Culture, youth and digital
Cultural offerings are sometimes brutally questioned by the “young” audience. A challenge that manifests itself notably through indifference towards the prescriptions of cultural institutions, or even through disinterest in cultural venues. Over 15 years, digital technology has also revolutionized young people’s, and everyone’s, relationship to time and private space. The very definition of culture and its mode of access have been transformed.
To become capable of rethinking projects adapted to the real needs of contemporary youth, which falls under the mission of cultural policies, I believe we must first deconstruct our preconceived ideas, the judgments we may have without knowing. This involves taking the measure of new representations of the world and new cultural practices closely linked to digital technology.
How to do this? I believe that going through “doing,” precisely, is a very rich path for professionals. Experiencing through one’s own experience the stakes of cultural practices in the digital era, by participating in workshops with young people, by “playing” with digital technologies, by exploring new cooperation mechanisms, etc., with the aim of surpassing one’s usual criteria, in order to be enriched by youth’s ideas and uses. This is not about demagogy, but about weaving connections, which enables mutual transformation, creative hybridization.
Action-research on cultural policies for youth has always been one of the main areas of work for Benoît Labourdette, in cooperation with numerous actors from the cultural, educational and social fields. We propose here methods, accounts of actions and training, which we hope will be inspiring for actors from the cultural, social and educational fields at all levels. To offer an analysis of the stakes, as well as sociological, psychological, cultural foundations, to create solid supports in service of public service missions for youth.
