Navigating Neutrality and Advocacy: Activist Research in Contested Urban Spaces

Universities are increasingly expected to engage with pressing social issues, evolving their roles beyond traditional academic boundaries. This proposal explores experiences like participatory action research and university extension, inspired by Paulo Freire’s ideas in Brazil - which emphasise active community engagement beyond traditional academic boundaries - in fields such as architecture, urbanism, sociology, and anthropology. By reflecting on collaborations with communities facing housing precarity in Portugal, Brazil, and Angola, we examine how these engagements help reshape the public role of universities while addressing local housing challenges.

The experiences presented highlight the necessity of remaking the university’s role, not just by expanding its “third mission” but by transforming internal practices to enable deeper involvement from researchers and educators. We explore the tensions between the roles of researchers and activists and the challenges of justifying outreach initiatives within academic settings. Conventional metrics often undervalue community engagement, signalling the need for new frameworks that recognise and reward this work.

Our proposal also explores the tensions encountered in university extension projects, where academic neutrality is often questioned, and engagement with affected communities is perceived as partial or aligned with particular interests. These tensions are especially pronounced in contested urban spaces, where the demands of residents often conflict with state and market priorities.

The work argues for an ethical commitment to engaged scholarship that prioritises social justice and dialogues with non-scientific knowledge while advocating for structural changes within the university to support researchers and educators in these roles. This proposal seeks to contribute to the discourse on the transformative potential of university extension, advocating for a model of engaged scholarship that not only disseminates knowledge but actively participates in shaping more just urban and regional policies.