Conference Program

TOGETHERNESS addresses the need to democratise knowledge production by strengthening connections between academic institutions and communities, in line with the debate on the transformative role of universities (Mezirow, 1991) and their emerging functions of co-creation for sustainability and social change (Trencher et al., 2014). It unfolds through 3 participatory research experiments conducted in Brussels, Sassari and Dublin, mobilising actors from different disciplines and sectors to co-produce knowledge aimed at addressing concrete territorial challenges. In this respect, it is situated within the broader field of Public Engagement with Research, while acknowledging the heterogeneity of practices encompassed by this label and the increasing ambiguity of the concepts that define it (Weingart et al., 2024). While recognising these definitional challenges, the project deliberately narrows its focus to forms of engagement explicitly oriented towards generating social change. It adopts a perspective of transformative engagement that emphasises the co-production of knowledge between universities and communities. It promotes Community-Based Learning (CBL) and Community-Based Research (CBR) as approaches capable of integrating research, education and societal impact, while also challenging traditional power asymmetries between academia and civil society (Banks et al., 2017). The project is structured around 5 WP focusing on coordination, community mobilisation, the development of digital tools and training pathways, the institutionalisation of participatory practices, and the strengthening of a transnational network. By engaging vulnerable populations, informal communities and interdisciplinary teams, the project aims to develop sustainable models for embedding CBL and CBR structurally within universities. In its initial phase, the project includes an exploratory research component designed to provide the conceptual, methodological and operational foundations for the design and implementation of the local experiments. This phase enables the analysis of existing participatory research and transformative engagement practices in relation to the institutional contexts and higher education and research policies within which they have developed. The aim is to understand how organisational strategies, incentive structures and regulatory frameworks shape the ability of scholars and communities to engage in effective, inclusive and long-lasting CBL and CBR practices. Attention is paid to 4 key dimensions that guide the project as a whole: interdisciplinarity as a resource for knowledge co-production; methodologies for engaging vulnerable populations, with a focus on power dynamics and the construction of equitable partnerships (Beebeejaun et al., 2014); the use of micro-credentials as capacity-building tools; and collaboration with non-formalised communities, balancing institutional requirements with operational flexibility. Micro-credentials represent a central instrument within the project to support joint training of academic staff and non-academic actors and strengthen stable partnerships between universities and communities. The Italian higher education system is examined in comparative perspective alongside the Belgian and Irish, situating the national analysis within a broader European framework. Through comparative analysis and the implementation of local experiments, the project will generate empirical evidence on the institutional, educational and relational conditions that enable transformative participatory research to develop sustainably, contributing to the European debate on the structural integration of CBL and CBR within universities.