Public Sociology and the Collective Co-Production of Knowledge with Roma/Ciganos

There are still severe limitations regarding systematic, up-to-date, and in-depth knowledge about the conditions and living conditions of Roma/Ciganos people in Portugal, which is an obstacle to monitoring the impact and effectiveness of public policies and the processes of including this population. "Public sociology brings sociology into a conversation with publics, understood as people who are themselves involved in conversation." (Burawoy, 2005, p. 7) In this context and from this perspective, we have undertaken a study that seeks to overcome these shortcomings, committing itself from its conception to its implementation, monitoring, and publication to actively promote the active participation of people and groups of Roma origin, making them protagonists in the process of the social construction of knowledge about themselves. In other words, based on a multi-method strategy that is still being implemented, the aim is to implement a more inclusive strategy of collective co-production of knowledge, research "with" the Gypsies/Roma and not "about and for" them (Ryder, 2018). In this process, we aim to involve Roma organizations, informal groups, and other institutions that work closely with this community at various scales (local, regional, and national). The aim is to produce recommendations regarding public policies that efficiently and effectively combat the different levels and forms of inequality and discrimination. This research aims to unveil and analyze the cultural, ethnic, social, economic, symbolic, and geographical diversity and heterogeneity of people and collectives of Roma origin in Portugal and to adopt an intersectional perspective that intersects and interrelates various factors that are at the origin of mechanisms for the production and reproduction of social inequalities, from a multidimensional and multilevel perspective. Research "with" implies bridging the gap between academics, activists, and policy-makers.