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Contemporary Childhoods/Youths (CON-CHY)

The OL builds on the expertise of several CIVIS research groups and centers on participatory and collaborative work with children and youth focused on critically examining the current socialization and educational experiences of young people across a variety of formal and informal contexts. Our socio-educational proposals stemming from the OL aim to contribute to sustainable development goals through work with young people.  The disciplinary and thematic outreach of the OL is broad and is/will be capable of collaborating with informal groups of children and youth, schools, non-formal educational organizations, families and communities. The transversal feature of our work is the use of participatory/collaborative, qualitative, multimodal and arts-based methodologies with young people. We also draw on expertise in the use of interactive, digital and geomedia research devices with young people.

The first OL project began its planning in the Summer of 2025 and is particularly interested in the experiences and mobilities of children and youth in urban contexts and in addressing the needs of diverse childhoods, young people at social risk and adopting a critical and intersectional perspective (that problematizes the role of gender, social class and cultural-geographical background, as well as other forms of diversity) to research and social intervention.

Learn more about the project

Main Beneficiaries & Social Impact

Main Beneficiaries

Our OL projects are open to the community of large, each individual initiative may be of interest to other researchers and professionals (across a variety of sectors) working with young people. Working with participatory methodologies involves the active engagement of children and adolescents who come into contact with OL projects through schools, their involvement in after-school organizations or other community events. So far, CON-CHY OL projects co-involve young people in data collection processes and arts-based creative dynamics.      

Social Impact

The current project (2025-26) focuses on young people's participation, inclusion and exclusion from urban settings. We aim to raise awareness of the place of children and youth in city contexts and public space, paying particular attention to mechanisms of exclusion in local community settings and neighborhoods. We use arts-based and digitally mediated interventions in public space led by young people as a consciousness-raising strategy.     

Core Methodology

  • Arts-based projects: visual art-work, performative art, soundscaping methodologies, walking methodologies.
  • Qualitative research techniques: Participant observation, semi-structured interviews, photovoice interviews, focus groups, document analysis.
  • Digital geovisualization techniques: digital cartographic and geovisualization tools.

Events in the Project

Event Name

Date(s)

Location

Description

Con-Chy Public Event

5-7 February 2026

Madrid - MAyTP La Corrala

Team meeting, exhibition in progress and open workshop. The event is open to students, academics and youth workers

GISday 2025

19 November 2025

University of Salzburg

Workshop with the target group

Roundtable

9 September 2026

Polana Caniço, Maputo

Team meeting with the local community; a hearing session

Workshop UEM

September 2026

UEM Campus

Exhibition of photographic and audio-visual material; the event is open to the public

Partners

Partner Name

Type (academic, non-academic stakeholders, students, …)

Bio

David Poveda

Academic   

Professor of Educational and Developmental Psychology 

Marta Morgade

Academic

Professor of Developmental and Educational Psychology

Henar Rodríguez-Navarro

Academic

Professor of Educational Studies

Quitéria Mabasso    

Academic     

Special Education, MsC and lecturer of educational Psychology course 

Isaías Benzana   

Academic     

School psychologist, BSc & Clinical Psychologist, MSc; psychologist and researcher    

Philia Issari

Academic

Professor and Counseling Psychology     

Sabine Hennig   

Academic

Head iDEAS:lab

Tim Schötz   

Academic

Student assistant    

Simona Cotorobai

Academic

PhD candidate in Educationa Sciences    

Contact Point

CON-CHY OL coordinator