Digitizing the folktales of a city - sharing the wisdom of the Other

<< Background >>We applied for this project to address polarisation and the need to address discrimination and exclusion. We did that by by capitalising on the cultural richness of 4 purposefully selected cities through the collection and sharing the stories of marginalized groups, as for example, refugees. The 4 participating countries constitute either post-conflict societies where ethno-religious and other divisions are long-standing and entrenched or societies where migration has been on the rise, or both. Hence, collectively, they offer diverse contexts with different histories where collection of rich and diverse stories could occur from different groups. << Objectives >>By implemented this project, we wanted to achieve the following: 1. to exemplify the importance of folktales as a window into the oral histories that shaped the identity of minority groups inhabiting European cities, as a means to reducing bias and discrimination. 2. To produce and implement a participatory methodology for transdisciplinary pursuits: to work with and for the community.3. To empower marginalized communities to shape how their oral histories are shared.4. To develop innovative pedagogical material addressing issues of cultural heritage.5. To foster awareness of common values through sharing a diverse set of folktales.<< Implementation >>As part of the project we implemented the following activities: 1. We established the DigiFolk methodology and trained educators and students to use it. 2. We worked with minority communities to jointly extract, curate, and digitize their oral histories (folktales) 3. We designed tale maps and city tours to share the stories in the geographical spaces in which they were told as chosen by community members themselves. 4. We documented the process and translated it into freely accessible educational material through an e-platform where all materials are freely available: https://platform.digifolk.eu5. We organized dissemination activities and evaluation moments.6. We designed a website where all results are freely available: https://digifolk.eu<< Results >>The project's main results are the following: 1. A literature review of about 10,000 words2. Forty digitized folktales3. Four tale maps, one for each partner city 4. Carried out city tours to share the stories in context5. Development of a website where information about the project is found and all results and deliverables can be accessed https://digifolk.eu/ 6. Development of a freely accessible e-platform (https://platform.digifolk.eu/) with all results, guidelines and supporting materials to be used by educators, researchers, and practitioners.7. Translated all results/outputs in 5 languages, English, Serbian, Greek, Dutch, and Turkish.