Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SHAPEDEM-EU (Rethinking and Reshaping the EU’s democracy support in its Eastern and Southern Neighbourhood)
Reporting period: 2022-10-01 to 2023-09-30
SHAPEDEM-EU sets out to ‘rethink, reshape, and review’ the EU’s policies with an entirely novel approach to the practice of democracy support, while elaborating and pilot testing a Democracy Learning Loop as the basis for an improved policy toolkit. In order to understand the impact of EU policies and contribute to substantial and sustainable improvements in the EU’s democracy support agenda, SHAPEDEM-EU re-frames the EU’s democracy support as a social practice of interaction (thereby building on the recent practice-turn in international relations scholarship), embedded in a Democracy Learning Loop, which requires the collective democratic learning of all stakeholders in the process by providing new channels and tools for their interaction. This approach shifts the conceptualisation of democracy support away from seeing the EU’s partners as objects of foreign policy and instead puts all actors involved centre stage in the making of a more resilient and responsive EU democracy support agenda in both neighbourhoods.
SHAPEDEM-EU’s overall ambition is to build on use of the social science-based ‘practice-turn’ to more thoroughly reflect upon the dynamic realities in the EU’s Eastern and Southern Neighbourhoods, while understanding democracy support as a practice of interaction (both discursive and behavioural) between the EU and a variety of actors in both neighbourhoods. Our focus on democracy support as a (social) practice discards outdated binary donor-recipient approaches to instead emphasise and empower local needs, ambitions, orders, and visions of a good life as well as the inclusion of vital local voices. SHAPEDEM-EU addresses the very practice of EU democracy support in the Eastern and Southern Neighbourhoods to ensure ongoing mutual, open-ended democratic learning by all relevant stakeholders, in the EU, amongst its member states, countries neighbouring the EU, as well as the larger international community, to guarantee more credible, legitimate, and effective support for democratic politics. In addition, SHAPEDEM-EU investigates the EU’s (democracy support) practices with the neighbourhood in other policy fields to seek out their impact on the effectiveness of democracy support.
SHAPEDEM-EU's approach to rethinking, reshaping, and reviewing the EU’s democracy support policies are based on three concurrent phases of activities defined by three mutually reinforcing objectives.
Phase 1: SHAPEDEM-EU's first phase is guided by the objective to conceptualise practices of democracy & democracy support, as well as of their contestation and to lay the conceptual groundwork for the application of a Democracy Learning Loop.
Phase 2: SHAPEDEM-EU's second phase is dedicated to empirical tasks within the project. These include (a) taking stock of dynamics in both neighbourhoods to establish a comprehensive Democracy Support Database of practices of democracy, democracy support, and contestation; (b) implementing a comprehensive evidence-based investigation of the EU’s (discursive and behavioural) democracy support practices in both neighbourhoods in the last decade as well as a review of relevant parts of the EU’s Action Plan for Human Rights and Democracy; (c) taking stock of the effects of EU member states’ democracy support practices in both neighbourhoods; and (d) assessing the impact of non-EU actors including international organisations and third countries.
Phase 3: SHAPEDEM-EU's third phase aims to coordinate an academic synthesis of the project's findings and policy recommendations to foster action in the policy area of democracy support. To this end, phase three will (a) synthesise results of its empirical stocktaking visualised in an accessible Democracy Support Digital Dashboard; (b) develop and apply new & innovative channels of interaction between local actors in both neighbourhoods, EU institutions, and EU member states; (c) provide a set of innovative policy tools which contribute to improved EU democracy support practices; (d) pilot test the Democracy Learning Loop as a running task within the work of the SHAPEDEM-EU consortium; (e) deliver a synthesis & policy review of the Democracy Learning Loop; and (f) ensure dissemination of project results aimed at the wider public, policy makers and societal audiences; ensure sustainability of SHAPEDEM-EU’s working results beyond the project’s duration.
SHAPEDEM-EU’s overall ambition is to build on use of the social science-based ‘practice-turn’ to more thoroughly reflect upon the dynamic realities in the EU’s Eastern and Southern Neighbourhoods, while understanding democracy support as a practice of interaction (both discursive and behavioural) between the EU and a variety of actors in both neighbourhoods. Our focus on democracy support as a (social) practice discards outdated binary donor-recipient approaches to instead emphasise and empower local needs, ambitions, orders, and visions of a good life as well as the inclusion of vital local voices. SHAPEDEM-EU addresses the very practice of EU democracy support in the Eastern and Southern Neighbourhoods to ensure ongoing mutual, open-ended democratic learning by all relevant stakeholders, in the EU, amongst its member states, countries neighbouring the EU, as well as the larger international community, to guarantee more credible, legitimate, and effective support for democratic politics. In addition, SHAPEDEM-EU investigates the EU’s (democracy support) practices with the neighbourhood in other policy fields to seek out their impact on the effectiveness of democracy support.
SHAPEDEM-EU's approach to rethinking, reshaping, and reviewing the EU’s democracy support policies are based on three concurrent phases of activities defined by three mutually reinforcing objectives.
Phase 1: SHAPEDEM-EU's first phase is guided by the objective to conceptualise practices of democracy & democracy support, as well as of their contestation and to lay the conceptual groundwork for the application of a Democracy Learning Loop.
Phase 2: SHAPEDEM-EU's second phase is dedicated to empirical tasks within the project. These include (a) taking stock of dynamics in both neighbourhoods to establish a comprehensive Democracy Support Database of practices of democracy, democracy support, and contestation; (b) implementing a comprehensive evidence-based investigation of the EU’s (discursive and behavioural) democracy support practices in both neighbourhoods in the last decade as well as a review of relevant parts of the EU’s Action Plan for Human Rights and Democracy; (c) taking stock of the effects of EU member states’ democracy support practices in both neighbourhoods; and (d) assessing the impact of non-EU actors including international organisations and third countries.
Phase 3: SHAPEDEM-EU's third phase aims to coordinate an academic synthesis of the project's findings and policy recommendations to foster action in the policy area of democracy support. To this end, phase three will (a) synthesise results of its empirical stocktaking visualised in an accessible Democracy Support Digital Dashboard; (b) develop and apply new & innovative channels of interaction between local actors in both neighbourhoods, EU institutions, and EU member states; (c) provide a set of innovative policy tools which contribute to improved EU democracy support practices; (d) pilot test the Democracy Learning Loop as a running task within the work of the SHAPEDEM-EU consortium; (e) deliver a synthesis & policy review of the Democracy Learning Loop; and (f) ensure dissemination of project results aimed at the wider public, policy makers and societal audiences; ensure sustainability of SHAPEDEM-EU’s working results beyond the project’s duration.
SHAPEDEM-EU's activities include the following work and achievements in the first year of the project duration:
Phase 1: Within the first 12 months of the SHAPEDEM-EU project, its partners have published a first working paper on democracy and democracy support within Phase 1.
Phase 2: During the first year of the SHAPEDEM-EU project, its partners have drafted research agendas and commenced initial empirical data collection activities within Phase 2. These include assessments related to both Neighbourhoods, EU institutions, selected EU member states and third countries and international organisations.
Phase 3: SHAPEDEM-EU's work within Phase 3 include the elaboration of extensive stakeholder mapping and initial deliberations with participants to transfer the project's findings into workable policy recommendations in the field of democracy support within Phase 3. In particular, the project has promoted its Gender Equality Fellowships to establish the cross-cutting of challenge within the project's conceptual and empirical activities.
Phase 1: Within the first 12 months of the SHAPEDEM-EU project, its partners have published a first working paper on democracy and democracy support within Phase 1.
Phase 2: During the first year of the SHAPEDEM-EU project, its partners have drafted research agendas and commenced initial empirical data collection activities within Phase 2. These include assessments related to both Neighbourhoods, EU institutions, selected EU member states and third countries and international organisations.
Phase 3: SHAPEDEM-EU's work within Phase 3 include the elaboration of extensive stakeholder mapping and initial deliberations with participants to transfer the project's findings into workable policy recommendations in the field of democracy support within Phase 3. In particular, the project has promoted its Gender Equality Fellowships to establish the cross-cutting of challenge within the project's conceptual and empirical activities.
The SHAPEDEM-EU project has advanced an innovative approach to EU democracy support by applying the practice-turn of the social sciences to a new field of study. Moreover, this approach includes a focus on local democratic knowledge and the practice of contestation, which remains an emergent subject for research and policy analysis.