Project description
Combating conspiracy beliefs through democratic education
The spread of populism, cultural conflict and conspiracy theories is weakening citizen engagement and creating political identities that hinder dialogue and effective political action in the EU. Overall, it is having an increasing impact on European democracies. With this in mind, the EU-funded TaCT-FoRSED project aims to study the interplay between democratic identity and conspiracy beliefs through four comparative studies across European countries. Next to strengthening the scientific understanding, one focus will be on teachers, as the primary target group, with open educational resources created to enhance democratic self-efficacy and counter conspiracy theories. The findings will inform policy recommendations for teachers and political actors to enhance democratic engagement and trust in knowledge-producing institutions.
Objective
Liberal and constitutional democracies in Europe are currently under massive pressure from authoritarian populism, culture wars and identity conflicts. A key issue is the erosion of trust in democratic institutions and the parallel rise in belief in conspiracy theories. The latter undermine democratic procedures as well as citizen engagement and create harmful political identities by exploiting the inherent vulnerabilities of democracies: their openness and the ambiguity of decision-making processes. These identities block political discourse with authoritarian narratives and hinder effective political action, threatening democracies from within.
TaCT-FoRSED closes a scientific gap regarding the interrelation between democracy, identity formation and conspiracy theories. Using existing research and collecting new data, the project plans to a) investigate the impact of conspiracy theories on the adoption of an anti-democratic group identity and, conversely, to explore concrete identity factors that strengthen or weaken resilience to conspiracy myths. Based on the realisation that the complexity of value-pluralistic democracies is the counterpart to any simplistic, authoritarian friend-foe thinking of conspiracy beliefs, democratic identity formation processes are also seen as an opportunity to effectively combat conspiracy narratives.
TaCT-FoRSED will therefore b) address its key target group of multipliers in the educational fields and develop OER that specifically promote democratic self-efficacy to foster a counter-identity to any conspiracy mentality. These materials will be evaluated together with relevant institutions from different target groups. The project will thus improve the legitimacy of knowledge-producing institutions and political parties by supporting democratic participation. c) The findings made by TaCT-FoRSED will result in policy recommendations for political stakeholders and educators in order to make the gained solutions widely accessible.
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.2.2 - Culture, creativity and inclusive society
MAIN PROGRAMME
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HORIZON.2.2.1 - Democracy and Governance
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Topic(s)
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.
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-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
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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) HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01
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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.
94032 Passau
Germany
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.