Guide for the work to ensure everyone knows how to approach it and offer benchmark on the quality of the data
- Result from all the collected stories could be: A book about our times or The Edgeryders Guide to the Future. These creative concepts will be finalised in spring 2021.
What is the mission we are trying to achieve?
We want to discover real stories of real people, that speak to the socio-economic circumstances in which they personally live. Through such stories, we aim to connect people with each other in an engaging conversation where they can be heard, feel supported by others, and learn new or interesting ways in which to look at the future.
Below is a set of exemplary stories. Why are they good? First, they are stories told by the people who lived them. Second, they explain in detail the social/economic/political contexts in which the authors live. Thirdly, they invite questions and generate conversations: other community members find them interesting enough to ask something, or offer their own experience on the topic!
From Poland:
- An educated view of why KaczyÅski is so appealing to people: Pepe relates his own political views in a respectful and argumented manner, and details his personal experiences in a way that can build empathy even with people who are ideologically very different.
- The Underground State of Women - a compelling story from 2016 about the illegal and grey market for abortions in Poland.
- The difficulties of being an entrepreneur in Poland: Marta explains how as a young business owner she had to return to full time work, because in Poland it is difficult to be an entrepreneur.
- The story of Aska, a 25 year old who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and the injustices that she saw in the health care system.
- Why I became a sex educator - a young feminist who early on in life identified a lot of barriers in her community/ country culture. She emigrated to the UK to be able to practice her work, because sex education in Poland is very tabu.
From Serbia:
- Does society today work for our benefit? 35 year old journalist Željko talks about the lack of security in Serbia today, populism and a series of questions that doom over the population and his own personal ageing.
- The āNewāmoral code of 21st century: Wylache interogates traditional customs and religion and how the convervative views pushed her to choose a minority way of living in a new culture and spirituality.
- āāI Came Back To Stay: Story About A Young Woman, A Mayor Of An Isolated Village In Serbia āā - #8 by Daliborka
From the Czech Republic:
- A young Prague inhabitantās confession about unaffordable housing - personal thoughts on spatial planning and economic lack of sustainability of fast development
- Interview with Hans Priessnitz, an Extinction Rebellion activist
Which Topics do we explore?
Focus on the 3 key topics in POPREBEL, with the underlying experiences of wellbeing at a personal level and community level
- How do we access work and prosperity? (EN) (also in SB, PL, CZ)
- How can we be morally and psychologically well? (EN) (in SB, PL, CZ)
- How do we get health and social care support? (EN) (in SB, PL, CZ)
*** For Serbia you can also check this working document (in English, but with Serbian context and data). - Additional questions are also compatible with the previous ones: What would make living in [your country] better today? What makes you feel safe or unsafe in these times of lockdown ? Do you agree with the measures taken by your government?
What happens with the content
- Each language journalist/contributors will upload their stories (using a maximum 2 Step process and guideline)
- Ethnographic draft reports by Amelia and team
- SSNA visualisations
- Event: Meet the others
- Book
Process & Timeline
BiWeekly activities:
- Virtual events - like Community Cafes: This week we will discuss X that came up in last two weeks discussions
- Promote last weeks stories to people signed up to virtual event
Phase 1: Till Mid December - each person/journalist gets in two stories to learn the process, get sense of how it works & what could be improved and plan next steps for collecting the larger body of stories
Phase 2: Till April - Do the bigger journalism drive - more stories (17 per country; t.b.d after phase 1; we envision 1 story per week)
Phase 3: By end of summer 2021 - Produce the first draft of Book
- Example of previous output: The EDGERYDERS guide to the future.pdf (2.9 MB)
Budget
Stories: (interview by journalist + editing into first person account, posted by interviewee onto platform) total is 6000 Eur for the stories of all the three countries combined. Budget is max 2000 eur/country
- 17 stories/country at approximately 80 Eur/ Story of max. 1000 words
- 3 articles summarising findings/ country ahead of virtual cafe events or as a preface to the book
How to use other platforms
Only to post a link to draw attention to things on the edgeryders platform - the conversations should happen on the platform and not in e.g. a facebook group.
How to post the stories
The stories need to be posted by the people who are the protagonists, the people whom you interviews. If they are new to Edgeryders, there are two steps they need to follow. If they are already members on the forum, they only need to do point 2. below.
1. Create an account on Edgeryders ā The easiest way to do it is to fill out this form:
Edgeryders Forms
After sumitting the form, each person will have an account and their first message will appear automatically on the forum (Are you new to Edgeryders? Say HELLO and meet others! - #3).
2. Upload their story on Edgeryders ā Wellbeing in Europe - Edgeryders
Click the ā+ New Topicā button in the top right: 
An expandable text editor will pop up where the person can copy-paste your text and add the photos too! When they are finished, click on Create Topic to save and publish.
FAQs
Question: [We begin with 2 stories. This question is about the extended contracts for Community Journalism, in case the initial collaboration is working well] "So it means that I should prepare
- 17 texts during this project
- one text should be up to 1000 words
- and those 3 summarizing texts per country are included in these 17 texts or additional?"
*Answer: Correct. The 3 summarising texts per country are additional to those 17 texts - so 20 texts in total per country.
Question: When should the articles be delivered?
Answer: Delivery of 17 stories by June 2021 (per country), out of which 2 stories need to be done by end of 2021/early 2021. *Please note: we also ask for 3 articles that are editorial (summaries of the discussions with and amongst participants on the edgeryders platform and in the online events we organise (3- events in total). If you are working as a team for a country; this means you split the number of articles amongst youselves in the team as it is 17 stories in total.
Question: āWhat are āSSNA visualisationsā?ā
Answer: These are visualisations that are produced by our research team to give a nice visual overview of what has been discussed. We will host online events to present them and you will be invited to join.
Question: " Are those points also my tasks: Are those points also my tasks:
- Tell forms for each language where contributors can upload their stories
- Ethnographic draft reports by Amelia and team
- SSNA visualisations
- Event: Meet the others
- Book "
*Answer: āNo. For the tell form- this is an optional way to make it easier for people to upload their own stories. What this means is that the text for the person interviewed should be copy-pasted by them directly into a form once you have finished the text. This is for us to be sure that they have given their full consent to the material being published. The form that you are asked to use will be provided to you by the edgeryders team. Other than that we may ask you to have a look at the texts in your language that are produced by others just to check that there are no major language issues or errorsā.
Question: Is the payment made gradually after publication of each text or does it take place at the end of the project?
Answer: We can split it on the basis of delivery, e.g in three batches- one payment after delivery of two or more texts etc.
Question: Are you interested in texts on other subjects?
Answer: We are interested in texts that are personal accounts of some experience that one has lived, and thoughts about that - rather than articles written about third parties
Question: what is the pay per story/article?
Answer: 80 Euros per article/story. Plus approximately 400 eur budget/ country for helping to prepare and participate the public online meetings/discussions.
Question: From the topics you have sent (mental wellbeing, work and prosperity, health) I got an impression that the interviews are not supposed to by focused on political postures of the respondents, right? It seems to me we are going to be talking more about the current crisis and possible solutions of it, right?
Answer: Yes and no. We would like to start by better understand the current situation and context within which people are living right now. What is their understanding of the issues that they care about/ affect them. And how they connect this with politics/ their relationship to the contemporary political landscape. Rather than start with hearing or discussing political opinions or positions per se as a starting point.
Question: Are there any criteria for the respondents (regarding age, income group or region they live)? Any adult from the Czech Republic, Poland or Serbia with access to internet can be a respondent, right?
Answer: @Richard can you reply to this one with your stated preferences?
Question: How do I communicate what the project is? For examples what would I write in an announcement on my FB profile?
Answer: Maybe something like this -
*I am looking for anyone who
- wants to share their views, concerns and worries about current situation in their community or town.
- In order to have their voice heard and contribute to a better understanding of the world we are living inā¦*
- is willing to share his story with other members of edgeryders forum.
- ER forum is a place where people from all over the world talk to each other about their problems, challenges in society and where they identify together interesting solutions to those problems.
Question: Does the respondent have a duty to discuss in the forum, or is he/she only responsible for publishing the story and that is the end of his responsibility?
Answer: We do wish to encourage a dialogue between participants on the platform. It is best if the person is interested publishing the story and answering some questions or comments that others ask about his or her story.
Question: Can the respondent remain anonymous or use a nickname? Do we need any other data about him?
Answer: Yes, absolutely - They just need an email address to create an account and can use an alias.
Question: Do my duties include any other activity besides delivering the story and the summary ( weekly meetings, promotion of stories, any activity related to the book)? And each story needs a summary, right?
Answer: There are 17 stories, each with a short summary added to it and the activities mentioned above. But we also ask for 3 stories that are your own reflections on what has been said by the respondents, and the discussions that they generate. The purpose here is to understand what deeper understanding you, and we get from these conversations - and what lessons this gives us on how we can nurture a healthy political future in your country and perhaps in Europe as a whole.
Question: Is there any travel budget?
Answer: There is, we will need an estimate at the beginning of the work and the expenses have to be requested and approved by the Edgeryders managing team before the costs are incurred.
) last week and I must say - it was an enjoyable experience for me. I adapted to my intervieweeās tehnichal conditions, so we used Skype while recording it via Voice recorder on my laptop. The recording itself is not bad in quality. Also, I was taking notes at the same time, and this will hopefully make things easier for me while transcribing from the audio, as I underlined some themes and conclusions from my interviewee, which will help me to shape the whole story at the end. This first interview also helped me to see where I want to go with presenting peopleās personal experiences and I hope I will do this the way I imagined it to be. Maybe its just the first time luck thing, but I felt like I really āclickedā with the person I talked to, we had a conversation which lasted for a couple of hours, and its good to know that from the conversation itself emerged some ideas which I (in the name of that person) might even present in a separate/additional article if thats allowed (without any added expectations from my side). So, thatās all from me (for now)! Hope you all are doing good and getting into the holiday spirit of cheer and joy, unless thats not your thing and youāre cool regardless. 
