Marginalized youth in different European urban areas display low levels of inclusion and participation in the societal arenas, such as education, labor market and civil society activities such as sports or other. (Karz, 2004; France, 2016; Hernandez Pedreño,2008;  ILO, 2016; OECD; 2014). professional institutions  (e.g. education and social work) have poor and unsatisfactory results in their daily practice to manage the task of bringing young people at-risk out of marginalization (Woodman, & Wyn, 2015; Ainley, 2016).  Although this problem holds a comprehensive recognizability across national borders, we find it interesting to investigate how transnational partnerships can be inspirational learning platforms and, hopefully, have the potential to create a common ground for social and educational policy and practice as a matter of planning individual, social and contextual (including socio-spatial) innovative solutions concerning marginalized young people.

Drawing on the research literature and an Erasmus+ research project between 3 countries: Sweden, Denmark and Spain called Learning from the Margins (LEMA), this symposium aims to explore how international partnership and coproduction of knowledge can be developed not only between professionals, but also with marginalized youth as key partners in unpacking complex and challenging social circumstances in different international urban settings and finding new answers and solutions.  Professionals referred to are social workers, pedagogues, social educators, psychologists, and teachers.  A partnership is understood as participation of multiple stakeholders with a shared responsibility and control over ideas, processes, and outcomes. (Numans et al 2019; Herrera-Pastor, Juárez, Ruiz-Román, 2020). Marginalized youth is defined differently in each country, but the common notion is that is young people with only sporadic connection to labor market, education or being at risk of turning into a criminalized life circle. In the project connected to this symposium it is significant that the marginalized young people are considered as a prerequisite to explore ways in which they can themselves bring about real change as they are the real experts of their lives and learning from their marginalized position is essential to fight social injustices and exclusion (Young, 2000; Checkoway, 2011).

The partners presenting in this symposium are researchers from higher education institutions and organizations working with marginalized youth in three different urban contexts: University College Copenhagen and 3B Housing Association in Copenhagen, Denmark; Malmö University and Malmö City in Sweden; University of Malaga and the NGO Asociación Marroqui in Malaga, Spain. The partnership and the cooperation presented have a longer history in which we have learned that mirroring and learning from a comparative analysis of the practices and insights of different partners from different urban, national, and socio-economic contexts is of importance when it comes to a problem of this kind of wicked nature as youth marginalization is. Professionals throughout need a wider scope of practices to be able to work with marginalized youth and to understand the complexity of these young people’s problems in urban context. Factors need to be addressed and solved as part of a cross-national collaboration. Thus, research, education and social practice require the international exchange of practice-based knowledge, research, and the innovative spin-off from the different urban contexts to respond effectively to the challenges of inequality in our societies.

Themes connected to these complex problems and presented in this symposium are:

• Abstract one: Participatory social planning – reflections on a methodological approach
• Abstract two: Tension and dilemmas in youth participation (change work)
• Abstract Three: Joint analysis – experiences of marginalized lives

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