Project description
Shedding new light on how societies hold together
Inequality and polarisation are on the rise across Europe. In increasingly diverse urban environments, these trends can strain community relations. The EU-funded EmergentCommunity project will explore daily practices of coexistence and patterns of conflict and how they influence societies. It will conduct an interdisciplinary study using multi-sited ethnography, immersive virtual technologies and psycho-physiological measuring to provide cutting-edge insight into community dynamics. The findings will shed light on how societies hold together and how they become divided. The focus will be on urban neighbourhoods in Finland, France and Sweden - three countries whose histories and policies of handling diversity present intriguing similarities and striking contrasts. The project will yield results that benefit policies aimed at promoting social sustainability.
Objective
Polarization and inequality amongst citizens are on the rise across Europe. In a context of multiple, and intersecting forms of diversity, peaceful coexistence has been increasingly placed under sustained pressure. Crucially, the urgency of finding sustainable solutions to these developments is constrained by a lack of conceptual and theoretical nuance that inhibits critical thinking about emergent constellations of social and political life. This project explores how affective orientations and everyday practices of peace and conflict intertwine and influence societies. In this respect, the study adopts an interdisciplinary research design that uses multi-sited ethnography, immersive virtual technologies, and psycho-physiological measuring to provide cutting-edge insight into community dynamics. The study will provide new grounded knowledge on how societies hold together whilst social and political positions within and between communities multiply. Using complexity as an analytical angle, the project considers the relations, tensions, and forms of collaboration that unfold in the course of everyday life in nine urban neighbourhoods in Finland, Sweden and France. The three countries share a mix of similarities and differences through which the variations in community dynamics and their societal consequences can be identified. Through the adopted interdisciplinary approach, the project will generate beyond state-of-the-art insight into how community dynamic in contemporary societies develops. It will use this knowledge to rethink the notion of community. In the final stage of the project, the empirical, methodological and conceptual insights will be combined to feed into the process of building a theory of emergent communities through which changes to the form of social and political life can be understood. The project will have a high societal impact by providing policymakers and politicians with knowledge on how social sustainability and inclusion can be promoted.
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.
-
H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme
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.
ERC-STG - Starting Grant
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
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-2020-STG
See all projects funded under this callHost institution
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.
33100 TAMPERE
Finland
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.