Reading by the Nidelven in Trondheim. Image – Getty: MartinPBGV
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
See also:
Norway’s World Expression Forum in a ‘Year of Resistance’
The IPA Prix Voltaire Announces Its 2025 Shortlist
Norway’s WEXFO: New Dates, Early Notes on 2025 in Lillehammer
‘Prerequisite for Our Continuation of Democracy’
The coming edition of Lillehammer’s World Expression Forum (June 2-3), called WEXFO, the programming is again its signature mix of presentations, discussions, breakout sessions, and workshops. Those workshops’ titles include The Art of Saving Democracy; Did the Traditional Media Lose the Elections?; Legal Frameworks and Challenges for Free Speech in Professional Environments; and How to Protect Freedom of Speech in Times of Conflict in the Middle East?
Another—set for 2 p.m. on the first day of WEXFO, June 2, is titled Literacy: A Precondition for Democracy and it’s a chance for delegates to WEXFO to get an introduction to a new project: Democracies Depend on Reading, often called DemRead, is an ambitious project set to launch in the autumn.
Kristenn Einarsson
Led by a keynote address from Kristenn Einarsson—chief of the International Publishers Association‘s (IPA) Freedom to Publish committee and the founding CEO of WEXFO—DemRead is being funded and originated in Europe, but is intended to function as an international network and as a coordinated approach rolled out as a pan-European project devised in its first phase by specialists at five core partners:
- Lillehammer’s World Expression Forum;
- Madrid’s Fundación Germán Sánchez Ruipérez;
- Mainz’s Johannes Gutenberg University;
- Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet); and
- University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, Škrateljc
‘The Defense of Democracy Itself’
In a statement about the project, we read, “Nearly three-quarters of the global population now lives under autocratic regimes.
“The aim of Democracies Depend on Reading is to generate new knowledge and understanding, develop strategies and methods, and deliver impact on policymaking, civic education, and democratic innovations.”WEXFO / DemRead
“Disinformation, polarization, and autocracy fuel one another in a dangerous cycle. As Europe and other regions strengthen their external borders, a significant share of public resources will be directed toward reinforcing border security. Yet an equally critical front lies within: the defense of democracy itself.
“Democracy depends on citizens who are informed and who engage in shaping society based on knowledge and understanding. And informed citizens are, first and foremost, reading citizens. Reading remains democracy’s most powerful tool and freedom’s strongest defense.”
By bringing the educational context into symbiotic connection to the democratic goal, the crucial importance of what the Ljubljana Reading Manifesto terms “higher-level reading,” prompting critical thinking and immersive cognition that are needed in a citizenry to establish, develop, and sustain a democratic society.
These key academic centers and practitioners in the field are being brought together in the conviction that “reading is our culture’s central training technique for cognitive and social behavior, and a precondition for a properly functioning democracy.” Strategies will be developed and tested by the project for their ability to deliver impact on policymaking, civic education, and democratic innovations.
Wilhelm Friedrich Admiraal
As it’s put by Wilhelm Friedrich Admiraal, one of the breakout session’s speakers—and the leader of a 3 p.m. workshop that follows the opening panel—much of this has to do with the relationship between reading and citizenship education.
With a test model being operated in Lillehammer and using “spearhead cities” selected to engage with the model’s development, best practices will be communicated across Europe and internationally, the program promising “quick dissemination of results and feedback on possible gaps in democracy and governance related research and innovation.”
Luis González
Luis González, director general of the Fundación Germán Sánchez Ruipérez in Madrid—which stages its annual invitational Readmagine May 27, 28, and 29—leads one of the core partners and will be a panelist in the breakout session on June 2.
He tells Publishing Perspectives, “Democracy depends on citizens having high-level reading skills from childhood—governments must offer a public education system that considers reading development at the heart of the learning experience—and on citizens continuing to perfect their reading skills for the rest of their lives, with absolute freedom to read what they choose and interpret what they read in a personal and free way.
“High-level reading empowers citizens to have individual criteria for our interpretation of reality, giving us a greater capacity to respect (and understand) those who think differently and to discuss with them without considering them ‘sinners.’ A crucial asset (a weapon) of democracy is the ability to discuss and build decisions based on the deliberative process.”
Seyran Ates
Another speaker will be the Muslim feminist Seyran Ates, founder of Ibn Rushd Goethe Mosque in Berlin, who tells us, “I am convinced that our education systems need radical reforms. Our children should only have four subjects in the first two years at school: Reading, writing, math, and democracy.”
“The joy of reading and writing has more than disappeared. Many children in our rich democratic countries experience reading and writing as a torture, whereas in poorer countries parents and children would give anything—or actually do give anything—to learn to read and write.
“As the child of an illiterate woman who learnt to read and write at the age of 50, I know the glow in the eyes of someone who can finally read and write.”
Ben Bowen
And Ben Bowen, CEO of Australia’s Indigenous Literacy Foundation, tells Publishing Perspectives of his concerns about a shift in popular trust, from mainstream news media to influencers and non-traditional sources.
That and “the rise of misinformation,” he says, contribute to “low levels of understanding in the general population” about citizenship, and “the role of education and literacy in understanding how to influence power.”
As has always been clear, democracy is dependent on an informed and engaged citizenry. By definition, democratic dynamics are the voices of the people and if the people don’t have the understanding they need of democracy and its processes, the pressures seen in so many parts of the world today do build up—as authoritarian energies try to step in.
“The project DEM READ Democracies Depend on Reading is based on the vital role that reading plays in securing the future of our democracies,” write the organizers of the project.
“It’s an absolute prerequisite for our continuation of democracy that we greatly enhance our efforts to promote reading. Reading must be defined in the broadest sense and must include reading, interpreting, and evaluation skills, as well as an understanding of source criticism. The aim is not only that one reads, but also is able to find information, knowledge, ideas, and reflections of value.”
‘Literacy: A Precondition for Democracy’ is at 2 p.m. on June 2 at WEXFO. Its breakout panel will be moderated by Publishing Perspectives. The International Publishers Association (IPA) is supportive of the DemRead project, and will be at the World Expression Forum for its announcement of the 2025 Prix Voltaire laureate.
More from Publishing Perspectives on issues of the freedom to publish, the freedom to and freedom of expression is here, more on the Prix Voltaire is here, and on the International Publishers Association is here. More on the World Expression Forum, WEXFO, is here. Special thanks to James Taylor for session documentation.
Publishing Perspectives is the global media partner of the International Publishers Association.
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