Project description
Imagining a decarbonised economy
The transition to a decarbonised economy faces significant hurdles, often fuelled by economic concerns that hinder progress. While the need for climate action is widely recognised, systematic knowledge of how decarbonisation is imagined as a socio-economic shift remains limited. In particular, the economic symbols, narratives, and assumptions underlying these visions in the future are poorly understood. REIMAGINE aims to bridge this gap by analysing how economic imagination shapes the conflicts and challenges of decarbonisation in Europe. Through an innovative framework focused on social imaginaries, the project compares decarbonisation visions in five EU countries, exploring media discourse, interviews, and cross-national analysis to uncover the economic divides and unexpected coalitions that impact climate policy.
Objective
How do we imagine the decarbonized economy of the future? While research suggests that opposition to climate mitigation is often driven by economic concerns, we have little systematic knowledge of how decarbonization is actually imagined as a socio-economic transition, nor do we know about the economic images, symbols, narratives and assumptions underlying such visions and fears.
REIMAGINE brings economic sociology’s recent interest in economic imaginaries and imagined futures to the study of climate (in)action. Its overall aim is to comparatively analyze and theorize how economic imagination fuels conflicts, frictions and impasses of decarbonization in Europe.
A novel theoretical framework centers on social imaginaries of the economy, a concept describing shared representations of what the economy is and ought to be. It allows capturing and comparing economic imagination related to decarbonization, but can also explain enduring contestation with reference to dissonant economic imagination: visions of decarbonization that convey contrasting understandings of the economy restrict resonance between positions, make it hard to form coalitions or even recognize mutual interests.
Substantiating this framework, an ambitious mixed method analysis explores decarbonization controversies within and across five EU societies (Ireland, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Spain). We will a) analyze media discourses and imagery to understand national frictions and develop a typology of decarbonization imaginaries; b) guided by visual prompts, interview local and national representatives from business, administration and climate initiatives to understand how economic imagination plays into conflicts of implementing decarbonization; c) apply correspondence analysis to interview results to chart major European fault lines and surprising coalitions.
Overall, the project advances our interdisciplinary understanding of decarbonization and reveals challenges to a common European mitigation strategy.
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.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
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.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
Keywords
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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HORIZON.1.1 - 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
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.
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.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
2000 Antwerpen
Belgium
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.