Blog Posts, Project Updates and Reflections

​As the AECED project reaches its close, it feels important to pause – not simply to summarise outcomes, but to honour the energy, imagination and courage that educators, researchers, learners and partners have invested over these three years. What began in April 2023...

On 21 November 2025, AECED team members, Karine Oganisjana (Latvia), Kardelen Dilara Cazgir (Germany), Uldis Dumins (Latvia) and Sandra Wallenius-Korkalo (Finland), delivered an interactive workshop, “Sensing Democracy-as-Becoming”, in a parallel session at the...

In the beginning of our AECED project, we were placed within a cluster of three projects that had responded to the same Horizon Call, namely ‘Reshaping democracies’ (Horizon-CL2-2022-Democracy-01). As I was new to Horizon, I didn’t quite know what this collaboration...

In September 2025, we (the AECED German Team from Philipps University Marburg) participated in a conference on political education, sustainability, and transformation at the University of Education Weingarten, together with a third research intern and a research...

As part of the UK-wide Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)’s Festival of Social Science 2025 - a free pop-up event exploring the realities of juggling modern life - the AECED UK team invited visitors to The Howard Centre in Welwyn Garden City to try some...

It was inspiring to see how ideas about the future of higher education brought people together in Ankara, Türkiye. At the 8th International Higher Education Studies Conference (IHEC) 2025, hosted by the Association for Higher Education Studies in Türkiye, Prof. Dr....

Surprises, Discoveries, Cognitive Dominance The workshop “Sensing Democracy through a Multi-Scape Journey” took place on 16 October 2025 during the 66th International Scientific Conference of Riga Technical University. As a co-organiser of the conference, the Latvian...

ECER 2025: Reflections from the AECED Project The European Educational Research Association (EERA) organised the ECER 2025 Annual Event in Belgrade, Serbia, under the theme “Charting the Way Forward: Education, Research, Potentials and Perspectives”. The event...

Democracy as Becoming: Reflections from the AECED Project (Inspired by and based on the AECED Framework) The Republic of Croatia declared independence in 1991, with the aspiration to build a state founded on the rule of law, free elections, and the protection of human...

Educating the Self: Students producing Video-Clips on the Pattern Language of Commoning In our AECED Project, the German Project Team use the Pattern Language of Commoning (PLC) for supporting democracy-learning in higher education settings. While we also use the PLC...

Rhythms of Democracy – finding our pace to enhance democracy When running a project that is focused on enhancing democracy, the inevitable questions that haunt us are: Is our project, or its ways of working, democratic? Am I enhancing democracy on a daily or weekly...

Defending – Renewing – Re-imagining Democracy-as-Becoming. Research-Workshop Trilogy for the upcoming European Educational Research Association Conference (ECER) accepted At the end of March this year, during our consortium meeting in Lisbon, a visit to a local school...

Shaping education for democracy through an online course: A Portuguese approach to aesthetic and embodied learning Recently, we have seen a remarkable shift towards deep and engaging learning experiences in Education. The incorporation of aesthetic and embodied...

Collaboration, reflection, the exploration of democracy-as-becoming, and a visit to Lisbon The AECED project thrives on collaboration, reflection, and the exploration of democracy-as-becoming. Across different contexts and institutions, our partners engage in building...

Picture above created by ChatGPT Plus Introduction by Prof., Dr. paed. Karine Oganisjana, Riga Technical University Sometimes, the most unexpected encounters can change the way we see the world. Research is often thought of as a structured journey toward knowledge,...

On a wet and rather windy Wednesday in December, I set off to Nottingham in the UK to attend the Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) conference. I have been a member of SRHE (https://srhe.ac.uk/) for many years, and have attended many annual conferences...

Click here to watch video "Movements" is an innovative dance performance developed by students of Philipps University of Marburg, Germany, under the guidance of Dr. Lea Spahn. Rooted in embodied research and the theme of “Democracy and Polarization”, the piece...

Lesen Sie auf Deutsch The German team of the AECED project, in cooperation with the German Commons Institute, conducted a practical workshop on the applications of the Pattern Language of Commoning at the beginning of October 2024. In a face-to-face workshop from 4 to...