On Friday, December 13, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam together with Pakhuis de Zwijger and Theater DE GASTEN will organize a free interactive research session on the mental well-being of young people.
We live in a digital age where everyone increasingly lives in their own bubble. How can insights from science and theater reinforce each other and where are the blind spots?
The definition of a perspective is "a point from which you look at something. Yet we often reason only from our own reality and our own bubble. We live in a world where social media plays an increasing role, confirming rather than questioning our own views. But how can we move toward and listen to each other? In both scientific research and in a theatrical investigation, your 'material' largely determines your outcome. In this program, we explore how to create "in-between spaces" for different perspectives. We do this by sharing the processes of both theoretical research and theatrical research. Looking for the blind spots and white spaces in ourselves and the other.
From the Faculty of Social Sciences two scientists are involved in the programme:
Mariken van der Velden
Associate professor of Political Communication in the Department of Communication Science
Hans Boutellier
Endowed professor Polarisation & Resilience
Project Playful learning
In the project 'Playful learning' theater and science join forces and experiment with alternative forms of research in which inclusive knowledge formation is central. Research topic is the mental well-being of young people. How do we ensure that the knowledge about this - think official prose and scientific literature - is better aligned with young people's perceptions? That knowledge is produced not only about them, but with them? And how can theater and science complement each other in this?
We do this in three scientific theater dialogues and three podcast episodes. This project is a collaboration between the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Theater DEGASTEN and Pakhuis de Zwijger.