Project description
Understanding the Chinese social credit system
The Social Credit System (SCS) is an ambitious social engineering project with the goal of creating a more trustworthy society. It collects information from all citizens, businesses and organisations and seeks to steer behaviour through incentives and penalties. The SCS challenges long-standing scholarly assumptions regarding the role of the state in managing social and economic exchange. It has become a central component of the system of governance the Chinese government promotes as a viable alternative to liberal democracy. The EU-funded ENGINEERING project will trace the SCS’ evolution and regional variation, its perception by the Chinese public, as well as its social, political and cultural impacts, ultimately supporting the evaluation of the system's intended and unintended consequences.
Objective
The Chinese Social Credit System (SCS) is an ambitious social engineering scheme of an unprecedented nature. It collects information from commercial, legal and social spheres; integrates this data into a centralised platform; and establishes reputations to steer the behaviour of individuals and organisations through incentives and sanctions. The SCS ties in with global discussions on information collection, governance and authoritarian rule. It is of major significance for European interests. Empirical research on the SCS is still in its infancy. What is the shape of this system, how does it vary across regions and how does it evolve? How does the Chinese public perceive and evaluate the SCS? What are its social, political and cultural impacts?
This 60-month project will provide answers to these questions and push forward theoretical debates on governance with information collection and classification schemes, data privacy, trust and trustworthiness. The project’s empirical strategy is centred on public opinion surveys, complemented by field research as well as qualitative and quantitative content analysis. Its survey data will allow an assessment of the utility of face-to-face and online survey methods and generate rarely available longitudinal data from China. The project will help to clarify important unresolved questions on the shape of the SCS and provide the public with empirically grounded insights. It will establish a centre of competence on the SCS in Austria and train junior scholars in social scientific China Studies.
The project is led by H. Christoph Steinhardt (Assistant Professor, University of Vienna, Department of East Asian Studies). The research team includes a post-doctoral researcher, a doctoral student and two student research assistants. For selected parts of the project, Steinhardt will work with collaborators in Austria, China and Germany.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-COG - Consolidator Grant
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2020-COG
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1010 Wien
Austria
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