This paper presents the conceptual and methodological framing, as well as very initial findings, of a project on young people’s participation and mobilities in urban settings. It builds on three case studies that draw on different participatory methodologies. In Salzburg (Austria), with online mapping and crowdsourced mapping, the key places and sites for young people in Salzburg were documented. In Madrid (Spain), through arts-based workshops, the experiences of children and youth in a gentrified/touristified section of the city were documented. In Maputo (Mozambique) interviews, focus groups and video-recordings were used to examine how local youth use the university campus as a liminal space between sectors of the city. We draw from these cases to argue in favor of geospatially-based approaches to socio-educational interventions centered on young people’s participation in the city. More generally, the project serves as a pilot for an Open Lab transnational research structure within a university alliance that is both sensitive to the local realities of each context and can build on shared expertise on participatory research across disciplines. Open Access Full Text