Gender inequality remains a persistent global issue, affecting all socio-economic spheres, including academia and research. Fostering gender innovation and inclusivity is a key priority within the European Commission’s agenda for strengthening the European Research Area (ERA). However, gender disparities continue to shape the landscape of innovation and social change in universities, where women remain underrepresented in governing bodies and decision-making processes. This lack of visibility extends to curricula and educational content, influencing students' and younger generations’ social construction of gender. To address these challenges, most European universities have adopted Gender Equality Plans (GEPs)—systematic and strategic frameworks that set priorities, concrete objectives, and measures to advance gender equality in organisations and the fields of education, research, and innovation (R&I). These plans, grounded in international human rights instruments and national regulations, serve as institutional commitments and are publicly accessible through university platforms. Despite their potential, GEPs often face critical implementation challenges that can limit their transformative and interdisciplinary impact. Comparative findings from the European XXX project reveal gaps in their application, hindering their innovative potential. Drawing on qualitative (GEP analysis, interviews) and quantitative (online survey) data collected in collaboration with European partner universities, this contribution examines how GEPs can be more effectively implemented to foster truly inclusive and interdisciplinary innovation in academia.

In times of social, ecological, and digital shifts, urban territories are more fluid than ever, especially in edge cities and transitional spaces. University districts, as hubs of knowledge and innovation, exemplify these urban edges, balancing openness with institutional boundaries and heritage with transformation. But how do people perceive these edges?

This study explores:

1. How people perceive and navigate urban edges in university districts.

2. How material and immaterial heritage is experienced by local communities.

Our flexible, multidimensional research framework integrates artistic, sensory, and participatory methods through three key approaches:

1. Visual and sensory walks – structured explorations emphasizing movement, perception, and spatial navigation.

2. Narratives – in-depth interviews capturing meanings attributed to spaces, buildings, and transformations

3. Workshops – using participatory, performative approaches inspired by One Minute Sculptures to activate human imagination within urban spaces and city objects and foster dialogue between diverse social actors.

This innovative research framework prioritizes direct engagement with communities, fostering dialogue between academics, students, and local inhabitants. Its adaptability allows for comparative applications in different urban contexts, offering insights into contemporary urban experiences shaped by historical legacies and social change.

By integrating artistic research methodologies with urban studies, the project contributes to:

● Strengthening research impact through participation.

● Rethinking social innovation and heritage.

● Advancing interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary insights.

● Investigating innovation through embodied artistic practices.

Beyond informing urban planning strategies, this project fosters new ways of seeing and engaging with urban spaces - making them more visible, accessible, and inclusive.

In Social Sciences, the critical stance inherent to university education often conflicts with professional practices. This is particularly salient in the information and communication fields, where critical approaches to digital technologies precisely denounce techniques and purposes that are paradoxically taught. In psychology, this could be likened to forms of “cognitive dissonance”, a status in which people hold fundamentally conflicting cognitions.

 

How can we simultaneously integrate courses on the social, societal, political, and environmental dangers of platforms while also providing training in community management? Are academic requirements compatible with professional demands, often embedded in neoliberal managerial logics?? These were some of the challenges we had to address when redesigning the curriculum models for a Master's diploma in \textit{Digital Communication and Project Management} at Paris 8. Our aim was to explore some concrete proposals to reduce the cognitive dissonance for students and teachers, by making ethical values, inclusion, social and environmental responsibility front and center.s.

 

In this presentation, we will first explore the gap between theoretical and practical approaches as it was formulated by both teachers and students. We will then explain how we conveyed some professional domains, such as Digital Inclusion, to provide a greater alignment  with our ethical values so as to reduce this dissonance. Finally, we will show how rethinking this diploma has also allowed us to bring it into line with the specificity of our university in an academic context undermined by private educational offers.