Project description
Understanding what drives collective action in modern democracies
When faced with conflicts in society or politics, inequalities or climate change, some people mobilise and protest, while others avoid any collective action. Understanding why this is the case is important in today’s democracies. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the MOBILISE project aims to explore psychological variables that were previously ignored. These include attachment style, secure and insecure bases of group identity and conspiracy theories. The research will use a mixed-methods approach that includes cross-sectional studies, experiments, longitudinal research and qualitative studies. This project will also investigate general behavioural tendencies and personal accounts. The findings will provide new insights into one of the most pressing challenges facing modern democracies.
Objective
Collective action is central to democratic life, yet movements differ dramatically. Some build broad coalitions, while others polarize, fragment, or fade away. Immigration is a striking example: policies and events have inspired mass demonstrations in defense of migrant rights, counter-mobilizations for stricter enforcement, and widespread disengagement among others. These dynamics will only intensify, as climate change, conflict, and global inequality ensure migration remains a defining challenge for decades to come. What drives people, when faced with the same issue, to mobilize in mass protest, engage in online defense, or organize counter-protests? The Model of Belonging, Individual differences, Life experiences, and Interaction Sustaining Engagement (MOBILISE) offers an integrative account, but important psychological variables remain underexplored. This project advances the framework by incorporating attachment orientations, secure versus insecure group identification (collective narcissism alongside its secure counterpart), and conspiracy beliefs—factors that link personal insecurities with defensive group identifications and collective narratives, and that are expected to interact with established MOBILISE factors.
The project is ambitious both theoretically and methodologically. It will extend our understanding to explain mobilization and why engagement falters or is abandoned. To capture these dynamics, the project will employ a multi-method approach, combining cross-sectional, experimental, and longitudinal designs, alongside qualitative interviews with activists from opposing sides. This will ensure that both generalizable patterns and lived experiences are examined, highlighting how mobilization is sparked, sustained, resisted, or abandoned.
Together, these advances will explain when and why people unite, resist, or disengage from collective action, offering fresh insights into a pressing challenge for contemporary democracies.
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.
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.
- social sciences political sciences government systems democracy
- social sciences sociology demography human migrations
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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.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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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-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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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.
CT2 7NZ Canterbury, Kent
United Kingdom
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