Pilot Projects

Dates: December 2024 - December 2025
CEIS20 team: Clara Isabel Serrano (IR); Dina Sebastião; Vanessa Nunes; Joana Ricarte; Luís Claro Marques

Summary:
The EUROPERCEPTIONS project explores the impact of History teaching on students' perceptions of the European Union (EU) in Portugal's lower secondary education. Through an analysis of textbooks, surveys, and interviews with teachers and students, it examines how EU history is taught and how it shapes young people's identity and civic engagement. The study aims to assess whether history education fosters critical thinking about EU institutions and values or reinforces oversimplified and uncritical perspectives. Findings will contribute to educational policy recommendations and teacher training, promoting a more inclusive and critical approach to European history teaching.

Dates: Setembro 2024 – Setembro 2025
IR: Clara Cruz Santos
CEIS20 team : João Luís Fernandes, Olga Solovova

Summary
InTransiTiON is a qualitative research project of an exploratory nature that aims to build a robust theoretical and empirical basis for a broad international study on issues related to the loss of housing and consequent loss of social identity of impoverished workers in the face of the serious economic recession that Portugal and the European Union are facing. The vulnerable impoverished are a social class whose only source of income is work, which has become insufficient in the face of current social risks. With external contingencies (unemployment, illness, increased household income) serious social disruptions have emerged, with the loss of housing being one of the repercussions on current Portuguese society. The project envisages two methodological approaches and two groups of participants. The first is aimed at mapping transition spaces (waiting contexts) characterized by overcrowded and confined rooms or collective spaces, existing in both urban and rural centers. The informants are the subjects who manage these spaces and the collection of information will use the semi-directed interview technique with 5 informants. The second foresees the biographical reconstruction of families that are in “waiting identity” using biographical analysis (moments of rupture and compensation) with the inclusion of 5 couples or 5 subjects. The study's contributions contribute to the production of knowledge, and also to the development of appropriate policy information/recommendations aimed at policy makers.

Key-words: Vulneráveis empobrecidos, espaços de transição, políticas públicas, contextos de espera e análise biográfica.

Dates: 1 de Novembro de 2024 – 31 de Junho de 2025

CEIS20 team: José António Moreira and António Gomes Ferreira

Summary
Driven by the need of providing opportunities to communicate and interact through digital technologies to everyone, this project aims to produce, for the first time in Portugal, socially relevant knowledge about digital skills of inmate population in Portugal. This general objective is divided into three specific objectives: to assess the level of digital proficiency of inmates; to implement training actions in digital literacy, skills and citizenship, participation and communication based on the results of the initial assessment; to identify the effects of the implemented training actions on the development of digital and social skills regarding national policies.

The participatory approach of the project will use mixed methods that would simultaneously contribute to an assessment, with national coverage, of actual characteristics and digital skills of inmates, as well as give an in-depth understanding of those digital skills and training through case studies, with collection and analysis of qualitative data on the impact of training of trainers and the inmate population from the point of view of increased access, use and participation in digital environments. The project’s major outcome will consist in social reintegration of inmate citizens, addressing the 21st -century-learning challenges, and ensuring the quality and inclusive education (SDG 4, Agenda 2030, UN, 2015). In line with these objectives, the project, apart from coordination, monitoring, evaluation and dissemination tasks, is being developed in the following steps: preparation and assessment of the prison population's digital skills; mapping of European and international education policies and practices with digital technologies in prison contexts; organization and implementation of training; study of the impact of training.

A constatação de que o passado recente se tem caracterizado por contínuo aumento de temperaturas no nosso país (e nomeadamente em Coimbra), a que acresce a existência de eventos climáticos de excecional intensidade, apresenta-se como uma constatação evidente. Aliás, o ano de 2023 tem sido um bom exemplo, com as temperaturas apresentaram valores mais elevados e simultaneamente a presentar‐se como um ano em que eventos extremos – ondas de calor, ciclones tropicais/tufões, inundações, secas ‐ se observaram amiúde em todo o globo. Esta comprovação levou mesmo a que o Secretário Geral das Nações Unidas, António Guterres, tenha referido que o “colapso climático começou”. As perspetivas mais pessimistas sobre as alterações do clima global para 2030 foram já ultrapassadas, pelo que necessidade de uma maior consciencialização da população mundial sobre a problemática apresenta‐se com um dos principais desígnios societais.

Nesse contexto, e tendo como base todo o trabalho que tem sido desenvolvido desde 2018, quer na recolha de dados climáticos a diferentes escalas – meso; topo e micro - quer do desenvolvimento de um diagnóstico que se apresenta já muito consistente com a definição dos climatopos de Coimbra, e a compreensão dos diferentes “mosaicos” que caracterizam os espaços urbano e periurbano de um território de morfologia complexa, encontramo‐nos em condições de avançar para um projeto que se enquadre na definição de novas normas urbanísticas relativas à resiliência às alterações climáticas, bem como de potenciar a
biodiversidade urbana. Uma das áreas temáticas que mais se tem vindo a desenvolver é o do papel que o coberto arbóreo urbano (bem como dos espaços azuis) apresenta na regulação da temperatura urbana (e. g. rácios de área impermeabilizada e estrutura verde; rácios de coberto arbóreo/população). Porém, e ao se assumir que no momento presente existe uma valorização destas estruturas pelos habitantes das cidades, pretende‐se que com base na informação recolhida e analisada, vir a trabalhar com os cidadãos na cocriação tanto na requalificação dos espaços existentes, como no equacionar dos novos espaços a implementar. Simultaneamente, e tendo em consideração que são as gerações mais novas que poderão assumir-se como as alavancas fundamentais na transformação de mentalidades a tão necessária mudança de atitudes deverá passar por todo um projeto educativo que possa tornar efetiva esta nova perspetiva. Como transformar a ESCOLA num ambiente fértil à transformação de como os jovens se revêm na necessidade de “fazer algo” para parar o suicídio coletivo que estamos a observar.
Construir uma peça fulcral na resiliência às alterações climáticas com base na transformação do planeamento urbano, procurando o desenvolvimento de soluções baseadas na natureza (NBS) no sentido de repensar o desenho urbano de novos espaços (ou em requalificações), isto em torno de uma maior resiliência às alterações climáticas e à redução do impacto da poluição urbana – utilização de espaços verdes e corpos de água deverá ser o objetivo deste estudo.

IR Nuno Coelho

CEIS20, Direção-Geral das Artes

Financiamento CEIS20 Funding: Pilot Actions

Resumo
Projeto de investigação científica e artística formulado a partir da análise, exploração e interpretação da vida e obra de Joaquim Ferreira dos Santos, conhecido como Conde de Ferreira, e seu legado na. contemporaneidade, com especial foco na sua dimensão patrimonial, material e económica. Joaquim Ferreira dos Santos (Porto, 1782) saiu de uma situação humilde para enriquecer com o tráfico transatlântico de pessoas escravizadas no Brasil. Regressado a Portugal, em 1832, investiu em negócios e apoiou o liberalismo, ganhando o título de Conde de Ferreira. Após a sua morte, em 1866, o seu testamento destinou fundos para projetos sociais, incluindo a construção do primeiro hospital para saúde mental em Portugal (Hospital Conde de Ferreira) e da primeira rede escolar primária no país (120 Escolas Conde de Ferreira). No entanto, a origem da sua fortuna é do desconhecimento geral da sociedade beneficiária. Ao referir-se a esta figura histórica pelo seu nome próprio, simbolicamente destronando-o do pedestal e destituindo-o do título, o projeto usou processos qualitativos de investigação e de diálogo interdisciplinar – com contributos das áreas de História, Sociologia, Economia, Arquitetura, Design e Artes Visuaise Performativas – para entender e articular, no tempo presente, esta figura histórica portuguesa e brasileira; e criar espaço para uma necessária reflexão coletiva sobre o passado e presente da sociedade portuguesa. O projeto materializou-se: na organização de um colóquio científico; na produção de uma exposição, complementada por um programa paralelo de atividades; no desenvolvimento de uma dissertação de mestrado; em comunicações em conferências internacionais; e na edição de duas publicações. O projeto teve financiamento da Universidade de Coimbra, através da Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), e da Direção-Geral das Artes (DGArtes).

reprogram-eu.ceis20@uc.pt

PI: Joana Ricarte

CEIS20 Team Clara Isabel Serrano, Vanessa Nunes

Funding CEIS20 Funding: Pilot Actions

REPROGRAM-EU (purposely a homophone for ‘reprogram you') will develop exploratory research aiming to analyse how young European citizens relate to the European Union (EU) and to test an intervention model in Horizon Europe Research & Innovation Action's fashion for counteracting the current rise of extremism in the continent through creative and participatory cultural programming. Taking Portugal as a case study, it will gather cross-national original data on European youth's viewpoints about the values and policies that characterize the Union, as well as their correlation with feelings of (de-) identification with/from the bloc. Epistemologically, this project deals with the relationship between values, policies, and identities from an intersubjective and interdisciplinary perspective, drawing from both quantitative and qualitative methods. It will assess university students' understanding of the interconnectedness between these dynamics, to analyse from the bottom-up how one influences the other, their impact on individuals' positionality regarding the EU, and on processes of identity (re)construction. Then, this research-action proposal will test an intervention model based on the potential of cultural programming, and more specifically, tailor-made theatre forum performances, for fostering debate related to contemporary societal challenges such as the rise of extremism, exclusionary politics, and the crises of democracy. To this aim, REPROGRAM-EU will provide an alternative training offer for University of Coimbra students with the implementation of participatory and disruptive theatre workshops followed by public performances headed towards the community inspired by the Theatre of the Oppressed techniques. REPROGRAM-EU's activities and results will contribute to building resilient societies, and fostering inclusion, democratic values, and human rights by providing a method for cultural, political, and individual reprogramming in the European Union, targeting academic and non-scientific communities alike.

This research is headed towards a practical policy impact, as well as societal transformation. It tackles current and important issues in the international agenda that go beyond the case study proposed, dealing with the connections between increasing inequality, precarity, and lack of perspectives at the individual level with the global tendency of rising extremism, marginalization of difference and promotion of exclusionary politics that have eroded democratic institutions and allowed for increasing distrust on this system. This research will promote debate on and raise awareness of these issues and the conditions for counteracting them, acting within the University of Coimbra's borders and beyond. Being also transformative INS in nature, as it is grounded on a research-action approach, REPROGRAM complies with, and answers to the Sustainable Development Goals number 4 - Quality Education, 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities, 16 - Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions and 17 - Partnerships for the Goals. Its results will foster inclusive values, political thinking, and identities within the University of Coimbra's community, as well as the city of Coimbra in general, promoting the usage of the arts as a tool for the co-creation of democracy, social inclusion, and human rights. Its outreach and sustainability strategy also points to the development of partnerships aiming to “strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development” (SDG17), insofar as it intends to be an exploratory phase for a wider research project application.

Cidades do Norte da Lusitânia Romana em 3D: Ensaio sobre a sua história em cenários híbridos de aprendizagem

PI: Sara Dias Trindade

Co-PI: Ricardo Costeira da Silva and Pedro C. Carvalho

CEIS20 Team Ricardo Costeira da Silva, Pedro C. Carvalho

Universidad Francisco de Vitoria (Madrid), Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Funding CEIS20 Funding: Pilot Actions

This project aims to prepare pedagogical and museographic digital content for the presentation of historical-archaeological paths of public and private spaces of the Roman cities of Conímbriga and Idanha-a-Velha. This product will be tested in two versions suitable for two types of target audience. One is based on an immediate, in situ application that provides the visitor with an immersive sensorial experience. The second is aimed at the school environment and seeks to provide the teaching context with resources that facilitate the perception and apprehension of scientific content in line with the educational programmes taught. It is hoped, in this way, to fill a gap that still exists today, concerning the articulation of scientific knowledge produced in archaeological spaces and the syllabus contents foreseen in the Aprendizagens Essenciais and to enrich, through digital, the access to knowledge by both the general and the school public. It is based on the virtual modelling of some buildings of the Roman city of Conímbriga and the production of pedagogical contents related to those spaces in articulation with the modelled spaces in Idanha-a-Velha, These resources will allow students to have a window on a past "no longer visible" and to understand, in situ, what the cities of Conímbriga and Idanha-a-Velha were and how they are integrated in the wide historical-geographical space of the Roman Empire and of a time that is at the origin of ours – our cultural matrix is also, at the origin, markedly Roman.

Funded by CEIS20 as part of the multiannual funding of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of the University of Coimbra/CEIS20 by the Foundation for Science and Technology. Head Researchers: Ana Leonor Pereira and João Rui Pita (2017-2020), Victoria Bell.

Funded by CEIS20 as part of the multiannual funding of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of the University of Coimbra/CEIS20 by the Foundation for Science and Technology. Head Researcher: João Rui Pita (2nd phase: 2017-2019; 3rd phase: 2020-2022).