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In September 2016, we organized a roundtable entitled “Community engaged cultural research: an emerging agenda of practice” at the 9th Midterm Conference of the ESA Research Network Sociology of the Arts in Porto, Portugal. The authors sharing their research during that session challenged us to go further and publish our experiences with society-friendly research in a variety of cultural contexts, practices, backgrounds and beliefs. By choosing the theme of “community and creative research”, this thematic issue of Conjunctions has gathered experiences from around the world (Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, Portugal, Switzerland, Argentina and Cyprus) on different approaches to democratic practice using the lens of cultural participation. It feeds on the intersection of action research work performed by academics, activists, artist, theorists and citizens, who study and work within different sectors of our societies through participatory methodologies.

Within tourism research, there has been little attention to research–practice knowledge exchange during the research process nor to practice-based research. This article examines a research-and-application project on creative tourism in which research–practice collaboration is explicitly foregrounded and made central. Through a reflexive process, the challenges this hybrid approach embodies and the pragmatic dilemmas that accompany the complexities of building closer research–practice relations and capturing practice-based knowledge are examined in three strategic areas: developing spaces for ongoing knowledge exchange, enabling practitioners to take on the role of co-researcher, and fostering researchers’ close attention to the application side of the project. In the context of the CREATOUR project, hybrid roles question who can do research, reinforce consideration of the added value of research processes for practitioners, and lead researchers to go beyond traditional research activities, with this ‘disruptive’ context causing tensions, uncertainties, and dynamic co-learning situations. Ongoing interactions over time are necessary to build relations, understanding, and trust, while flexibility and responsiveness are vital to address emerging issues. Training on research–practice collaboration, knowledge transfer, and mentorship techniques for both researchers and practitioners is advised. Challenges in integrating practice-based knowledge directly into research articles suggest a customized communication platform may be a useful ‘bridging’ mechanism between practice-based and academic knowledge systems. 摘要:在旅游研究领域, 很少关注研究过程中的研究与实践的知识交流, 也很少关注基于实践的研究。本文研究了一个创意旅游方面的研究应用项目, 该项目明确以研究与实践的合作为中心展开研究。本文通过一个反思的过程从三个方面（发展持续进行知识交流的空间,推动实业界认识承担合作研究人员的视角以及促进研究者密切关注项目的应用面）思考了这种混合方法表现出来的挑战以及伴随建立更紧密的研究实践关系, 获取实践性知识的复杂所提出的实际困难。在创意旅游项目的背景下, 多元混搭角色, 用这种产生紧张、不确定性和动态共同学习状况的“颠覆性”背景, 质问了谁可以做研究, 强化研究过程给从业者带来附加价值的想法, 以及带领研究人员超越传统的研究活动等方面的问题。为了建立关系、理解和信任, 需要不断地进行互动, 同时灵活性和反应能力对于解决新出现的问题至关重要。建议为研究人员和实践者提供研究-实践协作、知识转移和辅导技巧方面的培训。将基于实践的知识直接集成到研究文章中所面临的挑战表明, 定制的交流平台可能是基于实践的知识系统和学术知识系统之间有用的“桥梁”机制

WITH THIS PAPER, WE WISH TO SHARE THE EXPERIENCE OF AN ARTS-BASED ACTION RESEARCH INTERVENTION IN THE SOFIA STREET, IN COIMBRA (PORTUGAL), A CITY STREET THAT WAS INSCRIBED AS AN UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE IN 2013. THIS INTERVENTION IS PART OF THE BIGGER ACTION-RESEARCH PROJECT NAMED ARTERIA (2018-2020), WHERE WE WISH TO EXPLORE THE POSSIBLE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THE ARTISTIC PRACTICE AND THE FIELD OF SOCIAL SCIENCE. IN THIS PAPER, WE DESCRIBE HOW THE FIELD RESEARCH, WHICH TOOK PLACE IN THIS STREET (THE PREPARATION OF COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS AND THEIR IMPLEMENTATION), OFFERS A PROCESS OF METHODOLOGICAL EXPLORATION ON HOW SOCIAL SCIENCE METHODOLOGIES MAY BE ARTICULATED WITH THE PROCESSES OF ARTISTIC CREATION. WE SHOW HOW THIS CAN BE DONE BY DEVELOPING INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO CULTURAL PARTICIPATION THROUGH THE PROCESS OF IMMATERIAL CO-CREATION OF KNOWLEDGE. AT THE SAME TIME, WE SHARE REFLECTIONS ON HOW THE ARTISTIC INTERVENTION MAY HAVE AN IMPACT ON THE SOCIAL AND CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION OF SOFIA STREET.

This paper aims to reflect on the results of the project Community Intervention in Urban Areas: a youth driven initiative. This project envisioned the development of a Transnational Seminar that gave origin to the development of youth arts intervention projects and to the elaboration of the document “Youth Policies for Urban Neighborhoods”. The project started from the youth’s reflection on the physical, social, economic, and cultural degradation of specific spaces/territories and communities in Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands, and Belgium (spaces in ruins, non-places and other abandoned areas), exploring these territories as spaces for transformation and future renovation. The idea is to explore the ways youth may contribute to the transformation of these spaces, therefore enhancing their civic knowledge, capacity to intervene and influence policy and research under this theme. We wish to explore the role of younger generations, and youth in particular, through a change of paradigm. That is, by developing alternatives of intervention, through Participant Action Research and through the exploration of its connections with artistic practice and the cultural field in general. We hope this approach can influence local, national and European youth education policies and enhance different approaches to research in general.

This paper discusses the relation between cultural mapping and participatory community cultural mapping, proposing the integration of a mobile device application (app) in the cultural mapping process of the Arteria project. This application aims to expand the notion of cultural appropriation by exploring how citizens can make crucial contributions to the cultural mapping process. This technology will evolve from and improve Arteria’s digital platform/website by boosting the processes of collection and registration of tangible and intangible cultural assets and the dissemination of registered cultural assets. The app will also enhance the connection among socio-cultural actors and improve the quality of community involvement in the cultural, social, and political dynamics of this cultural mapping project. To justify the need for such a tool, an overview of the project’s intent, objectives, and activities is presented, as well as its philosophy of intervention in local communities., Cet article discute de l’introduction d’une application mobile dans le processus de cartographie culturelle du projet Arteria et met en évidence les liens entre planification culturelle et participation. L’application mobile vise à approfondir le sens de l’appropriation culturelle en explorant en quoi la participation citoyenne peut enrichir les processus de cartographie culturelle. La participation en ligne permettra d’enrichir les données et la plateforme d’Arteria en y ajoutant des références aux propriétés tangibles et intangibles de la culture urbaine. Cet article discute en quoi cette application mobile permettra d’enrichir les liens entre les acteurs socio-culturels et en quoi elle permettra également d’ajouter à la qualité de la participation et de l’implication citoyenne en tenant compte des dynamiques politiques de ces formes de planification.

In July and August 2013, O Teatrão, a Coimbra-based theatre company, presented the project Arruin-ados, comprising three theatre performances in three abandoned spaces (‘ruins’), one in each of three cities in the Centre region of Portugal located along the Mondego River: Coimbra, Montemor-o-Velho, and Figueira da Foz. Developed through a community the atre approach, the artistic presentations were based on the collection of local memories, including local testimonies and other types of local materials from local, social, and economic history. The objectives of the project were to bring un-der reflection how different types of urban and rural ruins, understood as scars and tattoos of a country, may speak about the history of that country and, at the same time, may inspire the possible future transformations and possibilities of change. In parallel with this reflec-tion, the artistic production embodies a strong commit-ment to build collective projects; a sense of a shared, common territory; and a network of people and things to explore and articulate, in a localized, concrete way, the history of Portugal between 1890 and 2020. The paper assesses the role and significance of Arruinados in the context of collective memory, community-based artistic interventions in public space, and the potential for local mobilization through the arts.

This article discusses how biographical materials may be used in youth arts education projects to develop new methodologies and approaches that can stimulate artistic and social intervention in contemporary urban communities, thus changing the field of arts education policy at the community level. Through their creation of Artistic Society Projects, a group of young people from the arts education project Bando à Parte: Youth Cultures, Arts and Social Inclusion (O Teatrão, Coimbra, Portugal) have created a voice that may be used to transform their own communities. The starting points for this transformation are the young peoples’ biographical paths. The influence of youth on education policy may be strategically understood in the context of formal and nonformal school curricula. How can youth use their biographies to develop specific contributions both to change in individual behaviors and to social change in urban communities, influencing arts education policies to instigate action? The exploration of these processes through the work of artistic creation, inspired by collected biographical materials, represents a contribution to ongoing reflection on the issues of memory, identity, youth resistance, and community change in urban settings, influencing the ways in which arts education policy is understood and implemented.

Este Curso de Verao, organizado pelo Departamento de Planeamento Urbano e Paisagistico da Universidade de Kassel, teve como objectivo principal reunir gestores, responsaveis pelo planeamento, administradores publicos, cientistas, investigadores e politicos, promovendo um processo de aprendizagem activa e criativa. A relacao entre cultura e desenvolvimento regional foi o tema do curso, proporcionando um estimulante debate que, apoiando‑se no confronto entre a reflexao teorica e a abordagem de ...

O presente trabalho pretende reflectir sobre a cidadania na sociedade contemporânea, sugerindo uma nova abordagem a este conceito, na qual a prática artística e a importância crescente da diversidade cultural dos contextos urbanos contemporâneos são os elementos essenciais para a criação de cidadãos criativos. Este estudo centra-se em estudos de caso da área Metropolitana de Boston (Estado do Massachussets, EUA) com o objectivo de abordar a cultura e a prática artística como plataformas para reequacionar a cidadania ao nível comunitário. Os estudos de caso dão conta de exemplos onde a cidadania é analisada do ponto de vista do desenvolvimento de relações inter-étnicas e conexões pessoais, entendidas como plataformas de inclusão artística, de criação de uma identidade local associada com um distrito artístico, e através da apropriação do espaço físico e do reforço da identidade cultural. A relação entre espaço público urbano, comunidade e cultura é entendida como uma plataforma que pode oferecer novas estratégias de revificação dos espaços urbanos, assim como estratégias específicas de envolvimento cívico e de liderança nas comunidades, criando oportunidades para o desenvolvimento de cidadãos criativos. The current work explores the significance of citizenship in the contemporary world, suggesting a new approach to its realization, where artistic practice and the development of cultural awareness combine to produce the creative citizen. This research uses case studies from three Boston metropolitan area neighbourhoods in Massachusetts, USA, to reflect on arts and culture as platforms to re-address citizenship at the community level. The case studies address examples where citizenship is explored through the development of inter-ethnic and face-to-face connections as platforms of artistic inclusion, the creation of a local identity associated with an Arts District, and through physical space appropriation and reinforcement of cultural identity. The relationship between urban public space, community, and culture is understood as a platform that may offer new strategies for urban space revivification, and specific strategies of civic engagement and leadership in these communities, providing impetus for the development of creative citizens.

Jan Cohen-Cruz foi membro do New York City Street Theatre/Jonah Project entre 1971 e 1972. Organizou workshops de teatro em prisões, hospitais psiquiátricos e centros comunitários. É co-organizadora de Playing Boal: Theatre, Therapy, Activism e os seus artigos, baseados na performance activista e performance comunitária, foram publicados nas revistas TDR, High Performance, American Theatre, Urban Resources, Women and Performance, The Mime Journal e na antologia But Is It Art?. Jan é também pr...

This paper discusses the theme biographies for artistic and social intervention through an analysis of artistic work conducted with a group of young people from the arts education project Bando à Parte: Youth Cultures, Arts and Social Inclusion (O Teatrão, Coimbra). How do young people create a voice which may be potentially used to transform their own communities, having as a starting point their biographical path(s)? How can each of us find on biographical courses specific contributions that may interfere with change, and how may these be translated into concrete policies and actions in society? The exploration of these processes through a work of artistic creation, inspired in biographical collected materials, represents a possible contribution to reflect on the issues of memory, identity and community change.