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Session chair: Prof. Gudrun Zagel, Paris Lodron University of Salzburg (Austria)

Individual contributions 

Dr. Fadma Ait Mouss, Hassan II University of Casablanca, Casablanca (Morocco) 

Dr. Mouni Kheirallah, Hassan II University of Casablanca, Casablanca (Morocco)

Beyond the 'Vulnerable': Re-shaping Disability Narratives through Emancipatory Research in Moroccan Contexts

This presentation critically interrogates the dominant use of “vulnerability” in policy, development, and academic discourses on disability, arguing that the label obscures structural violence by framing disadvantage as inherent rather than socially produced. Drawing on critical disability studies and an emancipatory research paradigm, the study re-frames disability in Marrakech as a socio-political construct sustained by institutional practices and normative assumptions. Based on 39 narrative interviews, the analysis demonstrates how disablement is systematically manufactured across education, labor, and technology. Inclusive education often reproduces normalization by requiring individuals to adapt to rigid systems; labor markets channel disabled bodies into informality or symbolic public employment; and digital technologies function as a double-edged tool, constrained by stigma and material inequality. The paper concludes that meaningful inclusion requires dismantling the structural “fabric of normality,” not merely expanding legal or technical interventions.

Dr. Quitéria Martins Mabasso , - Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo (Mozambic) 
Eduardo Mondlane University main campus: my space

Maputo is the capital of Mozambique and a fast growing city. This growth challenges Eduardo Mondlane University, the oldest and largest public higher education institution in Mozambique, to consider the role it plays in the development of the city. The university geographic location puts it at the intersection of urban development, social justice and community. In order to understand the pressing and complex process of urban development and gentrification the university, in collaboration with some CIVIS partners, is conducting a study that aims to examine the complexities the Eduardo Mondlane University campus faces as a boundary between districts in the city of Maputo with very different socio-economic realities. Through interviews including geographical mapping and other collaborative tools, we will examine how adolescents from poorer districts make use of the campus and the tensions and the contradictions it generates in the local community. The project will co-design with participating youth an expressive/artistic intervention in the campus aimed at making visible these practices and appropriations and to start a discussion between the different social groups that in practice inhabit the EMU campus.

Dr. David Poveda- Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid (Spain)
Arts-based collaborative devices with at-risk youth: An example from an OL Project in Madrid

This presentation focuses on the methodological opportunities and practical challenges of using sensorial and arts-based collaborative research methods with young people at´-social-risk. We draw on the experieneces of an ongoing CIVIS Open Lab project in Madrid centered in understanding processes of urban inclusion/exclusion of youth at-social-risk in a heavily gentrified neighborhood of central Madrid. During several months we have worked with youth in a documentation and intervention process drawing on performative devices, plastic arts, visuTal methods, walking methodologies and soundscaping techniques. We discuss the uptake and affordances of various techniques and highlight issues of use and implementation that might be revelant to projects across contexts wth similar populations.  

Dr. Nabila Louriz, Hassan II University of Casablanca, Casablanca (Morocco) 

Phd Student Fatima Zahra El Balrhi, Hassan II University of Casablanca, Casablanca (Morocco) 

Heritage languages of Sub-Saharan migrant children in Morocco

​Migration within Africa is a widespread phenomenon driven by social, economic, and political factors, with effects that extend across multiple domains, one of which is lqnguqge development. The increase in Sub-Saharan migration to Morocco leads to new and interesting language contact situation. This research explores the dynamics of heritage language maintenance among migrant children, specifically focusing on South-to-South flow toward Morocco. The study examines how children of Sub-Saharan migrants navigate the intersection of their mother tongues, such as Wolof, Lingala, Kikongo, or Bambara, with Moroccan Arabic as the dominant language. By examining the status of the mother tongue in the diaspora, the research sheds light on how migration acts as a driver for linguistic change. It investigates the factors that support or hinder the transmission of heritage languages across generations, which results in language maintenance or attrition. Understanding these dynamics is crucial, as the maintenance of a heritage language plays a pivotal role in a child’s cognitive development and their ability to navigate a complex, multi-layered linguistic identity.

Collective contributions 

Dr. Fadma Ait Mous, Hassan II University of Casablanca, Casablanca (Morocco)

Dr. David Poveda, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid (Spain) 

Dr. Philia Issari, Vassiliki Chryssanthopoulou and pyridoula Tsoukala, National and Kapodistrian University of Athenes, Athenes (Greece) online

Dr. Viorel Mihăilă, Mălina Voicu and Raluca Dinescu, University of Bucharest, Bucarest (Romania) online

Dr. Nabila Louriz, University of Hassan II Casablanca, Casablanca (Morocco)

Dr. Martins Mabasso Quitéria,Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo (Mozambic) 

Participatory Action Research in Vulnerable Contexts: A Trans-Continental Perspective

This roundtable session we showcase ongoing research projects that build on a collaborative and participatory perspective to address the needs of social groups and individuals often categorized as "vulnerable" within existing policies and discussions of social needs. 
Collaborative projects may work with migrant populations, the elderly, individuals with special needs and/or children, youth and families at-social-risk, among other target populations.

The sessions adopts an intercontinental perspective and gathers work conducted within European and African CIVIS universities. 
The goals of the roundtable are threefold: 

• Present and discuss the collaborative research infrastructures and resources developed by different research teams within the CIVIS alliance in Europe and Africa.

• Critically examine the collaborative research devices deployed in different contexts, reflexively discussing challenges and opportunities in their implementation under various material conditions. 

• Critically discuss "vulnerability" as a socio-political construct and the role of participatory research in re-shaping underlying assumptions in the constellation of labels and concepts that surround "vulnerability.

Questions for the audience

• How to make the Campus friendly for under privileged yougn people in the sorroundings?
• What type of collaborative infrastructures have teams developed across contexts? 
• What affordances and challenges emerge when working through these devices with vulnerable populations? 
• How the concept of "vulnerabitility" operationalized (in practice and theory) in your local context? 
• What dimensions of the definition of "vulnerability" should be revised?