Diversity, democracy and solidarity in EU societies
Can ethnographic case studies and quantitative research help to understand the ways stigmatised or conflictual youngsters engage with social, environmental and political issues, and how they create opportunities for social change? How do populists use social media? How could we use history to encourage debate amongst teenagers about religious tolerance?
The projects presented in the new brochure, Diversity, democracy and solidarity in EU societies, prepared jointly by the Research Executive Agency (REA) and Directorate-General Research and Innovation (DG RTD), address these and many other questions, all sharing a common goal: helping understand how to create a more cohesive, inclusive and democratic Europe.
The publication highlights 15 Horizon 2020 research projects out of a much bigger portfolio of EU-funded projects aimed to help better understand Europe’s diversity, cultural and social unity, and thus find solutions for shaping Europe’s future. It gives a short overview of the selected projects, allowing the reader to find further information, results and outcomes on the indicated project websites and on the CORDIS website.
Among the projects, RELOCAL tries to understand the strengths of localities when applying cohesion policies and COHSMO aims at identifying structures and processes behind territorial inequalities. INDIVEU, EUIDEA and EU3D want to create a critical mass of knowledge on differentiated EU integration, to understand to which extent it can contribute to a more cohesive EU.
RECONNECT aims at understanding and providing solutions to the recent challenges faced by the EU. With an explicit focus on strengthening the EU’s legitimacy through democracy and the rule of law, it seeks to build a new narrative for Europe, enabling the EU to become more attuned to the expectations of its citizens. DEMOS and PACE try to understand the roots and consequences of populism and find strategies to address it better, analysing positive examples for a solid democratic and institutional foundation of the EU. Similarly, POPREBEL examines the rise of populism, focusing on Central and Eastern Europe.
REMINDER studies mobility to understand the reasons behind it and the impact of mobility of people within the EU, finding that the receiving country benefits from it even if some political and media narratives may portray it in a different way.
RETOPEA wants to promote a more harmonious society and focuses on religious tolerance, limiting radicalisation and promoting religious coexistence. UNREST examines the memory of historical conflicts, recognising them as inevitable elements of society, but proposing another approach to their interpretation to avoid radicalisation.
CATCH-EyoU, PROMISE and EURYKA focus on young generations of European citizens, exploring the challenges they face and how they participate in politics. The projects explore the reasons behind social disengagement to understand whether it relates to the decline of social justice and territorial cohesion. Their overall aim is to understand how to strengthen youth political participation and European democratic life for more inclusive societies.
Download the brochure to read more about the selected projects.
This article was taken from the European Commission website. Follow the link to the original source
