LJUBLJANA (SLOVENIA) – 10 JULY 2018. The FreeToChoose (FTC) dissemination event, organized by Nefiks and hosted at the historical building of the Trubar Literature House, represented an important milestone of the project, since it was the occasion to present two of the main FtC outputs to stakeholders and general public: the results of the sociological research (WS1) and the test of the board game prototype (WS2). Main guests from public authorities attending the event were Rok Primozic, Director at Office of the Republic of Slovenia for Youth under the Ministry for Education, Science and Sport, and Katarina Gorenc, Head of Youth Office of the City of Ljubljana.
After a short introduction from the host organization and institutional greetings from Rok Primozic, the floor was given to Alenka Blazinsek from the Kroj Network, who gave a comprehensive overview on Nefiks: together with Mcbit, one of the Slovenian project partner which has been promoting the values of volunteering and non-formal education in Slovenia for over 15 years. Alenka stressed out the crucial role of Nefiks at assisting young people with personal and professional development.
The meeting moved on more scientific themes with the presentation given by Kaja Primorac from the Gender Equality Research Institute. Kaja provided a clear definition of gender inequality as “those legal, social and cultural situations in which sex and gender determine different rights and unequal access to employment opportunities”. She finally presented the benefits of implementing the Gender Equality Index developed by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) to measure gender inequality in several economic, cultural and social contexts.
We then went deep into project management with Tiziana Perin, FTC Project Manager from ITACA Social Cooperative (Lead Partner) who presented objectives, target and expected results of the project co-funded by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (REC) of the EU. Tiziana highlighted the added value of FTC in raising awareness on gender diversity and promoting behavioural changes in youngsters and adults involved in transition phases.
One of the most interesting moments of the day was certainly the intervention made by Matteo Bisanti, researcher and game designer from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE). Matteo led the public throughout the historical evolution of the FTC board game by underlining the crucial contribution given by the renowned game designer and winner of Gioco dell’Anno 2013, Pietro Mori, and the ethnographic research on ludic habits conducted across 3 countries with more than 1606 respondents.
Do gender stereotypes impact on gender composition of the workplaces? Prof. Tindara Addabbo from UNIMORE, Department of Economics, brilliantly answered this question by showing research data on gender inequalities in labour supply, employment and managerial positions: a persistent discrimination against women is still going on in job hiring especially in those sectors (such as engineering) traditionally male dominated.
Those conclusions were confirmed also by the analysis of prof. Capitolina Diaz from the Universitat de Valencia: she showed the existence of dual stereotypes: biological and mental, that can be influenced and strengthened by media and school more than family. Anna Giulia Ingellis, project manager of FtC for Universitat de Valencia, presented the Mind the Gap Report, with the objective of drawing an overall gender gap scenario in labour market and educational system in the countries involved in the project.
Another important output related to WS1 is Coming Out, the cross country report analysis on gender stereotypes, based on the national field work carried out by MIGS in Cyprus, APLOAD in Portugal, Universitat de Valencia in Spain, IRES FVG in Italy, MCBIT and Nefiks in Slovenia: results of each national report were presented by Maria Angeli (MIGS), José Bronze (Apload), Chiara Cristini (IRES FVG) and Vita Jankovič (MCBIT).
After a short lunch break, 12 young Slovenians were involved in one of the first official FTC game sessions. They had the task to play, test and give feedback on the FTC board game prototype, developed on the recommendations emerged from the sociological research. Those sessions are of great importance to guide the work of the game designers towards the development of the final version of the game.
The young testers were splitted into 2 groups (with 6 people each) led respectively by Matteo Bisanti and Enrico Vazzoler, game master from Cooperative Itaca. The game testing phase was then followed by a panel discussion where Matteo and Enrico had the opportunity to share opinions with the players and record pros and cons of the game prototype.
This will ensure the final adjustments to the game, that will continue its “testing journey” also in August, during a youth event in Slovenia and a festival in Spain, before the official start of the experimentation, which will take place in Portugal, Italy and Slovenia at the end of 2018.
