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This seminar series was organised by the INSPIRE - Intersectional Spaces of Participation: Inclusive, Resilient, Embedded project team, funded by the European Commission (2024-2027), in which the ICS is a partner. The project proposes, through the use of creative methods, the co-creation of participatory and inclusive spaces based on the experiences of marginalised groups in different urban contexts.

One of the ICS team's main activities is the development of participatory research with people with disabilities in the city of Lisbon, by experimenting with new artistic approaches. In collaboration with the team of performers Diana Niepce, Inês Cóias and Mia Meneses, Legislative Theatre will be used as a basis for identifying problems and formulating legislative proposals around disability. The project culminates with the performance “'Reunião”' on 29 November 2025, with the presence of political decision-makers and other actors relevant to the transformation of dominant practices on disability, accessibility and urban inclusion.

With the aim of opening up the discussion to the academic community about the fundamental themes and sensitising the general public about the nexus between (i) art and the city, (ii) the city and inclusion, (iii) inclusion and participation.

[04/06/2025]

Art and City

Speakers: Chiara Pussetti (ICS), Ricardo Campos (NOVA-FCSH), Nicole Sánchez and Sara Malta (Coletivo Mais Uno +1)

This first seminar was organised in partnership with RIGOP and DIVERSIDADES, two research groups at the ICS. The theme of this seminar was the relationship between art and the city. Starting from the practices of the Mais Uno +1 collective, the discussion focused on how art can give visibility to marginalised realities and open up space for the recognition of artists excluded from institutional circuits. Chiara and Ricardo then helped us to frame these practices based on their research into artistic intervention, with an emphasis on urban art.

Is art capable of embodying the "margins" of the city?

With this question in mind, we debated how to critically approach art as a way of contesting and redrawing the social and spatial boundaries of the city. We would venture to say that what we are most interested in debating today is the political value of art, starting from the very meaning of politics and its intimate relationship with the city. We can't talk about politics in the city without rethinking the dominant paradigm in urban development models, which for decades has required competing cities in which art sometimes plays both an accomplice and resistance role. So it's urban art that we're interested in discussing, and art that everyone can claim in order to realise their freedom.

Watch the seminar here (only available in portuguese):

[05/06/2025]

City and Inclusion

Speakers: Fabio Bertoni (ICS), Paula Pinto (ODDH/ISCSP), Cintya Floriani (CET)

This second seminar was organised in partnership with RIGOP and SHIFT, two research groups at the ICS. The theme of this seminar centred on the relationship between the city and inclusion. Starting from Cintya Floriani's experience with blind people in theatre, the discussion centred on how the city manages to be inclusive, with a focus on disabilities and therefore on the urban dynamics that exclude them. Paula and Fabio then helped us to problematise the forms of exclusion and appropriation that take place in cities, questioning how the "norm" can be deconstructed.

Is the city capable of including those who fall outside the "norm"?

It is with this question that we guided the seminar to critically address how current urban development models, political choices and our daily experience turn the lives of groups with other needs into a journey of barriers. Disabilities necessarily draw our attention to debate how the centrifugal force of a contemporary city designed for the world exacerbates the density of the margins in our society. It's interesting to use the practice developed by Cintya as one of many starting points for reflecting on these dynamics and deconstructing together what we need to do, as researchers and citizens, to deconstruct the understanding of ‘normality’, whether in artistic practices or in the daily practices that make the city a stage for action and political demands.

Watch the seminar here (only available in portuguese):

[06/06/2025]

Inclusion and Participation

Speakers: Sofia Ribeiro (ICS), Susana Batel (ISCTE), Francisco Araújo (Os 230)

This third and final seminar was organised in a partnership between RIGOP and LIFE, two research groups at the ICS. The theme of this seminar is the relationship between inclusion and participation. Based on Francisco Araújo's experience in creating and managing the Os 230 initiative, the discussion centred on how various forms of participation can be inclusive. In our project, the focus is on people with disabilities, but here we were interested in opening up the discussion from a broader and more diverse understanding of the concept of exclusion, which also motivates the search for new forms of participation. Susana and Sofia then helped us to reflect more deeply on the tension between exclusion and inclusion from their research involving the participation of often marginalised and invisibilised groups in society.

Can participation rhyme with inclusion?

This question was the starting point for the seminar to discuss experiences of inclusive and exclusive participation in a context marked by deep social and territorial fractures. Our speakers will also allowed us to look at forms of participation that are more or less institutionalised, more or less territorialised and more or less characterised by issues that affect certain social groups. To what extent our civic commitment to the practice and study of more inclusive participation makes decisions more accessible and representative of under-represented groups, residents of peripheral territories and young people. With this seminar, we want to close this first set of seminars to think again about how participatory methods applied in the city can and should create inclusive spaces for debate with an impact on decision-making.

Watch the seminar here (only available in portuguese):