SHAPEDEM-EU set 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. To understand the impact of EU policies and contribute to substantial and sustainable improvements in the EU’s democracy support agenda, SHAPEDEM-EU re-framed 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 required the collective democratic learning of all stakeholders in the process by providing new channels and tools for their interaction. This approach shifted 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 was 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. The focus on democracy support as a (social) practice discarded outdated binary donor-recipient approaches to instead emphasise and empower local needs, ambitions, orders, and visions of a good life as well as the inclusion of vital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 addressed 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 investigated 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 was based on three concurrent phases of activities defined by three mutually reinforcing objectives.
Phase 1: SHAPEDEM-EU's first phase was 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 was dedicated to empirical tasks within the project. These included (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 aimed 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 (a) synthesised results of its empirical stocktaking visualised in an accessible Democracy Support Digital Dashboard; (b) developed and applied new & innovative channels of interaction between local actors in both neighbourhoods, EU institutions, and EU member states; (c) provided a set of innovative policy tools which contribute to improved EU democracy support practices; (d) pilot tested the Democracy Learning Loop as a running task within the work of the SHAPEDEM-EU consortium; (e) delivered a synthesis & policy review of the Democracy Learning Loop; and (f) ensured 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.
