Distributed and prepared. A new theory of citizens' public connection networks in the age of datafication

Informations projet

PREPARE

N° de convention de subvention: 101044464

DOI

10.3030/101044464

Date de signature de la CE 15 Septembre 2022

Date de début 1 Janvier 2023

Date de fin 31 Decembre 2027

Financé au titre de

• European Research Council (ERC)

Coût total

€ 2 000 000,00

Contribution de l’UE

€ 2 000 000,00

Coordonné par

UNIVERSITETET I BERGEN
Norway

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PREPARE (Distributed and prepared. A new theory of citizens' public connection networks in the age of datafication)

Période du rapport: 2023-01-01 au 2025-06-30

Résumé du contexte et des objectifs généraux du projet

In the last decade, societies across the world have been challenged by fragmenting public debate, fuelled by algorithmically steered social media and new threats of propaganda and misinformation. The dual tendencies of political apathy and polarization pose grave problems for a well-functioning democracy. As the social sciences appear unable to respond to the challenges of a seemingly ignorant and passive citizenry, PREPARE proposes a radically new approach to understand citizens’ role in democracy.

PREPARE will change the focus from each citizen’s “informedness” to develop and test a ground-breaking theory of distributed preparedness, building a cohesive theory for a fragmented field. The project will develop a feasible, normative theory of citizens’ orientations to the sphere of politics in datafied societies: their networks for public connection. PREPARE’s research questions concern
1) how people stay prepared to engage with public issues, and
2) what resources they need to move from stand-by to engage.

PREPARE will substantiate the new theory through thickening of big data, with qualitative ethnographies integrated with digital methods, of groups of so-called disconnected citizens.

Travail effectué depuis le début du projet jusqu’à la fin de la période considérée dans le rapport et principaux résultats atteints jusqu’à présent

PREPARE has three ongoing empirical studies and a fourth planned for 2025. All sub-studies concern different social groups in Norwegian society and their connection to the public.

1. Citizens of Here and There: Migrants' Mediated connections to Public(s).
Data collection for this study started in early 2024, and is ongoing. Two academic papers are under development: The first, dealing with folk theories, was presented at the ECREA 2024 conference. The second concerns the informants’ use of various sources of information.

2. Belonging Somewhere: The Experience of Place, Politics and Public Connection on the Outskirts.
Several periods of fieldwork have been carried out in this sub-study in 2023-2024, utilizing participatory observation, individual and group interviews with informants. Two research papers are in development, and will deal with the concept of ‘belonging’ and the relating to issues that are close in space and time.

3. Voices of the Workforce: Media Matters and Democratic Preparedness in the Lives of Women and Young Parents.
The third sub-study started in 2024, and deals with the public connection of women in working-class jobs and young parents. Extensive field work in planned for spring 2025.

4. A study of young people's public connection, title forthcoming in 2025.

Papers published from the project so far include:
Pasitselska, Buehling & Gagrcin (2025) Chat groups as local civic infrastructure: A case study of “Solidary neighborhood help” Telegram groups during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. New Media & Society 1-26.
Moe, Hallvard (2024) Embrace or leave social media? On the viability of public service media organizations’ strategies facing platform power (2024). European Journal of Communication.
Gagrcin, Emilija & Moe, Hallvard (2024) Defending Democracy: Prioritizing the Study of Epistemic Inequalities (tandfonline.com) (2024) Political Communication, 1-7
Moe, Hallvard (2023) Operationalizing distribution as a key concept for public sphere theory. A call for ethnographic sensibility of different social worlds (2023) Communication Theory

Progrès au-delà de l’état des connaissances et impact potentiel prévu (y compris l’impact socio-économique et les conséquences sociétales plus larges du projet jusqu’à présent)

The project aims to create a new normative theory of distributed preparedness, which will enable the social sciences to move on from outdated notions of citizens’ informedness. As of the 2-year mark, the project team is working on conceptual and theoretical development, both of which rely on the rich data being gathered and analysed in the ongoing empirical studies.

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