26th of September 2015 – 27th of March 2016

Young people in Denmark are European champions in democracy. Still, a lot of them feel that their opinions are not worth listening to. So how does expressing their views take shape, how do they get heard? This paradox is the focus of the Workers Museum’s exhibition YOUNG VOICES UNHEARD, which is developed in close collaboration with young people from the entire country.

Danish young people are ranked at the top when it comes to knowledge about democracy and to confidence in democratic governance. New research shows this. But the democratic self-confidence of these young people does not match their skills. Research reveals at the same time that every third young person feels unprepared to participate in the democratic process, and that 52 percent of senior secondary school pupils think that their opinions are not worth listening to.

With YOUNG VOICES UNHEARD the Workers Museum brings a current societal challenge up for debate and asks what kind of democracy young people wish to create. Young people in Denmark have a huge potential to develop and to make themselves heard in society, and it is essential that they have the courage to do so.

The exhibition shows how young people through the ages have engaged themselves politically and it describes in various ways how one can make one’s voice heard. This is for example displayed via the young conscientious objector Anton Jensen, who undertook a hunger strike in 1918 protesting against conscription, or the demonstrators, who in the beginning of the 1960s marched from Holbæk to Copenhagen to state their opposition to nuclear arms.

Visitors are invited to test their sense of hearing and to try out their rhetorical skills on a lectern in a soundproof space, as well as to co-create the exhibition by making their own badges, posters and banners.
The exhibition is developed in collaboration with the Educational Service and youth organisations such as Danish Youth Council, the association of Danish pupils, the Danish Red Cross Youth and the youth political parties.

Sources: The International Civic and Citizenships Education Study  fra 2013 og Gallupundersøgelse, DUF, 2015

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