Over the reporting period, The Praxis of Coexistence has delivered all core research and theoretical objectives outlined in the Description of Action. The project established and coordinated a six-country comparative ethnographic network examining how plural publics sustain coexistence under conditions of strain. Following the onboarding of researchers across regional hubs, a shared syllabus and theoretical framework were developed, grounding the team in a common conceptual vocabulary of coexistence, ethics, and public reason. Extensive background research was conducted in multiple languages, including policy mapping, local historiographies, and the creation of annotated bibliographies and regional briefs that shaped each site’s ethnographic design.
Between January 2024 and December 2025, sustained fieldwork was conducted in Marseille, Istanbul, Mostar/Bihac, Ramla/Lod, Birmingham, and Timisoara/Beresca. Researchers applied a coordinated ethnographic methodology that identified equivalent social spaces of intercommunal encounter—markets, schools, municipal offices, and religious institutions—to ensure grounded yet comparable data collection. Iterative analysis across sites allowed the refinement of interview guides and research questions, producing cumulative comparative insights. Key conceptual findings include:
Demonstrating that coexistence operates as a practical, embodied form of moral reasoning, not merely as a liberal value or psychological disposition.
Revealing how non-liberal publics reason without consensus (Weiss 2025), challenging normative assumptions in the anthropology of democracy.
The project culminated in several major scientific outputs:
Three landmark publications in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute—Reasoning Without Consensus (Weiss 2025), Peripheral Traditionalism (Everett 2025), and the collective special issue Beyond Public Reason (Boutieri, Everett, Weiss., 2025)—together advancing the anthropology of democracy and pluralism.
Innovative comparative methodology integrating iterative, cross-site coordination and feedback loops across multi-sited ethnographies.
A Toolkit for Coexistence Practice, translating ethnographic insight into applied methods for practitioners engaging traditional and religious communities in diverse contexts.
International workshops in Cambridge (2023), Marseille (2024), London (2024), and Bucharest (2025) that produced cross-disciplinary synthesis and external peer review.
Outcomes: The project has established a replicable model for transregional ethnography, generated new theoretical vocabulary for coexistence as practice. Collectively, these achievements position Praxis of Coexistence as a benchmark for rethinking pluralism, moral reasoning, and interethnic and religious coexistence.
