16-07-2018
15-07-2022
Regional development of peripheral regions is a persistent challenge. Border regions in Portugal, often overlapping with rural and remote areas, suffer from a spatial differentiation. These are places with structural inequalities together with a perception gap on regions prospects and resources. Accordingly to the Agency for Development and Cohesion, Portugal has territorial asymmetries and potentialities with impact in individual, institutions and regions development, with challenges for multilevel governance. Unequal access to local services and opportunities among vulnerable groups and a combination of exclusion and poverty are concentrated in specific territories with low access to educational opportunities or qualified jobs. Young people growing up in those regions are particularly affected by this situation in their trajectories and future plans. Do young people consider border regions as spaces to leave? An exploratory case study in a Portuguese border region indicated that young people express apprehension when imagine leaving their regions, reveling a positive connectedness with their homeland identifying, however, constrains. GROW:UP proposes to investigate in border regions contexts the mutually influential relations between individual, contextual/institutional and systemic factors in young people biographies, and to analyse how communities are proactively counteracting inequalities, fostering young people engagement in positive pathways. This project aims to investigate communities promising approaches to support young people pathways, preventing risk factors, such as school disengagement, lack of participation or life prospects. GROW.UP will analyze European and national policies and its territorial articulation with programs and practices at local level, understanding the stability and strengths of initiatives to support young people and identifying potentialindicators and key competences of resilient communities. GROW.UP is engaged in a comprehensive approach and will bring together theoretical contributions from Sociology of Education, Youth Studies, Border Studies and Network Analysis. It will use a methodology that combines policy analysis and local experts interviews to understand levels of integration of formal policies into local programmes; a survey to understand the key role of sense of belonging, resilience and engagement in young people biographies; case studies (i) to develop and in depth understanding on processes and dynamics influencing young people pathways design, (ii) to analyse how communities are proactively addressing challenges affecting young people in border regions, either encouraging young people positive pathways or equipping them to amplify opportunities. A mobile app, an auditing programme and youth agendas are participatory-based activities, empirically supported, aiming to promote capacity building of young people and communities. Research team Sofia Marques da Silva, CIIE/FPCEUP (IR) Helena C. Araújo, CIIE/FPCEUP (Co-IR) Armando Loureiro, CIIE/FPCEUP e UTAD Gil Nata, CIIE/FPCEUP Rui Serôdio, FPCEUP Isabel Costa, UTAD Eva Oliveira, IPCA Joana Freitas, APCER (Associação Portuguesa de Certificação) Vitor Baltazar Dias, IPDJ (Instituto Português do Desporto e Juventude) Ana Milheiro Silva, CIIE/FPCEUP Marta Sampaio Thiago Freires, CIIE/FPCEUP (Investigador doutorado contratado) Nicolas Martins da Silva, CIIE/FPCEUP Sara Pinheiro, CIIE/FPCEUP Sara Faria (Bolseira de investigação - BI) Raquel Magano (Colaboradora) Vanessa Silva (Colaboradora)
Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and by national funds, through the Foundation for Science and Technology, IP (FCT)
PTDC/CED-EDG/29943/2017
POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029943
CIIE/Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Universidade do Porto
Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e Ave (IPCA)