear that each neighbourhood formed part of a wider collective “rainbow” representation of the city

For the remainer of the day the young people worked hard on their posters, it was incredibly poignant that on a Friday before their graduation trip to Barcelona that they were all so engaged. Every single young person had a role in building their poster it showed how they really saw value in the project. The final results were fantastic; the posters shower real thought into the exercise and the variety in the art exemplified the different urban spaces and the young people representing them.

In reflection this use of this method is incredibly powerful tool for each stakeholder involved. First, for myself as a youth fellow of an international organisation, being aware of cultural specificities around how people interact with one another and with discussion of “politics” was an important reminder of how truly local knowledge is essential to carrying out participatory and engagement projects in public spaces.  Without this added understanding people’s reactions can easily be misinterpreted. Second, to the young people involved being the mouthpiece of the local people enabled them to meaningfully participate without having to be overt about their own personal opinions. And finally for the local people who were engaged with out on the streets of Malmö it was clear how they felt value and empowerment in being given the chance to reflect on democracy within their lives.

Ultimately, one of the most poignant reflections from the youth run OCDTs came from a participant on the streets of Malmö who expressed a sense of hope and joy after engaging in conversations with local young people. This served as a powerful reminder of the importance of the IYTT mission and the value of creating spaces for meaningful dialogue.

I look forward to seeing the posters showcased at Malmö Mots democracy week and seeing the next iteration of the “neighborhooding democracy” workshops run by the IYTT.

The exhibition displaying the results of Malmö DEMO 2026 takes place within the local democracy event organised by the City of Malmö from July 12 to 18 July 2026.