Spanish Cooperation Cultural Centres
201
Laboratorio de CiudadanĂa Digital
The Laboratorio de CiudadanĂa Digital (Digital Citizenship Laboratory, DCL) is a training platform that combines arts, sciences and information and communication technologies (ICTs) to offer a wide range of workshops helping children and young people exercise their cultural rights. Since its creation in 2014, the DCL has operated as a public-private partnership between the Cultural Centre of Spain in Mexico (CCSMx) and the TelefĂłnica Foundation in Mexico. This alliance fosters synergies among Government, civil society, creators, artists, scientists and cultural managers to build alternative spaces for training and participation in the cultural field. The institutional design of the DCL, outlined in the Spanish Cooperation Culture and Development Strategy Paper, focuses on developing skills for the 21st century and prioritises horizontal cooperation, in which children and young people are encouraged to play a leading role as agents of development. The overall aim of the DCL is to foster participation in cultural processes as a fundamental component of human development, using science, culture and ICTs as tools for building citizenship. It also promotes teaching and learning methodologies to enhance digital skills, contributing to the professionalisation of those who use culture and technology in order to reduce the digital literacy gap in marginalised areas. Finally, the DCL seeks to reinforce the STEAM competences (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) in formal and informal learning environments. In the last five years, the DCL has been used by around 19,500 people (14,000 children, 1,500 young people aged 13-25 years and 4,000 educators) and has provided over 1,000 workshops in the CCSMx and other centres, in eight of the sixteen neighbourhoods of Mexico City, as well as several other regions of the country. In the international
scene, the DCL has been invited to present a guest project at festivals and meetings in Spain, Guatemala, El Salvador, Chile and Peru, and in 2020 it will also operate in the Northern Triangle of Central America and in Cuba. The DCL has worked with more than 3,000 workshop monitors, teachers and programme managers, generating spaces for dialogue and facilitating the exchange of experiences and good practices. The workshops, thus, offer the opportunity for participation, solidarity, social transformation and real citizenship. General framework The CCSMx, as part of AECID, believes that in order for culture to generate development, it is not enough to instruct audiences or spectators. In addition, mechanisms of participation must be established, favouring the creation and production of cultural processes, the twin elements from which the agents of development are formed and which ensure its sustainability. For culture to stimulate human development, it must work in two dimensions: on the one hand, favouring access to cultural expression and on the other, ensuring the participation of children and young people. Accordingly, the CCSMx has developed programmes that meet these needs: on a permanent basis it organises activities in which boys and girls have access to a wide range of artistic proposals, approximately 400 activities per year, covering all formats and disciplines, which have been attended by about 12,000 young people. Furthermore, the DCL itself uses technology as a tool for consolidating a thoughtful, critical citizenry making full use of its rights. As mentioned above, the DCL was constituted taking the AECID Culture and Development Strategy Paper as a frame of reference, specifically concerning
