Making sense of Edgeryders experiences: Where do we go from here?

The Edgeryders distributed think tank is entering a new phase: that of building on top of a great amount of data that’s been generated since the launch of our platform. The stories we’ve shared and our interactions - social, peer-to-peer and rewarding learning experiences as they feel - are part of an overriding research goal: to enable us to better inform policy initiatives around youth transition. We’d like to try to make sense of it all, as a community and with the help of a small research team; the team has been reading, analysing and placing Edgeryders material in contexts that the policy world, including institutions, can make sense of - i.e in the form of policy research papers, each addressing a specific theme.

Through this mission we aim to make sense of the material together! If we use the papers as a starting point for an open and collaborative writing process, as a community we can produce something much better than anything 10 experts in a room can put together. After the validation process is done, Rebecca will then synthesize the main points from the papers, and the community discussions around them into a first version of the transition handbook.

The transition handbook aims to leverage Edgeryders’ wisdom to the point where it makes an impact in the policy community, by speaking to individuals in institutions charged with addressing specific issues. The document should also speak directly to young people and other Edgeryders, using key terminology as used by Edgeryders themselves.

For a detailed overview of background, process and your role in building the handbook, as well as tentative structure and production timeline go to this doc.

Want to help make sense of Edgeryders experiences?

Completing this mission basically means reviewing and reacting to the research papers, so mainly commenting on them as they are posted here as mission reports…

  • Fourth report out: Social inclusion has been on the European Commission and Council of Europe's agenda for the last 10 years, and its promise is that of fairer and more equal societies. Edgeryders have their own strategies to build healthy relationships with other people and with themselves. How can we increase their applicability?

    Summary of “Living together reloaded”

    Full report available in google doc and open to comments!

  • Final report out: Political participation and how it very often is perceived by young people as something different than what is intended by institutions. New cultures of participation and collaboration are being prototyped by Edgeryders, institutions still have a way to go to support small scale grassroots initiatives.

    Magnus’s full paper : We the people, Reloaded

    Nadia’s reflections and summary

  • HANDBOOK DRAFT OUT: A final synthesis of all the discussions and research set against the contemporary political context and what they mean for policymakers and designers of online policy-oriented communities: FULL DRAFT HERE.