20.12.2021

EAEA’s working group publishes context paper on digitalisation and democracy

After a very fruitful year of meeting online, discussing and learning from each other, EAEA’s Working Group on Digitalisation is happy and proud to make the context paper on the annual topic now available for everybody.

Having chosen our annual topic in 2021 digitalisation and democracy, EAEA, together with its partners, has not only dedicated this year’s Grundtvig award to digitalisation and democracy but has invited key stakeholders to join a working group on digitalisation.

EAEA and the other representatives of the working group from Dafni Kek, CPIP Romania, Associação Portuguesa para a Cultura e Educação Permanente (APCEP), the Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, the Arbeitskreis deutscher Bildungsstätten (AdB), the German Institute for Adult Education (DIE), and the Lernraum.Wien are publishing their “Context Paper: Digitalisation and Democracy”. The paper is the result of extended research, meetings and discussions and reflects the current state of the conceptualisation of democracy and digitalisation and their representation in adult education and learning. 

The paper has a closer look at the conceptualisation of democracy within the context of digitalisation, the power conditions and dynamics in the digital space, as well as digital politics and digitalisation in the public space. It also briefly discusses digital rights in Europe and addresses digitally excluded groups. In this, it focuses on adult learners, teachers and educators, their digital competences and also the role of ALE in Democracy and Digitalisation.

You can find the paper and the policy recommendations on our annual theme page on digitalisation.

We wish you a pleasant read and invite you to let us know what your thoughts are!

08.07.2026 activism

Resilience means giving genuine decision-making power to local actors - EAEA's annual event's panel discussion

On June 10th, EAEA’s members reunited for the Annual Event, this time in Poland, hosted by the NGO organization sTOP. The Panel discussion titled ‘‘Resilient Communities in Times of Crises’’ saw the participation of Benedetta Perego (lawyer admitted before the Italian Supreme Court and founder of Strali), Musa Kirkar (President of CEIPES and EAEA’s Board Member), Oleg Smirnov (Director of DVV International Ukraine and EAEA’s Vice President), and Irena Lipowicz (lawyer, professor, and ex diplomat for the United Nations).

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The EAEA Annual Conference 2026 explored resilience as a collective process, highlighting the role of adult learning in strengthening communities in times of uncertainty.