International Symposium Participation: a Path to Inclusion?

The ERIS fall conference 2021, that was originally due to take place in Strasbourg in September 2020, eventually took place at the Cnam (National Conservatory for Arts and Trades) in Paris, between the 28th and the 30th of September 2021. Nearly 40 presenters, fellow researchers, and students from several partner universities gathered around an issue that is central to contemporary social work practice as well as other areas of studies (pedagogy, law, political sciences, environment…) : “Participation: a Path to Inclusion”. Many chose to join the conference online, owing to the post-covid context; which, despite technical challenges, allowed for a wider audience. We would like to express our gratitude towards the director of the Cnam, M. Olivier FARON, for gracefully agreeing to host the event despite the short-term notice.

Based on philosophical and ethical insights, and on an array of practical examples from research, the keynote speeches and symposia explored the relation between participation and inclusion in fields as diverse as child protection, migration, ageing, education (school inclusion, and social work education), community work, gender, civil society and democracy. We hope that this conference will be a landmark in the theorization of participation and inclusion, two concepts that are used very liberally in social policy both locally and at the European level, with a strong positive assumption, but that tend to lack grounding in research.

The proceedings from the conference will be published:

• As articles in a dedicated issue of the ERIS Journal, for English-speaking contributors;
• As contributions to a book that will be published in France, for the French-speaking contributors.

Updated: 01. 11. 2021