Working title = provisional title
| A user centered tool to increase the democratic awareness of children and people of younger ages (Generation Z & Alpha) |
An exposé provides information about:
1. the problem (Starting point, problem description)
| On the one hand, the problem is that political parties in Austria have no idea how to appeal to young voters. On the other hand, interest in democracy and politics is constantly declining. Information is often formulated in a rather complicated way and tends to deter children and young people. A component or rather proof of the lagging behind of political actors is also shown by their social media presence or the survey results of the leading female candidates among under 20-year-olds. For young people, Austrian politics often seems outdated, uninteresting and also often as if the young voter group and its issues are rather unpopular. This opens the gates and receptiveness of young people to populism and sensationalist politics. I would like to get to the bottom of this thesis with my work and find out how young people understand politics and develop and offer an interactive service design for this. |
2. state of research
| Unfortunately, there is not yet much specialised literature, statistics or other theses that deal with the topic of “politics and youth”. Although I have already come across a few theses, particularly in the field of journalism and media, there are unfortunately not (yet) many large-scale studies or relevant specialised literature. |
3. the question
| What is the political awareness of children and young people in Austria and which parameters are decisive for the political success or failure of established parties? |
4. the hypothesis resp. the objective
| Firstly, I would like to find out more about the current situation and draw a picture of the present. The challenges that political actors face when it comes to the young target group will be analysed. Once the problems have been explained, I would like to present systematic solutions in the form of tools. This could be an app, a workshop idea or a board game/mini-game. It depends on the results of the empirical part of the scientific work. At the moment, I am strongly leaning towards an app that diplomatically categorises complicated political content and explains the basic cornerstones of a democracy. Due to the voting age in Austria (16 years old), I would limit the target group to 13-18 year olds. |
5. the reference to theory
| In my opinion, there are two fundamental problems that cross-fertilise each other. On the one hand, politics and democracy-related subjects are taught far too late. Young people learn about the Austrian state and the prevailing democratic system in primary school, but they can do little with it at primary school age and then hear nothing more about it for a relatively long time before it is usually referred to again at the age of 14/15. As a result, in addition to the basic subjects of maths, English, German and the like, a subjectively lower prioritisation towards politics and democracy develops. The second problem I see is that children and young people are often taught that politics is an “adult thing” and that most decisions are not made for them but for other age groups. I think this is understandable from a demographic point of view but more than unwise from a social point of view. Issues such as education, sustainability or security are mainly played out by political “extreme parties” (extreme right or extreme left), which I think is a shame. I would like to see political centre parties also focus more on these issues. To cut a long story short: I am curious to see whether my research supports or refutes these theses. |
6. the method
| Formulate the problem on the basis of existing empirical studies or call out a scientific thesis Develop a type of questionnairem or interview guide Conduct qualitative (and possibly also quantitative) surveys Analyse the results and either substantiate or modify the thesis Incorporate relevant theory (specialist literature, other statistics) Identify possible solutions as an interaction designer Develop/design tool |
7. the material
| Various specialised literature, surveys/statistics, reports or news articles, videos, other theses |
8. (preliminary) bibliography
| theres a already a lot of literature available. Detailed titles or sources will be announced soonish. |
9. (preliminary) structre
| Here I refer to point 6 and add the following: 1. Theory/Empiricism 2. Ideation 3. Practical Part |
10. the timetable (project phases and duration)
| I expect to complete my work towards the end of the summer. I would categorise the time periods as follows: 1. theory/empiricism – 300 hours 2. ideation – 100 hours 3. practical part – 300 hours |
11. Projectteam
| At the moment I am on my own, but I can imagine that I will work with schools, teachers or counselling centres in the future. |
12. Financing
| At the moment, apart from the printing of the thesis, no costs are planned. |
12. Risk factors
| The risks, as with presumably all scientific work, are as follows: 1. time management – do not spend too much/too little time on the research 2. quality of the work – do not neglect the precise elaboration of the empirical results due to time stress or the like 3. spectrum – it is important to depict several social strata and groups so as not to research only in certain milieus. Otherwise, the research results could be distorted. |