Mapping the city is a plural research project that aims to answer to the multiple opportunities for learning, proper of contemporary societies, helping to promote the construction of collective knowledge. It is a project that uses technology of intangible to make tangible the concept of community/city creative and innovative in urban education

This project aims to develop approaches that can enable the construction of spaces of continuous discovery and co-responsible training and lifelong learning. These spaces will enable all citizens to be active players in their own development processes which will be innovative and creative in order to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century.

These approaches formalize the methods and processes needed to develop spaces that provide citizens with the location and characteristics of formal, informal and non-formal learning environments within the city. These spaces should give citizens of all ages and social conditions the harmonization of local cultures, in tempus, with the prospect of a globalized world in Europe. The challenges of rapid social and economic change should be considered by the approaches advocated within this project, enabling people with different needs and based on those identified needs, develop essential skills for flexible adaptation, critical and innovative competencies which allows their immersion in the space. It will also allow mutual and differentiated learning using the inter-institutional articulation and sharing of practices.

The focus of the project will be building a map that identifies the entities/potential educational/training of the city, directly and indirectly related to professional education and training. This map will enhance the three essential dimensions of the intervention of the project: technology, culture/education and training. A city map will be built that will illustrate a case of how this project proposes to overcome the multiplicity of agents that use technology in education/training in the city, and contributes to improve the national education system and training (ET and EU 2020), enriching and creating a space of learning opportunities within urban education. The map that identifies the entities/potential educational/training of the city will match the main “glocal” communication device. Its implementation will use the most advanced Information Technology and Communications, including web technologies and social service-oriented (service-oriented architecture and cloud computing). Based on this technological infrastructure, the city map will be supported by a multilingual platform.

The survey mapping of the city intends to use an action research methodology and proposes a qualitative and interpretive methodological approach, translated into a case study, that will be held in the city of Guimarães.

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