If our contemporary society needs innovative solutions we argue that we need to learn from our youth. This paper presents the most prevailing issues that arose during the collaborative digital art project designed to connect our youth with big, mainstream cultural institution, and to augment the outreach of the project. By using the research through design approach and surveys with participants, we analyse the implications introduced by inter-institutional and interdisciplinary collaboration. We claim that such collaborations are rich, but expensive and risky. Still, they are powerful mechanisms for learning new concepts, developing creative and critical thinking, and above all social capital acquisition.

While many of us researchers dream about the opportunity to design a collaborative art project that would connect our youth with big, mainstream cultural and educational institutions, we seldom analyse the challenges of such collaborations. This paper presents the user-centered, interdisciplinary interaction design (ID) of the collaborative digital art project. The project design is made in collaboration with the young participants of the Meet the Ministry project run by the Dance Company of the Opera House (DCOH) in Gothenburg, and the members of The Swedish School of Library and Information Science Social Media Studies (TSLIS) research group. Using the research through design approach to augment the outreach of the collaborative digital art project, enhance youth engagement with the contemporary dance, and learn from the young participants, we analyze the implications introduced by inter-institutional and interdisciplinary collaboration. This paper proposes a view which suggests that learning can be effective and pure joy, while at the same time delivering 21st-century skills to those who learn, and new conditions for social inclusion and sustainable society. One argument is that we need new teaching approaches to successfully prepare our youngest for the 21st century. The other reason is that we would be better off if the investments in our public institutions could positively influence a larger society, which would result in a more sustainable society. Drawing from the different scientific research experiences this paper calls for interdisciplinary and interinstitutional collaborative art projects as learning tools, and tools to leverage social sustainability

The paper analyses the risks of a potential “valley of death” in development of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) for refugees’ social integration. Today’s refugee crisis is distinct from previous ones because of remarkable refugees’ reliance on technology. Therefore, not surprisingly, the effective employment of ICT is often mentioned in conjunction with refugees’ integration as a mean of facilitating integrative efforts. While academic literature widely accepts that ICT deployment is especially relevant to refugees’ social integration, little is done in terms of understanding that ICT impact requires a convergence of conditions of which ICT is only one of them. The paper questions the extent to which discrepancy between the ICT demand and supply creates a vacuum in the field of ICT for social inclusion. In order to understand parameters that influence efficiency of particular ICT solution for refugees’ social integration we use quantitative analytical approach looking at both sides - demand and supply. We put under the magnifying glass performance of ICT mobile solution specifically developed for refugees' social integration, parallel with refugees’ testimonials on their everyday mobile usage practices. Finally, after identifying that ICT solution for refugees’ social integration is in the “valley of death” this study argues that ICT does not operate alone. Social inclusion is bilateral social process that places demand on both refugees and the hosting society. Keeping that in mind, we call for overcoming simplistic view of the need of ICT development for social change per se, and propose deeper analysis of all parameters necessary for delivering meaningful and effective ICT solution for social change.