The communication project Fest-i-Val focused on civic education (samhällskunskap) classes in gymnasium schools and gymnasium pupils who have or soon will have the right to vote in Swedish elections. The aim was to offer today’s gymnasium pupils’ hands-on experience with how a scholarly analysis of politics is conducted. The Fest-i-Val event was held on August 29, 2018, a day during the Swedish election campaign and when schools also participated in the school election (skolval) to the Riksdag. All in all 320 pupils and 10 civic education classes from Stockholm participated in the event day. The choice of schools, which was done together with Stockholm City’s administrative school unit, departed from a diversity perspective, that is, schools with different profiles, that is, pupil population and geographic location. Both schools with theoretical and vocational programs participated in the event. The pupils and their civil education teachers came from the following schools: Norra Real, Kärrtorp, S:t Eriks, Blackeberg, Midsommarkransen, Sjölins, Thorildsplans, Kungsholmens västra, Internationella kunskapsgymnasiet in Liljeholmen and Fryshuset.

Our societal cooperating partners were Stockholm City’s administrative school unit and the state agency, the Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society MUCF). Because MUCF was in the middle of its relocation to Växjö it played a smaller role in the event. The following departments from Stockholm University participated in the event: Political science, Humanities and Social Sciences Education, History and Media Studies (journalism, media and communication as well as fashion studies.

The project team met with the participating gymnasium teachers in advance in order to discuss the event set-up. The teachers gave comments on the event program and drafts of the education material (an anthology) and the films. Both the films and the anthology were preparatory material, which the teachers could use in their teaching before the event day. The short films replaced our initial idea of holding talks or lectures during the event. Each film had the same framework: a gymnasium student asked a researcher questions. The written education material, the anthology, was authored by the project team together with researchers participating in the event. Bothe the films and the anthology discussed questions that were part of the event day. The anthology “8 lektioner i val: politik och demokrati inför valet 2018” (8 lectures on elections: politic and democracy in the 2018 election) included the following chapters (in English translation): ”Political representation”; ”Parties, ideologies and strategies”; ”Why should we vote”; ”Activism: engagement, participation and influence in societal questions”; ”Emotions, history and politics”; ”Parties on the catwalk”; ”What role do the media play in elections?” and ”The role of opinion polls in the electoral campaign”. The titles of the films are in English translation are: “The significance of the media in an election campaign”; “Emotions in politics”; “Can we trust opinion polls?” and “What decides who get to vote?”. Both the anthology and the films are available via the site Pedagog Stockholm for further use within schools in Stockholm and also on the websites of the participating departments at Stockholm university. See for instance https://www.statsvet.su.se/om-oss/nyheter/8-lektioner-i-val-politik-och-demokrati-inf%C3%B6r-valet-2018-1.395904.

Aside from the preparatory material, the event day included the following elements. Astrid Söderbergh Widding, president of Stockholm University, welcomed all to the event, Karen Austin, with long experience of the school sector moderated the morning session. This session involved a talk by the Minister for Culture and Democracy Alice Bah Kuhnke and a panel discussion on, in translation, “The media and politicians in an election campaign” with the following SU-researchers (Faradj Koliev, doctoral student in political science, Ester Pollack, associate professor in journalism, Maria Wendt, associate professor in political science). The pupils had the opportunity to ask questions to both the minister and the scholarly panel. The Minister for Culture and Democracy discussed her view of the importance of democracy, elections and voting. The panel discussion developed understanding on the relationship between politicians and the media.

After lunch pupils participated in five different workshop themes. All in all 15 workshop groups, with about 20 pupils each, were held. The workshop groups included a mixture of pupils from the different schools. The participating university departments were responsible for the workshop themes. Political scientists held a workshop on “Activism = political influence” and “The role of public opinion in politic”. Scholars from the unit Journalism and media and communication held the workshops “Party leader debates in the media” and “Social media in the election campaign”. Fashion study held “The role of fashion in politics”. The workshops gave the pupils the opportunity to analyze politics and election campaigns in an innovative way. In each workshop they were provided with election material (posters, folders, etc.) and even special material so that they could work on the workshop theme. The pupils were given question assignments, which they reported on in a general poster exhibit in the afternoon “Fika with researchers”. The event day ended with the theater group “Unga klara” performing a few scenes from the play “Torget” (Square or Agora) and thereafter a short wind-up.

The event was between 9.00 and 16.00, including fika and lunch. Each pupil was given a SU-bag with a copy of the program, juice and an apple. Our cooperating partners contributed with a notebook and pen.

During the event day the project team talked with the participating gymnasium teachers. After the event the project team asked the participating communication officers from Stockholm University for comments about the event. We sent also out a short survey to the participating teachers who were asked to distribute it to their pupils. Our evaluation shows that the event day was highly appreciated. The teachers were very satisfied with the set-up and how it was implemented. All in all 144 pupils answer the survey. Most of them (ca 80 %) said that the event day was rather good or very good. The most appreciated part of the day was the meeting with the Minister for Culture and Democracy. A little less than half of the respondents said that the panel discussion was rather good or very good. Over 80 % said that the workshops were rather good or very good. A little over 60 % stated that they learned a lot about how politics works. We also asked them if they had visited a university or college before and if they would like to participate in a new event at Stockholm University. Ca 56 % said that they had never visited a university before and around 80 % said that they would consider coming to SU for a new event. The communication officers considered the day successful. They noted that it was not easy for the scholars to engage in a panel after the Minister for Culture and Democracy. They also believe that scholars need more training in how to communicate with this particular age group. The project team, the participating researchers as well as the communication officers believed that the event day was too long. We also had some problems with SU´s new provider for lunch and fika. It did not have the capacity to serve so many people at the same time. This was an unexpected problem.

In sum, the project fulfilled its aim of giving gymnasium pupils knowledge about the different key actors involved in election campaigns and how citizens can prepare themselves for the election. Through the project’s easily accessible and creative method of communicating research from different disciplines we succeeded in increasing young people’s understanding of political processes such as election campaigns and the significance of these processes for how we understand politicians, Swedish representative democracy, gender relations in politics and the political importance of the media.

Further evidence that the event was a success in research communication is that Stockholm City had decided to continue its cooperation with us in an event for 2019. At a meeting with the city’s school administrative unit, we also learned that the event has a good reputation in “School-Stockholm”. We will hold a new Fest-i-Val den on August 29, 2019 with “Power in society” as its theme. Given the fact that we have fewer resources, the event will be less ambitious. Aside from the university departments that participated in 2018, the 2019 event will include the department of psychology, department of philosophy and the third unit within the department of media studies (cinema studies).

The commission of inquiry “Demokratikommittén” has also shown interest in Fest-i-Val. They have Fest-i-Val as a proposal in a report to the Ministry of Culture for events in 2020 and 2021 to celebrate 100 years of democracy in Sweden.

Our experience with the event has also been developed into a research proposal sent to The Swedish Research Council’s call for projects in education science. We have also sent a proposal based on the event for a research workshop for the 2020 Nordic Political Science Associations’ (NOPSA) conference.