Do you feel…European? If we asked the question anywhere in Europe “Do you make me feel so“, you’d be surprised to get “European” as a response. And yet when we’re away from it, we feel transnational, when we create a visceral connection with people over issues we care deeply about and when we find memories of other countries in the cities we live in, we feel more transnational. Perhaps that’s what distinguishes feeling transnational from feeling European?
“People can act after they have witnessed how people really live and have experienced the emotions they have shared with those people” — it’s where they feel bonds, and when people travel or live in other cities in Europe, they can start feeling Euro…bonds.
Unlike financial bonds, emotional bonds create energies that create assets and that’s how this film was co-produced, with members of European Alternatives interesting in learning skills in social reporting and film making coming together to create a shared narrative across each of the different cities during the Festival of whether people felt European.
This co-produced process extends beyond creative activities and all the way to creating ways for members to start a dialogue with people online, which had all had started by drawing flowers to co-design this democratic process.
What can we learn?
1. Understand how people can participate
Remember you are not looking to get as many people as possible, you are looking to get very specific people to commit to doing different things. You need to understand this in terms of when and how these different people contribute.
2. Go where the people are — adapt the messenger, not the message
It’s not only about attracting people to come to your website or events. It’s about reaching out to where they are — on their blogs and at their events.
Reach out to the different groups you want to engage, but rather than going yourself, see if you have friends who are active in those groups and get them to spread the message to the people that trust them.
