United Plates of Europe
Erasmus + : KA1 - Youth Exchange - Programme Countries
Place: United Kingdom, London
Activity Dates: 24/01/2018 - 01/02/2018
Project Description:
When we think of tradition, family, our country, chances are we will reflect on family occasions like Sunday lunches, Christmas, Easter, birthdays to name but a few. When we look at all these events, the common factor is food. Food is the one element of life that has so many aspects, it bring us together, it makes up sympathise with those who don’t have it, it makes us feel like we have an identity, it makes us feel unique. But how unique is our food? If we took a traditional plate of food from every European country, how different would these plates be? How similar would they be?
Food is an integral part of our culture but it’s not the only element, and just like food other aspects of our culture, art, customs, traditions and many more, are influenced by others over time. We see globalisation as a negative thing, but it is existed long before the word was conceived. So how unique are our cultures?
Cultures, traditions and customs have often been the bases of stereotype being created and even conflicts. We often hear discriminating comments based on cultural differences or because of some customs or traditions we saw in another country.
Our project will explore the roots of our different cultures, the cultures of our neighbours, and the cultures of Europe. We will learn from each other and we will share our culture with our friends in every form possible from food to art and through this sharing we will discover just how much we have in common and how understanding and sharing can result in a more unified EU.
The project will look at the effects of globalisation on our cultures and how we as youth are influenced by different cultural aspects. How young people preserve their culture and we will question why our culture is important to us and why it is important for Europe to respect the individual cultures of its member states and its people.
The objective of the project is to allow young people to identify their cultures and also to examine the roots of these cultural elements to discover who and how these element affected our culture. We will look at food as the building block that will bring us together, looking at how our plates (traditional dishes) of Europe can bring us together and try to create a common European dish (cooperation and understanding) to allow us to live as one Europe. We will examine the true meaning of United in Diversity and see who our diversity can unite us as Europeans.
We believe that by researching our cultures and the historical significance of our cultures we will learn how our cultures were influenced by each other and although we have differences, our similarities are much greater than our differences. As a result we will allow our youth to unite the people of Europe for a great, stronger Europe.
We will use communication and cultural expression as the mediums of our project allowing the participants to explore the roots of each culture, find the elements that can unite us and help us bring Europe closer together. We will focus on youth work and youth participation in each of the partner countries and examine how youth participation fosters cooperation and enlargement of the EU. We will examine our roles as European citizens and explore our past to build stronger bridges for the future. We will examine the opportunities given to young people in our communities, in our countries and in the EU to help them learn more about cultures, diversity and the European Union, and more specifically their role in the EU.
DISSEMINATION TOOLS:
Magazines:
1. Culture Fun
2. Esperando
3. EUnited
4. EuroSpective
6. Troll
9. Pocket Guide
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission (Erasmus + Programme). These publication(s) article(s), video(s) and magazine(s) reflect the views only of the author(s), and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.