Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SOLiDi (Solidarity in Diversity)
Período documentado: 2023-01-01 hasta 2024-12-31
Over the last decade, liberal democracies in Europe have been shaken to their core by the rise of national populisms. This puts strong pressure on all forms of solidarity, especially as they cross ethnic and cultural boundaries. The challenge for European democracies is to identify the conditions under which solidarities in diversity can be nurtured, taking into account the social inequalities and unequal positions of power between various groups in society.
The European Training Network “Solidarity in Diversity” (SOLiDi) develops a training and research program that is focused on how to generate solidarities across cultural boundaries. Rather than building solidarities on a presumed shared past and the imagined cultural homogeneity of nations and ethnic groups, we propose to start from the places that people share in diversity and the practices that they engage in.
SOLiDi will provide an alternative to the prevailing pessimism around living in diversity or the lack of innovative ideas for local civil society and public actors. SOLiDi trains a cohort of professionals well equiped to bridge the gap between academic knowledge and professional interventions on living in diversity.
The project has three objectives:
(1) combine insights from the disciplines of sociology (solidarity and diversity), geography (place and practice) and social pedagogy (learning and education) to broaden our understanding of how solidarities can be generated across cultural boundaries. We combine a focus on the conditions under which intercultural dialogue and relations emerge with explicit attention to how social inequality and unequal power relations may work to undermine intercultural dialogue and relations.
(2) develop public pedagogies and organizational and policy strategies that support place-based solidarities in diversity.
(3) promote social innovation by training a group of European ‘solidarity in diversity’ professionals that combine academic research skills and knowledge with advanced thinking on ethics and the capacity to promote societal and organisational change in a variety of contexts.
The action concluded that there is a need to deconstruct the notion of solidarity. We found that actually existing solidarities are not always resulting in mutual support, protection and cooperation for everyone involved. Solidarities are often racialized, gendered, classed or heteronormative and hence conducive to certain forms of social exclusion. We also found conclude that we need to move away from pre-conceived notions of diversity and analyse the differences that are at play in solidarity-building practices as socially constructed.
The European Training Network “Solidarity in Diversity” (SOLiDi) develops a training and research program that is focused on how to generate solidarities across cultural boundaries. Rather than building solidarities on a presumed shared past and the imagined cultural homogeneity of nations and ethnic groups, we propose to start from the places that people share in diversity and the practices that they engage in.
SOLiDi will provide an alternative to the prevailing pessimism around living in diversity or the lack of innovative ideas for local civil society and public actors. SOLiDi trains a cohort of professionals well equiped to bridge the gap between academic knowledge and professional interventions on living in diversity.
The project has three objectives:
(1) combine insights from the disciplines of sociology (solidarity and diversity), geography (place and practice) and social pedagogy (learning and education) to broaden our understanding of how solidarities can be generated across cultural boundaries. We combine a focus on the conditions under which intercultural dialogue and relations emerge with explicit attention to how social inequality and unequal power relations may work to undermine intercultural dialogue and relations.
(2) develop public pedagogies and organizational and policy strategies that support place-based solidarities in diversity.
(3) promote social innovation by training a group of European ‘solidarity in diversity’ professionals that combine academic research skills and knowledge with advanced thinking on ethics and the capacity to promote societal and organisational change in a variety of contexts.
The action concluded that there is a need to deconstruct the notion of solidarity. We found that actually existing solidarities are not always resulting in mutual support, protection and cooperation for everyone involved. Solidarities are often racialized, gendered, classed or heteronormative and hence conducive to certain forms of social exclusion. We also found conclude that we need to move away from pre-conceived notions of diversity and analyse the differences that are at play in solidarity-building practices as socially constructed.
In the first half of the training program we focused on training in the theoretical concepts and perspectives, notably solidarity in diversity, interculturalism, intersectionality and place- and practice-based approaches, and on training in methods and ethics, with a strong focus on working with diverse and vulnerable groups, doing place-based research and comparing across contexts. In the second half of the training program, we focused on learning how to translate the research insights and finding into strategic thinking and action. To that end we explored public pedagogy and policy learning and organizational changes as two important perspectives on how to make a difference in society through research. We applied these perspectives to selected research projects and involved stakeholders in joint discussions on the public pedagogies and policy learning processes at work in the cases. We also organized a training workshop in which we studied and visited hybrid institutions operating at the intersection of academic research on the one hand and civil society campaigning, public policy making and activism on the other hand. Most of the training workshops were co-organized with the researchers.
Parallel to the training workshops, the doctoral researchers developed their individual research projects, co-supervised by supervisors from different academic partner institutions. They also carried out non-academic and academic secondment. We organized three annual progress events in which doctoral researchers presented their research progress to their peers, supervisors and external advisors and received feedback from them.
We communicated our training activities and research insights to the academic community through our own website (www.solidi.eu). The doctoral researchers also developed a social media strategy to communicate to a broader non-academic audience (mainly through Instagram, Facebook and Twitter) and made a series of 10 podcasts on the topic of solidarity in diversity. The doctoral researchers also received training to write policy briefs and wrote a customized policy brief on their research and findings. They all published at least one article in a publication directed at a professional or lay audience. Supervisors and doctoral researchers jointly reflected on their experiences with the training network and co-authored a handbook on lessons learned in organizing and attending doctoral training in solidarity in diversity research. The supervisors wrapped up the project by writing a white paper in which they bring together the main conclusions of the research projects and training activities with regard to solidarity in diversity.
Parallel to the training workshops, the doctoral researchers developed their individual research projects, co-supervised by supervisors from different academic partner institutions. They also carried out non-academic and academic secondment. We organized three annual progress events in which doctoral researchers presented their research progress to their peers, supervisors and external advisors and received feedback from them.
We communicated our training activities and research insights to the academic community through our own website (www.solidi.eu). The doctoral researchers also developed a social media strategy to communicate to a broader non-academic audience (mainly through Instagram, Facebook and Twitter) and made a series of 10 podcasts on the topic of solidarity in diversity. The doctoral researchers also received training to write policy briefs and wrote a customized policy brief on their research and findings. They all published at least one article in a publication directed at a professional or lay audience. Supervisors and doctoral researchers jointly reflected on their experiences with the training network and co-authored a handbook on lessons learned in organizing and attending doctoral training in solidarity in diversity research. The supervisors wrapped up the project by writing a white paper in which they bring together the main conclusions of the research projects and training activities with regard to solidarity in diversity.
There is an urgent need and associated high demand in the academic as well as professional labour market for solidarity in diversity professionals. As the debate on ‘living together in diversity’ is raging in many European nation-states, with the sustained electoral rise and strength of right-wing populist parties and the increased scepticism about the possibility to generate social cohesion in superdiverse societies of many mainstream politicians and policy-makers, there is a frantic search for solid expertise on and evidence-based strategies to generate solidarity in diversity with policy-makers and civil society organisations across Europe.
SOLiDi contributed to meeting this need by training ESRs in the most advanced insights on solidarity in diversity and advancing our understanding of solidarity in diversity through the doctoral research projects. SOLiDi also established strong and mutually beneficial relationships with a broad network of non-academic partners, which have been given access to the state of the art knowledge on solidarity in diversity. SOLiDi has greatly improved the skills of the doctoral researchers of translating academic insights into guidelines for practice and communicating in a variety of formats to a diversity of audiences.
The SOLiDi training program has boosted the capacity of the doctoral researchers to think across cases of solidarity in diversity practices and their varied spatial, temporal and institutional contexts. This improved their inter-sectoral and international employability in a variety of areas and disciplines.
Through joint workshops and a range of communicative formats, the SOLiDi consortium was able to disseminate its research findings to the academic community as well as policy makers and civil society professionals across Europe.
SOLiDi contributed to meeting this need by training ESRs in the most advanced insights on solidarity in diversity and advancing our understanding of solidarity in diversity through the doctoral research projects. SOLiDi also established strong and mutually beneficial relationships with a broad network of non-academic partners, which have been given access to the state of the art knowledge on solidarity in diversity. SOLiDi has greatly improved the skills of the doctoral researchers of translating academic insights into guidelines for practice and communicating in a variety of formats to a diversity of audiences.
The SOLiDi training program has boosted the capacity of the doctoral researchers to think across cases of solidarity in diversity practices and their varied spatial, temporal and institutional contexts. This improved their inter-sectoral and international employability in a variety of areas and disciplines.
Through joint workshops and a range of communicative formats, the SOLiDi consortium was able to disseminate its research findings to the academic community as well as policy makers and civil society professionals across Europe.