Abstract
Decisions on environmental topics taken today are going to have long-term consequences that will affect future generations. Young people will have to live with the consequences of these decisions and undertake special responsibilities. Moreover, as tomorrow’s decision makers, they themselves should learn how to negotiate and debate issues before final decisions are made. Therefore, any participation they can have in environmental decision making processes will prove essential in developing a sustainable future for the community.
However, recent data indicate that the young distance themselves from community affairs, mainly because the procedures involved are ‘wooden’, politicians’ discourse alienates the young and the whole experience is too formalized to them. Authorities are aware of this fact and try to establish communication channels to ensure transparency and use a language that speaks to new generations of citizens. This is where STEP project comes in.
STEP (www.step4youth.eu) is a digital Platform (web/mobile) enabling youth Societal and Political e-Participation in decision-making procedures concerning environmental issues. STEP is enhanced with web/social media mining, gamification, machine translation, and visualisation features.
Six pilots in real contexts are being organised for the deployment of the STEP solution in 4 European Countries: Italy, Spain, Greece, and Turkey. Pilots are implemented with the direct participation of one regional authority, four municipalities, and one association of municipalities, and include decision-making procedures on significant environmental questions.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Public Opinion in the European Union, Standard Eurobarometer 77. Spring 2012, p. 13 (2012)
Potential and Challenges of E-Participation in the European Union, study commissioned and supervised by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Consti-tutional Affairs at the request of the AFCO Committee (2016)
e-Participation Best Practice Manual, This manual is the result of Interreg IVC-financed project “eCitizen II – Towards citizen-centered eGovernment in European cities and regions (2012)
EUth project. http://www.euth.net/. Accessed July 2017
Environmental Protection Agency, Public Participation Guide. https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2014-05/documents/ppg_english_full-2.pdf. Accessed 24 July 2017
Victorian Auditor-General’s Office. https://www.audit.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/20150130-Public-Participation-BPG.pdf. Accessed 24 July 2017
International Youth Service of the Federal Republic of Germany Guidelines for successful e-participation by young people in decision-making at local, regional, national and European levels
International Association for Public Participation. http://www.iap2.org/?page=a4. Accessed 24 July 2017
National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation. http://ncdd.org/rc/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/PEPfinal-expanded.pdf. Accessed 25 July 2017
World Bank. http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTSOCIALDEVELOPMENT/EXTPCENG/0,,contentMDK:20282087~menuPK:1278110~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:410306,00.html. Accessed 24 July 2017
Environmental Protection Agency. https://www.epa.gov/international-cooperation/better-decisions-through-consultation-and-collaboration. Accessed 25 July 2017
International Association for Public Participation. http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.iap2.org/resource/resmgr/foundations_course/IAP2_P2_Spectrum_FINAL.pdf. Accessed 24 July 2017
Environmental Protection Agency. https://www.epa.gov/international-cooperation/how-consult-and-involve-public. Accessed 24 July 2017
Environmental Protection Agency. https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-09/documents/evaluate508.pdf. Accessed 24 July 2017
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Vogiatzi, M. et al. (2017). The STEP Project: Societal and Political Engagement of Young People in Environmental Issues. In: Kompatsiaris, I., et al. Internet Science. INSCI 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10673. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70284-1_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70284-1_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-70283-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-70284-1
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)