Em Setembro de 2019, o Digital Cultures Research Centre da University of the West of England  convocou a segunda  Creativity, Knowledge, Cities (CKC) Conference para explorar criticamente as tensões entre o setor cultural, cidades e universidades. A Mafalda Nunes, da equipa ROCK do ICS participou com uma apresentação no painel Universities and the Creative City.

Segue em baixo o abstract da sua apresentação. Para mais informações sobre a conferência, pode consultar este link.

Re-thinking the Creative City through Participatory Action Research | Mafalda Nunes

In the last few years Universities are increasingly being called to contribute proactively in developing sustainable and inclusive urban regeneration strategies, in collaboration with a wide range of non-academic actors such as municipalities, NGOs and local communities. National and transnational programmes promoting multi-sector partnerships for action-research are an important funding-source of scientific research today. However, while these initiatives may open up new opportunities for producing socially relevant and impactful research, they can also lead researchers to submerge in their specific structures, visions and practices and only superficially engage with local challenges and sources of knowledge. Based on my PhD research within the Horizon 2020 EU funded project ROCK – Regeneration and Optimisation of Cultural heritage in creative and Knowledge cities – I wish to explore the opportunities and challenges of Participatory Action Research (PAR) for fostering more democratic approaches to the idea of a Creative City. Namely, what is needed for PAR to be effectively developed in order to address complex urban challenges and to give voice to different local actors; how can research produced through PAR bring clear and relevant outcomes for places and communities; and ultimately, what does this entails in terms of critical challenges and changes in academic activity. Discursive dominance over the creative city imaginary is requiring us to engage in wider and more participated discussions that allow us to reimagine what a creative city means and to create counter-narratives that open up space for alternative values, designs and models. The current appeal for PAR could be a step forward in that direction.