The GRABS team, represented by Glenda Santana de Andrade, took part in the SOCIN Conference in Macerata, Italy (23–26 September 2025). In the panel “Overturning Discourses and Attitudes: Innovative Practices to Combat Anti-Migrant Perceptions,” we presented the paper entitled “Innovative Research with Young People on the Move: Challenging Coloniality and Extractivism in Knowledge Production.”
We showcased participatory methods used in GRABS and reflected on co-designing research with young people, emphasising their ownership of the outputs and the knowledge produced. We also addressed the challenges of conducting such work with young people on the move and in precarious, often violent border(ing) regimes, and the need to confront epistemic inequalities between researchers and people with lived experience, as well as colonial legacies in academia.
Finally, we discussed both the opportunities and constraints of co-design and co-production, including navigating institutional ethics procedures, project funding, and timelines.
The 2025 SOCIN Conference was organised under the aegis of the European Reform University Alliance (ERUA), of which Université Paris 8 is a member.